Apparently James had a rough night last night. He had three or four of what we call ‘spells’ where his sats dropped. Sats refer to the level of oxygen in the blood. A "normal" reading is between 95 and 100 percent, but this normal reading can vary depending on the…
A pediatric hematologist stopped by today to talk to us about getting tested for factor V. If you recall from my post a couple of days ago (NICU Day 8), one of James’ blood tests revealed that he has factor V Leiden, which is a blood clotting disorder. James inherited…
James had a c-reactive protein (CRP) test yesterday that came back high. A CRP test is a blood test that measures the level of c-reactive protein in the blood. C-reactive protein is a protein made by the liver and is sent into the bloodstream in response to inflammation. Inflammation is…
They performed a spinal tap on James yesterday and the preliminary test results came back fine. The full results should be ready in a couple of days. The more technical term for spinal tap is ‘lumbar puncture’. For this procedure, they inserted a needle between two vertebrae in James’…
Well, we made it through our first week with an infant in the NICU. It was a long and emotional week, but we survived. Not too much happened today, but we did have a few moments of excitement. James had some blood drawn to test his blood gases. He…
We were hoping to get a good night’s sleep last night in our own bed, but that didn’t happen: 7:30 am – received a phone call from the attending doctor in the NICU. James started breathing heavy in the middle of the night, so they called for a chest x-ray…
Stacy met her quota for the number of days she could recover in the hospital after a c-section. We packed up the hospital room, threw everything in the car and spent most of the day in the NICU with James. It will be nice to sleep in our own…