Samuel B continues to grow. He’s now six weeks old and weighed in today at 1420 grams (3.1 pounds) a significant gain from his birthweight of 860 grams (1.9 pounds). He’s now getting 10ml of his mom’s breastmilk which bypasses his stomach directly into the jejunum - a section of one’s intestine. The jejunostomy tube remains necessary to prevent a distended stomach placing undue pressure on his lungs. The lungs remain the primary concern at present and could possibly be for many months to come and perhaps years.
Sammy is suffering from Hyaline Membrane Disease which prevents his lungs from doing their work adequately. The trauma of the (life-saving) ventilator and the earlier infections on his very immature lungs resulted in these membranes forming within the alveoli thus blocking effective oxygen exchange with the bloodstream. Practically this means that he still requires assistance with his breathing in the form of the nasal prongs and a bit of extra oxygen. Getting to this stage of low level breathing assistance was a big jump but we have now been here for a couple of weeks and the steps forward on this front seem to be slowing down. Without any other factors (like the swelling from the infection) clouding the picture we can often see just how difficult it is for him to breath. Mich and I kangaroo care him regularly and, for me especially, he has times when he simply stops breathing, turns blue and the monitors start screaming. It's scary when this happens in ICU. We don't like to think too much of how we'd deal with this at home.
If he continues to gain weight we could be looking at getting out of ICU within the next 6 weeks . To get there though these lungs need to be working a lot better. He's got through so much on the back of your prayers. Thank you for your continued support in this. Please pray specifically for the development and healing of his lungs.
The manna bit is the 24 families who are up to cooking for us over the next couple of months!With love
Terence
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