day 5

Thomas' bilirubin shot up yesterday evening and now he has bili-lights and a bili-blanket on him (complete with the awesome little sunglasses) to treat the jaundice. His number was still quite high this morning but they think that it should turn around pretty soon. This was kind of an expected complication and we were told early on that it was almost inevitable that he would get jaundiced at some point.

He also has some new problems with his right lung- the medical term escapes me- they are just trying to keep his right side elevated and doing percussion and frequent suctioning to try to keep it open and cleared. I don't think it's a major concern because they are continuing to do chest xrays just once a day and when he was sicker he was getting multiple chest xrays daily.

The really good news is that his oxygen sats and blood gasses are significantly improved today! The neonatologist was very pleased. This means his lungs are starting to heal and function better. She said that in a different baby they would start weaning off the vent pretty directly with these kinds of numbers, but because Thomas has been so very sick they are going to be more cautious. His vent has been turned down slightly and oxygen reduced to 97% from 100%. They'll follow up his labs this afternoon and hopefully he will tolerate the changes well.