What a GOOD Day

And just as quickly as things can take a turn for the worse, the girls can climb back up that hill just as fast.  Yesterday was a big, GREAT day for all of us.

Let's start with their overall health status.  The neonatolgist had some updates on lingering suspicions that were all in our favor.  The adrenal specialist does not feel the girls have kidney issues and the endocrinologist confirmed no endocrine issues and was able to rule out the possibility of CAH.  The big swings in their electrolytes can be contributed to a combination of medications the girls were both given which made their kidneys work overtime which was a little too much for them right now.  We don't anticipate a recurrence of the huge changes in their electrolytes but if we do see it again, we can at least rule out a few major possible causes.

Moving onto Isa - our little rock star did amazing in here PDA ligation surgery yesterday.  She was taken back into the operating room around 1:30pm and was back in her pod around 4:30pm.  The actual surgery took about 45 minutes.  The rest of the time was allocated to sterilizing everything, getting Isa on her pain & paralyzing medication, and post-surgery x-rays.  The cardiologist who did the ligation said it went as well as they could ever expect.  The amount of blood flowing through the ductus was large and once they closed it, they saw immediate improvements in her blood pressure indicting a big success.  She may need a few days to recuperate from the surgery, but after that, they expect to see drastic improvements in her overall health.  Her oxygen requirements have been in the low 20s for the past 24 hours which is right where we want it to be, and her desats (drops in oxygen) have drastically reduced.  We are SO glad we can finally say good bye to the PDA!  She is also being weened off her ventilator settings and may be off her breathing tube in a week or so.

Now onto Celia.  We found out that her PDA has been closing on its own and they no longer hear a heart murmur on her which means NO surgery for Celia!   She is being weened off of her ventilator and the doctors anticipate that her breathing tube will be removed any day now which means we will get to see her entire face for the first time and will finally be able to hear her cry & make noise!  Also, she is stable enough that I got to hold her for the first time yesterday in what they call Kangaroo Care (skin to skin) for 3 hours!  I did not appreciate how little she was until I was actually holding her.  She was so cozy and did so great during our cuddling and from here on out, we should be able to hold her 1-2 times per week and then will be able to move onto every other day!  The connection you feel when you actually hold your child for the first time is priceless.

With so many down days it feels so good to be on the up.  We know that the ups and downs are a nature of the NICU but we hope we stay on this path for a while!


Isa pre-surgery - 5/17/11




Isa pre-surgery - 5/17/11



Holding Celia for the first time!  5/17/11



Celia's first Kangaroo Care - 5/17/11



Celia - Hi Pumpkin! - 5/17/11







Celia - 5/17/11