Lung development

We had a little troubling news from the doctor today about Reid's lungs. His overall xray seems to look better than it did in the past, however, a test that they ran about two and a half weeks ago came back today with a little bit of bad news. His lungs, when looking at the xray, show what the doctor likes to call "salt and pepper". Usually, if you look at an xray of normal, healthy lungs, you would see a dense mass, and all of one color. In Reid's xray, you see white and black spots -- which are actually the air sacs in the lungs. Some are open and others are closed. The doctor said that this would be typical of a premature baby that had chronic lung issues (such as one that had been intubated for quite some time). Knowing that this wasn't the case, the doctor pursued a test for a particular bacteria that would exhibit these symptoms. Because this bacteria is very hard to grow in a lab environment, the culture they took from Reid took almost 2.5 weeks to prove itself... in this case, it came back positive. This bacteria makes the little air sacs in his lungs become less pliable and rigid. Without them being able to be flexible every time he takes a breath, he has a harder time absorbing the oxygen he breathes. Because of this, the doctors have increased his oxygen levels in his CPAP to be around 50%. This is the temporary fix/treatment...

In normal, healthy humans, a dosage of Tetracycline (an antibiotic commonly used for acne) would be the cure. However, to make things more difficult, Tetracycline is not a drug that they can give premature babies. Erythromycin is the next best drug and is the one that they will use. Reid will take it (I believe) for 14 days. This drug has great success in killing the bacteria, however, Reid will still exhibit issues with his breathing until his own body can produce new, good lung tissue. The antibiotic is the easy part and Reid will have a long road ahead of him until he will 100% outgrow this issue. The doctor says that it may take 9 months, but should definitely be gone by 12. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that Reid is going to be struggling to breathe until he is a year old, but for his lungs to fully heal, it will take that long. Reid controls how fast this issue corrects itself by how fast he can grow and how fast his lung tissue can repair itself. I am not worried about the outcome --- it just may bring some new obstacles along the way. This pregnancy hasn't been easy, so I wouldn't expect everything else to be either. We have to stay strong, keep a positive outlook on things, and everything will be OK.

On a positive note, Reid weighed in at 2 lbs 8oz last night. I believe he is up to 13 cc of breast milk and only has 2 more cc until he reaches his "suggested" intake of 15 cc every 3 hours. At that time, they will evaluate the caloric intake that is needed for him to properly grow and adjust it accordingly. I would not think that it would be increased every 12 hours like it is now, but more of a gradual increase over time as he begins to grow and necessitates more calories.

Kristen and I were at the NICU for a little over 2 hours today, long enough to change two diapers (so we both got the chance to do it). Reid's new diapers are almost comical they are so big. He outgrew the old size, and this new size fits babies up to 6 pounds. The back of the diaper goes half way up his back and the front has to be tucked under so that his chest isn't inside the diaper. :)

And check out his belly button. The other day, his umbilical cord fell off which resulted in us being able to see what his belly button looks like --- and it is an "outie". The nurse said that this doesn't mean that it will be like that permanently as this is very common in premature babies. Nonetheless, it gave Kristen and I a good laugh today. In the picture, you can see how big his diapers are and the heart-shaped piece of foil on his stomach is actually holding his temperature probe on his belly. This is tied in with his monitors to tell the incubator how hot it needs to be inside to help regulate Reid's body temperature.

Anyway, that is all for tonight. It is a long post, but I wanted to get a lot out there for you to read about his lung issues. Things will work out --- so please do not worry about this. There is nothing we can do but wait for it to correct itself.