The Emma Report

On the way home last night we stopped in to see Emma, who was sleeping peacefully on her tummy.

This morning she’s doing even better. She’s requiring a lower oxygen concentration, is active when the nurses handle her, and every indication is that whatever infection might have driven up her white blood cell count is subsiding. Hopefully this means we can move forward with the surgery soon, which in turn will reduce the load on her lungs and help her take a bigger step forward.

Apparently it took some calls to higher-ups in the hospital, but the elusive OB/GYNs have appeared and Laurie is good to go! I’m on the way to pick her up, I’m sure she’ll have more details to share with you all later.

I’ve spoken with the NICU twice so far today, and Emma has continued to improve. Her WBC is decreasing, and she’s only had a few very minor spells. They gave her some lasix to help decrease fluid around the lungs, and she promptly had a good pee. They’re about to restart her on breast milk. This morning there was some concern about bleeding, but tests this afternoon indicate no problems. The surgeon hasn’t been by to see her yet, but she definately appears to be moving in the right direction.

Laurie’s also doing fine, other than the fact that she’s been laying there waiting about 9 hours to see the docs. The resident was in around 6am, had no information for her, and said that the team would be by to see her. The nurse paged the OB/GYN folks sometime around 11am…four hours and counting. To say Laurie is getting frustrated would be an understatement.

If anyone from the General happens to be reading, please do me a favour and help reunite the OB/GYN department with the patient they appear to have abandoned on the 7th floor.

Laurie and Emma both doing well.

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Sent from my Rogers Wireless Cellular Phone

As if there wasn’t enough excitement today, Laurie started bleeding late this morning and I took her to emerg. Several hours and an ultrasound later she’s scheduled for a D&C tonight.

Meanwhile, back at the NICU, Emma had a few spells today. They adjusted her ET tube and she started responding better to the ventilator. They’ve drawn more blood samples, and started a second blood transfusion this afternoon. A set of x-rays taken this morning appeared normal. Other than the so-far-unexplained high white blood cell count, she has stabilized and had a good afternoon.

Michaela is just about settled in with Anne, and I’m heading back to the hospitals.

The medical team has decided to postpone Emma’s surgery as her white blood cell count remains elevated, indicating she still has an infection of unknown cause (despite being on antibiotics for the past 2 days). As the surgeon said, they don’t want to make a high-risk situation worse. Emma’s condition did not stabilize overnight as the doc. had hoped (she had a few apnea spells and did not respond well to the ventilator). More tests have been ordered and now we wait. The roller coaster continues…

Up ’til now, I’d been led to believe that the surgery Emma is facing was relatively routine and straight-forward. However, after talking with the surgeon this morning, I realize that while it is technically fairly routine, the potential complications posed by Emma’s fragile condition and her v. preemie size will make this a much more difficult procedure.

Intellectually I know that the doc. has to present us with all possible outcomes and worst-case scenarios, but hearing him discuss the very real possibility that she may not survive the surgery has me scared senseless.

Pending the results of another echocardiogram (to be done this afternoon), a brain ultrasound, and bloodwork, surgery will be at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.

We just spoke to the Children’s Hospital. Emma and her entourage (aka the transport team) have arrived safely and she’s doing just fine.

We just heard from the NICU that Emma will be transferred to the Children’s Hospital later this evening in preparation for surgery to close the PDA, likely to take place tomorrow or Thursday. We’ll meet with the medical team (cardiologist and cardiovascular surgeron) tomorrow morning and will know more then.

please keep Emma in your prayers,

Finally, after 11 long days of waiting, I was able to hold Emma for the first time today!!!

We hadn’t realized she could even be removed from the isolette, let alone held, so, of course, we jumped at the opportunity when the nurse offered us “a little cuddle”. The NICU advocates “Kangaroo Care” (aka “skin-to-skin care” in which the baby is placed on the parent’s chest clad only in diaper and cap). It probably took 10 minutes for the nurse and the respiratory technician to get Emma (and her tubes & wires) moved out of her incubator and positioned properly, but I was able to hold her for more than a half hour. At first, I was worried by the ringing of the monitors/alarms (signifying that Emma’s oxygen saturation levels or heart rate had changed) but she soon settled in and got comfy. It was so wonderful to hold her and feel her movements against me… I’ll remember those special, precious moments for the rest of my days.

Afterwards, I was able to feed Emma again and change her diaper. It is amazing how much I look forward these routine baby-care tasks

The NICU nurse also gave us this card with Emma’s footprints on it…Given that she seems to have very long feet (like her parents , it will give you a sense of how very tiny she is…

While the results of the echocardiogram hadn’t returned when we left the NICU today, the neonatologists were 95% certain that Emma will require surgery to close the PDA. We should know more tomorrow.