More problems

Brandon isn’t getting better quickly. Some things improve and some things stay the same. Although over time there is a little improvement, he doesn’t seem to make big leaps towards recovery. We keep hoping that he will reach a point where his recovery will take off.

We called yesterday morning to see how he was doing. We were told that the nurses couldn’t talk because “they were in the middle of a procedure”. This is a phrase you don’t want to hear as a parent of a baby in the NICU. The nurses often take care of two babies so we asked the receptionist if they were doing the procedure on Brandon. The answer was “I think so”.

More than an hour later, we learned what had happened. They had discovered through an X-Ray that he had a pocket of air between his lungs and the sack that surrounds the lungs. They surgically placed a tube into the area where the air was, so they can drain the air. The tube is still in place and it will drain any more air that leaks. Obviously this means there is a tear in his lungs. The doctors have told us that they will need to be careful with the settings on his ventilator but that the tear should heal on it’s own.

While it looks like everything will eventually get better, I feel so bad for Brandon. He just can’t seem to catch a break. He has a lot of personality, even with a tube down his throat, but he has been very sedated in the last couple of days. He is getting older and every time I look into his eyes I can see he just wants to get that tube out so he can be held and start learning to play.