Tuesday

I had a very informative meeting with the Pulmonologist, Dr. McNamara. He explained to me that Brody has a prime example of what they are calling the new BPD. Bronchio Pulmonary Displaysia is the term for the chronic lung disease that premature babies deal with. The doctors have learned all the ins and outs of BPD from 27-32 weekers. Until recently, they were unable to save the younger kids. So, as they have been able to save the younger kids and they are now seeing them develop, they are seeing a new form of BPD. In the old BPD, kids had enough time to develop their aveolia, or air sacs, and had surfactant in utero. The damage in these kids occurred from being on ventilators. With the micro-preemies, aged younger than 26 weeks, the alveolar development is not started yet and occurs outside the womb. As a result, instead of normal grape-like clusters of air sacs, Brody has large open white spaces, or undeveloped aveoli. There is a whole lot more to it, but basically he has no reserves. He will develop new lung tissue until he is three, so it should get better, but he will probably have more problems. The doctor was not surprised that he got this sick. He was more impressed that he was as well as he was for as long as he was. Kind of sobering information, but it explains more about why his body didn't handle the infection. And also, it explains why he is in a holding pattern. We were hoping to be out of here sooner rather than later,but Dr. McNamara said we aren't getting out of here any time soon. He said to plan for a seige. At least another couple of weeks.