Women and Infants hospital is a teaching hospital, and therefore every 4 weeks a new team comes in to provide care. The team is made up of an attending Neonatologist, a fellow, and several residents and medical students. Today we welcomed or new team led by Dr. Bliss. In our extended stay here at the NICU we will see 4 teams of doctors.
The team talked strategy about how to get the boys off the vents. They seem to be in a cycle of doing ok, so the doctors wean their vent settings to get them as low as possible before taking them off... then the next day they struggle so they bump their settings back up so they don't overexert their little lungs. .. then back to a good day, etc...
The problem with this cycle is it requires a lot of heel sticks to get blood to measure their progress and the babies get purple heels after 3 or 4 sticks in a day :( It also is very stressing on their little bodies to be constantly challenged to the point of collapse. And since this cycle hasn't produced significant progress over the course of 2.5 weeks, the doctors decided to keep the boys comfortable and focus on growing them. The bigger they get, the more mature their lungs get, and the closer they will be to extubation.
So there won't be a lot to report for the next week or 2, but I promise to keep the updates coming even if they are just pics :)
Today's boards with current weights:
I think you're going to come out of this with an honorary medical degree. It's all so fascinating, seriously. I learn so much reading your blog. Love the pics, as always.
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