Day 52 - The balancing act
Millie has spent the past 48 hours in a strange kind of limbo.
She is holding her own, but is quiet for a number of reasons.
The first is her bowel infection.
Until completely better, Millie will have only small feeds of milk.
The second reason is the Burn In The Foot episode.
This left Millie unable to have any nutrients through the drip for almost 48 hours because she had no more veins left through which to put a cannula.
Together, these two factors have had a number of effects.
The nutrient imbalance - not enough milk and not enough drip - means Millie is retaining fluid and has become slightly puffy again.
She has lost weight, although not seriously (about 14 grammes (1/2 ounce) in the last 24 hours).
She is not getting enough protein either, which means she is anaemic again.
To resolve this, Millie will have another blood transfusion on Tuesday (11 April).
This will be the usual slow injection of blood over a period of a few hours.
To overcome the nutrient imbalance, feeds of breast milk are being increased in volume and frequency.
She is now being fed 9ml (almost two teaspoons) every two hours.
The milk is being supplemented with nutrients through the drip which have been carefully resumed via a vein into her arm.
We think it will take a couple of days or so before Millie levels out and starts progressing again.
In amongst all of this frustration, however, she has picked up a new infection: an adenoviral infection in her bowel.
You can read about adenovirus
here.
It is not as serious as the Necrotizing Enterocolitis Millie had three weeks ago, but she now has diarrhoea as well.
Mummy and daddy feel ok, but the whole thing is getting rather tiring.
So much so that daddy found himself humming Johnny Cash and Morrissey songs while he cuddled Millie this evening.
Not the most cheerful of tunes, but she should have a good taste in music when she gets older.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Day 50 - An unwanted party hat
MILLIE has had to contend with a very frustrating night.
The nutrients that should be fed from the drip into her vein ended up in the wrong part of her body.
These nutrients are very strong and concentrated, so it's important they go to the right place.
Rather than going into a vein in Millie's foot, the nutrients leaked into the surrounding body tissue where they collected like a blister.
They burned Millie under the skin, creating a blackened blotch which will hopefully fade over time.
If her foot becomes infected, however, Millie might have to have some tissue removed.
Part of the problem is that the nutrients should really be fed through a long-line into a vein deep inside Millie's body.
But the long-line was taken out when she became poorly.
Yet Millie still needs nutrients so they are fed through a cannula into a vein just below the skin.
We don't know for how long the nutrients were seeping into the wrong place.
It is the third time Millie has been burned like this.
Early this morning (Saturday), the medical team took out the cannula from her foot and drained the nutrients from the burned area.
They then inserted a new cannula into Millie's scalp. We hope they keep a close eye on this one.
The nurses taped an upturned plastic beaker onto Millie's head to stop the cannula moving.
It looks like a bizarre party hat, which might have been appropriate because today is daddy's birthday.
But having his daughter home without any burns or scars would be a much better present.
Millie looks rather grumpy - which is understandable given the circumstances.
But she enjoyed five minutes on mummy's breast this morning.
Mummy and daddy will both visit Millie in hospital later to see how she is progressing.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Day 49 - Back on the breast
MILLIE was breast-fed today for the first time since 22 March.
The doctors are finally convinced she is well enough to have milk again.
This is good news, although we don't want to push her too fast.
Millie was allowed to feed for five minutes this afternoon, and then for ten minutes this evening.
When mummy isn't at the hospital, Millie will be fed using the tube into her tummy. She will be started at a rate of 1ml every four hours.
Having Millie back on proper milk feeds has made everyone happy, especially mummy.
For now, feeds are supplemented with nutrients from the drip.
But the milk already seems to be doing some good.
As expected, Millie lost 30 grammes over the past 24 hours.
This was mainly fluid which she had been retaining and had caused her to become slightly puffy again.
She now weighs a healthy 2.074 (4lbs 9oz).
Daddy thinks Millie looks better than at any time over the past three weeks.
When he visited hospital this evening, he had a long cuddle.
Millie was awake and alert, a nice pink colour and looked around before falling asleep and going back in her incubator.
We're crossing our fingers that the bowel infection will not return, and Millie will be allowed home soon.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Day 48 - Millie's medical
THE doctors have given Millie another medical, which she passed with flying colours.
