Nathan's First Big Challenge
Up until now Nathan has faced the usual challenges of a preemie - namely, being early. He's had to breathe on his own, learn to digest food, gain weight so he can regulate his own body temperature - all things that Mom would still be doing for him if he were in utero. Amazingly, he's been developing these skills quite well. The doctors have also been monitoring his heart to make sure the blood vessel that is open in all babies when they are born closes properly.
On Tuesday afternoon the sound of his heart murmur changed so they ordered a heart echo. The echo done Wednesday afternoon showed that the vessel had not yet closed and that Nathan has a small blood clot in the right atrium of his heart. This was likely caused by his belly button catheter (which provided extra nutrition and fluids while he was learning to digest breast milk) irritating the wall of the atrium. Nathan's temperature was also high yesterday (Wednesday) and today the doctors are calling it a fever. His white blood cell count looks good and there are no signs of infection, but they have him on an antibiotic as they continue to do lab work to make sure he is infection free.
We have a meeting with the doctors this afternoon, but at the moment our understanding is that they see the clot as something to address so that it does not become a problem, rather than something that is already a problem. Because Nathan has shown no signs of distress - he continues to breath on his own, eat well and complain when the nurses bother him - they believe the blood vessel in the heart can continue to be monitored with the hope that it will still close on its own. And they are checking for infection.
Needless to say, especially after Nathan was doing so well, this is very scary.