Our Finley is 3 weeks old now and he has made some amazing progress! I had mentioned previously that he had a VSD (moderate size hole in his heart) but what I didn't mention was that his PDA was open. The PDA is an artery near the outside of the heart that is open while in utero but should close following birth. Fin's had not closed and it was affecting the efficiency of his heart and lungs. The plan was to go in today and surgically close the PDA and later asses the VSD. But, low and behold, following an echocardiogram yesterday it was discovered that his PDA was closed and the VSD is now miniscule. Our little man took care of it all by himself! Rick and I are so happy to have avoided yet another trip to the operating room and we're sure Fin is too!
With this change in his heart, the doctors are now able to begin to wean him down on his ventilator which is very positive. We are also now weaning him down on his pain medication and so far, he has tolerated it very well, no obvious negative effects. The surgery team is extremely pleased with his belly wound.... there is no infection, swelling is going down and it is healing nicely. They have placed a wound vac over the wound which basically speeds the healing process and skin growth by inviting cytokenes and other beneficial cells to the site in order to encourage healing. Our goal over the next 2-3 weeks is to have him off the ventilator, off the pain meds and the wound vac removed. We know better than to count on anything until it happens but we are hoping for this time frame. At that point, we should be able to finally hold him!
Some of the best news yet.... today our beautiful boy got his first taste of breast milk!! Well, he didn't get to actually taste it but his stomach did! As of this morning, he began receiving breast milk through a tube in his mouth down to his tummy. It's a continuous feed that amounts to 1 cc an hour. Not much, but they have to get his stomach primed to be sure he can tolerate it. So far so good! He did great all day, even passed gas several times which was music to my ears because it means things are moving along down there. They will slowly increase the amount as he can handle it. Mom has plenty of milk! :)
Overall, our little FIn is doing really well. Aside from a little scare when some fluid from his tube dumped into his lungs and he turned purple (I could live the rest of my life and never see THAT again thanks very much), he is doing well and taking some very positive steps forward. It's a slow process but Rick and I continue to take it day to day.... he continues to amaze us with his strength and his ability to heal. We are so ridiculously in love with our boy and we wish that we could be in the NICU every minute.... it's so hard to be away from him even for a few hours but we remind ourselves that he's in very good hands and he'll be home once he's ready.
Thanks everyone for all your love and support and kindness. It means everything to us! More updates soon... love to everyone!
xoxoxoxo Daria, Rick and Finley
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