Ouch and Ouch

Parker had been resting comfortably this morning without many issues. Not much new to say except that the results of his abdomen and chest ultrasound came back . Nothing definitive, his lungs looked marginally better with no evidence of an infiltrate or ascites, excess fluid outside the lungs and his abdominal organs. However, his diaphragm on his right side is not functioning properly. This could be why his lungs are not inflating correctly. The good news is the diaphragm is not paralyzed. They will be doing the CT scan of his head sometime tomorrow and will take a close look at the portion of his brain that controls the diaphragm. Infection could have also have effected the function of the lungs. If nothing turns up we'll probably be reaching out to Children's Hospital. It is also possible that this clears up as he gets stronger and healthier.

Today was spinal tap day. Ouch! The neonatal fellow was the first to try. Parker didn't cooperate. She tried to stick him in a sitting position which dropped his heart rate. After a few minutes of stimulation, his rate climbed back up. They left him on his side and continued. The first stick was very bloody and they decided to try again (... double ouch). Stephanie, handed off to Dr. Schibler who did get fluid, it was also very bloody. The fluid will be cultured to look for infection but I don't know how confident we will be with the protein level and white blood cell count. We'll see.

The CT scan is still scheduled for tomorrow. It will be his first trip out of his little cubical. He gets to ride in a transport pod with the ventilator and his monitors. It's a short trip that includes an elevator.

All of Parker's doctors are changing this week, some today and the remainder next week. More on this later.