ANOTHER DIP ON THE ROLLER COASTER

I remember visiting Maxwell in the NICU that first day and being told by the nurses, as well as fellow parents, that life in the NICU was very much like a roller coaster. Nothing could be a better description! There are many up and down days...you will be coasting along for awhile...feeling very good about your baby's stability... and then suddenly the bottom drops out, you receive a horrible update and you are speeding downwards. Then gradually you start climbing up the hill and experience some welcome relief...but then sure enough you go back down again. Some hills are gradual, some dropoffs are VERY steep. Such is life in the ICU.

And unfortunately today is one of the downhill days. Max had a period of several good days and they were hoping that he would soon be able to transfer to the lower level unit. However, today his heart failure is rearing its ugly head. They are increasing his meds and hoping that can help. What happens is that his large (everyone always says, wow, that is a very large VSD...listen to that murmur!) VSD (hole in the heart) moves blood around to the wrong places and therefore the lungs have to work extra hard to move around the oxygen. Sure enough today he is breathing extremely hard and his chest xray shows that his lungs are extra "wet". I'll keep you posted.

On a lighter note, Max is looking super cute today...one of the nurses put a little pug stuffed animal in his arms and they are swaddled together looking adorable!