ROP treatment cont.

Oliver received an injection of Avastin in his right eye on Monday.  As of yesterday, it had not shown any progress.  The eye surgeon, Dr Oliver, called last night to let us know that if there was still no progress today, he would take Oliver directly into surgery.  Much to our relief, his right eye showed quite a bit of improvement!  So today he received the injection into his left eye.  They will continue to be monitored daily to check on the progress.  Once progress stops, or even just slows down, Oliver will need laser surgery to preserve his vision.  It will destroy any potential for peripheral vision, but not doing surgery puts him at a 30% chance for completely going blind.  We're more than willing to sacrifice his periphery.

Sleepy baby after a rough day





Oliver also had an echocardiogram today.  When Oliver was born, we were asked to take part in a lung and heart study for preemies.  Since the information obtained could have helped Oliver had the study been completed before, and since it did not involve any extra invasive tests, we agreed.  UCH is actually trying to determine if genetics can determine how badly lung and heart function will be affected by prematurity.  They took a dna sampling from both David and I, have and will continue to monitor Oliver's condition throughout his NICU stay, and will do a few follow-ups once he's discharged for a couple of years.  I would have preferred that the echo not be done today, and it's already been a rough one for him, but with the holiday, today was it for him to remain in the study.  He had morphine for the eye injection, so he'll most likely sleep through it, anyway.

On a completely separate note, how cute is this kid?

David took Nathaniel to the park while I was with Oliver at the hospital.  On my drive home I asked David if they had left the park for Nathaniel's nap yet, and he said that he kept asking Nat if he was ready to go home, and Nat kept saying no.  If you ask Nathaniel, the answer to that question, while at the park, is NEVER going to be yes.  Every single exit from the park results in a complete and total meltdown.  Luckily, this kid is pretty happy go lucky and forgets how angry he is once he's in the stroller and the park is out of sight.