Sugar and cream with your Dopamine?

Getting a phone call from the NICU is always a scary experience and it’s something you never really get accustomed to. I felt a little groggy this morning and was desperate for coffee, but as it turns out I didn't need it. The nurse practitioner informed us that Lana was having a rough night. Apparently she was getting agitated and would desaturate to 50% (SpO2) and took a while for her to settle down even after giving her 100% (FiO2) oxygen support. Furthermore, her mean arterial pressure (MAP) started to drop and thus they had to start pressor support with Dopamine. Without pressor support, she would lack organ perfusion. Not the ideal morning coffee, but this certainly gave us a jolt.

They performed another ECHO on her this morning, and her pulmonary pressures had increased again. This could possibly be due to her getting agitated, so her sedation medications were bumped up. Not to mention her getting all fussy likely worsened her pulmonary hypertension even more so. Later in the day, her pediatric cardiologist had suggested using Milrinone for pressor support instead of Dopamine. Some recent studies have shown that Milrinone can enhance the effect of Nitric Oxide in infants with PPHN. We’ll just keep praying that Lana will respond better. She seems to have found her happy spot for now, and hopefully she can just continue to rest. 

Just a thought, you know that you’re spending a lot of time in the NICU when other parents start asking “So how long have you worked here?”

Lana adding one more IV line to her growing collection. =(

Believe it or not, they actually added one more syringe pump after I took this photo.

As always, we would like to thank everyone for giving us moral support during these times. We are fortunate enough to be surrounded by amazing friends and family. We appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts.

Update: 23:00 (They had to make more adjustments to Lana's sedation because she seems to be gaining tolerance to them)