Teddy has decided he wants to give us premature gray hair to go with his love for all things premature.
Today was supposed to be a regular weight check because Teddy doesn't like to eat as much as he should. We have been trialing straight breastmilk for the past couple of weeks instead of fortifying with formula in an effort to get him to eat enough to gain weight. It should have been a quick in and out visit. But over the past few days I've noticed him retracting slightly harder than he usually does. In normal babies, retractions are cause for immediate ER trips and hospitalization. Teddy has had retractions since day one thanks to his Chronic Lung Disease in Infancy, so his pediatrician just has us alert for if they get to a point that's not normal for him. His retractions weren't overtly stronger but for peace of mind we decided to mention it to Dr Wiltse. She of course agreed that it was worth a look over, and since he seemed to be retracting harder than normal to her too, she listened to his lungs and decided to check his pulse ox and do a nebulizer. After a super fun pulse ox reading of 87% and a round of albuterol, he had another reading of 93%. Woohoo no hospital visit just yet. She sent him home with albuterol for the next couple days and said she would be reaching out to Children's pulmonology tonight if possible to see if they wanted to see him or wanted him on steroids.
Well, they will be seeing him sometime in the next week AND he will be starting a daily steroid in addition to a couple days of albuterol. They said they probably should have been seeing him the whole time, that they aren't surprised he has been having trouble with fortified feedings, and that based on his NICU lung xrays they are surprised and impressed he seems to be doing so well with his CLD. So I guess that's good at least. You can take the micropreemie out of the NICU, but you can't take the NICU naughty out of the micropreemie.