Early Thursday morning, at just 1 1/2 days old, Joshua was diagnosed with what was really wrong with him...
Pneumonia, Strep B (which had gone septic), and Meningitis
The pneumonia they believe was created by swallowing that large amount of fluid. With his head down low in birthing position for so long...the ultrasound showed only small amount of amniotic fluid near his head. But he had plenty behind his head and around his body. He may have swallowed it as he came out, or he may have had it forced in his lungs during a contraction. We will never know...but the pneumonia came on almost instantly.
The Strep B is a horrible bacterial infection for a newborn. Dr.s always test a mothers blood weeks before delivery....and that is what had been done with Rachael just 2 weeks before delivery. She had been negative. But at sometime just before Joshy was born, she had contracted it and no one knew. He contracted the Strep B as he came through the birth canal.
The meningitis is the meanest bacterial infection as well. Joshua contracted this from the Strep B. They say that when a baby is brand new, the blood and the spinal cord fluid can flow nearly together...and that is what happened. He hurts very badly from this, and so they try to keep him sedated while he heals. There are many problems that can occur from this disease...but we are all hopeful because the medical staff had started on some heavy duty drugs even before he was diagnosed!
Joshua had a pretty rough day this day too. He began having some signs of Pulmonary Hypertension. That meant new monitors on and more test run. Joshy has chest x-rays taken every 12 hours in Critical Care...and the news was...that his lungs looked like they were premature! They weren't...and he had had steroids...but they weren't doing very good. I'm pretty sure it was from the infection.
And just to keep the baby on his toes, they decided to take him off the ventilator early in the morning and change him to an HFNC (High Flow Nasal Cannula). He hated it and got very stressed! They sedated him heavily...and after many hours of his numbers going the wrong way...they changed him to the C-pap. I didn't make too much of a difference, but the Dr. was trying very hard to NOT put him back on the ventilator.
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