NICU Diary Day 40

Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Another busy day in the NICU… The morning nurse told Mommy that I “got up on the wrong side of the crib!” I was really fussy, so she worked on helping me suck on a pacifier before Mommy came to see me.

Mommy spent the morning researching insurance needs and filling out applications. She says that I am a very complicated little man! She felt much better after she got to the hospital to see me today. She held me for a couple hours while I ate lunch and breathed all by myself off the ventilator. I felt so good in Mommy’s arms that I slept almost the whole two hours while she rubbed my back and shoulders and played with my chubby feet.

This afternoon the audiologists came by to give me my first hearing test. The test is called B.E.A.R.S. and is done by putting little electrodes on the top and sides of my head. They also inserted something in my right inner ear canal. The audiologist said that I have normal or almost normal hearing in my right ear. YEAH!!!!!!! She said that I may have trouble hearing some softer sounds but any hearing loss is very slight.

My left side is a bit trickier. Since I don’t have an outer ear, the audiologists needed to use a special bone conduction device. Unfortunately, they couldn’t perform the test because my NICU room is too noisy. I am going to have a follow-up B.E.A.R.S. test in about a month. That should be interesting because I have to be asleep for it. If the hearing on my right side remains within normal range, I will probably not be prescribed a hearing aid.

The neonatal docs have been giving Mommy and Daddy a lot more updates over the last couple of days. Based on the orthopedics meeting yesterday, they decided that I will be getting another set of X-rays done on my vertebrae in a couple of weeks.

Mommy and Daddy changed my trach tube tonight. They are getting better but still have to think everything through quite a bit. My trach has to be changed once a week and this was the first time Mommy and Daddy changed it without any help. There was a minor slip up when my trach came out a little sooner than they intended. They got the new one in pretty quick though, and I felt like a new man!

Daddy held me for a long time tonight while I had dinner and went off the ventilator. I REALLY liked being out of my ortho brace, and I’m starting to get mad when I have to go back in it, especially since I don’t have a bigger one yet. I wish Mommy and Daddy could hold me 24 hours a day!