March 10 Update

Weight: 2145 g (4 lbs 11 oz…almost 4 lbs 12 oz)

Matthew had a bit of a rough day today. You can probably tell by the picture that we had a little setback.

This morning he was still breathing fast (called tacypnea) and retracting a lot, which means he was having to use accessory muscles to create a higher pressure in his lungs. Basically, he was having to work harder than he should have to to breathe.

So, they did a chest x-ray and a blood gas, which is a blood sample that shows the exchange of gases. The chest x-ray showed that his lungs were not completely expanded, and the blood gas showed that he was retaining more CO2 than they like. He was given a number of 58 and they like it below 50. So both of these tests showed that he needs more support with his oxygen flow.

Note: They also did another respiratory panel which came back negative for virtual infections.

So, now he’s back on a higher flow nasal cannula and receiving 6 liters/minute instead of the .5 liters/minute he was receiving with the lower flow cannula.

By the afternoon, he was feeling more comfortable and they were able to lower his oxygen amount from 45% to 27%.

If if he continues to struggle. They will run more tests and order another panel to check his blood for bacterial infections.

Because of the higher flow nasal cannula, you’ll see that he had to switch out his NG (nasogastric) tube for another OG (orogastric) tube. I was sad to see it back in his mouth, poor little guy.

Unfortunately that means that he won’t be able to work on breastfeeding again until he is able to switch back to a lower flow cannula and a nasogastric tube.

A doctor came by to check on Matt while I was there. He said that the x-ray this morning had looked a little “junky,” and Matthew’s nurse, Heidi, mentioned that he was still retracting some, so he said that they can bump the flow up to 8 liters/minute and do some more tests if needed.