Henry continues to do well. Tonight we had Melissa as his nurse. He weighed in at 910 grams again. This seemed a little suspect because the first time she weighed him he was 880 grams. The second time, 10 seconds after the first, he was 910. Seems like a pretty large discrepency. She chose to use 910. I think I'll wait one more night and if he is still over 907 for the third night in a row I'll consider him truly at 2 lbs.
His oxygen remained at 28% which is much improved over a couple days ago. He seems much more active. I believe that not being fed makes him agitated. He used to get agitated just before getting fed when he was on a once every 3 hours schedule. When he started the continuous feeds he really seemed pretty calm all the time. Now he is off the food again and seems much more active and ornery. Just my pet theory.
I was able to hold him tonight. He did well for a while. He was a little cold to start but they put him on my chest and covered him in heated blankets and he warmed right up. After about an hour he became fussy and started to cry. It's sad to hear him cry but it is also reassuring. We heard him cry when he was first born. Then he had a tube down his throat for a couple weeks and he couldn't make a sound. After the tube was removed he still couldn't manage to make any noise. He would sometime open his mouth and you could tell he was trying but nothing came out. Now he can wail pretty good when he wants to. It feels like he is making progress to have him do something now that he couldn't do a couple weeks ago, even if it is a sign of displeasure.
Dr. Ryan (not sure if that is his first or last name) stopped by to explain the xray results from this afternoon. He said that there was basically no change from the morning. However, he said that in the morning the air bubbles were gone. Dr. Cahan had not mentioned that which seemed a little odd since that seems like big news to us. Apparently he still has loopy bowels which I believe means there is a lot of air in them. However, I think they have been like that for a while. Kate and I recall the nurse practitioner Mary Ann commenting on how she could press on them and feel the air moving back and forth. The air bubbles that were the big concern were the ones in the lining of the intestines, not inside the intestines. So we don't know for sure but the worst part of this NEC episode seems to have passed. They will keep him on the antibiotics for several more days and won't start feeding again for a while.
It is hard to get a handle on what NEC is. It seems to me that it is any bowel problem that they can't explain. Dr. Ryan said it can be viral, bacterial or fungal. The bubbles in the lining of the intestine are symptoms of it but are not NEC itself. Dr. Cahan says that NEC research is large field and recieves billions of dollars in funding but they are still basically clueless about what causes it.
Kate was subjecting the doctor to her usual barrage of questions and managed to hit on a topic we hadn't heard before. Henry falls into the category of "Wimpy White Boy Syndrome." Basically, of all the race/sex combinations white males fare the worst in the preemie world and are most at risk for things like NEC. Females do better and black females do much better. So it seems the dominance of white males in positions of power and influence in the world throughout recorded history may be a simple overcompensation for certain inadequacies early in life. So it is not just lack of rhythm or inability to dunk a basketball that drives us, it actually starts in the womb. Wonderful.
I'm going to add a couple pictures to some recent posts so scroll down to check them out. And if you are concerned about the time stamp of this post, I took a three hour nap this afternoon.
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