12-14-08

Well, it has been another exciting day in Albuquerque! You are reading this live from room #7 OB Special Care and this is Zoey's proud dad. Our day started off fairly normal with our checkup of my beautiful princess. Macy got to hold her for about thirty minutes and didn't want to give her back. I must say that I am a little jealous because I have only got to hold her once. Everything was good to go on that front so we decided to find a doctor to take out the staples in Macy's stomach. As part of the routine checkup they did a blood pressure reading. The poor nurse nearly passed out when it read 185/125. Even to an uneducated lumberman I knew this wasn't good. They quickly put her in her own hospital room and hooked her up to just about every monitor in the room. With those numbers they were really worried about siezures and possibly a stroke. The first treatment that they put her on was magnesium. This was horrible to witness and I can't imagine what it was like to go through. Thank goodness those Coll girls are tough. It was a 24 hour treatment and we just now finished it. Momma felt better almost immediately and is currently sleeping. This did get her blood pressure down. The funny thing is, her staples are still in her stomach. We were really blessed that this happened when it did. Doctors call blood pressure the silent killer because you don't know you have a problem until it is too late. Anywayz..... on to the good news. Zoey is doing fantastic. There were two things that we have been asking for prayer specifically on, and I have good news on both of them. The doctors were worried about a viral infection that she might have. They did a urine culture and the results came back negative this morning. This is one more of the many miracles in this little girls life. Infections are something that really worry doctors with premature babies. The second prayer request was for her ductus valve to close. We don't have the official results because it is Sunday and they didn't do an EKG. They have one scheduled for early tomorrow morning. However, clinically it looks like it has closed. She is breathing way too good for it to be open. One of the nurses told us that she is ahead of where most preemies are her age. First thing this morning they took the respirator out of her mouth and put a less intrusive breathing tube in her nose. One of the pictures we took was right after this and she looks a little confused on what just happened. This is definitely a good thing because it means that she is pretty much breathing on her own. One more of God's miracles! Every day that passes is just a testament to God's greatness. One last bit of good news. They started feeding her momma's milk this evening. This is a huge step in the right direction. Nothing is better for a baby than what God intended for her. They expect vast improvement with every day that she is feeding. We will keep everybody posted on our crazy life. We feel so blessed to have friends and family like we do. Your prayers are felt and much needed. We love each and every one of you. Continue to pray for strength for Macy and for her blood pressure to stay where it should. For Zoey we need to pray that she takes Macy's milk and continues to get stronger. For Dad we need to pray that he doesn't become the third Dodson admitted to the hospital today. I am actually doing great and it is nice that Shelly, Ashton, and Taylor have come to help. Until next time....