Perspective

Mikaila had quite a few episodes of de-satting today. She tends to drop below the line for just a moment or two before quickly recovering to resume her rightful place in the high 90%s. Twice today, they gave her what they call blow-by oxygen (think of it as supplemental ambient oxygen.) I was fortunate to be present as the rounding doctors discussed Mikaila. I posed the obvious question to her team prompting the Attending to take a closer look at her respiratory trend. Apparently, momentary lapses are quite common with preemies of her size and vintage and although they will monitor this tendency, he assured me that we should not be alarmed. In fact, the Attending was very pleased with her respiratory prowess.

This afternoon, Mikaila’s favorite nurse shared with Kim and I a photo album of one of her former primaries. The lad in the album is now roughly 7 months old and is really thriving. However, he was still on supplemental oxygen at discharge and in fact was just taken off of oxygen within the last month or so. Gazing at a photo of this little guy with a high flow canula in his nostrils at 7 lbs really offered us perspective. It is not at all abnormal for these little guys and gals to need respiratory assistance for several months. Mikaila has consistently over achieved and we have to understand just how remarkable her progress has been. If they decide to offer her a bit of assistance for her breathing, we really should view it as a side-step along the path rather than a setback.

Mikaila’s counts were slightly low and as such, her team decided that a third transfusion was in order. Again, consider this small transfusion as the third act of what is likely at least a three act play (transfusion). One unit of blood is good for roughly a month. Knowing that she would need blood at some point in the next week or so and also understanding that the unit of blood ordered initially would “expire” in the next several days, her team decided that the time was right to build back her levels. The transfusion may help with her de-satting. Remember that red blood cells serve as the primary oxygen delivery mechanism in the body.

That’s about all there is to report. Her transfusion (a three hour process) should be wrapping up right about now so they were not able to weigh her early. Perhaps they will weigh her at the 11 pm feed. If they do, I will post her weight tonight. If not, I will wait until tomorrow.