Slow Improvement

It looks like we're back on the "boring day" routine. I'll be honest-- I was able to handle boring a lot better a few weeks ago. That being said, I'll accept boring over many of the alternatives. Here's a quick update: Kirsten is with Madeleine this morning and things are slowly improving. She has been weaned a little off the dopamine-- she's gotten as low as 8 and is currently at 10. She is fluctuating quite a bit and I believe this is due to the relatively high level of infection. Speaking of the infection, her lab results just came in and her white blood count is at 38-- a slight decrease from yesterday. All in all, it appears that Madeleine is winning the fight against the infection, albeit very slowly.

There's one more bit of good news: an abdominal scan was conducted last night and it didn't reveal any "hot spots" for infection. As you may recall, there was some concern that something was left inside during surgery last Friday and could result in a large infection. This does not appear to be the case. Instead, it just appears that Madeleine has a pretty major infection and she's slowly winning the fight.

That's all for now. I'll be at the hospital this evening and I hope to establish some timelines for weaning from the dopamine and the vent. I'm sure they'll just be preliminary timeframes but this is important for me-- I want to know that we're making progress and getting closer to the point where she can begin eating again and begin behaving more like a normal newborn baby that just needs to grow. I know we're getting close... just not as fast I'd like.

Have a great day everyone.

Brent and Kirsten