Friday, March 29, 2013

Vocal Chord

Unfortunately, Jordyn didn't have a very good day today.  She was all over the place with her saturation levels throughout the night and into the morning.  There were also times when her heart rate would drop low too.  Our night nurse, Kim, said that at one point last night she dropped all the way down into the single digits.  The lowest we had ever seen her drop was 30's and it scared Kim really bad.  She's supposed to stay between 88-94 so she was way too low.  Our doctor, Melanie, was very helpful today and really wanted to get to the bottom of it all.  She drew labs to make sure Jordyn didn't have an infection (which thankfully, she doesn't), she suctioned out her nose and the back of her throat, and she turned her peep down from an 11 to a 9 because she thought it might be too much air blowing in and could cause Jordyn to become too anxious and just shut down.  She also inserted another feeding tube into Jordyn's mouth that bypasses the stomach and goes into the small bowel.  This should help with any reflux she might be having.  Because the tube is going into the small bowel she has to have continuous feedings.  She'll be getting the same amount of milk in a 24 hour period as before, but it will be constantly dripping down her tube instead of getting fed every 3 hours.  The ENT finally showed up today to look at Jordyn's vocal chord and determined that the left one is paralyzed.  This is a common side effect of the PDA surgery because they have to move the vocal chord out of the way and it gets stretched out.  50% of kids with the vocal chord paralysis will heal on their own in 3-4 months and it is like it never happened.  40% the right vocal chord will compensate and they will be able to function just fine.  Melanie said it would only effect her singing career because you need both chords to sing.  And then 10% have more severe complications which lead to surgeries and other things.  I was glad that it seems the odds are in our favor.  We will definitely need to work with an Occupation Therapist when it's time to breastfeed because of the paralysis.  I'm hoping and praying they will be able to figure it out soon.  It's so scary to watch her stats drop and her skin get pale and dusty.

Addi is cruising on her High Flow machine.  She is now at 2 liters and is getting 21% oxygen, which is the same as room air.  Melanie said that if she can stay on it for a couple of days then she will be ready to try breastfeeding.  I'm so excited about that!  She will be getting a smaller cannula in her nose and her feeding tube will go through her nose instead of her mouth.  Mom is finally all better and got to go down to the hospital with me tonight.  She held Addi and couldn't believe how different both girls look in just a week and a half.  They are getting to be so big! 

Addi is wearing a Preemie-sized onesie that our neighbor, Mellie, gave us.  It fits her really well!  It was my first time seeing her in clothes.  She looks so cute!  She also looks like she has wide hips :)

No comments: