Amber’s Story
Many
of you were unaware of all that was taking place with the pregnancy. I kept various people updated via e-mail and
began sending a daily update a few days ago.
Contained below are those messages that give you more detail as to what
transpired and when.
I’ll
keep this updated as Amber progresses.
Thanks.
Kelvie
Friday, January 18, 6:55AM
Hello
Everyone,
We
received great news last night.
The
ibuprofen treatments for the PDA condition
were indeed successful and she will not require surgery. She also
does not appear to have pneumonia; it appears to be E. Coli
instead however. The bacteria
is being treated and we expect it to be cleared up within several days.
The
bilirubin
condition has improved to a point that the phototherapy lights will probably be
gone by later today. Also, they intend
to begin feeding Amber today or tomorrow as well.
Amber
was weighed overnight and she has gained a little over 2 ounces since birth and
she now weighs 1 lb 15.5 oz.
The
practitioner did alert us to the fact that Amber may eventually develop a
condition called BPD which is
a common among premature babies that are on ventilators for an extended period.
Overall
the news was very encouraging and the medical staff is pleased with Amber’s
progress.
On
another note, I received an extremely pleasant surprise when I walked into the
hospital lobby yesterday and saw my mother, brother, sister-in-law and my
sister from
Again,
thank you to everyone for your support through all of this.
Thursday, January 17, 7:40AM
Hello
Everyone,
Amber
has been sleeping a lot over the past few days.
We are still not certain if her lung infection is pneumonia. The blood cultures will come back later today
and we’ll know for sure what we are dealing with.
All
of her other vital signs look good and she’s being weaned off the oxygen. Amber is still responsive to touch but not as
playful as she was a few days ago because we’ve been letting her get much
needed rest so she continues to grow and get healthy. It appears the ibuprofen treatment worked and
she will not require surgery.
Pam
is at home and resting but beginning to move around more although she is still
quite sore. Pam’s Aunt Millie has been
sending food over and has been a big help over the past few days. My sister has been a great support over these
past two weeks helping translate medical terms and just being a good listener.
We
appreciate everything all of you have done to help out during this time and we
can’t thank you enough.
Wednesday, January 16, 5:02AM
Hello
Everyone,
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY to our little angel! Amber is
one week old today.
Amber
has an infection in her lungs that the doctors are treating with
antibiotics. It was discovered when
testing showed the bands on her CBC counts were
elevated. Apparently elevated counts are
somewhat normal in preemies but Amber’s counts weren’t coming down at all. They took additional blood cultures to get a
closer look at what was happening and started her on preventative
medication. After the remaining results
come back, they will have a better idea which meds to give her and they expect
the infection to clear up in a few days.
All
of Amber’s other test results appear normal.
The echocardiogram
to determine how the ibuprofen treatment worked on the PDA condition will be
done by Friday.
Overall,
Amber is still doing well and progressing and her caretakers are very, very
pleased with where she is.
Prayer
still works and don’t let anyone tell you any differently. Medical science is simply amazing and the
progress made in neonatal care is something to thank God for.
Of
course, there are more pictures posted if you’d like to browse.
Thanks
again for all your support.
Kelvie
Tuesday, January 15, 7:52AM
Hello
Everyone,
It’s
been a hectic few days and I apologize for not having updates out sooner. Here is the latest:
Pam
was released from the hospital on Monday.
Amber
is still doing well and stable. We will
find out hopefully today how the ibuprofen treatments worked on the PDA
condition I mentioned in the last update.
Hopefully the treatment was effective and if she will not require
surgery.
She
had lots of visitors over the weekend including both sisters
(who LOVE spending time with her), grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and
others. Amber has a lot of people
praying for her and in her corner and Tyus Family are fixtures in the
NICU. We sincerely appreciate all the
support everyone has shown.
Contrary
to my last update, she won’t be weighed or measured for a while because of the
stress it causes on preemies. Amber’s
been sleeping a lot more lately which is good for her and is helping her to
gain strength.
There
are more pictures posted on the site.
Please enjoy and I’ll have another update soon.
Kelvie
Saturday, January 12, 8:57PM
Hello
Everyone,
Again,
I would like to thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, words of encouragement and offers to help.
