Extra Prayers Needed!

Our little Lauren has turned from the healthiest of our trio to now probably the most critical any of them have ever been. She has been diagnosed with a very serious infection of the intestines called Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC). During our visit Saturday night we noticed that Lauren was not acting at all like herself. She was very lethargic and just didn't look right. We let her nurse know but her blood levels had recently been checked and came back fine so they just figured she was having an off day. Later that evening, we were in the level 3 NICU visiting the boys and we got a call saying Lauren was throwing up and so they were going to stop her feedings and draw her blood again. The blood test came back negative for infection but they decided to discontinue her feedings for the remainder of the night. We were told that she was probably fine and that her tummy more than likely just needed a break. However at 4:30am we got a call from the hospital saying that Lauren was really acting very sick and was having a lot of apnea spells (where she stops breathing) and they needed our consent to perform a spinal tap. They also took an X-Ray of her belly and that's when they saw the problem. Lauren was started on 3 very strong antibiotics and will have her feedings stopped for a minimum of 10 days. She was also given 2 blood transfusions and gets X-rays every couple of hours. When we got to the hospital this morning she had been stuck for IV's 8 times, had a spinal tap, had her blood drawn from her heel several times, was put on oxygen, taken out of her cozy isolette and moved to an open bed, and was left with an IV in her head and one in her arm.

These next few hours/days are extremely critical for Lauren. Hopefully the antibiotics will work and the problem will clear up without damaging her intestines at all, saving her from surgery. We had a consult with a pediatric surgeon tonight who said that if surgery is necessary, hopefully it can be postponed long enough for them to figure out what part of the intestines are the most damaged and would need to be removed. Otherwise they go in and aren't always successful in saving enough of the gut needed for survival. Lauren's last X-ray was at 8pm and showed some improvement. The neonatologist said that although we were no where close to being out of the woods, it was encouraging that the condition was responding to the first few rounds of antibiotics.

The good news for the weekend...Logan and Lathan are both doing very well, are CPAP free and were graduated today to the Level 2 NICU...YIPPEE!!!