11 weeks old

Elise coded again yesterday am around 5. This time she required 3 minutes of CPR, intubation, and epinephrine to get her heart rate up. She was extubated once she started breathing on her own. Her NG came out during the resuscitation, and I have gotten Dr. Saunders (elise's doctor this month) to delay putting it back and letting her eat on her own. She looks pretty good considering what she has been through the last two days. She is taking her meds by mouth and taking bottles again. They are supplementing her with IV fluids to make up for what she doesn't take from the bottle. They have increased her Viagra dose based on her weight. The original plan was to let her grow out of the med, but it looks like we'll need to keep increasing it with her weight to hopefully prevent anymore episodes. After this second episode, the doctors are fairly confident that they know what has caused them. The way Dr. Saunders explains it is when someone becomes hypoxic (low on oxygen) their lungs "clamp down", and with Elise having pulmonary hypertension her lungs completely shut down, which causes her heart rate to drop severely and quickly. Both times she became hypoxic while crying while the night nurse was getting her daily weight. So, we are holding off on anything that upsets her for now. It is overwhelming to see how even the staff here in the NICU are upset about what has happened to Elise over the last few days. I have had several nurses come and give tearful hugs to me and Jason. I can't imagine how they deal with becoming attached to these babies and families, and watch them go through hard times. Jason returned to St. Louis last night, and I still plan on going to Spfd tomorrow to work a couple shifts at Skaggs over the weekend. I can't wait to see all my friends from work, I miss you all so much. Jason will post again on Friday. Thank you for all your supportive emails and comments. Love you all, Kristin