It’s Bad, it’s Okay, it’s Bad, it’s Okay
NICU 5
Grabby boy got a sock on his hand
Day 7
Gestation 24 weeks
Good timing again, we came in just as the ultrasound was about to start.
Heart first, the pda valve is nearly closed at about .5mm wide. There is not much blood flowing through it, they will stop the drugs and it should finish closing.
Onto the brain scan, a radiologist had taken images earlier and now the doctor is having his own look. There is a minor bleed. It’s a grade 2 IVH, intra ventricular hemorrhage. There are two small bleeds in the space that contains cerebral spinal fluid.
The Dr. drew a picture to explain, he said because he is almost a week old it will not worsen. It is likely stable and wont change for weeks. It should naturally reabsorb into the body with no long term effects. But then goes on to say never say never.
They will scan again in a week to check the ventricles are not swelling. If the blood travels it could also block a vessel in the outbound flow which would be problematic.
The images that were taken are not the best and he wants to have a further conversation with the radiologist. Another “wait, what?” moment.
The conversation went up, then went down and then up and then down. I caught Lees eye and he could see I was on the verge of tears. I’m trying to follow along with all these terms and there is an okay vibe and then a worst case scenario. I don’t really understand the news and how I should be reacting. It is going to be something massive or is this a microprem thing? My brain is panicking on which path to even go down. It’s bad, it’s okay, it’s bad, it’s okay.
In pops our favourite doctor, the optimist and he quietly listens in to the end of the conversation. Then says “oh that’s it” and we just felt the biggest relief, okay now I know which side of the news I’m going to sit with. He goes further to say that Kayden is doing amazing for his gestation. Although he doesn’t know he is actually a 22 weeker, so that means really amazing, right? All the doctors head off and Lee and I have a little chat, we are feeling better now but still cautious about the news of a grade 2 brain bleed.
Then doctor optimistic pops in again, he had a look at the radiologist images and believes it is minor. Another big sigh of relief for us. He said it could even be a cluster of veins and not loose blood showing in the image.
Lee and I were pretty impressed that he went off to have his own look and came right back.
Next I’ll be needing my heart scanned from all these scares!