Hung up!

Aaaarrgh!



Yesterday was another visit to the pulmonologist at the U of M. 7 hours of fun, as you can see by the above photos of Toby having a chest x-ray. This was his second visit to include this experience, and he looked so funny the first time that I smuggled in a camera and managed a few shots.



The news is not as entertaining. Toby weighed in at 8lb 7 ounces, a loss of half a pound from his visit 3 1/2 weeks earlier. He has also been breathing faster and working a little more at it. The download from his O2 monitor showed a good baseline, but also a few periods of lower oxygen level. He was tested off the oxygen for 5 minutes and made a poor showing. He gave samples of about everything he had- blood, urine, stool.



The x-ray showed that his lungs do not have excess fluid, so the diuretics he started last month are doing their job. The other initial results show no signs of infection, but we are waiting for cultures. It is possible that there is an infection in the bowels which could be interfering with the nutritional absorption, and that could be responsible for the weight loss. Or it may just be that he is not taking in enough calories for the energy needs which accompany his bpd. (broncho-pulmonary dysplasia, the fancy name for the problems he has with his lungs as a result of the time on the ventilator.)


So the doctor has made some changes in his treatment. He has increased from 1 breathing treatment a day of one drug (Pulmicort) to a total of 6 breathing treatments each day: 2 of the one and 4 more of an old friend from his nicu days (Albuterol). The nutritionist wants half of his feedings to be by bottle so we can enrich the milk to a high calorie load, also like his nicu days. We tried a bottle this morning without success; the little we managed to get in him, he promptly spit up. Hopefully, we will be more successful before his next weigh-in on Thursday.



Otherwise, he continues to delight us daily with smiles and snuggles- and the occasional strong opinion.