Good and Bad

I was able to see the babies today for the first time in almost 2 weeks. They look so different already! Audrey and Charlotte are eating like champs, at 5.5 cc and 4 cc, respectively. Thomas isn't taking his food right now, so they had him back down to 1 cc. They are going to give him a blood transfusion and are thinking that will help, both with his oxygenation and his eating. Even still, he most recently weighed in at 2lbs 2oz! Audrey was 1lb 13oz and Charlotte was still bringing up the rear at 1lb 7oz.  

So that pustule that they had found on Charlotte's arm...turns out the culture came back positive for staph-- MRSA to be precise. They had started her on vancomycin when they originally found it, so treatment has been underway, but it's still not good that colonization of the bacteria occurred and caused this infection. Thankfully, the pustule is entirely gone and blood tests have all come back clear, so it doesn't appear that the infection has spread nor entered her bloodstream. We pray that neither of those ever occur. They're trying to determine now the exact strain of the bacteria so that they know if their treating it in the best way possible. They swabbed her elsewhere and also swabbed her siblings to see if they find the bacteria present. Additionally, they have all three of them on contact isolation, which basically means that the nurses always wear gloves, gowns and masks when dealing with them. This is in an effort to contain the bacteria. Once Charlotte reaches a certain size, they'll make efforts to decolonize her. The same will be true for her siblings if they test positive for colonization. Nothing is dire right now, but it's certainly one more serious consideration in the mix.