Another Bullet Dodged

These boys really know how to put us on a rollercoaster ride. Now that Nolan is cruising along stable as can be, Asher has had us worried sick the past couple days. After the head ultrasound two days ago we were relieved there we no signs of hydrocephalus; however his bradys and desats continued to increase. Yesterday I sat holding Nolan watching Asher's heart rate dip well below where it should have been for a long time. My heart rate did the opposite obviously, which couldn't have been good for poor Nolan.

So fast forward to 2:00 this morning and we get yet another dreaded phone call. It was the neonatologist saying Asher's desats had been getting worse and worse and they had to resuscitate him several times so they decided to reintubate him. Back on the bloody vent, I thought we were past this. Talk about a giant leap backwards. There was only so much chit chat at 2am but he did tell me that Asher had some strange behavior that "may" have been a seizure. A seizure? Dear God tell me this isn't happening.

This morning we went up to the hospital and got all the details. First off, the doctor had done endless bloodwork that so far had shown no infection but he had put him on antibiotics just to be safe. He also did a spinal tap that we later found out was normal and the fluid looked clear (no blood) giving yet another confirmation that the brain bleed is absorbing as it should. So that basically ruled out all signs of infection.

As for the potential seizure, apparently during intubation Asher got incredibly tense to the point that although the tube was down, they couldn't ventilate him. Eventually he came out of it and behaved normally. This did however cause enough alarm in the doctor to involve the pediatric neurologist and schedule an EEG.

The EEG happened mid afternoon and I watched with bated breath as all his brain activity was displayed on screen. Of course I didn't know what any of it meant, but it instilled serious panic. I then sat and stared at Asher for the remainder of the day, analyzing his every move. The moves were in fact very infrequent, which caused more stress. The reasonable explanation was that he had an incredibly hectic night that also included a sedative, but I couldn't help but be disturbed at seeing him so listless.

So at the end of a verrrrrry looooonng and stressssful day we were heading out the door of the NICU when the neurologist just happened to walk in. Good news alert! She had read the EEG and there were no signs of seizure activities and she didn't have any reason to believe that what happened last night was a seizure either. Hallelujah! We also had a very brief chat about Asher's bleed and the future implications of it and she made us feel a lot more positive than we previously had. We left feeling like no matter what damage the bleed caused, the outcome can be helped along with a whole lot of therapy and intervention. If anyone is going to give Asher the best chance to walk away from this (literally!) it's me and Jord.

So now we're back to asking ourselves what the heck happened?? Once again no one really knows why Asher has regressed, but now we just have to hope that he can quickly get strong enough to get off the vent and back on CPAP. The doctor did explain to us that Asher is still within reasonable gestational age (33 weeks today!) to be suffering "apneas of prematurity". Meaning, this entire incident could have just been happening because he's still premature. All we ever hear from the doctors and nurses when they don't know what's going on is an exasperated "BOYS!!!". Seriously, apparently preemie boys cause way more problems than their female counterparts. Lucky us, but really did you ever question who's the stronger sex? Girl power starts at birth, clearly.

Anyway, I leave you with our little trooper and the thousand leads he had attached to him for his EEG. They assured me it didn't hurt him, but it sure hurt his mom. Good thing we have their strength to draw on because without those little angel faces I could not have gotten through this day. Here's to better days ahead. Stat.