If it’s not one thing…it’s high blood pressure

Emma Jane has high blood pressure. This is something we have been watching for a little while now. When the doctors first brought it up they joked that if it was Parker they would probably chalk it up to Parker being…well…Parker, but it’s Emma Jane, and it’s high even when she’s fast asleep. So the doctors have been doing all sorts of tests and stuff on her. They did another heart echo, and her heart looks fine. They did a full renal workup and found her kidneys to be fine. What it all comes down to is Emma Jane has hypertension due Chronic Lung Disease. As I mentioned a while ago (at least I think I did) the girls were on oxygen long enough to officially be diagnosed with Chronic Lung Disease. At the time I said we had no idea what that meant/would mean. We still don’t, but we may have just found the first symptom of that. For some reason that the doctors admit they can’t really explain, there is some type of link between hypertension in preemies and Chronic Lung Disease. Emma Jane is going to be trying out blood pressure medications over the next couple of days to find one that works well for her. She could be on it for days, weeks, months, years, or even the rest of her life. The chances are good she’ll be on it for somewhere in the years category. This isn’t great, but it’s nothing to fall apart over. Hey, at least now she has something in common with my dad, Mary Jane’s mom and dad, and just about all of the baby-boomers out there.
You go girl.