One Month Old Today!!!

Juliana is one month old today. The last couple of weeks have been very eventful. On Sunday, August 3, Juliana went in for surgery to have an abscess removed from her stomach. She handled it very well and recovery has been fine. The doctors cultured the abscess to see what she was growing and it turns out to be three different types of bacteria and a fungus. So she is still on Meropenem (antibiotic) and is also getting Fluconazle (diflucan) for the fungus. Her belly which was once very blue and firm is looking great. The color is back to normal and her incision is healing well. There is a drain tube to ensure that the abscess drains completely which is already starting to push out. As the wound heals it will gradually push the tube out.

Now back to the lung issues. It seemed for a few days that we were doing pretty well. She was slowly being weaned on her ventilator settings. Her oxygen requirement was down to somewhere between 35 and 45 percent (normal ambient air is 21 percent oxygen). Now she has a collapse in her right lung and BPD (Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia) in her left lung. The battle right now is how to treat both symptoms without making the other worse. As of last night she was in about 75 percent oxygen and requiring a bit more pressure. Just when it seems like things are getting better we take two steps back, but Juliana is a fighter. She has fought her way to one month and will continue to fight. Please keep praying for her recovery.