Eye Surgery For ROP

SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011 7:00 PM, PDT

11 weeks

Kai has been having a busy couple of weeks. He's been working hard on strengthening up his lungs by "sprinting" on the CPAP and nasal canula. As of now he's been doing 6 hours on CPAP and 3 hours on canula. The doctors started him on Xopenex (albuterol) medication to be inhaled to help dilate his lungs in hopes that it will help him get off the CPAP sooner.

He's been gaining weight steadily and is currently 5 lbs. 8oz. and getting 58mL's of milk through a feeding tube. Two days ago he took 5mL's of milk through a bottle and that was a huge step! He did a really good job!

Once again he impressed the developmental therapist with his great muscle tone, retention, and reflexes. He looks just great!

Eye exams have been done once a week and his ROP had gotten worse from Stage 1 to Stage 2. The doctor examined his eyes this Thursday and that's when he discovered his ROP had progressed to Stage 2/3 Zone 2. (Stage 3 for sure needs surgery and Stage 4 is going blind).

He decided that Kai would need surgery so he came back yesterday (Friday) morning to examine once more to confirm that he needed surgery. His eyes were in definite need of laser surgery. So yesterday he was prepped all day to eventually get the surgery around 5pm last night. The surgery took just over an hour and he needed to be sedated which also required him to be intubated again with a breathing tube and to have no food the entire day. 

The doctor said the surgery went well and he's very lucky it was caught when it was. Only one treatment of laser surgery should do the trick. 

When he was back in the NICU he was still heavily sedated so he needed time to wake up before they could extubate him. It's better to get the tube out as soon as possible so that it does not scar or inflame his trachea. 

He had a good night last night and at 2pm today he had the tube taken out and is back on CPAP and sating 97 (that's really good!). He should soon get back to his regular "sprinting" routine of on and off CPAP/canula probably by tomorrow as well as continue feedings again. 

Kai has really pulled through and I know he will continue to. He still has a few more areas to work on and get over, but he's been doing really well overall and more importantly he seems like a very happy boy!