Preemies
Options
Day 7 brain ultrasound
So, my little fighter is one week old today! They are going to do a scan of his brain to check for bleeding. Any advice/helpful info you guys have on this? They said they should have the results back by the time I go in for my visit at around noon. I'm hoping for the best since the NP told me yesterday that it's a really good sign that his hemoglobin levels didn't drop right after he was born, and he hasn't needed a transfusion yet. Fingers crossed for no bleeding!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Day 7 brain ultrasound
They will do these periodically during your stay, I believe they checked Scarlette every week for the first month, then every two weeks until week 10. It is not uncommon for micro-preemies to have them so they check often but small amounts of bleeding are often not a cause for concern. Scarlette was also born at exactly 25 weeks and never had a brain bleed. Her roommate did, but his wasn't very bad at all.
Thinking of you! I remember being really nervous about it too, hoping for no bleeds
Hope all goes well today and that there is no evidence of any bleeds!
Like pp'ers said, he'll get them periodically. My son didn't have a bleed after birth, or even after his second scan, so we were all totally shocked that he had a Level 2 bleed when he had his third scan done (probably around 10 days old or so.) It was one of the worst days (mentally) for me in his whole NICU stay. I remember so clearly - it was my first day into the NICU alone, as my DH had gone back to work and my mom went home. They hadn't even told me he was scheduled for another scan, so I was totally unprepared for the news. I was also told at the time that children with Level 2 bleeds tened to fair no worse developmentally then children with no bleeds, so that helped (a little - it still sucked). But, a higher level bleed doesn't necessarily mean huge problems either - it's one of those wait and see things.
Regardless, my son's bleed did resolve on its own in a few weeks, and he had an MRI before discharge and didn't have much remaining damage. So far he has some minor delays (speech, some fine motor) but nothing that should have a big impact on his life, we think!
Whew! So all that stuff, just to summarize: 1. Hope he doesn't have a bleed at all. and 2. If he does, try not to freak out too much b/c hopefully it won't make too much of a difference. Let us know how it goes!
My guys had u/s on Day 7, Day 21 and Day 60 of life. My smaller guy just had one last week. It's a fairly easy test and is painless for the baby.
Best of luck!