As most of you know, Nathan and I had our fist child, a baby girl, last week--Lauren Elizabeth Olsen. She was born on 12 July 2010, at 6:01pm, weighing 8.02lbs, and measuring 22" in length.
So how come we fell of the map? Well, Lauren's birth/Katy's labor was very long and stressful, due to multiple complications (two days between Katy being induced and the actual delivery, failed epidural, etc). But most importantly, Lauren was not breathing when she was delivered. Lauren was "bagged" immediately upon delivery, and then intibated shortly thereafter... Within one hour of birth, Lauren was taking her first road trip to St. Louis Children's Hospital, of which she is still a resident/patient of the NICU's Room 534.
So what does this mean for Lauren? She has been diagnosed with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), which basically means that some time during pregnancy or birth, Lauren was without oxygen for an extended period of time. HIE is often linked to brain damage and other complications in babies--in Lauren's case, we do not know to what extent yet.
However, we are lucky to be stationed so close to St. Louis at this time, as Children's is a leading authority on HIE and a process they call Cooling. Cooling is a process where babies are cooled to hypothermic levels in order to reduce the amount of damage caused to the brain. When Lauren arrived at the hospital they immediately cooled her to 34.5 degrees Celsius for 72 hours. During the cooling process, some of Lauren's issues were brought to light, as she had three seizures within the first 30 hrs of her Cooling. These seizures are evidence that her brain underwent a severe shock a some time. Also, Thursday afternoon she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension--this has to do with an elevated pressure in her lungs, which disrupts blood flow to/through her lungs to the rest of the body.
As of today though, things appear to be on the up-and-up. Through many different medication combinations and medical formulas, Lauren has made drastic improvements to overcoming her pulmonary hypertension. She even had her intibation tube removed this morning at 5:00am--what a wonderful sight to see. Now we're hoping/praying for her nose cannula to be removed by the of this week (i.e. Lauren will be completely weened of oxygen). That said, as of physician's "rounds" this morning, Lauren officially no longer suffers from pulmonary hypertension--an answer to many, many prayers.
So what's the next milestone for Lauren? Her recent EEG has shown evidence of normal functions, while a head ultrasound has displayed areas of abnormal function. The "final say" and best method on analyzing if Lauren has any sort of brain injury is through an MRI and finally, through her development over the next couple years. The MRI is scheduled for this Thursday, so please keep Lauren in your prayers and hope for the best possible outcome.
We are very optimistic that the Cooling treatment helped and Lauren will be able to recovery properly. Lauren is doing much better and Katy was actually able to hold her in her arms for the first time ever yesterday evening. We anticipate this will be a long process and stay in the Children's NICU, so please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, as we're taking this roller coaster ride one day at a time.
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