Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Justin Day 5 in the NICU

Day 5 – really? We headed out earlier this morning and arrived at the hospital around 8. Jessica is our nurse today. Very sweet person, a bit quiet but smiles all the time. I mean ALL.The.TIME! Ha! She’s fantastic, though.

The top of Justin’s isolette was up meaning he was OFF of OXYGEN and on room air. YAY!!! Praise God. We have been able to hold him whenever we want, love on him and kiss on him. Oh how I love this baby!!!

Dr. Toms is still Justin’s doctor today. The MD is Dr. Hugh-Telford. Dr. Toms is the attending, I think? The doctors came in, announced Justin and began explaining his situation: PPHN, right sided aortic arch….WHAT? I said, “he has a right aortic arch? This is the first we’ve heard of this”. Dr. Toms said that he did have a right aortic arch. Oh, nice, thanks for telling us, right? Thank goodness this was one of the possible conditions we had been told Justin had during one of my level 2 ultrasounds. I have read about it a lot and wasn’t concerned. It is something quite common and rarely needs treatment.

We were told that Justin would receive a repeat echocardiogram at some point. Thinking it was going to be later in the week, we were surprised today when the machine was wheeled into the room. The purpose of the repeat echo was to find out about the right sided aortic arch. Dr. Romp, the pediatric cardiologist, came by and performed another echocardiogram. I’d never seen one done before. Looks very similar to an ultrasound but with more details and extra pictures. She found what she could and Dr. Romp tried to find what he needed. Dr. Romp was trying to see where the vessels branch from the aorta and make sure that they weren’t constricting his esophagus or trachea or other parts. Yes, I was aware that this was a possibility.

Dr. Romp couldn’t find all of the branching. Justin was wiggling too much. What does this mean? It means that he will need a CT scan at some point. Exposure to a small amount of radiation as well as a mild relaxant is apart of this procedure.

We found out today that the doctors talked (this afternoon) and decided that it would be best for us to go to Dr. Doyle’s office for the orthopedic visit. So, that’s what we’re going to do. It would have been nice to know beforehand since Brian rearranged his and his parents schedule just to be here for the orthopedist.

Honestly I’m glad it happened this way. I needed Brian with me.

We left around 6 this evening and headed to L&G’s. Played with Troy a lot and had a blast! He’s such a wonderful child. I’ve missed him. We laughed, played and tickled a lot. I crawled around and chased him and he laughed like crazy. I love that little boy!

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