Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Abbreviations or definitions:
CO2= carbon dioxide
BPD= bronchopulmonary dysplasia (lung disease that Benjamin has from being born premature)
diurectics= medicine to make Benjamin urinate


Benjamin is having a hard time blowing off enough CO2. His CO2 levels are in the 90's. For him they'd like the CO2 levels to be in the 70's-80's because he has BPD. They think that his CO2 is high because of his metabolic needs. What this means is that because he is having a hard time getting rid of fluid, and they have to give him diurectics, his potassium, sodium, etc levels are all too low. So he will compensate by not blowing off enough CO2. At least this is the way I understand how they can explain it. If you're a nurse & I'm wrong you can correct me. So the plan is for them to bag Benjamin to see if this would help his CO2 and if it does, then they would probably switch Benjamin over to the conventional ventilator.

This morning I gave Benjamin a sponge bath with some nice soap and then put lots of lotion on him. (Thanks Auntie Alice for bringing that from home for me. Now I smell really nice.) Benjamin's skin is so dry from the air in the ICU. Tomorrow we are hoping to give his hair a good washing if he will tolerate it. We were going to do it today but Benjamin had a lot done to him and was dancing a bit so we decided we'd wait until tomorrow and see how tomorrow goes. If there is too much going on, Benjamin likes to dance around which makes the ventilator start beeping and doesn't do good things for his O2 saturations.

Anyway, that's about all I have to report today. If you have any questions ever about what I write on here, feel free to ask. I can't promise I'll always be able to answer them but I will try my best. Oh, and by the way Wieska, he has still been having fevers off & on but the doctors don't seem too concerned about it. They've sent cultures & bloodwork off for testing but it takes a few days to get the results.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does 'dancing' mean that he's being overstimulated? Or is this a good thing? If it is...keep dancing!!! You sound like you're a happy boy! M Pronk

Kathy said...

Thanks for the updates!
You are great at explaining things!
Continuing to pray for strength and healing!
Oh..and give W a hard time tonight. D is excited for you guys to meet him. :)

Tim and Alice said...

Greta,
you should get an honorary nursing dipoloma :)
see you tomorrow night...7ish. Let me know if you need anything.


xoxo B!
Alice

Anonymous said...

Thanks again for the update .I check the blog until I see an update again. Just to let you know we appreciate it very much taking time to do that .There are a lot of people following your blog and holding your family up in prayer. Even in the Netherlands .What do they do when they bag Benjamin?. And the fluids are they in his lungs?.We pray that all the efforts they take to bring health to Benjamin will be blest by our Lord .Love Dad and Eleanore

Evelyn van Egdom said...

Thanks for all the explanations! I'm SO incredibly thankful for the progress Benjamin seems to be making - what a miracle!!

We will continue to pray for complete healing and strength for you & Gary in the days and weeks ahead.

We prayed for you all at choir again last night. It's interesting how the songs we're singing mean so much more when you're dealing with something like this. LOVE that about music :)

Hope to see you again soon!

Love, Ev

PS. Tell Benjamin that dutch boys don't dance ;P

Anonymous said...

Tell Benjamin that dutch boys dance to a different tune, cause most of them don't take lessons;)
Take care you guys, we are all praying for you.
F&M

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!
Lots of hugs and kisses ... looking forward to seeing you later.

Kyle and Devon xoxoxoxoxo