Morning rounds

Penelope had a good night.  She only had a couple of desat episodes.  Oxygen desaturation occurs when the apnea and bradycardia cause her blood-oxygen levels to plummet.  Most preemies experience this at least a few times a day until their lungs and brain are mature enough to work together. 

The team does not think she has an infection and thinks the ph problems are caused by her immature kidneys creating too much urine.  Again, this is common in preemies and will eventually fix itself.  Until then, they will adjust the contents of her nutritional supplement, called TPN,to bring her ph levels back to normal.  She receives TPN through an IV.  Eventually, she will be weaned off this and get her nutrition exclusively from breast milk.  But that process can take months. 

Her echo cardiogram shows the valve did not open up again.  The chest and abdominal x-rays were clear and also show no signs of infection. 

Overall, this morning has been good and it may shape up to be a good day.  However, things can change quickly with preemies, so I'm just taking it hour-by-hour and day-by-day.

Thanks for checking in.  I'll update more later.