Day 64 of Life - August 21st

So, it's confirmed...little Sha is scheduled for eye surgery tomorrow at 12:00 to treat his retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). They will have to reintubate him for this surgery and take him to the operating room. Basically, ROP is the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the eye and to treat this, the physician "zaps" the areas of the retina with a laser that do not have blood vessels. This slows down the growth of the abnormal blood vessels and hopefully, will stop the progression of the disease. However, with this treatment, there is some damage to the peripheral (side) vision, but without the treatment, blindness could result. So, the little one will likely have to wear glasses, but considering the alternative.... Ma has also given permission for the physician to use cryotherapy, in case the laser goes down (although this has never happened). With cryotherapy, the physcian touches a tool that causes freezing temperatures to the retina. I will update the blog tomorrow as soon as I have word about the surgery.

As for feeds, the "famished one" has almost made it through Ma's reserve of breastmilk. She figures that there is only about 2 days left in the freezer. After he goes through that, he will get the milk that Ma pumps daily, plus he'll be supplemented with formula. He is also receiving his feeds by pump now. Before, the nurses would manually push the feed through a syringe into his feeding tube. However, he continued to have small regurgitations so they have switched him to pump feeds, which give the feed more slowly (over 45 minutes). He seems to be handling this better.

Sha has been on LFO since approximatley 4:00 am today. He was on the Aladdin and choked, decreasing his heart rate and making breathing very difficult. So the staff had to "bag" him (manually breathing) for 2 minutes, until he got in control again. After that "episode", they decided to put him on LFO, which he has been on ever since...and seems to be doing well.

Other than that, nothing to report. Ma and I went shopping after I got off work and we picked him up a new crib attachment for in the NICU. He really enjoys his aquarium, but it doesn't play music anymore. So, Ma bought a Winnie the Pooh light that plays music, has moving lights, and also projects rotating objects onto the ceiling. Already, Sha is learning to share, becuase I'm sure the his neighbours will enjoy the light on the ceiling!!!