Some news...

Hi Everybody,

Mia's doing alright... she's really sleepy and slowly getting swollen and puffy, but she's doing alright. Her co2 has definitely come down - it's hanging around in the 30's-40's, which is great. Her vent settings are really high, though, and it's requiring a lot more oxygen. I think she's set to 45% oxygen. At CRC the most she was needing was 28%.

Dr. Smyklo did tell me just now that Mia has a little bit of pneumonia in both lungs. It's nice to know that she was getting sick all this time, although we're not sure exactly if that's the reason why her co2 has been hard to control, as well as her having seizures much more frequently. She's had possibly 5 in the past week or so.

I never got a chance to write about Mia's appointment to Stanford last week. The appointment was okay - of course, again, there was miscommunication. The doctor knew nothing about Mia, or why she was there... anyway.... all in all, I think it will be beneficial. I'm so glad RT Jay came along because between he and I, we were able to answer about 98% of her questions. =)

Dr. Witcoff, the Pulmonologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (Stanford), has a few ideas. The main one that I think could be beneficial is Mia could be admitted to LPCH and during her time there, have tests done while the Dr. observes her. That was her idea - we're not even sure if Dr. Silva (Mia's primary doc) will go for that. We'll see what the two doctors decide. They should be in touch sometime this week.

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I had to leave the room because Dr. Smyklo was going to attempt the central IV on Mia. I was in the hallway for close to two hours, I think, and finally they came out. I was reading a book, so I wasn't too stressed out. =) One good thing is that they were able to get an IV in an artery, so now they don't have to poke her all the time when they need blood work. The bad news is that they kept getting the artery on the other side - they needed a vein. Mia's so chunky (and now swollen) that they can't find her vein, so Mia will have to go downstairs to Radiology so they can use their lighting to get the actual PICC line in. While she's down in Radiology, she's going to get her CT scan of her brain as well.

Mia's doing alright - very sleepy and swollen. I'll post a picture of her. She all of a sudden looks like such a big girl! This is the first time she looks like a child, not like a baby! I can't believe how big she's getting. =) Of course, it's probably the swelling that is making her look a little bit older, but I still can't believe she'll be a year old in about 6 weeks!!

I'll keep you posted,
Rachael <3