They still haven't fed her any milk but wanted to check everything was right before doing so.
The main reason for not feeding her milk has been because Millie is still returning a little bit of bile when they aspirate her.
This is the process by which the nurses use a syringe to suck out anything that might be in her tummy through the feeding tube.
Millie has also been rather pale, a little puffy and sleepy.
But all the test results which came back were normal, so the doctors might start feeding her on Friday (7 April).
However, they have been saying they "expect to feed her tomorrow" for days, so it remains to be seen when it finally happens.
The other big news is that Millie has completed the triple course of antibiotics for her bowel infection.
She now has just one course of antibiotics to complete, for her blood infection. This course will finish next Friday (14 April).
Her weight continues to increase, as she is being fed through the tube into her nose.
On Wednesday (5 April), she put on 25 grammes.
She put on a further 79 grammes today (Thursday), although some of this is likely to be the fluid retention which has made her a little puffy.
However, her overall weight is now 2.104kg - or 4lbs 10 ounces.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Day 46 - A short update
JUST a short update as daddy has to go to Plymouth for a conference.
Millie is doing fine today (Tuesday).
Her bile has almost returned to normal so the doctors expect to start feeding her milk again on Wednesday (5 April).
She has gained 15 grammes in the past 24 hours and now weighs 1.995kg (just over 4lbs 6 ounces).
Thanks for all the messages - we enjoy reading them as much as we hope you enjoy reading this.
It's likely that our next update here will be Thursday 6 April.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Day 45 - Let sleeping babies lie
THE doctors have stopped feeding milk to Millie.
She had a very small amount of bile when they checked her this afternoon and it was a slight yellow-green colour.
This indicates that her tummy might still be poorly.
Mummy is worried, but daddy would like to reiterate that it was an extemely small amount of bile.
Nevertheless, we aren't sure how long it will be before Millie is fed milk again. It might be a few hours or days - we forgot to ask.
But when daddy visited the hospital this evening, he thought Millie looked back to her old self.
She was sleeping, and looked very snuggly.
Daddy didn't get a cuddle because he didn't want to wake her. But he did take a couple of photos.
At times like this, it's best to let sleeping babies lie.
Millie makes lots of noise when awake because the small amount of milk was not enough to fill her up.
For the time being, she will have to go hungry and rely on the drip for nutrients so she continues to grow.
Millie gained 20 grammes over the past 24 hours and now weighs 1.980kg (4lbs 6 ounces).
We hope to find out on Tuesday (4 April) when the doctors will try feeding more milk.
Maybe today's bile was a blip and they will restart the milk soon.
The other option is buying some earplugs and waiting a few more days.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Days 43 & 44 - Milk monitors
MILLIE is being slowly allowed to have milk again.
She began with 1ml every four hours late on Saturday (1 April).
When mummy arrived on Sunday, Millie was being fed 5ml (a teaspoon) every four hours.
This will continue until Wednesday (5 April) - a fortnight since Millie first became poorly.
During this time, she is being monitored closely to make sure her tummy can cope. If it cannot, the doctors will stop her milk.
Millie seems almost back to her normal self, but she gets very upset not being fed more milk more frequently.
The doctors hope she will go back on mummy's breast after Tuesday.
Mummy can't wait, because it has been hard to stop feeding Millie who is so obviously hungry.
Millie still needs to be fed on a drip until she can tolerate full feeds of milk.
But she still has no long-line because of the blood infection.
Because of this, the drip is fed into her veins just below the skin.
This is not ideal, because the feed is concentrated and will burn her skin from the inside if not flushed through thoroughly.
Millie has two of these burn marks - one on her left leg and one on her right wrist.
To reduce the chance of this happening, the doctors change the canulas regularly, but Millie has had so many that they are running out of new sites.
As she kicks so strongly, mummy has had to put blankets around her so Millie can't bash the canulas against the inside of the incubator.
She is, however, putting on weight.
She gained 45 grammes (almost two ounces) over the weekend and now weighs about 1.960kg (4lbs 5 ounces).
MILLIE'S iron levels have slightly improved.
