March 4, 2007

We sent this e-mail message out:

Michael is 2 weeks old today!!! The picture is not very clear, but you can see how tiny he is compared to the nurses hands (she was giving him a clean diper)

This week was a little hard on him. He had trouble breathing. After removing the original lifeline they applied to the umbilical cord, they placed one into his foot. After a day or so, his leg started to puff up which meant the line wasn't working. So, they had to put it in surgically into his neck which marks his first surgery on Friday. On Saturday they found out that the PDA (normal hole in heart for a fetus before birth), which was believed to be closed up on earlier, had not closed up after all. They are now trying to treat it again with medication to induce it to close, but if that doesn't work by Monday, he might need heart surgery to close the PDA. Let's hope it closes up before that! He is also on blood pressure medication. If the PDA closes up, his blood pressure will be better, his breathing will be better and he will be able to start getting fed and grow. There is good news: all of these are treatable.

We will let you know how it goes in a few days.