Let's start with Aubrey tonight. Her sputum (lung funk) culture ended up being positive for Staph aureus on Wednesday. Her doctor on Wednesday decided not to start antibiotics because (1) it wasn't MRSA (the hard to treat variety of Staph aureus) and (2) because Aubrey was showing no signs of lung infection.
I came into the NICU on Thursday and found out that she had been a little less stable that day, so her doctor decided to start her on a seven-day treatment of a medication called oxacillin. As of today, Friday, her sputum has changed color from yellow to white.
She is still slowly weaning off the ventilator. PIP/PEEP is 23/6, rate is set at 20 bpm, oxygen at ~30%. There has been chatter about possibly extubating her over the weekend! Most of the nurses have commented on how much she seems to hate the breaking tube, so I hope her little body can muster the strength to breathe more on her own if she is extubated in the next couple of days.
Aubrey also continues to do well as far as her feedings go. She is now getting 14 mL (about a tablespoon) of milk every 3 hours, compared to 8 mL 3 days ago.
Paige's turn.
She hasn't been making as good of progress as her sister, but she has the excuse of being a week out of surgery. Here's a picture of her that I took with my phone (I can't figure out how to put it between text with my phone, so it's at the bottom of the post).
Her sputum and blood cultures have been negative for infection, so her antibiotics were stopped today. Despite having no infection, she hasn't really been weaning from the oscillating ventilator as well as everyone would like. For everyone who understands what these numbers mean, her MAP is 13, amplitude is 29, and oxygen has been around 40% (though these change slightly throughout the day based on xrays and oxygen saturation). I had another brief conversation with one of the doctors about the possibility of Paige needing steroids.....
Now that infection has been ruled out, Paige is receiving milk again. She's been started out at 1 mL every 6 hours. Her sister is definitely getting the lions share of mommy's milk. Paige should catch up eventually.
Well, that's about all that comes to mind for now. If anyone has any questions/curiosities about anything related to the NICU baby experience or about the girls specifically, feel free to post a comment and I'll do my best to reply or discuss it in a future post. I'll post some better pictures next time I update, too.
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