Getting through a scare

First things first: Camilla is doing much better, but she gave us a scare this week. When we arrived on Wednesday at noon, Camilla couldn't have been doing better. She was alert and chipper and the doctors were complimenting her on how well she was doing. However through the course of the afternoon she started to show signs of distress, subtle at first, but then getting worse and worse. The doctors ordered a battery of tests including x-rays of her chest and abdomen, bloodwork to check for infection of various kinds, and even a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. By the time the nurses were doing these various tests, Camilla was so sick that she didn't protest in the least--didn't cry, didn't even squirm when they were drawing the blood. That was probably the scariest moment for me--seeing how sick and unresponsive she had become in such a short period of time, and that she kept going down. I'm grateful that I was there throughout this whole time, and that Bill was able to get to the hospital very quickly from work so that we were together with her for all of the procedures.

Thankfully, the nurses and doctors were so attentive to those first small changes in Camilla's behavior that they were working as fast as was humanly possible to find out what was really going on and to treat it. I have only the highest praise and respect for all of the nurses and doctors in the NICU and the way they took care of Camilla (and of me and Bill) with speed as well as with great compassion.

Once the tests were done they started her immediately on antibiotics, and after that Camilla started to show signs of improvement. We found out very quickly that it was almost certainly NOT meningitis, and then her blood culture came back positive, probably a staph infection. This is the most common infection in the NICU--it's a bacteria that lives on our skin, and she was susceptible to getting the infection because she has an IV in her arm, giving the bacteria a way to get inside. The antibiotics are very effective in treating this kind of infection, so she's already on her way. Through the rest of Wednesday night and the day Thursday she gradually improved, showing more signs of her usual spunk and movement and alertness. She's looking more and more like herself, and hopefully she'll be all the way back by the time we go in to see her today.

One other result of trying to figure out what was making her so sick was increased attention to the duct just outside of her heart which is still open. Camilla had another echocardiogram yesterday, and her doctors are consulting with a surgeon and a cardiologist today to discuss the possibility of surgically closing the duct. It looks very likely that she'll need to have that done, probably next week after she's through the worst of the infection. This is something we were really hoping to avoid. As far as surgeries go, it's very routine and babies tend to recover from it very well, but it is still surgery--including the need for intubation and general anesthesia. It would also mean another temporary setback for Camilla's progress, though a permanent step forward. Please do keep praying for her: for full strength and health after this infection, for the duct to close, but if it doesn't, that she would come through the surgery well.