Busy Week!

Fiona had a few tests done this week. Monday she had an echocardiogram to check her heart. She does have 2 VSD's. "A ventricular septal defect (VSD) is a defect in the septum between the right and left ventricle. The septum is a wall that separates the heart’s left and right sides. Septal defects are sometimes called a “hole” in the heart. It’s the most common congenital heart defect in the newborn; it’s less common in older children and adults because some VSDs close on their own." I guess one hole is very small and one is moderate size but neither of them are causing a problem at this point. There is still a chance that they could close on their own. If they don't and they are still not causing a problem they will be left alone. If they start to cause a problem then they will have to be fixed at some point.

She also had a head ultrasound on Monday. They found a Grade 1 bleed, but apparently this isn't causing any problems either. Here is a little explanation of that. "...These blood vessels are especially fragile in premature infants. Babies born more than eight weeks early are most likely to have this bleeding. Some fragile blood vessels surround the ventricles of the brain, cavities in the brain though which cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows. The blood vessels are underdeveloped in the very young infant. They start getting stronger after thirty-two weeks of gestation. These blood vessels are very sensitive to changes in blood flow. If the blood flow changes, the blood vessels break down and start bleeding. If the bleeding is slight, the blood remains around the blood vessels. If the bleeding gets worse, the blood breaks into the ventricles. In the worst cases of bleeding, the blood may leak into the brain tissue. The hemorrhages are graded from 1 to 4 according to the severity of the bleeding..." Our nurse practitioner also said that sometimes they can over analyze things so it might not even be an issue at all.

On Tuesday she had a VCUG (Voiding Cysto-Urethrogram) to check on her kidney reflux. I'm not sure that I ever mentioned she had that. What pretty much happens is that her urine backs up from her bladder into her ureters and back into her kidneys. The doctors said this could have something to do with her O because it happens when the ureters don't grow into the bladder at the right angle. And since pretty much nothing is in the right spot it makes sense. They also use grades for this, I think from 1-6. She has grade 3 in one kidney and grade 4 in the other. It could possibly get better on its own. If it doesn't she will most likely have to get surgery to fix it at some point. She will probably have to be on Amoxicillin for the rest of her life.

They started her on another medicine today, too, called Actigall. It is to prevent gall stones. I'm not exactly sure how all of this goes together, but her billirubin level is a little high and has been going up for the past few weeks which I guess can cause gall stones? So this is preventative. She also had her Broviac taken out today, yay! She is doing good with her feeding. She has been taking on average about 10 cc by mouth each feeding and then gets the rest in her NG tube. She did awesome the other day and took 44! Tom and I are now aloud to feed her. She does have a 15 minute time limit because she has to work so hard anything beyond that would be making her use up too many calories.

The surgeons looked at her O today and said that everything looks good. We are hoping the doctors can make us some sort of support for her to use in the car seat when we are ready to go home! Which will hopefully be soon so keep your fingers crossed! :)