Apnea, Apnea...

Well, he has had 14 episodes in the last 24 hours where they have had to intervene with extra oxygen and physical stimulation. I was there for one of them and it was a little unnerving to see his oxygen saturation and his heart rate take such a quick nose dive. Tests came back negative for infection, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. In a few days they'll do a spinal tap (again) and they are now running a virus panel.

And sometimes preemies just do this because they are preemies. BUT, it's odd for him because he has never done this before and 14 in one 24 hour period all of a sudden is a LOT. So they are looking for other possible causes. Maybe reflux, but he has been tolerating his feeds so well until (possibly) now that they think that probably isn't it either. Crew has a tendency to not behave the way the text books say he is supposed to, so we're trying to be patient as this sorts itself out. He has started to have fewer episodes (9 yesterday, 3 last night and only 2 that I know of so far today), but everyone still thinks it's strange that he is having them at all. We are praying that they continue to decrease and finally disappear over the next couple of days. He has more blood now, they have increased his caffeine above what he even had before, and he is showing no clinical signs of other illness, including NEC.

So many changes in a short period of time that could be the culprit, so there are consequently many attempts to correct it plus the question of infection or virus or reflux, but mostly they are just shooting in the dark to try to fix it, blazing all guns at once.