More progress and more comfortable

We're happy to report that Morgan continues to head in the right direction. The doctors decided to treat her patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) with indomethacin yesterday and so far it appears to be helping. Since starting the three-dose treatment she is making excellent progress with the ventilator. After spending several days needing 80% oxygen, this afternoon she was down to 30-40% oxygen as well as lower pressure and frequency settings. The goal is to get down to 21% (the same as regular room air) with minimum support from the ventilator at which point they will try to wean her off of it completely.

Despite the obvious progress, we won't know for sure if the medicine has fully closed the artery until we get the results of another EKG. This should come in the next day or two.

With the the improvement on the ventilator and the fact that she is no longer on all the medications that she needed last week, the nurses seem to have a little more flexibility to move her around and find the most comfortable position for her. Apparently she favors lying on her tummy. It was definitely a nice surprise to see her lying that way. We both enjoyed seeing her looking a little less like a patient and more like just a baby, with most of the wires and sensors hidden beneath her.


We also have another milestone in sight. The nurse explained that if Morgan continues to progress as well as she has we should be able to begin "Kangaroo Care" soon. In short, we would be able to hold her on our chests for an extended period of time. If all goes well this could be an option as early as next week. And there is no question that we are both very excited and hopeful she will make the necessary progress quickly.