2/05/2011 Update

Morning Glory!!!  The sunrise in the Texas sky is beautiful this morning-Just as beautiful as our answered prayers!  As you can imagine, it was a very long night but we are seeing some amazing improvement in what seemed fairly bleak in the late hours last night.  Bottom-line, Critter is in a state of Metabolic Acidosis.  Most likely caused from dehydration.  But things were very scary in that her blood gas levels were unusually high, her breathing was very irregular, and at each check her numbers were increasing- NOT GOOD!  

Now some could end the story there, but as you may have already heard-  we have a team of great physicians here at Children's, but we have an even greater Physician who happens to have privileges at every hospital, home, and heart.  Around 2AM, we had a visit with the Fellow on call who was able to provide us with an update and a game plan. 

Step one-  Insert a venous and arterial line from Critter's navel/leftover umbilical cord.  Amazing that this is even possible!!!  The reasoning for inserting the line was to minimize the number of sticks and stressors that she would endure as they would need to continue to take multiple blood draws throughout her stay here. 
      Amazing, though it looked like what remained of her cord was near impossible to be able to do the line, they were able to get it and now do and all future blood draws without having to try to find such tiny veins for future draws. 

Step two-  Need to get her levels stable.  Without much detail-  know that her Glucose levels, Creatinine, Respiratory rate, Lactate, Ammonia, Potassium, and CO2 levels were all WAY OUT OF RANGE.

Step three- PRAY-  the seriousness of Critter's situation was more defined at this early morning meeting.  If the docs had not been able to get the results they wanted, more invasive and less desirable treatment would have needed to follow.

Around 3:30 this morning, new blood numbers were drawn.....EVERYTHING had started to correct!  While we are still a tad out of range in some areas, it was a GREAT sign of progress.  For the first time in over 12 hours Critter was even able to produce urine.

The first few nights of having her home were tough with all the crying and diaper changing.  Now, we rejoice in every tear and drop of urine!!

Rounds begin at 9am and so we will have a chance to eventually speak with a doc and see what the next step will be in her care.

Stay tuned and stay on your knees...