Good news and scary news

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The good news today is that Matthew has tolerated the increase in his feedings so they are going to go up again on the amount of breastmilk they are feeding him every four hours. He is even tolerating a decrease in his pressures on the ventilator today.

The scary news is that they are seeing some kind of abnormal growth or fluid in his brain. They don't know if it is an abscess or if it's a cyst or if it is build up of Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). They do know that it is not blood. They don't know if it was blood and now it is going away and it is just the residual fluid from that. It was NOT on previous scans and they have NEVER seen this before in a preemie baby. The Director of the NICU, the Pediatric Radiologist, and the Neurosurgeon from Stanford have never seen this before and they don't know what is causing it. However, they have seen something like this in very young children but only after they have had neurosurgery and they have seen this in adults but only after trauma to the head. It is located in a space called the subdural fissure. Which means it is located between the right and left hemispheres of the brain (in the fissure) and it is between the skull and the brain (the subdural area). He is not stable enough to take him down to do an MRI, so they are going to continue to monitor him on the ultrasounds for now. They are doing a spinal tap today to see if there might be an infection in the CSF, but they don't think there'll be one. They don't feel too concerned right now because fortunately his brain is still growing and the skull is still soft, so if it continues to get larger, the brain can work around it and there won't be a lot of pressure build up because the skull has a lot of flexibility right now. If it continues to grow, they will have to do surgery on his brain to see what is causing this and if they can remove it.

The other thing they have not seen before is the issue with his liver. His bilirubin levels keep climbing daily in spite of the medication they are giving him. However, everything else about his liver tests have come back fine. Once again they are stumped. The specialist was in today running more tests on the liver, so hopefully we'll know more this afternoon about this.

Prayer requests: PRAY, PRAY, PRAY LIKE YOU'VE NEVER PRAYED BEFORE! If you've never prayed before, I beg you to start now. Please pray that this abnormality in the brain goes away completely and never comes back! Please pray that his bilirubin levels come back down to normal and stay that way. Praise God for the good news about the feeding and his respiratory status. Please pray for us to have a peace of mind about the entire situation that is before us.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.

4 Comments

Jenn, Jason, and Matthew,
We will continue to pray for all that is happening. We thank God for your strength to endure the ups and downs at this time, and remain positive when you are most exhausted. We thank you for the time you take to write the updates and be specific in order that we can pray for you and the exact needs. Love, Jim and Joelle, and Baby Bryson

I will be down on my knees praying tonight. We know that with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE (NO MATTER WHAT THE ODDS, OR STATISTICS). I am very pleased about his feedings and acceptance of them.
God has little Matthew in his arms, he will take excellent care of him. I spoke with a friend of mine who worked in the nicu at uk hospital (the best), and she has seen many babies Matthew's age pull through marvously.
We will continue to pray for God's intervening in Matthew's body and for peace of mind for you and Jason. We love you, Seth and Dawn

Praise God that the feedings have gone well. Your entire family and especially Matthew will be in my prayers constantly. I will also pray for the doctors and nurses assisting Matthew to give them wisdom and knowledge about this situation. HUGS, Caroline

I have been praying daily for baby Matthew to heal and grow strong. I am praying also for both of you for the Lord to comfort you and support you throughout this emotional and heartwrenching journey. Miracles happen everyday and I know that with enough faithful prayers, we will see him begin to thrive and bring great glory to God. We love you. Christina and Jeff Jenkins

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jenn published on July 18, 2003 3:33 PM.

Still Doing Well was the previous entry in this blog.

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