Today is Serenity's 4 week "birthday"! Wow. I can't believe it has been 4 weeks since she was born. It seems like she was just born last week. But at the same, it feels like we have been in the NICU for so long that we should have our own parking spot.
Today has been an interesting day for sure.... Today marks 3 weeks EXACTLY from the Friday morning Kim (Serenity's primary day-nurse) called me to tell me that Serenity was "very sick". Kim's voicemail on this Friday morning was eerily reminiscent of the phone call from 3 weeks ago. She even used the same words that she was "very sick".
I had been asking the nurses for the last day or two if her stomach was measuring bigger, because it was looking more bloated to me. It hadn't been measuring much bigger, but since she had been switched to a combination of the nasal cannula and the c-pap, that it's common for them to swallow more air than they would just being on the ventilator. So the nurses were thinking it was just from that. This morning though, when I made my very early morning trip to the NICU, I asked again if her tummy had gotten bigger. And went through the same conversation about the c-pap and cannula, etc. And in my head, I was thinking she looked a little pale/gray. But I thought maybe it was just the lights. It turns out, her tummy was definitely bloated. And her tummy, according to Kim, looked, "dusky". So my intuition had been right. Which Kim told me I needed to not be afraid of paying attention to and even questioning the nurses further when I feel strongly about something. I will definitely be getting a little more bold now when I have a feeling about something.
So what we are looking at in terms of her tummy being bloated is because of air; however, the air is IN her intestines rather than OUTSIDE of them this time. The first thought was that there was an obstruction causing the air to back-up in her intestines, but now the doctor is saying he doesn't think it's necessarily an obstruction. He feels like it has more to do with stress from being extubated, being poked and prodded, and then being intubated again. So the game plan for now is to not do much to her over the weekend, and check her again. They may opt to do a dye test at the beginning of next week after she has rested over the weekend.
Our prayer and hope is that they will be able to figure out what is going on with more x-rays and a dye test. Because if they are not able to figure things out, they may have to do an exploratory surgery, which we really do not want.
Other than that, Serenity's lungs looked better on the x-ray as far as fluid goes. The nurse said a lot of that is due being back on the vent and having more air pressure going into her lungs. I did ask her about the fluid today, and she said that fluid on her lungs is something that we will probably be dealing with off and on for quite some time. Just because, if she is receiving more fluids, her body is likely to hold extra fluid in her lungs.
So, needless to say, today was an interesting day. I know that we have to expect setbacks, but it's weird to go from being fairly stable, to being in an extremely unstable condition. Not knowing what could happen at any moment is sort of an unsettling feeling, but so far, we are still finding ourselves in a state of strength and peace.
Thank you all for your prayers today, and everyday! Thank you for all the love you have sent us and Serenity Hope across the miles. We love you all!
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