Baby Jacob had an ultrasound on his head this morning. He did a great job holding still for it and seemed to enjoy the short head massage. We waited anxiously for the results and got a call from the neonatal specialist doctor at the NICU this evening. The ultrasound showed that Baby Jacob does have bleeding on his brain called an intraventricular hemorrahge (IVH). The bleed is a grade 2 bleed in the ranking system of bleeds. There is nothing that the doctors can do for this particular bleed. A grade 1 or grade 2 bleed involve a smaller amount of bleeding than a grade 3 or grade 4. Most of the time, there are not long term problems as a result of the bleeding when compared to preterm infants that don't have IVH. We are hopeful that this is the case for Jr.
Our doctor then went on to tell us that they had found additional bleeding on Baby Jacob's brain that is less commonly found in preemies. It is called a cerebellum hemorrhage and is only on the left side of his brain. This region of the brain plays an important role in motor control. It contributes to the coordination, precision, and accurate timing. At this time our doctor is not sure what the long-term outcome of this bleed will mean for Baby Jacob. He will have a specialty team with an occupational therapist and physical therapist as well as other specialists that will be added to help him in the future. They will continue to monitor both of these hemorrahges with weekly ultrasounds and we pray that they will decrease in size as he grows.
As far as having meningitis, the doctors are still not sure if he has it. He is showing signs of an infection with a fairly low white blood cell count and they are treating him with antibiotics. So far it seems to be working, as his white blood cell count is going up a bit each day. Unfortunately, the only way to test for meningitis is with a spinal tap and he is not stable enough to tolerate it, so they just continue to treat with broad spectrum antibiotics that will hopefully eliminate the infection. We will know more each day.
Jr.'s blood pressure was very low today and they are still trying to figure out why. He has about 40 mL of total blood in his body and they have to take sometimes 4 mL of blood in a day, 10% of his total supply! This is the reason for a lot of the transfusions. There are some different treatments for low pressure they can give him but they are trying to see if he can sustain it on his own for a few days.
We are staying positive with all the news we were given today about our precious boy. It could have been a lot worse and we are grateful that there are things we can do to help him as he grows to have the best possible outcome. Of course, he is in our Heavenly Father's hands and we don't know exactly what is in store for Jr.'s future, but we continually pray that we can align our will with His and be worthy of any blessings He sees fit to bestow on our little family according to our faith, and the significant and powerful faith of all of you who are praying for us. THANK YOU!
Our Precious Boy
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