ABIGAIL NEWTON SMITH

Tuesday, 11th September 2001 - Day 26

Well what a day I have had today. Unfortunately I have not been able to wear my nice new dress today as my poor little tummy which I told you about yesterday is still a little enlarged. My stomach cannot seem to digest all that milk at the rate it was coming in, so I have been on a starvation diet today to get rid of it. I think they will start me again on the milk this evening, but only at 1ml every 2 hrs again. Poor me I was just getting used to the bigger volumes but could not say that the 3-4ml mark was much more suitable for me due to the tubes on my vocal cords. All they did was keep feeding and it was tickling my tonsils by the time they stopped. Daddy says it must feel like drinking 10 pints of beer and having a curry.

The other main thing that has happened to day is an extension of yesterday and the day before, in that I have been getting too little Oxygen into my blood stream from my lungs (Desaturating) this is giving the doctors more cause for concern as the levels of oxygen I need to keep the levels up in my blood stream has been getting higher again. Not quite the way it was supposed to go. Unfortunately this causes my lungs to get more damaged due to the oxygen and makes the transfer even more difficult. This means that they have been talking about those dreaded Xeroids again (Daddy's Note : Steroids to the rest of us), I will try and get better I promise. Mummy and Daddy were not looking quite so happy with me today, I sure they are worrying too much about my progress. I am trying really hard, but I think I need as much help as I can get at the moment, so please pray a little harder for me and hopefully I can get past this without any further complications. The nice new doctor said that my swollen tummy would also not help my breathing so I will try and digest all the milk I have stored up. I seem to be a bit like a squirrel storing nuts in their mouth for later use.

I am sorry about the pictures today but Daddy has been using a different camera today and things are not quite so clear in the darkness of the intensive care unit. Hopefully they will be a bit better tomorrow.

Last Updated : 13/09/01.