Today was good day for Ava. She was at 9.5ml of milk today, then at 9:30pm she went up to 10ml of food. They are all very excited to have her doing so well on her feedings. Her settings went down again today and she was at 60% O2. The nurse told me that the her alarms that go off when her settings are low, barely went off today. Her PIC line is probably going to come out tomorrow. That line goes up her arm to her heart and they won't need it anymore. The other good news is that the nurse that watches Ava has another baby in the room. Usually a nurse would just have Ava.
The nurse asked me tonight if I noticed how positive everyone was being about Ava. I said I had. I guess they decided to come over on my side. ;) She also told me that it will be so important to have Ali and Ari wash their hands when Ava gets home. They can also never kiss her on the lips. She told me that there is a medication that preemies can take that can limit their chances of getting RSV: Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, or RSV, is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. Most otherwise healthy people recover from RSV infection in 1 to 2 weeks. However, infection can be severe in some people, such as certain infants, young children, and older adults. In fact, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age in the United States. This is what they are most concerned about Ava getting. IF Ava can get this drug, which cost $1,500 a dose, and most insurances fight about it, she will only have a 2% chance of getting RSV. The other thing I plan on doing for her to keep her from getting sick is to breast feed past her second winter and that will also limit sickness as well. We also can't let people touch her. Thank goodness the girls aren't in school either which will help our family limit sickness.
I put in a picture of Ali and Ari in Ava's incubator tonight so she can look at them. The girls were really excited to hear that.
The nurse practitioner told me that they are going to wait on the steroids as long as they can. I found out that they can even effect how she eats and how her stomach digests. When I left I said to the night nurse that she's protected by God. Amazing Ava is protected by God. AMEN!
It's good to hear that little Ava is progressing well. Yes, you will need to be vigilant about having people wash their hands and stay away if they are sick. Once people unerstand the reasons for the extra precautions, they're usually quite good about following the rules. Big sisters can be big helpers, too.
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