Testing and More Testing

Nora's cultures came back as a staph infection and we should find out over the weekend if it is MRSA or just normal staph. We also tested me, my breast milk, and Ray this afternoon as well. I asked the doc a bunch of questions and even more of the disease control lady, but I'm too tired to get into all the details tonight on it all.

Ray continues to do well. I held him twice and pumped twice before heading in to see Nora for a few hours. It was great to see her and touch her and change her diaper, but also a tad unfulfilling and slightly disconcerting. She started having some slow breathing and apnea, although her heart rate is really great and she hasn't had any brady's (slow heart rate). The doc decided to take her off the si-pap (the assisted breathing she was receiving) to oxygen prongs to see if she was fighting it, but she kept slowing down still with bouts of apnea so we will see how long this lasts. I so wanted her off that machine because it means that it will be easier for me to hold her soon (as a respiratory therapist will not have to be present to baby sit), but not at the expense of her forgetting or stop breathing. It's not as if she is going to die from this. Heck, since she is in isolation, she has her own personal nurse to monitor her 24 x 7. Still. And, she seemed a bit lethargic to me. But, I could have just caught her when she was tired and trying to sleep and we kept messing with her because of her slow breathing/apnea thing since I have limited time with her and didn't see her in a wake cycle. Or,maybe slow breathing just makes you tired. I don't know. I think I'm going to call the night nurse to see how she's doing so far in this shift and then will call again in the early morning.

Getting back to the MRSA thing for a minute, I did confirm with the doc that while MRSA can be fatal, it is not something they are concerned with Nora. She received treatment early and is being closely monitored. The isolation is to prevent it from getting spread to other babies. They are already very busy with more babies than normal. They can't afford for it to spread. I totally get this. I just needed to understand more about it and what the rules are. The infections desease control lady was very helpful. We are going to talk again on Monday when she's back in the office, although the results should come back sometime this weekend.