Yesterday was a rough day. It started with a 6 am call from the NICU saying they suspected that overnight, Ryan had a seizure. Heart drop. Tiny baby, tiny brain + seizure = scary stuff. I, of course panic (lesson learned, talk to lead doctor before jumping into panic mode). We were planning on visiting in the later afternoon and we'd had a 'family meeting' scheduled with his 2 lead doctors, Nancy, and a social worker (they do these team meetings regularly to make sure everyone involved in his care is on the same page). On the phone, they told me it wasn't an emergency, but they have to report any major changes or new medications that occur over night. Still didn't ease my mind. At all. The nurse could tell I was upset, so she got his doctor to call me. She explained that seizures haven't been confirmed and that he'll have an EEG and an MRI to confirm. Ok - starting to breathe a little deeper after this conversation. We left around 12:30 to go down to see him.
First, we stopped to drop Bax off at my parent's house. It was Sadie's half-birthday yesterday so I went in to get some snuggles. Man, that kid amazes me... She's learning clapping games and just had to show me her new favourite video of these little African girls playing a clapping game. From there, we went into the kitchen where she wanted a group hug and had to include grandma, grampy, daddy, and mommy. Following the group hug, we (all) had to play 2 rounds of ring around the rosie in the kitchen. How did she know that is just what we all needed after a super stressful morning. (She's still @ my parent's house, so she didn't see or hear any of my panic from the early morning). My 5 minutes with her definitely put my mind in a better place for the drive downtown.
(This is getting to be a long post but it was a big day so....)
To cut to the chase, we met with the doctors and they went through all the obstacles that Ryan is facing and illustrated our 'plan of attack' and how we have to fight certain things first so that we can deal with the other issues that keep arising. The poor guy just can't catch a break. It's mostly because he was under 25 weeks. Each week inside makes their chances sooooo much better. Because he was still in the 24th week, he's in a much different position than those babies born at 25 or 26 weeks. His immunity is lower, his brain doesn't have as much protection, his lungs are less developed - the list goes on. Even with all this going on, he still looks good and he's strong. He's got the attention of a lot of doctors, so that's good too, but the reality is that he is one of the more 'critical' patients at this time. Scott and I will be visiting him together for the rest of the week while the test results start coming in. I'm preparing myself that seizures will be confirmed, and Nancy told me that's probably a good idea to do so. From what we understand, the seizures may stop once his sodium levels out, and once the blood in his brain clots. He's on 3 different antibiotics to fight the infection (which they still haven't confirmed), he's on a medication to stop the seizures, and he's still on his regular IV fluids. The bottom line, is that all these issues don't seem to be effecting his immediate survival, but it does put him at a much slower progression because of each issue that needs time to sort itself out. Also, it sounds super scary. This is where the nurses are excellent because they know that it's so common in 24 weekers.
OK. That's enough for now. Time for some happy Sadie time.
Thank you all once again for your kind words, thoughts, and offers to help. We have amazing family and friends.
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