Week 2: The Rollercoaster

So, everything everyone says about the NICU rollercoaster is true.  As of my last update, Clark was just trucking along.  Then, last week he got a big nasty infection caused by a gram-negative bacteria called pseudomonas.  “One of the worst bugs our there” according to his doctor.  The day after that, his PICC line malfunctioned and all of the fluids going into it leaked into the area around his lung sending his blood pressure and oxygenation into a tail spin.

The pseudomonas literally had him on the brink of life and death.  He was unresponsive for quite some time and having seizures.  Needless to say, I didn’t sleep or eat much last week.  They were able to drain the area around his lung and his oxygen saturation and blood pressure have greatly improved.  As of the last culture, there was no evidence of the pseudomonas, but he will continue antibiotic therapy for at least a couple weeks.

He became so swollen because they had to pump him full of fluids so his blood pressure would come up.   He is slowly eliminating those fluids, but it might take awhile.  We just got news that his new PICC line was placed, and he apparently tolerated the procedure well.  The biggest deal now is for him to be able to rest, not get any new infections, have a good PICC line…etc etc etc.

As I’ve been telling everyone in person, we need every prayer we can get.  This is a scary, bumpy ride.

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