Since she's come home from the hospital, Olivia has been on a nasogastric (ng) tube for feedings. She's been going to an occupational therapist every week to work on her suck/swallow coordination to drink correctly. She took another x-ray and did another swallow study to see how she was progressing. Turns out that she no longer had a collapsed lung since we did all respiratory therapy at home (yay!) and also didn't inhale liquids if they were thickened and sucked through a slow flow nipple. Basically, she was ok with those because she hardly got anything out of the bottle, but (and it's a big but) the little she did get, she was managing juuuust fine!
The therapist says volume isn't the key here - its how well she drinks the little she gets. Good thing because she currently only is able to suck out about 2 ml only! That's like a drop or two for you and me. But quality over quantity.
The bad news is the tube stays in. For an indefinite period. It is so hard to say how long it will be only because she is currently taking 75ml every three hours by tube and needs to work up to that amount by mouth. We got a long way to go.
This situation isn't the ideal. It's so hard, emotionally and physically. People say having two, it must be so hard, and it is. But having one with such problems is even harder. But then again, look at where we started. They were tiny little things, 3 lbs each and we just hoped they survived. God truly wanted us to have these miracle babies so he's helped them come so far.
We've been praying for Olivia to get better for a long time. She just needs love and support, and slowly but surely, she'll get there.
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