Day 37: NO BRAIN INJURY!

2nd BRAIN SCAN CAME BACK COMPLETELY CLEAR! NO SIGNS OF BRAIN DAMAGE!

"Lily doesn't show any damage or injury to her brain right now"... the best words we could possible hope for! We're not out of the woods yet, but knowing that what doctors saw on the brain scan last week can definitely be called "not a brain injury" is amazing! Really the best possible news, prayers have been answered, all the positive energy is working - thank you everyone!

Lily had another good day - she neither gained nor lost weight, and is tolerating her feeds well. She completed her second round of the diuretic but is still requiring 50% oxygen. Lily did have one bradycardia last night, but pulled out of it. Doctors are giving her an intramuscular injection of betamethasone, for three days in a row. Poor kid - but hopefully it helps her lungs develop, and she can be further weaned from the  oxygen.

I caught up with an old friend today - in fact, my oldest friend - we met in 4th grade. And wouldn't you know - he's getting his Ph.D. in child neuropsychology and cognitive development. It was great to catch up with him - he told me a lot about the developing brain, and how much different a baby brain is from an adult brain.  The adult brain has about 100 billion neurons, but the perinatal brain has many, many more. As dendrites form between neurons, they tend to pick their own path - and ultimately, by the time you're an adult the brain's 'unused' neurons have died off. That's why baby brains are so much more plastic than adult brains -there are many more pathways for the dendrites to form. For that reason, a brain injury in an adult can be given a prognosis, whereas a brain injury in an infant cannot.

BUT LILY DOESN'T HAVE A BRAIN INJURY, SO THAT'S REALLY JUST AN FYI ABOUT BRAINS!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We're just so thankful, so blessed - whatever it was, if anything, has regressed. Really, it's just miraculous. We're know that Lily's not yet out of the woods - there may still be developmental delays, but the prognosis is without question much, much better now that her brain scan is clear. Thank you all, again, for the prayers and positive energy!

Also, a big big thank you to Sara's colleagues in Pfizer's procurement group - we are so touched, thank you for your generosity, we really, really appreciate it!

Sara and I are going to morning rounds tomorrow so we can speak with the attending a bit about the betamethasone and the brain scan results. Will post another update tomorrow.

NO BRAIN INJURY YEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE