Wednesday, April 6th

Brody is doing well today. He had another blood transfusion yesterday. The inflammation going along with his lung disease is still ramping up, so he is requiring more oxygen than before. This was described to us as typical for this stage of his journey. Hopefully it will start to clear up in another week or so. He is getting an inhaler treatment similar to what asthmatics would receive. This is because the air from the ventilator doesn't seem to be getting into his lungs as deeply as the doctors would like to see. Brody's blood sugars have been high, so he is getting insulin.

Brody has developed a hernia. In premies, because they are not supposed to be pooping yet, their little bodies aren't supposed to be bearing down. So part of his small intestine is protruding. Right now, the small intestine can be gently pushed back to where it is supposed to go. The hernia will not cause Brody any problems as long as it can be pushed back. It is possible that the small intestine could get stuck and cause bowel obstruction, in which case it would be more urgent to get it surgically repaired. Either way, the hernia needs to be surgically repaired, but the plan would be to do it later. Depending on how he is doing with all of the other health challenges, it might be repaired before he goes home. The hospital would need to arrange for a pediatric surgeon to come up from Minneapolis who would be willing to operate on such a small baby. Otherwise, we may need to go down within a week of him coming home. Normally, it is an outpatient procedure, but he would likely be held overnight for observation since he is so small.