Day 35 - Math is Fun!

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Morning: James is having a solid start to his day again. X-ray came back with good results showing that his lungs expanded a little bit. We still have a way to go, but progress is worthy of celebration at the moment. 💪 His tube in his mouth was sitting a little high, so the reparatory team had to adjust this a bit, which could cause a little agitation to James - which is why some of his oxygen levels were a little bit high during the start to today.  

The blood culture from a few days ago is still showing negative, along with the urine culture. At this time, this would mean there’s no infection showing - another win for today! 💪

His Vitamin D result hasn’t returned yet due to a slight delay, but regardless of this result, there wouldn’t be any immediate changes to James at the moment. 

Before deciding on the blood transfusion, James had his hemoglobin and hematocrit checked directly to get real numbers.  The blood gas is good and gives us some overall numbers with the CBC, but this test gives more accurate real numbers. We want to be around 30 for the hematocrit, and 25 or lower would require the transfusion. James results show the hematocrit at 33, which is great. His hemoglobin is 10.9, which is also good.  So, no need for the transfusion today. (Another worthy celebration!) 💪

His feed is being tolerated extremely well (another worthy celebration) so the doctor is bumping him up to 21 ML at 26 Calories every 3 hours later on today. 💪

How the math works for feed:  it’s 26 calories per ounce. There’s 30 ML in one ounce.  Being fed every 3 hours over the course of 24 hours is 8 feeds. So, 8 feeds at 21 ML per feed is 168 ML for the day. Since James is getting 26 Calories for every 30 ML (1 ounce), this means for his 168 ML for the day, it would be 168/30 = 5.6 ounces at 26 Calories brings James to 145 Calories of feed daily. 📖  For perspective, there’s approx 100 calories in 1 banana or 14 almonds or 1/2 avacado or 30 grapes or 1 apple ... This helped me realize two things - Dad eats A LOT of calories AND Baby James, well, doesn’t quite yet.  Dad will be sure to show him the Abramowitz ways at some point. 🍱 

Overall - As long as James continues to tolerate his feed, he will grow. By growing, he will indirectly and directly develop the parts of his body that needs attention. #EatGrowRepeat  🍼 👶