Life As We Know It...: Day 14 Update!

I am so sorry that I have not updated for a few days!! They moved Isabella to 3 different rooms in 2 days and during all of that craziness my laptop charger was misplaced. They finally found it today, so I wanted give everyone a quick update on our little princess! She is doing GREAT!! We just got settled into the step down room! The rooms are not nearly as nice as the ones we have been staying in (we are back in the old unit) but we are one step closer to going home! Praise the Lord! While she is in the step down room I am in charge of all of her care, and I have to sleep in a chair bed next to her crib. We are also sharing a room with another family, so this should be fun! ;)

Isabella was finally able to try and eat today! Thankfully she did not forget how to take a bottle! I knew she wouldn't have a problem, but they kept telling me she would. They gave her two bottles today that she sucked down quickly, BUT the speech therapist thinks she is showing signs of silent aspiration. She said this was common for babies after being on the ventilator for an extended period of time. They will try and give her another bottle tomorrow to see if she is still having the same issues.

In order for us to go home she will have to be taking her bottle for all feeds and completely weaned off all narcotics. She is still on methadone and ativan (which replaced the morphine and versed) and they are slowly weaning both of those. They tried to wean her a little too fast yesterday and she was suffering from serious withdrawals. It was so sad! They had to give her an extra dose to get her to calm down. It's crazy how fast their little bodies become addicted to pain meds! They did skip one dose of ativan around 2pm, and she did not show any signs of withdrawal!

She also had another echo today and everything looks the same as the last echo. This is GREAT news because her valve leakage has not gotten any worse (at the moment) and she is able to tolerate the amount of leakage for now. The report said they left valve was moderate and the right was mild. We had one doctor tell us that her left was severe and the right was moderate, but for some reason that was not accurate. Two other doctors have confirmed that it is moderate and mild. I am just praising the Lord that she is able to tolerate this amount of leakage! They still feel like she may need another surgery in the future (especially if it gets worse) BUT I will be praying daily that will not happen!! God is so good.

Update on baby Samuel...The surgeons did not feel good about trying to do another repair, so they went ahead and replaced his valve with a mechanical valve today. The surgery was a success! Samuel is in recovery and doing well. While this is good news, there are still some other things they need to worry about. Since Samuel now has a mechanical valve he will need to be on blood thinners. There can be complications with children taking blood thinners, and his Momma has been worried about this! Please continue to pray for Samuel and his recovery. Pray that the doctors are able to find the right dosage for the blood thinners so his blood will not clot!

God is our Healer!!!