Avery update...(a little bump in the road)

(posted by brady)

If you have been keeping up with sweet little Avery, you know that if there were a premie Olympics, she would have taken Gold, Silver and Bronze! But, we knew that the long road of development would have a few rocks along the way and it seem's that tonight she has come to one of these rocks. As ryan and steph go to the hospital to find out the specifics and actual diagnosis, Ryan has asked that I post what we know now and ask for your continued prayers and support.

They began to fortify Avery's milk today...which is what they do once the babies have transferred completely over to the mother's milk. This afternoon, she spit up a little, and got a bloated tummy. The doctors are taking precautions making sure that it's not NEC. NEC, which usually only happens in about 10% of premies, is sometimes serious enough for surgery to be necessary, and it affects the GI tract. To read up on it follow this address:

http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/NEC.htm

At this point it is still not certain that Avery has indeed developed NEC, but there have been a few things that are just little red flags(bloating, etc) and so she will be taken off of the milk and put back on an I.V. for feeding until things can be figured out.

So far, her labs have been encouraging: her platelets are still up and her x-rays show excess air only in the belly...which aren't exactly common for NEC. The timing is also right for it to just be a reaction from her to the milk fortifyer- this is what we're hoping, and not any sort of infection.

So, feel free to text ry or steph encouragement, but I will make updates as soon as I hear them. Thanks for your thoughts, and especially prayers!