NICU Part One

As chronicled in my written journal:

Wed. November 20, 2002
Jack is doing well. They took him off the respirator today and he’s only on 26% oxygen. He’s had 2 doses of indocin which will hopefully cause his pulmonary artery to close. He’s on dopamine to help his kidneys process the indocin. He’s receiving some lipids because he lost 4.5 ounces and they need to keep his weight up as much as possible. His color is good and he’s not being sedated very much. He’s a little jaundiced but he’s on phototherapy to break up the bilirubins.
Dean is still on the respirator. Yesterday morning his chest x-ray showed that there was a lot of excess air surrounding his left lung. That means there is a leak in the lung. They put a needle into his chest to extract the air which allows the lung to expand. Then later they did another chest x-ray and it looked much better. But, it happened again later in the evening and this time they had to put in a chest tube. It will be left in for a few days to allow time for the lung to heal. I’ll never forget the sinking feeling I had when the nurse practitioner came into my room to tell me. I thought the world had ended. Dean also has had 2 doses of indocin and is a little jaundiced so he’s on phototherapy, like Jack. He’s on about 44% oxygen but yesterday he was on 54% so this is an improvement. He’s more sedated than Jack because of the chest tube, they want to make sure he doesn’t pull it out.

Fri. November 22, 2002
I’m going home today and I’m so ready. I’m tired of having to ask for my pain medicine and being awakened throughout the night. I’ve gotten a lot grumpier since I moved to post-partum. The boys are doing well. Dean got a bath last night and now he looks really blond. He was down to 22% oxygen last night. His chest tube might come out today. He looks really good. Jack is really stable. He’s still off the ventilator and the nurse had him sucking on a pacifier last night.