Slightly Better Than Yesterday

Last night, Kathy and Holly were Henry's nurses. Kathy took over after Joyce left. Jeff and I went home for a couple hours. In the evening, my dad visited Henry. Henry had a few As & Bs.

Jeff and I returned to the NICU around 11PM when Kathy and Holly were doing their shift change. Holly had to draw a lot of blood from him for various tests. He tolerated the blood draws well.

One of the nurses set up a new isolette for Henry. The isolettes get changed ever two weeks for sanitation purposes. His new isolette has a sports theme. His last one had a purple blanket with purses on it. I didn't even notice the pattern until Sarah, one of his previous nurses who stops by to visit him, pointed it out. The nurses generally like to stick to traditional sex theme match ups (e.g., boys wear blue, girls wear pink). And it is kind of funny to see a baby boy dressed in pink flowers. I imagine the traditional colors help keep the babies' sexes straight when the nurses are referring to their various patients. It is easy to slip and call a he a she. The sports theme is very cute. Looks great. Jeff and I helped Holly move Henry to his new isolette. He had some desats after the move.

After a while, Henry seemed to be OK. But then again, he hasn't displayed the usual symptoms of NEC. We left around 3:15AM, once Henry seemed comfortable.

Virginia was Henry's nurse today. My dad visited Henry this morning. He was there when Dr. Cahan came by to check Henry's stomach. It looked a little better than yesterday, but she can still feel the intestinal loop that's distended.

Dr. O'Connor, the surgeon, inspected Henry this morning. She's hoping that he will not need surgery.

Jeff and I returned in the early afternoon. I noticed that on the board, Henry's status had been changed from blue to green. I also noticed that Joyce, Kathy, and Holly have signed up as associates for Henry. That means that if the primaries aren't there, then they would get him. We are very happy about having Joyce, Kathy, and Holly as his caregivers.

My mom stopped by around 2PM. Henry's Aunt Erin and Uncle Brian visited around 3PM.

I talked with Dr. Cahan. She said that the x-rays taken in the morning looked slightly better, but basically there wasn't a whole lot of improvement. She didn't expect that there would be. Getting rid of the bubbles takes time. Consequently, Henry will be off the breast milk feeds for 7-10 days and will continue to get antibiotics.

Later in the afternoon, Henry had his afternoon x-rays. He is having x-rays taken of his belly twice a day until the bubbles in the intestinal lining go away.

Jeff and I left around 4:45PM. My mom decided to stay and look after him for a while. We'll be heading back there after the evening shift change ends at 7:45PM.