8/15/06: Day 32 (Tues.) Hearing Test

Great news to hear Evan passed his hearing test! He also had his eye exam, but Marianne wasn't able to decipher the test results page. The doctor scribbled something on the page to the effect that he needs another follow-up test in 2 weeks. So, I am guessing they saw something that they want to double check. Marianne said Evan was not a happy guy when she put the drops in his eyes to get them to dialate. She said he was fine when she put them in his first eye, but when he figured out the drops stung a bit, he refused to open his other eye. She had to really work to get that other eye open. They do the hearing test when the babies are sleeping, so Evan never felt a thing.

Evan is doing super-great on his feeds. He is up to over 20ml every 3 hours. The goal is to get him to "full feeds" which I think is about 35ml for him. Thank goodness this boy is starting to eat more since I have so much frozen milk in my freezer I need to get rid of!

Dr. Cahan stopped by while we were visiting and we asked her about the possibility of Evan being transferred to the Sierra Vista Hopsital now that he was reclassified to a Level II care baby. She was unsure of the level of care the SV Hospital could give and she said she would check on that. Since Evan was sick for so long, she is cautious to transfer him for fear of him having to come back to UMC in case he gets sick again. One of the nurses nearby said that she knew the SV Hospital will take a baby only if it is off an IV (Evan still has an IV even though it is just running supplemental TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition). Once Evan gets up to full feeds, he won't need that IV anymore (but he'll still have the PIC line in just for emergencies). So, it looks like our guy won't be coming back to Sierra Vista in the near future such as within a week or so. His primary nurse Marianne isn't eager to see him go either since he has been so easy to take care of.

Today we also found out one of the nurses taking care of a baby right beside Evan was the Air-Evac nurse who took care of him inflight the day he was born. Takeshi thought she looked familiar when she was talking to us. She has been happy to see how far he has come in almost 5 weeks. :-)

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UMC Charges: $4,765.45
Running Total: $280,115.09
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