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The UAC (Umbilical Artery Catheter), which measures the blood gases such as the partial pressure of Carbon Dioxide and oxygen, began to malfunction; so they had to remove it. They were unsuccessful in getting another one inserted so they hooked Matthew up to a different kind of system that still measures his Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen levels but it's not inserted into any of his blood vessels. It's not as accurate as the other line, but it is pretty close.

His color looked a bit off again today and his blood pressure was down. The last time this happened they ended up giving him two blood transfusions. They are running more tests to determine if that will be necessary. In the meantime, they started to administer Dopamine, which is a medication designed to help increase his blood pressure. He is also starting to retain more fluid again, and with the amount of fluid that he has retained so far, it sort of gave us a glimpse of what Matthew will be like when he has grown into his skin more and has more of his baby fat. Not that I want him to be retaining fluid, but it was cute to see the baby fat look. He was a tiny bit more active today.

It is still hard to be on this emotional roller coaster; especially knowing we have many more months of this to come. I know it was unrealistic to think this, but I guess I expected Matthew to recover a bit faster than he is. The little guy is pretty sick so it is going to take awhile to recover from all that has happened to him. The honeymoon phase is over and we are now getting down to business and entering the more realistic road to recovery.

Please keep praying for God to help little Matthew and for His help in Guiding the doctors and nurses that interact with him. Please keep praying for our strength to get through each day and night. Thank you again to all of you for your prayers!

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jason and jenn: we just got back in town from tulsa and finished reading the last few days of info. I talked to a nicu nurse at central baptist hospital where I work, and he also said the same thing about how Matthew would improve significantly after this surgery. He also said that this surgery is very common in preemies, and that they most always turn out great.
Please keep us informed on the specifics. We want to hear much more about this nurse and what happened. Love, seth and dawn and andrew

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This page contains a single entry by Jenn published on July 5, 2003 11:45 AM.

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