| The NICU Experience | Aaron update 3 |
| Subject: Aaron update 3 Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2002 2:03 PM From: Kevin Quick To: Aaron Update List Hello everyone, Everything is still going fine. Kathleen and I arrived home last night for a couple of days of “normal” life. It’s a 3.5 hour drive from the hospital in San Francisco to our home. We had a good cry when we got home. Everything is going well. Still, this whole thing is just a little overwhelming for us. You know the things that are difficult for us, so I won’t reiterate them here. Fortunately, Kathleen and I are remaining very close and supportive thus far, and our communication has been open and heartfelt. I think maybe the Lord is preparing an even closer, deeper little family for Aaron to come home to. Thanks for keeping Kathleen and me in your prayers. We believe that in four months, we’ll be bringing our baby home, and will be looking back in awe at the way God has led and supported us. For now, though, we’re taking things day by day (Kathleen says second by second). We plan on going back to SF on Friday. Kathleen will probably stay there most of the time, while I travel back and forth more often. Aaron continues to do well. He had some mucus on his breathing tube today, so they took it out and replaced it with a clean one. While the tube was out, they let him breathe on his own for ten minutes. The doctor said he was thinking about leaving the tube out from now on, but Aaron was having a little trouble after 10 minutes, so he put the tube back in. We don’t need to rush things. They’ll be trying to put in a “central line” catheter again today. This “central line” is to replace the IV’s that Aaron currently has in his right arm. His IV’s have been moved from arm to arm, to foot to foot. The central line will last for weeks, and will not need to be moved from place to place. The outlet of the central line will be in a large vein near Aaron’s heart. This location will allow higher quantities and concentrations of fluids to be supplied to Aaron’s circulatory system, including saline solutions, antibiotics, glucose, proteins, etc. For example, the central line will allow for a 20% glucose solution, whereas a standard IV would only allow for a 10% solution. Sometime in the next few days, they will try feeding Aaron via a tube that they will place into his stomach. They’ll start with about 1 cc of Kathleen’s breast milk (colostrum, to start with) every two to three hours and see how he does. His digestive system hasn’t been up and running yet, so this will need to be a delicate start-up. If he does well, they’ll keep increasing the amounts of milk, so he’ll eventually be receiving most of his nutrition this way. I’ve attached a picture of Aaron’s palace. Even though I read the correct technical name of it somewhere yesterday, I still can’t remember what it is. It’s a very high-tech unit, anyway. The NICU (Neborn Intensive Care Unit) now has 4 of these units, each of them donated to the medical center by grateful parents and grandparents (isn’t that cool?). The abbreviations on Aaron’s name card are for birth date, birth weight and gestational age in weeks. That’s about it for now. Thanks for letting me tell you all about this stuff. It helps me process it all and put things into perspective. Lots of love, Kevin, Kathleen & Aaron |
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