Day 43 - Wednesday 09/05/07

Sorry that my posts aren't as regular, but with being back at work and balancing the hospital, home, an almost 4 year old, me and Greg, etc, it doesn't allow much free time. Well, we have had two relatively "boring" days. Please don't mistake that comment - I think we needed a few of those days. The plan right now is treat her with antibiotics for the bacteria infection, then sit back and wait for it to work. By the way, the bacteria they found was not sudamonis (I think I misspelled that). It's actually one called Citrobacter. I couldn't find much on it, but it's another common bacteria.

So, here's the short list of what we are seeing the last few days:
- she's on 2 antibiotics for the infection
- she's still on the pavulon which paralyzes her, but they are starting today to try giving it every 3 hours instead of every 2 hours to ween a little bit
- she's still on the fentinel to make her comfortable
- still getting the HAL (vitamins/minerals) and the lipids (when she needs them)
- she's still on the steroids, same dosage amount, but now every 8 hours instead of every 6 hours (a small ween)
- she's getting vibro every hour - which is a vibration therapy to help open her lungs a little more
- blood transfusions are about every 2 -3 days because her labs are more often through the infection
- lasix usually follow the transfusions to help her with fluid retention
- she is swelling due to the combination of everything, but the doctors say that when she has fought the infection, she will slowly lose all the extra fluid by having lots of wet diapers (so pray that her kidney function remains good!!)

She had a spinal tap today (they also call it a lumbar puncture). It's like getting an epidural. They do that to test her spinal fluid to see if the infection in any way affected the brain. This is a common procedure when preemies get an infection and it lets the doctors know how long to continue the antibiotics, etc. We won't know the results on that for 5-7 days, just like these blood cultures that they do. By the way, they also did another blood culture today to see how that is looking after being on the antibiotics now for 10-11 days. Again, we will know the results of those in another 5-7 days.

Please pray for continued stability for Kathryn as she rests and lets the medication fight this infection. I pray each night that God will be a part of the medicine and heal her from the inside, so that she can start to grow on the outside!! I think that she has had the odds against her at times this past week, but she is proving what a fighter she is and what a stubborn streak she has. (For those of you who know both Greg and I, you do realize that she gets the stubborn streak from Greg, right? Just kidding!!)

Please also pray for wisdom for Dr. Strange, Dr. Dicarlo, and Dr. Mena and for steady hands when they are working on Kathryn. Pray for her nurses each day and each night. Several of them have told us that they call to check on her when they are not working to make sure that she is doing alright. Kathryn has several nurses that are with her a lot - Donna, Jenni, and Jennifer during the day and Heather and Susan at night. It feels like Heather and I have a nightly 3 am appointment since I usually wake up each night around then and call to check on Kathryn.

Please also pray for Greg and I. We get tired a lot!! This is tough physically, mentally, and emotionally. I thank God that we both are not tiring spiritually and that we know how much God's hands are in this. Please also pray for Maddie. I know that she doesn't understand everything, but she is doing so well. She asks a lot of questions and the nurses are so astounded by her interest. Despite Kathryn's swelling right now, Maddie said that Kathryn looks beautiful. She is such a proud big sister. I think that any boys out there that might be interested in Kathryn later in life will have to go through protective big sister Madelyn.

One last thing, Maddie started 3K kindergarten today. What a big girl she has become. I am so proud of her!! Now if we could just figure out how to get her to take medicine - but that's another novel!! (Oh and we had dinner this past Saturday at the Redmond's house for the Auburn game. Evidently, Maddie and Alex (remember the boyfriend - scroll to a posting in July) got married on Saturday night during the game. She even said that she kissed him - Greg made sure that it was only on the cheek.)

Love, Kelly