• Post category:NICU
  • Reading time:3 mins read

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 to see what was going on. They found a little spot on the top of his right lung that they believe is pneumonia. He was aspirating on his feedings, so they stopped the feed and has started antibiotics to fight the pneumonia.

9:30 am – receive a phone call form a nurse to get permission to insert a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) into his arm that will go into his chest. He will receive IV fluids via line and maybe feedings and antibiotics at a later date. The PICC line was inserted in the NICU at 1:35 PM and will remain in place until James can tolerate his feedings.

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) came by to assess James and we should be getting the results from the assessment shortly.

Ophthalmology also came by to look at James’ eyes. The doctor had to dilate his eyes to assess them. He said that the right eye looks good, but the optical nerve in the left eye is not fully developed. The optic nerve carries visual information from the eye to the brain. When the optic nerve is underdeveloped, adequate visual information does not reach the brain for processing. So it sounds like James might have some vision impairment, but his right eye seems good so it might not be so bad.

Stacy spoke to the NICU staff about scheduling a family meeting with neurology, genetics, the NICU attending physician, and any other doctor that has been caring for James. There have been so many doctors coming and going, it will be nice to be able to sit down with everyone in one room, and discuss what they know so far, what we do from here, and what they think James’ future looks like.