There’s no place like home!

Piper woke up this morning and was about 100 million times better.  There was no wheezing, her o2 levels were 98%-100%, and she totally wanted to play.  Even if it was 5 in the morning (insert crying Mom face here…  especially since she decided she could play from 12 to 1:30, too, and since the nurse was due to check on her at 12, I didn’t go to bed before that…).

Dr. Kay came in just before lunch, and had zero qualms about her going home.  Alleluia!  And because it was laporascopic, she doesn’t have any restrictions on her activities, either.  She even got a bath tonight, which she really enjoyed.  She’s just not allowed around any germs for a few weeks to ensure she doesn’t get sick (since her airways are susceptible now) and to stay away from any possible infections. 

She’s still pretty swollen, but it’s starting to go away.  She has a weight check on Friday—I’m hoping that it’s all gone before then, so that we don’t have even more ground to make up before the next time.  She’s about a half pound heavier today than she was on Friday morning, and it’s certainly not because all she’s eaten since then. 

Yay!  We’re so glad this is done!  Time to move on!

The dogs were so excited to see Piper.  I asked Piper this morning if she was ready to go home.  She responded by signing “doggy” over and over again.  I think she missed them, too!

We got this cool tube to crawl through (well, for the moment, a cool tube to lay in) last week.  She hasn’t had a chance to try it out until today.  She loved it!  She really thought it was funny.  But she was so enthralled with being in something, that she kept wanting to look at the ceiling, instead of staying on her tummy to crawl.  

 

It was a good day for our friend Jace, too—he got to go home after his heart surgery on Wednesday.  Way to go, Zippy!  Jace’s mom suggested that there’s some kind of solidarity between the two, and that’s why they had surgery in the same week.  I can’t say I approve.  And if that’s the way it’s gonna be, we’re gonna to have to coordinate our schedules from here on out. 

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers this weekend!  We’re truly touched by all the support—she sure is a loved little peanut!

Home is where we’re not

So, we’ve decided to go ahead and keep Piper at the hospital one more night.  Her airways are still sounding either inflamed or full of junk, and either way, I don’t really feel comfortable taking her home without the monitors.  If she did catch something while she was here (which I really won’t be happy about…), I’d like to get it figured out instead of wondering if it warrants a trip to the ER in the middle of the night.  Especially since we’re in the middle of the weekend. 

I am, however, fairly convinced that it’s either just some liquid in her lungs or inflammation from the intubation, but her raspy-ness gets worse when she gets mad and when she eats.  They’re going to keep her on the breathing treatments tonight.  With her Ds and prematurity together, we and our surgeon agree that maybe it’s better to keep a little closer eye on her.  We had the pediatrician from the floor come look at her, too.  To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of this hospital, and haven’t had great things to say about the staff.  The pediatrician suggested that she “probably” has a floppy airway since she has Ds, and that’s “probably” what’s causing the wheezing (even though she has never been wheezy before, it started after surgery, and the anesthesiologist has already let us know that the tube was a little too big and caused some irritation).  I got a little irritated—just because she has Ds doesn’t necessarily mean that she has low muscle tone (which, really, she doesn’t), and I feel like they want to wave away sincere symptoms because it’s easier to blame them on the Ds.  Maybe I’m being a little over-protective, but it still ticked me off a little.  Regardless, they are going to watch her for another night.  Whew.

She does feel better today, and tonight is finally starting to lose some of her puffiness.  She’s getting bored with the toys that we brought her, so my mom is going to bring down some of hers to have something different to play with.  (She’s not spoiled, really--)

Last night wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.  She decided to rip out the IV in her foot with her other foot in the middle of the night, but since she had been eating, they decided they could just leave it out (thank goodness!).  The down side was that she did it while she was nursing, and I didn’t realize it until I laid her back in her crib.  What a mess!

I am very glad that our surgeon is backing us up on this stuff- it’s nice to have someone on your team.  Hopefully this will be the last time we need to see Dr. Kay, and we can do everything else (which hopefully won’t be anything) at Children’s instead. 

Anyway, I guess I’ll end with the little face that makes everything worth it!

By the way—Sophie the Giraffe was Piper’s buy-off  toy for surgery.  I’ve been going to get her one for MONTHS now, but haven’t gotten around to ordering it from Amazon (it’s imported from France).  But we found her at a specialty toy store here in town.  Piper LOVES her Sophie, and highly recommends it to anyone who enjoys putting toys in their mouths…

Oh, the gall! Final (hopefully) chapter!

Just wanted to do a quick update--  Piper just fell asleep (hopefully for the night)…

She was in surgery by 11 this morning, so we got in a little early.  Not a bad thing, seeing as my nerves were completely shot. 

She was so happy this morning—it kind of broke my heart to do this to her today.  Okay, so no matter when we did it, it would be hard, but really?  How do you send this little face in for surgery???

(side note:  No, Luke is not holding down Piper’s head.  In fact, I think in this picture he was trying to tie the back of her gown together.)

The anesthesiologist called us last night to discuss everything.  Her biggest concern was that Piper was a preemie, so that increases all her risks.  She was concerned about her being able to (and wanting to) breathe on her own once she was extubated.  She was also very leery about allowing her any narcotics for pain management, because it can increase the risk of her apnea-ing or having bradycardia episodes.  So they decided to do a spinal block instead of offering narcotics.  They also woke her up from the anesthesia while she was still in the OR so that they could intervene if needed.  As if that didn’t freak me out…

Surgery lasted about 1 1/2 hours.  Dr. Kay said that there wasn’t much scar tissue to contend with, so that helped.  AND she was able to reuse one of the incision sites from her last surgery, so she’ll only have 4 scars in her belly, instead of 5.  Since she was in there, she also looked at the anatomy of her duodenum, just to have a look at her last handy-work.  It’s reassuring to know that there isn’t anything funky there, too. 

