Emmett had a pretty rough night last night. D was with him and said his alarms were going off all night. This morning we met with the doctor who told us Emmett has chronic lung disease, or bronchopulmonary dysplasia. He turned his oxygen flow back up to 4 liters and ordered a chest x-ray to be sure, which confirmed the diagnosis. It was upsetting to hear the word chronic. Contrary to what we’ve been told all along, this may not be something he simply grows out of. The doctor recommended putting him on a 10-day dose of prednisolone and we agreed. The other options were to put him on a diuretic to drain the fluid from his lungs, or to turn his oxygen flow back up even higher — but that would reverse a lot of the progress we’ve made thus far on weaning his respiratory support and could put off breastfeeding even longer. So we’re hoping the prednisolone helps, but it’s very possible this may be an ongoing issue for him and the doctor said in some cases babies with CLD even go home on oxygen. I’m feeling pretty defeated.
On a positive note, his red blood cell count was good today so he got to come off the Epo. We had a good kangaroo session today with very few events and he seems to be doing well this evening. He’s back to 21% oxygen and satting in the high 90s for the most part, with the occasional brief desat. He lost 10 grams tonight, which isn’t super surprising after several days of high gains. He also missed at least part of his 5:30 p.m. feeding because he pulled his feeding tube out yet again when I went home for dinner, and the nurse didn’t realize it until she went to check on him and the tube was out and there was milk all over him and his bed. Something tells me this kid is going to be a trouble maker.
Keeping up with the Hoffmans 