Daily Hope: Sunday January 18

Hope in her new hat from Grandpa & Grandma Holtz

Hope in her new hat from Peggy

Hope has spent the weekend busily fighting off an infection. The good news is that so far today her blood cultures have not shown any further infection. If they remain clear until Monday morning the doctors will not have to remove her central line as they previously thought they might.

However, Hope has had some other issues this weekend. Her diastolic blood pressure (the second, lower number) has been lower than the doctors would like. That coupled with the fact that her urine output had dwindled a bit, as well as her creatinine levels being slightly elevated, causes the doctors to suspect that her PDA had reopened. This is a blood vessel in her heart that is open in all newborns. It usually closes on it's own in full term babies but often in preemies this doesn't happen. Hope had an open PDA while she was in South Bend but they were able to give her some medication to close the vessel. It's not uncommon for the vessel, however, to reopen. Since Hope has had intestinal issues she won't be able to have another dose of the medication. The doctors plan to do an echocardiogram on Monday to determine if the vessel is open. If it's open, but only slightly they may wait it out to see if it will close on it's own. If it's a large opening Hope will have to have a small surgery to clamp the vessel closed.

On a lighter note, Hope got a pretty new hat from Peggy today. It's a pretty blue with a flower on top and it made her feel very fashionable today.

Hope spent the weekend with her Grandpa Holtz and had a wonderful time with him. She hated to see him have to leave today but knows that he will be back soon to visit her again. She was very excited that he brought her some hats to add to her wardrobe, but her favorite part of the weekend was getting to sit and hold his hand for hours at a time.