Murmur

So we have a few updates for the day...

First, the murmur is still present. That means surgery. We are waiting for the doctor to come talk to us and get the details from her.

He also has what's called a PIE, which is Pulmonary Interstitial Emphysema. Basically, because air is being forced into his lungs with this ventilator, it can sometimes force the fragile branches to break which causes air to leak behind the lungs. It's pretty dangerous, and it means that the healed wound will be scarred so he will likely suffer from some form of lung disease later. The treatment is to allow it time to heal by gently ventilating him. So keep your fingers crossed that heals up. X-Ray still shows it at this time.

The other thing worth mentioning is they found he is Coombs positive. Meaning while he was in utero, his blood mixed with mine and my cells attacked his. It happens most often with type O moms and Type A babies. It means he's predispositioned to having a higher bilirubin, so they are watching that closely.

The chaplain came by to say a prayer with me and offer communion. It reminds me that with prayer, anything is possible. Please keep us in your thoughts.

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Wrap up - January 14

Just left from saying goodnight to Biggun. He got a little excited with us being there and dramatically lost his oxygen, so we left him to sleep.

He moved down from 48 oxygen to 36, which was a great improvement. Still has a murmur and they did a chest xray that they will have the results on tomorrow.

It's looking more and more like surgery will be the likely outcome. So pray for our little guy to be safe! His eyes opened while we were there and his stats seem to be stabilizing.

Thank you for the prayers!

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Shopper's Donations

Hey guys... I wanted to post this out there for people who read the blog.

Some of the people in our local area have been kind enough to set up a site where 25% or more of the proceeds from their sales will go to Biggun's financial costs. This is a huge deal for us as we are working on making our financial situation work.

Whether you are in the local area or not, they have plenty of web-based sales on a variety of products, and you can see from the facebook page what % will go to donations. So if it's something you would normally buy, you might check it out since part of the amount will go towards our costs here.

Thank you for the out pouring of support and love we have received. It's moments like this when I realize how very much prayer and human kindness can change someone's life. You have all changed mine by caring so much about my son, and I cannot express how much that means to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your love.

The site is: Joshua "Biggun" Keslar Shopper's Donations

Thank you to Amanda Samford for getting this set up for us.

Here is the link on Amanda's website as well, which discusses what the facebook group does - Amanda Samford - Community Support for Baby Keslar

Check it out and tell us what you think!

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Nana hands

Had to post a picture of his Nana giving him love. She's been so hesitant to touch him, afraid she will hurt him. It was a big step for her to touch him!

Blood Pressure (and other stuff)

Update this morning...

Biggun is having another rough day. The nurse let me know that this isn't unexpected and they are prepared for this, but it still troubles us to see little JD in distress.

His Oscillator settings had to be increased again and he's now on 48% oxygen. They can't physically hear for the murmur with him on this specific machine, so they have to do it based on the blood pressure. Right now his systolic and diastolic pressure has a huge gap. I didn't know much about this, so here's a brief explanation.
The systolic and diastolic pressures are used to determine the "maximum" and "minimum" flow. Systolic is the maximum flow of blood pressure as it travels through the body and the diastolic is the minimum pressure of blood. So when they look at his systolic pressure versus his diastolic, the gap between the two is large. Right now, it varies, but say for instance it was 48/19 - They would look at the gap between the two numbers and how large it is to determine whether he still has a murmur. Anything greater than 25 is what they look for on a murmur.

They were able to ween down on the dopamine, which is great. And his fluid intake looks good as well. The nurse also told me a fun fact - the oscillator machine was designed by a doctor who saw his dog panting and wondered how he was able to do that and not fall over. It was found that the sharp intake of breath repeatedly was beneficial to premature lung development and they use it to simulate the way a dog pants to promote lung health. I thought that was a cute fact.. So next time you look at your dog, know that they inspired a major advancement in medical science!

Right now, Biggun is expected to have ups and downs. Today is a down day, and his stats are looking pretty dismal. We are hopeful that he will bounce back, and they are going to do another round of Indocin to see if they can get that flap closed, but it's looking more and more like Biggun is going to have heart surgery to resolve the flap issue. Keep your fingers crossed and us in your prayers that it isn't necessary.

Thank you for the love and support. We were recently able to pay for our stay here for another two weeks because of the generosity of some people out there, and I cannot even begin to express how thankful we are to you for allowing us to do that. We are stronger because of the people who stand with us.

Please keep the prayers coming!

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Day Wrap Up

Today was a rough day for Biggun. They confirmed the intraventricular hemhorrage level II officially and the doctor informed us they are continuing the Indocin to see if that finishes closing up the PDA. They monitor the bleed by doing measurements of head circumfrence for variations in head size.

He got another blood transfusion to work out the issue with his blood pressure, and his fluids are up a little, so they are giving him caffeine to try to get some of the liquid out. That one struck me as a little strange... Biggun being on morphine (to help keep him still on the ventilator), caffeine (but not the great Coka Cola kind) and Ativan (also to keep him calm, but not in a groovy way).

They went up again on the rate of his breathing on the ventilator. I'm not sure how much more they can go up with that. He'll get checked repeatedly through the night on his murmur to see where that is.

So keep your prayers in. I am hoping tomorrow morning fares better than this morning did, but if not, we'll come prepared.

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

intraventricular hemorrhage level 2

When we came in, Biggun was back on the oscillator vent. He was given triple the dopamine for his size that he should have received, and he has a intraventricular hemorrhage level 2 bleed on his right ventricle.

We have a lot of unanswered questions right now, but please send us your prayers. They cant do anything about the bleed, and we hope it just goes away. We will not know long term effects until he hits developmental milestones.

Please send prayers

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua