Setbacks....

I am sad to report that today was Jacob's first "not-so-good" day. We knew that these would come, but unfortunately we were not prepared to deal with it and had a sad day. The good news is that treatment to fix these ailments has begun and hopefully in the next few days we'll have some good news to report.

The first setback was the PDA (the opening in the valve in Jacob's heart). Today the murmur was louder and the attending physician ordered another Echo to take a look at the opening. It has been escalated from mild to moderate. It is still not severe (the glass is half full!), but the doctor has decided to move forward and start Jacob on the medication to try and close it. These PDA's usually close with meds so we are hopeful that this will be the case and we will know whether or not this worked within 3 days. Only 10-20% of these PDA's require surgery so the odds are for us that the meds will work.

The next setback was fluid in little Jacob's lungs. They have started him on a diuretic to try and flush these fluids out, but the meds for the PDA reduce his urine output so Jacob's team might need a few days to get this worked out. They have also reduced his IV fluids because his glucose levels were a little high.

The one piece of good news we got today was with his head ultrasound. They did this today while I was holding him and he handled it pretty well! The good news is that they still do not see an IVH so this is wonderful news!! If you remember from one of my previous entries this is the most serious condition he can develop and if it doesn't appear within the first 7-10 days chances are good that he will avoid this all together.

When I arrived today he was awake for a good 20-30 minutes with his eyes open so I got close to him and talked to him (or at him) for a little while and he looked right at me. I know he probably doesn't see much or anything for that matter, but it was so nice to look at him and have him look right back at me even if he didn't see me clearly. He also was grabbing and holding on to my fingers today while I was holding him and he has a pretty strong grip! When Ian arrived after work he was squeezing Ian's finger as well.

Well it is time to turn in for the night. I have a long day tomorrow at the hospital and plan on spending the night in one of the parent rooms if it is available. My next update may not be for a couple of days, but hopefully I will have good news to report on the PDA closing.

Ian and I would like to thank all of you who have sent cards and gifts to the house. I would list all of you individually if I had the time, but there are so many of you it would take me days. I will eventually get around to thank you notes, but for the time being THANK YOU ALL!!!! Goodnight!