Wednesday, October 14, 2009

October 14, 2009


I was a bit taken aback when I arrived at Charlotte's room today and saw a doctor and nurse looking over a baby in an isolette with a ventilator behind it. After verifying it was Charlotte's room I realized she was getting another eye exam, but was not actually on the ventilator. It scared me though! Her room is mighty crowded for the time being...photo below (she's wrapped up in the isolette).

I spoke with the eye doc and she moved Charlotte's surgery to tomorrow. This was a bit disappointing because the nurses had prepped Charlotte last night, and now I hope her IV line will still be good so she won't need to be poked again. The nurse who put in her IV did a very nice job - the result is much less bulky than the IV she had in Marquette, that IV included a spongy splint which kept her entire arm straight. Her IV is on her left hand in the picture below.


The surgery is scheduled for 12:30 p.m., and Charlotte will be intubated at about 11 a.m. so that she can be sedated. We expect her to be extubated sometime tomorrow afternoon, as soon as the drugs wear off. According to Charlotte's eye doc, 80% of laser surgeries for Retinopothy of Prematurity are successful the first time - the other 20% of patients require additional surgeries. Although, she has been performing laser surgeries for 6 years and has only had 2 babies who fell into that 20%, so she said her stats are much better than the national average. I guess that's promising!

I'm watching the news as I type this post and heard a disturbing, tragic statistic. Black babies in southeastern Wisconsin are 3.5 times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. Their rate of death is higher than babies in some third world countries. An organization is implementing radio messages to try to turn this around, but it will take more than just that. Sad.

3 comments on "October 14, 2009"

Anonymous said...

HI Katie, Patrick and Charlotte,

I am thinking and praying for you as Charlotte has this laser surgery tomorrow.

Love, Leona Krieg

Lindsay on October 15, 2009 at 8:07 AM said...

Good luck with your surgery, Charlotte!

Paul on October 15, 2009 at 3:40 PM said...

Good Afternoon to the Russel's,

It has been awhile since we posted, but we wanted to say hello and good luck on your surgery that either happened or is in progress right now! We are thinking of you three. It is amazing looking through the newest pictures of Charolette and how big she has gotten!

- Paul, Kelly and the pups

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