Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Jade Danielle Pearson

Well, this is my first post. I am new to this whole blog thing, so you will all have to bare with me as I learn how to do this. I just wanted to post a quick message to update everyone about Jade. Jade was born on November 30, 2007 at 8:31 am. She was 19 inches long and weighed in at 5 lbs 7 oz. Rebecca had to have a C-section because Jade was under a lot of distress with the contractions, even though they were still very light and far apart. We later learned this was partly because she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.


The night after she was born, she was transferred to the Special Care Unit in Princeton Hospital because they were worried about her eating and muscle tone. They performed many tests on her there including a CAT scan and a spinal tap. They eventually decided they didn't have the resources or appropriate personnell to diagnose what was wrong with Jade. On Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at about 1:30 AM she was transferred to the NICU at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Actually, she was transferred to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania(HUP), which is right next door to CHOP. However all the doctors she sees are from CHOP, and she is transported next door to CHOP whenever tests are performed on her.


She has a whole bunch of doctor's looking after her. She has a team of Neurologists trying to figure out if it is a Neuroligical problem. They performed an MRI, however it was inconclusive. They are currently doing a number of different blood tests to look for various neuro-muscular diseases and such. She also has a team of Genetecists trying to figure out if it is a genetic problem. They are doing various DNA tests and growing chromosones and stuff. Unfortunately all of these tests will still take several weeks to get results.


In the mean time her Neonatologists continue to work with her to get her to suck. Her low muscle tone makes it so she doesn't suck and so it is very dangerous to try and feed her with a bottle because she could breathe in the milk. As a result she is fed through a tube. The doctors say they will give us a class on how to insert the tube ourselves and we will need to take some infant CPR classes so that we can eventually bring her home and feed her through a tube ourselves untill she learns to eat for herself.


We drive down to Philadelphia nearly every day to see her. She seems to be doing well. We are very grateful for the wonderful care she is receiving from the hospital, as well as the service and prayers we have received from friends and family.


No comments: