Tuesday, July 8, 2008

What a day this has been! The day started out as it normally does. I wake up and call into the hospital. I knew that the lung specialist was coming in to see Hunter again today. When I called in, the lung specialist was already here.

From what I hear from the nurses, the lung specialist heard something that wasn't quite right in Hunter's chest. He ordered an x-ray. When the x-ray came back, things definetly weren't right. They ordered an echogram. This is for the heart. They found what appears to be an open PDA. It is a valve in the heart that is supposed to close off after birth. When it is open, it pumps to much blood into the lungs.
Hunter had this in the first 3 days of his life. At that time, they gave him medication, did echograms, and his PDA was close. We'll, it reopened. This time, it leaves no other alternative but heart surgery for Hunter. Gestationally speaking, Hunter is too far along for medication and the PDA is too large for medication. It is really common in premature infants to have a PDA, but usually it is fixed earlier in their life. It makes for complications that Hunter is bigger now.

I have been at the hospital since this morning. The surgery will be Thursday morning. We have been loving on Hunter and will continue to do so. Hunter's heart surgeon will be coming from Children's Hospital in Detroit.

They have not been able to wean Hunter from his oxygen and air flow. This PDA is the culprit. It is pumping to much blood flow into Hunter's lungs and drowning him. This would also be the main reason that Hunter is having such a hard time breathing while feeding. He doesn't have the lung capacity for it. It's nice to know what the problem is, so we can fix it. But, heart surgery is scary.

I have not stopped praying. I know that everyone out there has been so supportive. Please continue to pray for Baby Hunter. "With God, All Things Are Possible"
We need to pray that he makes it through the surgery. The surgery does have complication risks, such as infection, difficult controlling his blood pressure, etc.

After the PDA is fixed, Hunter shouldn't have any other complications in regards to his heart. 99 days and counting....my heart goes out to all struggling with their micro preemies: past, present, and future.