June 29th, 2007

Hello,

Update on the twin’s progress…

Ventilators:
Carver’s ventilator is now set at an air pressure of 21/6 and a rate of 15 breaths per minute. His oxygen needs have been in the mid 40% range. His doctor is starting to think about putting him on CPAP. He said that he would like to see his air pressure at 18 or 19. Hopefully that will happen over the next week. He was at 20/6 and a rate of 15 prior to his ROP surgery, but was set back quite a bit over the last week while recovering from the surgery (mentioned below). Kinnick has really struggled since her intestinal surgery. The incision split open after just a few days allowing her intestines to spill out of her body. She was rushed in for another surgery. The second surgery really set her back on the ventilator. She was put on the High Frequency ventilator that Carver was on for so long. Within a week, she was moved back to the conventional ventilator and has since come down to an air pressure of 24/6 and a rate of 20 breaths per minute. Her oxygen needs have been in the 40-50% range. She is still very puffy – weighting in at almost 7lbs. She should be weighting around 5lbs.


Seizures:
Carver and Kinnick are both on maintenance drugs to prevent seizures. They will continue to be on the maintenance drugs for quite some time.


Eyes:
Carver was diagnosed with the same preemie eye disease (ROP) that Kinnick was diagnosed with and had to undergo the same surgery about a week ago. Carver’s surgery was a success and his eyes have already started to improve. Kinnick hasn’t been as lucky. Her eyes are continuing to get worse. The eye doctor here has done all he can to save her eyes. It is just a waiting game over the next week to see if the disease stops or continues to get worse. If it doesn’t improve over the next week, she will be transported to Detroit to see another specialist. His job will be to save as much of the retina as possible. We are told that the success of this surgery is not very good even in the best of hands. However, any part of her retina that is saved will be better then no vision at all. Both eyes are equally bad, so we’re hoping to see improvement over the next week. Please pray with us that her eyes will show signs of improvement over the next week.


Feedings
Kinnick started feeds again this week. She is up to about 1/3 of her feed volume. Carver is almost back on full feeds. His feeds were taken away briefly due to suspected intestinal problems.


Weight:
Carver is weighing in at 5 lbs 4 oz. Kinnick is weighting in at 6 lbs 14 oz (mostly due to water retention from surgery).

Temperature:
Carver is still in his big boy bed (a real baby bed) and is maintaining his own temperature. Kinnick is doing better maintaining her own temperature, but due to surgery and recovery, she remains in her temp controlled bed. Once she is feeling better, she’ll be moved to a big girl bed.

Activities:
Since Carver is no longer being sedated or on pain medication, he has started demanding attention. He’s been spending some of his spare time sitting in a vibrating bouncy seat and looking at himself in a mirror. He’s also been naughty and removed his own feeding tube. Another favorite is to pull his vent tube out (something that he’s been successful at in the past), so he lost his tummy time.

We’re counting the days. Their due date is 7/22/07, so we’re getting closer. We realize they won’t go home on their due date, but we’ve got to be getting closer to the actual day they come home. Still hoping they’ll come home within a month of their due date.

Thank you again for all of your Thoughts and Prayers! The babies are thriving because of God’s many blessings!