Friday, November 14, 2008

Good News This Morning

Every morning sometime between 9:00 - 11:30, April's cell phone rings and we know exactly who is calling even before looking at the phone. It is at this time that we receive our daily updates on Patrick & Savannah from the Neonatologist. In the beginning, the updates were provided in person because April was still in the hospital and I can not explain to you in words how uncomfortable these conversations were. The doctor would just show up out of nowhere, say what he needed to say and then disappear before we even realized what had happened.

The doctors are all incredibly smart and great at what they do but it is difficult to read their emotions and we were always waiting for the doctor to "break the bad news" to us. Fortunately, this has not happened and every day these phone calls get a little easier to answer for a few different reasons. First, we now have a small rapport with the doctors and are not just another parent with a child in the NICU, second, we are slowly becoming educated on what Patrick and Savannah are going through which allows us to be proactive and ask questions and lastly, Patrick and Savannah have made such great strides over the past week that they are kind of just moving forward at a slow and steady pace.

Now about the good news that this post was supposed to be about.

As you may recall from a post a few days ago, Patrick had a small vessel near his heart that did not close upon birth like it should have and the doctors were treating it with ibuprofen in the hopes of getting it closed. Well, this morning the doctor confirmed that the medication worked and that the hole is now closed. How amazing and cool is that? Also, I know that I have anticipated that Patrick would be getting some formula or milk by now but that has not happened as of yet. We are still holding out hope that they will begin to feed him this weekend.

In addition to Patrick's good news, the doctor also said that Savannah was doing well as usual and that she gained a whopping 2 ounces yesterday which is incredible. She is eating and digesting her food so well that the nurses are continuously increasing the amount of milk that she consumes every few hours. Also, her Jaundice levels have decreased over the past two days so there is a good chance that she will not need the photo therapy in a few more days. We did get to spend about 10 minutes with her today when her goggles were off and she just kept looking around to see what was going on. It was one of many surreal moments that we have had over the past 8 days.

One last interesting thing that happened today was that April had the privilege of changing Patrick's diaper for the first time. The nurse was completing her "hands on" or checkup when we were visiting and asked April if she wanted to help and of course April jumped at the chance. As for me, in my 30 years of existence on this planet I have yet to change a diaper but I have a feeling that my streak is coming to an end very soon.

We are looking forward to some possible Kangaroo Care tomorrow with Patrick so April and I are both excited about that. If you are not sure what Kangaroo Care is then you may want to check back in tomorrow evening or Sunday morning for an exciting update and some pictures.

2 comments:

Johanna said...

I am so thrilled about your news as regards Patrick's progress and Savannah's weight gain. Having done some time in NICU I can appreciate the immense strides these children are making.
Hugs to them and to you,
Johanna

Tampa Real Estate said...

We can definetely relate to how doctors can be brilliant on one hand, but sometimes not as sensitive as we'd like them to be on the other. Glad to hear the rapport and morning calls are getting better. The progress with Patrick & Savannah is encouraging on all fronts and YES, P, your days of never changing a diaper are definetely over:) Good news is you'll catch up to fathers like me that have a 1 year old in just one year:)