Jack Kaden

Between the time that I left the NICU at 6 PM and 10:30 PM the following things happened:

1) Jack started struggling to breath and his ventilator rate was raised from 10 to 30

2) They suspect a partial lung collapse so they raised his 02 to 40%

3) His hematocrit crashed and he is now having his 4th blood transfusion

4) He received xrays on his tummy and lungs to check for infection

5) All feedings were stopped and antibiotics were started

When we spoke to the Doctor’s this morning before rounds we were told that they suspect that Jack has Pneumonia and that indeed his xray’s show increased dark areas on his lungs. All they can do today is watch him and continue to give him the support he needs while we wait 72 hours for the result of his cultures.

Needless to say, he is now being watched very, very closely. As soon as rounds are done at 1:30 I’ll post another update.

For the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about this one part of the movie Apollo 13. There is this scene with Scott Glenn who plays the mission director where he’s talking to one of the guys from Grumman.

GRUMMAN REP
- We can’t make any guarantees. We designed the LM to land
on the Moon, not fire the engine out there for course
correction.

GENE KRANTZ (FLIGHT DIRECTOR – WHITE)
- Well, unfortunately, we’re not landing on the Moon, are
we? I don’t care what anything was designed to do, I care
about what it can do. So, let’s get to work. Let’s lay it
out, okay?

See it doesn’t really matter what Jack was designed to do. All that matters now is what he can do. I’m hoping that he just scares the shit out of us and then lands safely back on earth.

Jack is 4 weeks old today. Or negative 9 weeks. Or 31 weeks gestational age.

He’s also a miracle in my eyes.

Now those of you who know me know that my faith is usually put in logic or medical science. Sometimes, both.

But I know a miracle when I see one.

Happy 4 weeks little man, we’re overwhelmed and in awe, and so incredibly proud.

Well, Jack just isn’t ready to come off the ventilator just yet.

He had two big Desatts today while we were there and the first one really scared me. I had to leave the room. I guess what made it different than the other times I’ve seen him Desatt is that I am really getting attached to the little guy, and so when he randomly stops breathing when I’m with him it’s fairly horrible. It’s a feeling of total helplessness. And I realize that he’s really not supposed to be breathing air for another 2 months, but he’s with us now, on the outside, and that means that he’s got to.

To explain: When it happens, the alarm on his monitor goes off because his SpO2 level (shown in blue on the monitor below) has dropped out of his normal range of 100 to 88. The nurse comes over and stimulates him a bit by tickling him. The idea is that his body has forgotten to breathe so tickling gets his attention and then he remembers that he has work to do.

But while the nurse is stimulating him, his SpO2 level is dropping like a rock. To be honest, I’m not really sure how long a Desatt lasts, ’cause to me it feels like hours, although I think it may only be like 30 seconds. During his desatt today he dropped into the 50′s. It was awful.

He did come out of it, after they quickly raised his O2 level back up to 40, but I was really scared. Really, really scared.

On a Positive note, Jack is up to 20cc’s per feeding and he is now off of the TPN. That is good news. Also, remember all the way back to yesterday, when I was writing about the ‘fridge, well here’s proof. It’s wall to wall boob juice in there!