Truman's First Thursday

Truman had a very good day today. He managed to get completely off of blood pressure medication. Sometimes his pressure still climbed a little high when he would get fidgety, but he was fighting low pressure before. One time while his mom was with him, his blood pressure got a little high, but the nursing staff asked Kara to hold his head and feet to soothe him. That did just the trick for our little guy. One of the good things about getting off the blood pressure medication is that he may be able to start trying out a little breast milk in a feeding tube before too long.

He spent most of the day with only room air on his ventilator, but he gradually had to have a little more oxygen by nightfall. Part of that was due to all the things that get done to him each day at 8 p.m., like being weighed, having tubes changed, and tape pulled off and reapplied. Part is due to something called a PDA, which is a problem for all preemies, particularly micropreemies like him. It means that a small valve between his heart and lungs has not closed. He will have a scan Friday morning to see how the duct looks and to decide what the treatment game plan is. If it is very small, he will most likely be able to handle it without treatment. If it is small, they will try treatment with a drug that is supposed to cause the hole to close. If it's bigger, he will have a minor surgical procedure done sometime over the next few weeks where a clamp will be inserted to close the duct. Although the PDA will probably require some treatment, it is something that all preemies (and some full term babies) face.

Truman gained weight today. He is now 1 lb, 6 oz. And, he processed a lot of flood today (he had three diaper changes in one hour), so that's probably real weight gain rather than just fluid retention.

So far, so good. More to come tomorrow.