A New Concern

No news on the heart and kidney ultrasounds yet. They are still hoping for today. All they can tell us was that he has two kidneys.

When we arrived this morning, we got the news that Owen gained 3 oz. That was the good news. The bad news is that the circumference of his head has expanded 1 centimeter. This is a strong indicator that hydrocephalus is setting in. They said there is a slight possibility that they could have measured inaccurately the last couple of days and the growth was a bit more gradual...but they know he is at 36 cm today. They will measure again tonight and see how much or how little it has grown and make a plan from there. If it grows too quickly...a shunt will be needed to drain the fluid. If this is the case, they would most likely put an external shunt in at first because of his size and then eventually switch it. I hope that is not the case...but we will see. There is also a chance that the fluid may stop building and no action would be needed so I will hope for that. They are happy that his pulse and breathing have been stable as an increase in fluid too suddenly could affect that. The doctors said if they see any fluctuation in that they would be more alarmed. It is all a waiting game. Of course, we were intending to go home tonight to sleep in our own bed but if he is misbehaving we will stay. They increased Owen's feedings to 25 cc's because he was keeping his food down. During the last feeding...he spit up. So we are keeping our fingers crossed he does not do it again. We have enough to worry about without worrying about his digestive tract.

So that is a quick note of our morning and I will be back later to tell you about our afternoon.