May 30 - 4th Entry Today? It HAS been busy...

16:18 -- Okay so we know Max is doing better on the vent. They're going to lower his assistance rate in the morning before the next blood gas. He's on a rate of "18" now, he'll be on "10" in the morning; I asked Nurse S. what the numerical goal is and she said "0" because that will mean he's receiving zero assistance breathing. For reference, the goal on the ventilator was a "10" before switching to CPAP.

I met with Dr. D. once more before leaving this afternoon. He expressed concern about the continuing blood in Max' stool; he thinks it's either the lingering breast milk issue which may clear up once it has expelled completely from his system, OR he's having platelets issues. Has his body built antibodies to the continuous (continual? I hate English) barrage of transfusions? Is his enlarged spleen chewing his platelets up and spitting them out? We don't know, so Dr. D. has ordered Max "special" platelets that more closely match his own that he hopes the body won't reject (if that's even what the issue is). Dr. D. underscored the importance of Max' good progress on CPAP and said that we'll just continue to watch him, gradually lower his dependence on it for breathing, etc.

Nurse S. has committed to being Max' primary nurse during his stay in NICU. I just love her and we've grown quite close. She told me that as soon as Max was admitted into the NICU they were first told, "the baby has CMV and the mom is a lawyer." Ha! We shared a good laugh. I made sure to tell them I don't practice med-mal. As many of the NICU nurses are curious about the CPS situation in San Angelo, they come to me with questions.