She’s really swollen tonight (they say that her spinal makes it harder to get rid of the fluid until the block wears off), and pretty grumpy.  She’s not maintaining her oxygen levels too well, either, so she’s on blow-by through the night.  That’s, theoretically, a side effect of the spinal as well, so they’re not too worried about it.  The only other thing is that, even though they used a newborn-sized intubation tube, they think it was a little too big for her, so she’s really hoarse.  She’s gotten a couple of breathing treatments, which have helped.  The RT said that she sounds pretty chunky, and tried to chalk it up to congestion, but seeing how she hasn’t been congested (and we know what that’s like), it’s either because of swollen airways or because some of her extra fluid has made its way to her lungs.  Ugh.  Hopefully by tomorrow everything will be looking better.  She is eating well, so that calms my nerves a lot. 

Anyway, I guess that’s all- it’s over, she’s done, and hopefully this will be our last visit to the world of abdominal surgery.  I’m so done! 

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers! 

Conversations with monsters

I was always a mini-person, just like Piper.  So my mom has lots of good ideas for altering the way some games are played to make them more munchkin-friendly. 

Like taking the cushions off the couch to make the height more Piper-esque.

She was kept company by her creepy monster—he was such a fun thing to look at!

She counted his feet, and wondered if she was going to grow another pair.

She then continued to inspect his eyes.  (This is one of Piper’s favorite body parts right now—she usually prefers our mouths, so long as they’re moving, we do okay.  But this picture makes me very grateful for our laid-back dogs…  Poor poked-in-the-eyes-hair-pulled-out-and-spat-at dogs…) 

She even shared her deepest, darkest secrets with the monster.  I’m sure they were centered around dinner, types of dinner, favorite ways to eat dinner, and complaining about the times when she has to wait a whole FIVE MINUTES for dinner…

 

SO, surgery tomorrow isn’t scheduled until 11, so we don’t have to be there until 9.  She’s allowed breast milk until 7 (if she was formula fed, she wouldn’t be able to eat past 5… wahoo!), so hopefully she’ll be able to make it until 11 without getting too grumpy.  It shouldn’t be a big deal—by the time we hand her over, we’ll have about enough time to eat lunch before she’s done.  We had a serious discussion with her today that she was not, under any circumstances, allowed to misbehave.  We should be home Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon.  There’s wireless everywhere (that’s the only thing I know about the hospital—I still haven’t been able to even find a map of the other floors,  much less pictures of any kind—I guess it’s been my lesson in relinquishing control…), so I’ll let everyone know when we’re all done.  Just say a quick prayer that everything goes smoothly—I almost feel guilty asking, knowing there are so many more significant and serious things going on right now (like Mr. Jace, who is doing fabulously, by the way), but we appreciate it either way.

Hopefully all the monsters will stay away at the hospital!

No rest for the weary

We were always taught that being part of a family means helping out around the house- whether that means setting the table, helping cook dinner, picking up toys…

…and folding laundry.  This is one life lesson Piper’s learning early.

Well, kind of.

Oh, the gall! (Part 2)

So, when I called the surgeon on Thursday last week, I anticipated at least a few weeks to get our appointment.  Not so much.  TODAY, we met with Dr. Kay. 

Piper was a hit, as usual.  She endured a trip to the milk bank, across the street to drop off some pictures at the OB’s and Perinatologist's offices, and then back to P/SL.  Smiled, waved, and blew raspberries at anyone within earshot.  She’s not a ham.  No way.  As you can see, she was obviously not enjoying her day… 

Surgery won’t be a huge deal.  One night at the hospital and three little incisions (plus one through her bellybutton).  She’s going to try to use one of the incision sites from her DA surgery when she was born, but it may be too far away to use.  The only things that may make it a little  more difficult is her smaller size (although she’s NOT worried about that—it’ll just take a little longer), and the fact that, since she’s already had abdominal surgery, there’s some scar tissue to deal with. 

The kicker here is that surgery is scheduled for FRIDAY. 

Oh. My. Goodness. 

I figured it’d take us a few weeks to see her in the first place, and then a few weeks to get in for the actual surgery.  I had NO intention of it being this week.  We had the option of going next week instead, but I’ve been dreaming about surgeries since we talked with the GI, and it’s getting a little old.  So, Friday it is.

I’m anxious to get this over with.  I’m just plain anxious.  I keep coming back, though, to the fact that it’s going to have to happen at some point, and there’s really no reason to wait.  If we wait, we risk all kinds of other complications that would make it a whole lot more difficult, including the start of liver failure, clogged ducts, and new stones (which could get lodged in the ducts).  Sooner is better.  And I’ll keep telling myself that until it’s over.

So, for now, I guess we’ll start getting stuff ready for Friday and Saturday.  I’m a little bummed because I’ve never been into the hospital side at P/SL, and I was hoping to see online what the rooms look like.  Natta.  Oh well, adds to the anticipation, huh???

We love Zippy!

Our little pal, Jace, is having heart surgery on Wednesday.  Keep him, his parents, and big sis LC in your prayers! 

I’m sure he’ll be ready to give LC a run for her money once he’s all fixed up! 

We’re sending thoughts of an uncomplicated and fast recovery for you, little Zip.