Amber
is progressing well. The bilirubin condition is
improving and the phototherapy lights may be taken away tomorrow (Sunday). She is continuing to breath
well and doesn’t require much help from the ventilator. She’s still playful although not as much over
the past couple of days since she has been sleeping more.
The
nurses will weigh her again tomorrow and although she seems to be growing each
day, it won’t surprise us if she actually loses a little weight since that’s
normal with any newborn.
Amber
was discovered to have a condition called Patent Ductus
Arteriosus.
You can read more about it here. It’s normal in preemies and the corrective
action has already started. We believe
she will not require surgery to correct it but if she does, we will know that
early next week and it’s a fairly routine procedure and should only take about
20 minutes to perform.
Pam
is still in a fair amount of pain and her blood pressure still isn’t as stable
as we’d like. She may be discharged
tomorrow or the next day.
Kristen
and Jazmine each got a chance to spend time with their sister this
weekend. The NICU loaned us an excellent
book for them called My baby sister is a preemie.
Again,
we sincerely appreciate all you have done for us during this time.
Thank
you.
Kelvie,
Pam, Kristen, Jazmine and Amber
Thursday, January 10, 9:03PM
Hello
Everyone,
We would like to thank each of you for your calls, e-mails, text messages,
prayers, good thoughts, and all the support you have shown to us.
Here
is a brief update for you.
Amber is doing well. She is breathing more on her own and it seems as if
she has even grown since yesterday. She’s pretty feisty and
moving
around frequently (especially when her Daddy shows up to play with her).
Pam is out of the High Risk area and is in an Ante Partum room and feeling
better. She’s still sore and the blood pressure still has us
concerned
but she is eating real food, has all the tubes removed and can move around on
her own (although slowly). She can see Amber
anytime
she likes now.
Below is a website with the latest pictures and even a couple of videos.
I will keep this page updated frequently.
http://www.kelvie.com/amber/
Thanks again for all your support.
Kelvie, Pam, Kristen, Jazmine and Amber
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 11:02am
Amber
Nicole Tyus was born this morning at 2:18am at
prematurely due to the toxemia diagnosis. She is scheduled to remain in the
hospital for several more weeks. Amber is responding
very
well to treatment and all early indications are that she will grow up to be
completely healthy despite only weighing
1 lb 13 oz at birth.
Pam is still in the Labor & Delivery area until her condition stabilizes
which should be in another 24-48 hours. Unfortunately, she has not
yet
seen her new baby and wont be able to until the doctors give the OK.
I have 7x24 access to NICU and have taken the
following pictures.
Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers and I will speak with
you when I can.
Thank
you.
Also note, there is no cell phone reception in the
area of the hospital where most of time will be spent. We will basically
be unreachable
for the
next day or so.
Bob, I can't get this out to all of my staff, please send to HD, Desktop, User Prov and Sap tier 2 thanks!
I will call you later.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 5:57am
Just wanted to send all of you a
quick note to update you on life in
Pam has been in and out of the hospital for the past several days. They finally decided to keep her last
night. She has
a mild form of toxemia (http://ncnc.essortment.com/whatistoxemi_ruyd.htm)
and the doctors aren't exactly sure what they are
dealing with until more tests come back later today.
She's had it pretty rough for the entire pregnancy
but the past week or so has been especially difficult. She is currently in
Hillcrest Hospital Room 215 and not sure when she
will be discharged although I expect it may be tomorrow at the earliest
depending on what happens today.
She's at least resting right now but still can't eat/keep
food down, has a respiratory infection, cold, severe headaches, blood
pressure through the roof, swelling, etc. Other than that, she's fine.
The doctor has put her on 100% bed rest throughout
the remainder of the pregnancy which is supposed to last through
early April. They
gave her steroids yesterday in case they have to deliver the baby (tentatively
named Amber Nicole)
within the next 2-3 weeks instead.
So far, the baby is fine. None of this is having an effect on her
thankfully. Obviously if Pam's condition
worsens, the decision
of whether the baby is better off inside or outside
needs to be made.
Jazmine is not handling it well. She's only 6 and obviously scared to death
and doesn't even realize the full extent of what we are facing.
Kristen is holding up pretty good and I'm doing OK,
just tired and trying to deal with the upheaval is causing my work schedule at
my busy time of the year.
Please keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers
and I will keep you posted as well as I can.
Thanks.
--
Kelvie A. Tyus