Baby Girl Shore Has A Name!!

Baby Girl Shore now has a name. On Shabbos her loving father was called to the Torah and named her Avigayil. Please continue teffilos for Avigayil bas Rivka Batya.

Thursday Avigayil was given physical therapy to see if that would help her breathing by opening her lungs. It was not successful and the doctors decided to try a third and final round of surfactant. While administering it Avigayil’s intubation tube came out and she had to be resuscitated before they could insert a new one. Although it was one of the scarriest moments of my life, she pulled through B”H (Thank G-d). She also became jaundiced and was placed under 3 UV lights (from above and below).

The surfactant at first seemed to work, but then she began to have trouble again. She was switched to a new type of ventilation called High Frequency Ventilation. It actually vibrates her entire body.  They also started to give her nitrous oxide (NO). While doing an echocardiogram (scan of her heart) they saw that while her heart seems to be fine, B”H (Thank G-d), some of the blood vessels in her lungs are not. The blood pressure in her lungs is too high because of this. The gas should help to open those vessels and therefore bring down the blood pressure in her lungs thereby making it easier for her to breathe.

Friday night she had another crisis and needed to be put on 100% oxygen. However, as shabbos progressed she started to do a bit better. Her jaundice improved to the point where they slowly removed the lights one by one. They were also able to lower her oxygen to around 35%.

She is still not eating. They wanted to start feeding her through an NG tube (nasal gastric tube, a tube placed in the baby’s nose going down into her stomach) on shabbos. However, by midday they decided she was still too weak to try. We are hoping that they will be able start today or tomorrow.

They are also going to start slowly reducing Avigayil’s NO levels today. If she can maintain her oxygen saturation without the NO they will remove it completely. The next step would be to reduce her oxygen concentration until it is near room level. They will then try to extubate her and see if she can breathe with only a CPAP. Today is a big day for her. We are davening that it should go well.   

She has apparently had 2 infections so far and they have switched the antibiotics she has been on since birth to something stronger. IY”H (with G-d’s help) once the infections are gone she will be able to move forward.  Her immune system is extremely compromised and according to the doctors will remain so for a long time.

The doctors seem to be relatively happy with my progress. I may go home on Tuesday.  I am both excited and nervous. I haven’t been home in so long and feel like I have missed out on the last two months of my other children’s lives. I will be thankful to return to them. However, I am dreading going home and leaving my very ill child here. She is in the “heights of intensive care” according to her nurses. I am davening that she will be breathing on her own before Yom Tov. I can’t imagine what it will be like to go into Pesach without my new little one but we will have to cross that bridge when we get there. Right now we are living life one day at a time.