Eye-Pod

Ten weeks.  Phew.

In our wildest dreams, Katie and I never considered having to experience such a rollercoaster of emotions that we have had over the past 70 days or so.  A close friend summed up parenthood with the following:  "The 'highs' are much higher and the 'lows' are much lower" - meaning that when things are going well, the level of joy and happiness one can experience is incomparable; and conversely, when things bounce the wrong way, the depths of emotion are much deeper.  How right he was.

Overall, Katie and I would not trade for anything in the world to be where we are today.  Edward has made such tremendous progress and continues to amaze us everyday.  In fact, I think we have inadvertently forgot to post some of his major steps forward over the past few weeks.  For example, he has moved....a couple times.  The UVA NICU is a 45-bed unit, broken into 7 pods: A through G.  Pods A, B and C constitute the intensive care unit (ICU) part of the NICU, whereas Pods D, E, F and G serve as the transitional care unit - a place where the 'less sick' babies go to grow, eat and breathe.  At birth, Edward started in A-pod and spent the first 7 weeks or so there.  Fortunately, as he grew older and stronger, Edward was able to make the switch to the transitional care unit a few weeks ago!  We actually first we moved to G-pod, but then slid over to D-pod (there is no difference between D, E, F or G....just made the move for administrative purposes).  Obviously, the move to the transitional care unit represents a huge step forward.  In fact, Katie's mom asked one of the nurses what's after D-pod and the nurse replied 'Home!'.

Furthermore, Edward is out of the incubator! (You may have noticed this from previously posted pictures). At birth, Edward's body was too immature to maintain his own temperature and was thus placed in an incubator (also called an isolette) which helped him maintain a normal body temperature.  Over time, as he grew older and bigger (read fatter), his body developed the ability to regulate his internal temperature.  The NICU team slowly weaned Edward from the Isolette's warm confines and moved him to an open crib.  He seems like such a big boy in the open crib and not surprisingly, but somewhat embarassingly, we call it his 'big boy bed'. 

But not all is perfect.  As previously described, Edward has developed retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and unfortunately it has progressed since his last eye check.  A quick recap on ROP (though hopefully no one reading this is an ophthalmalogist because my understanding is a bit fuzzy at best): the retina is essentially a thin rim of light-sensitive tissue on the back of the eye that 'receives' everything that we see and translates it into our brain.  Like all tissues within our body, the retina is supplied by blood vessels.  Typically, the development of these blood vessels occurs within the womb and thus for premature babies, their blood vessels still have some work to do.  Fortunately, the blood vessels start their development in the center of the eye where the most critical parts of eyesight are located.  The blood vessels then migrate out to the periphery of the retina to complete the development of our full line of vision.  But in premature infants, the development of these blood vessels from the center, most crucial aspects of sight, to the rest of the retina can proceed in an irregular, disorganized fashion.

When these blood vessels develop abnormally, the worst case scenario can lead to retinal detachment which can lead to blindness or severely impaired sight even if re-attached.  Fortunately, modern medicine has developed a preventive treatment for this.  Edward has progressed to Stage 3 ROP in his right eye; his left eye is largely unchanged from previous exams.  However, if he continues on his current trajectory, he will likely need laser therapy to both of his eyes sometime next week to help prevent further progression of this retinopathy.  This will entail sedating him with medications and then using a laser to 'burn' the blood vessels to halt their abnormal progression.  Fortunately, this procedure is extremely effective and is successful 90% of the time.  Unfortunately, one of the unavoidable and permanent side effects is loss of approximately 10-15% of Edward's peripheral vision.  There is also a reasonable chance Edward will need glasses as he grows up after the laser surgery as it can cause near-sightedness - but as a 'wearer' of glasses myself, I feel that glasses only add to one's overall intelligence and wit.

Edward will have one more eye exam this upcoming Tuesday to see if surgery will be in fact necessary.  There is a small chance he can avoid the surgery and we are praying fervently for this.  But at the same time, we realize that the more likely scenario will necessitate moving forward with the laser procedure.  

Edward continues to grow every day - he is now over 5 lbs!  5 lbs 6 oz to be exact.  He has officially tripled in size since birth!  Keep all the prayers coming - we are infinitely grateful for everyone's love and support so far.