Welcome to Tyler and Parker Thompson's Blog

Tyler and Parker Thompson arrived on June 23, 2008 at only 26 weeks and 4 days old, weighing 1 pound 6 ounces (Parker) and 1 pound 10 ounces (Tyler). Parker spent 129 days (home 10/30/08) in the NICU, while brother Tyler spent 143 (home 11/13/08). We are thrilled to have our family complete with both boys home!

This blog was created by John (the daddy) to inform family and friends (and now new acquaintances) of the twins progression. Below is the blog archive dating back to the week Heather (the mommy) was admitted to the hospital. We try to post weekly updates, but on occasion the week gets the best of us.




Wednesday, July 9, 2008

In a New York Minute

July 9 11pm

I will still never get used to how quickly something can change. During our visit today it seemed as if we may have strung together two good days in a row. Tyler seemed to be doing very well. He is now up to 12 ml on his feeding. His stats keep fluctuating, but nothing outside of his usual parameters. He was doing well. Parker had been fluctuating quite a bit more. Still struggling, even though the anti-biotics seem to be working. His fluctuations were more extreme then usual and his necessary oxygen input higher than normal, but he still seemed like he was doing okay. Then it happened again, but this time was much worse. Two days ago I described the episode where Parker desatted. To desat means the saturation of oxygen in his blood goes down. The sat (or saturation rate) should be in the upper 80's to low 90's. Two days ago he desatted down to 24 which means there was only 24% oxygen saturation rate in his blood.....critically low. Our nurse, Allison, quickly brought him back up. The experience seemed to last forever and was horrible. Today was worse. He was doing fine, when out of nowhere it dropped like a rock. 50's....then 40's.....then 20's......in less than a minute he was down to 5......yes 5.......he turned a terrifiying purple color and for the first time (even though she covered it well) I saw true worry in Allison. He dropped like a rock and stayed there. She cranked his oxygen input up to 100%......there is nowhere to go above that......yet still Parker didn't recover. He remained a deep purple as she went through everything she could......clearing his air line, his airway checking everything that could be checked.....still no response.....then she reached for the bag to begin "bagging" him as she called the doctor for help. She had run out of options of things she could do and he was still purple. All we could do is watch. The doctor was coming and Allison continued to make adjustments......then as suddenly as he dropped he simply started recovering..... Not very quickly though.....by the time the doctor arrived he was up to 50(still a very scary number, but better than 5) but had seemingly leveled off. As they spoke about what to do he slowly creeped back up and finally arrived back into the 70's. Why???????? Welcome to the unknown roller coaster of the NICU. There are theories.......they did an x-ray......they took more blood for more tests......but the bottom line is they really may never know. I thought 24 was bad. 5 and a purple baby boy less than 2 pounds is something I can really do without ever seeing again. During our late night phone call, he seemed to have recovered and had settled in. He is still fluctuated quite a bit, but they said nothing like today's scare. Here's hoping for consistency.

3 comments:

Uncle Dick said...

God, that scared the hell out of me just reading it. I can't imagine what you guys must have gone through. I will keep my fingers crossed and the prayers flowing for both Tyler and Parker (especialy Parker right now). Be sure to take care of each other too. You know, lots of sleep, lots of water, lots of ... oh yes, that's for a cold. Well you know. You've been doing a great job of it already.
Will be thinking of you all!

Love, Uncle Dick

Ashley said...

I'm sorry that you're both having to watch your baby boys go through all these things. I hope that tests result in answers and that Parker never has this happen again. Sending lots of love your way.

Ashley

Natalia said...

Yikes!
OK Parker no more dramatics. Your parents don't find it funny.
As always, sending positive thoughts your way.
Love, Natalia