Heart Surgery?

Adam's lungs still aren't fixing themselves.  It's even possible that he never had pneumonia and that the lung dysfunction is due to both the under-development of his lungs due to his prematurity and the growth restriction, and too much blood flowing to his lungs, producing irritation and inflammation.  Too much blood is flowing to his lungs because a blood vessel near the top of his heart that normally closes off at birth hasn't in his case - he has a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).  This will probably close off on its own in due course, but in the mean time, the lung damage might be too severe.  The solution would be to have surgery to clip off this vessel.  This is specialist surgery so would have to be done at Great Ormond Street Hospital, so Adam would be transferred there for a night. This might happen in the early part of next week, or earlier if GOSH have space before then.  The thought of his having such a procedure is so scary, though, clearly, if it sorts him out, then it's worth it.  I don't know yet what are the risks to him of having surgery.  He is so very small and fragile that I can't believe it won't be pretty dangerous.

Adam at 29 + 4 weeks (13 days old)

On the up side, Adam just gets more and more engaging.  He has his eyes really properly open now and looks around (or seems to - who knows what he can actually see!).  He'll also grasp a finger if you put it in his palm and he's still waving his arms and legs around and doing plenty of wriggling.  I've now changed his nappy (with a lot of assistance and reassurance from the nurses) a couple of times and taken his temperature.  As we get to know him better and he starts to feel more and more like our wee son, it's so much more emotional just watching him being so small and vulnerable.  I want to be able to pick him up, cuddle him and make everything OK, but we're a long way off that.  Instead we have to tear ourselves away, say goodbye, leave him in his incubator and come home without him.