This morning Kristen and I both got to hold Greydon (who weighed 4 lbs 2 oz tonight). He was really calm so we held him for a long time. We got him out of the bed all by ourselves for the first time. With all of the wires they like to help do that part, but we did quite well. It's a little puzzle getting him out of the bed with all of the wires and with such a small door.
They continue to lower the temperature on the bed. Within a day or two they might be able to turn the heater off on the bed, and then give him a 12 hour test to see how he handles that. If all goes will then he will move to an uncovered bed.
Tomorrow he will likely get his first eye test. It is pretty frequent that preemies have vision problems. Tomorrow they will be looking at the blood vessels on the back of his eye.
They are looking for how far the vessels have grown out, and the shape of the vessel. This diagram shows the different zones, basically the less the vessels grow the more tunnel-like vision one would have. The doctor will mark on a similar diagram how far out the vessels are growing. Also they look at the shape of the vessels. The goal is flat straight out from the optic nerve.
Sometimes the vessels grow funky (medical term). And if they are allowed to continue to grow out and wrong they can cause the retina to detach from the eye... which would be bad.
We've heard we really don't want to watch this test, babies hate it and scream. Thanks to Mom standing guard over my good eye my entire life, merely typing the fact that they use a rubber tipped q-tip to move the eyeball around is giving me a headache and making my eyes water.
There are numerous inconclusive theories on what causes the vessels to grow funky, one theory is too much oxygen, which is why they watch his levels so closely. They know that prematurity causes it, but don't have a good grasp still on exactly how to avoid it. To fix it they laser the poorly shaped vessels to stop their growth, hopefully there are enough good vessels to still have good vision. Fun Fun
8 comments:
I love the picture of you and Greydon! It is so special, the bond between a baby and his parents. Hope all goes well with the eye test tomorrow.
Hope everything goes well! Thanks for dumbing it sown for us so we sort of know what is going on! :)
You found "Capital I" !!!*&^%$!!!
Does Greydon even realize how much his parents ROCK!
You guys are the best.
Wow! Learning something new is quite the understatement for you guys lately. I don't think my mind would grasp it as well as yours does.
I don't know why more of the medical type don't use your terms, it really is so much easier to understand. I swear sometimes they do that to impress themselves! I remember a pediatrican I went to with Dustin used a big long term and I asked what it meant. I got VERY condescending look and he said, "it means, turned in feet"! Wow, was that so hard to say?!! I changed peditricans right after that.
Good luck! You and Greydon look so sweet together! and I agree with pretty much everyone else on here, thanks for explaining it in English!
And we wonder why some kids scream if they see an adult in a white jacket!!!?
I guess most things concerning Greydon are out of our hands...now you know why I sent you that saying "once you have a child born to you, you spend the rest of your life walking around with your heart on the outside of your chest! What could be more vulnerable?Love, Muzz
Hey! Catching up with........everything. Love the pictures and comments. Wow! 4lbs plus. There are so many things to think about. It sounds like you two are hanging in there pretty well. Good luck with the eye test.
Hugs and kisses! Big Sis.
Post a Comment