Ups and Downs

After progressing by leaps and bounds over the past several days, Emma seems to be having a bit more trouble today. She's needed extra oxygen during her feeds as she's had more frequent/notable desaturations and did not tolerate her iron medication (she had a Big Ugly spell afterwards). After much discussion, the team has decided to stop the iron supplementation for a while and will check her hemoglobin levels next week to make sure she isn't becoming anemic again.

Emma also had another eye exam and it would appear that the retinopathy has not progressed since last week. The specialist will come back again next week to monitor the situation. While the lack of progression is definitely good news, we can't yet tell whether or not she will have significant vision impairment in the future...it is just too early to say (though he did predict that she will likely be myopic and need glasses).

The other not-so-good news is that Emma did not receive a "pass" on her hearing test today. This was a second-level screening assessment that is a bit more detailed than the standard hearing test given to all babies before they leave hospital. The test can't discern the extent of her hearing impairment, only that she did not adequately hear the frequency/tone used in today's test, so we will have another more detailed assessment at CHEO in a month or so.

The nurses tried to reassure me that what Emma is experiencing today is completely "normal" for a 24-weeker, but it is still hard not to see these events as setbacks. I guess it is another example of the "one step forward, two steps back" reality that we've come to expect in the NICU.