Good News!!

Sarah came out of surgery like a trooper. Her vital signs were good enough to not need the vent.

She did however, look like she was in a lot of pain. She opened her eyes wide, grabbed Christina's fingers and stared at her almost as to say, "Help Me!"

The nurses responded quickly to that and increased the morphine. They also gave her a cocktail of other pain medication to fully compliment the morphine.

Sarah quickly calmed down and went into a slumber. She laid there for another 3 hours as Christina and I sat and talked and watched. She looked comfortable.

We decided, at that point, to leave for the day. Her nurse assured us that they were going to keep Sarah that way for a while until the pain subsided. They also said that the babies will only feel the main surgical pain for about 24 hours.

I just spoke with her nurse and she told me Sarah slept through the night and was doing well. I asked about the wound. Sarah's first surgery was followed by an infection and I am a little nervous about a repeat performance. The nurse indicated that the wound looked good. No swelling, no redness, etc.. I will probably be nervous about this for another day or so.

Summary: So Far, So Good.

Preparing For Surgery

Game on. Tomorrow @ 11:00 am. The prep begins today. Sarah is scheduled to have an NG tube inserted today, as well as being taken off Pregestimill and switched to Pedialite. She probably won't like that, but what are ya gonna do?

If all goes well, by 1:00pm tomorrow Sarah will be whole. This, I believe, will be followed by 7-10 days of relaxing.

I am a little anxious and nervous. We have had such good luck with the care she has gotten, that I can't stop thinking I might be too overconfident. That might not seem rational. Let's say I am cautiously optimistic.

Keep Sarah in your prayers.

Continued Success

Sarah is now up to about an ounce per feeding. She is tolerating everything and all is good. A surgical resident came by today and told me that the next surgery is usually scheduled 6 weeks from the first.

That timeline puts the next surgery somewhere around September 21st.

We both continue to gain weight at an impressive pace.

Two Things All Kolassas Can Do.

This morning went very well for Sarah. She sucked down all the Pedialite she was given and then produced. This should pave the way for more and different feedings.

The doctors did pull some more bile out through the NG tube, but that should be only temporary.

Things are looking good. All the doctors have been by and have given their seal of approval. We will see what the weekend brings.

Post Surgery

Sarah was brought back to the NICU where, Jessica, Sarah's nurse was helpful in getting us situated.

We could stay as long as we wanted, just not during staff changes. They don't like to have people in the room when they are reviewing all the cases and talking about patients that might be confidential.

We did stay through the shift change as there weren't many babies in our NICU room and there wasn't much to update.

The NICU, at our hospital, is a series of dorm type rooms. Each of the room has eight beds. Each nurse has one or two babies to look after. There are dozens of machines that do all kinds of monitoring. The babies need frequent attention and the nurses really work hard. They have to perform procedures such as changing medications, cleaning and changing dressings and constantly replacing adhesive contacts that send all kinds of info to the monitors. They seem to have to change dressings much more frequently than in the PICU or regular hospital.

The darn connectors keep falling off the kids and the monitors go crazy.

You almost get used to machines beeping and blinking. When Will was in the hospital, I would freak out if the machine started beeping. Sometimes I think he would pull the leads off on purpose, just to mess with me. He was smart little 4 week old!!

Although I cannot hold Sarah right now, I know she is in the right place. Thank GOD it is 2007. 30 years ago, this might have turned out differently. I have faith in the doctors and our nurse.