Improving...

We didn't get the official EEG results this morning, but the nurse said it did confirm seizure activity in Riley. We are hoping to sit down with Dr. Shah tomorrow or Monday to go over the results in more detail, but he works third shift and was not expected to come back in this weekend. They've continued the Phenobarbital treatments, along with the mild sedatives to keep her calm. In addition, they've put her on "water pills" to help the fluid move through her lungs easier. Combined with the CPT treatments, this will hopefully open her airways a little more and allow them to lower the PIP and O2. So far, none of the doctors or nurses have seemed overly concerned about all this, so I guess that is reassuring. They keep throwing out the lines we've been hearing over and over - "We see this a lot in premature babies", "This isn't that abnormal", "They usually turn out just fine", etc.

I need to clarify something I said yesterday... She is going to be on Oxygen for awhile, and isn't being weaned off that, just the ventilator. Their goal is to exhibate her (take the tube out of her lungs), and move her to a nasal respirator. But her lungs need to be able to breathe on their own before they can do that, with additional O2 support.

Also, I forgot to mention her weight gain. The past few days, Riley has been over 1300 grams, which is about 2lb 13-14oz. She's quickly approaching the 3lb mark - maybe by her 1 month birthday on Thursday? We can only hope!

I came across this photo from the night Riley was born. With all the bad news coming across lately, thought everyone could use a good laugh at me in my operating room scrubs...