Surgery Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning Brianna is having laser eye surgery to correct the ROP in both eyes. We are staying at a local hotel for a couple of days so that we can be close to her. We spoke with the eye surgeon tonight and he is the chief of eye surgery and has been doing this for 18 years. He has done this procedure thousands of times in a year so we know she is in great hands.
We need to be at the hospital at 6:45 am so we are going to go get something to eat and go to sleep early tonight as its going to be a long day tomorrow...the eye surgeon said to plan on the surgery taking 1-2 hrs. If we don't do this procedure he said that in his opinion she would be completely blind in about 14 days so we don't have much choice other than to do the laser surgery. She is in the best care here but still very scary.

Prayers Needed

Today we were told that Brianna might need to have laser eye surgery. She has ROP which means the blood vessels growing to attach to her retina are not growing straight but instead growing curvy. Right now she is at what they call Stage 2 Zone 2 of ROP. The eye doctor will do another eye exam on Monday and if its not any better than they recommend laser surgery to the vessels that are curvy so that they can re-grow straight. If things look better on Monday she might not need surgery. If she needs surgery she would need to go back to Hanover for a week to have the surgery done. She would need to go under anesthesia and go on a ventilator for the surgery which they would try and get her off of the ventilator within a day so that she doesn't become dependant on it. Otherwise she is doing great and hit 3 lbs today! She is handling her feedings well and has been offerred a bottle once she did ok and took 2 ml by mouth but than got tired and slept for 4 hours. They will continue to work on it little by little.

Baby Shower

Brianna's baby shower was on Sunday. Thanks to all my family and friends for such a great day. Brianna is very loved and won't need an outfit for her first year. Brian and I had a wonderful day with all of our family and friends. We showed a slideshow that we created and I will try and post it here.

New Pictures

Brianna has been transferred

On tuesday 9/8/09 Brianna was transferred to a hospital closer to us. She handled the transfer great and was fiesty the whole way...She pushed out her feeding tube 2 times during the ride in the ambulance. This is her new trick she uses her tongue and gag reflux to push out her feeding tube at almost every feeding. The nurses now stand and watch her feeding go in as they don't trust her as she likes to do things when their heads are turned! Yesterday I held her for over an hour and she managed to pull out her oxygen, push out her feeding tube, and take off her heart monitor! LOL She has such a fiesty personality. She has started to work on breastfeeding but in the next couple weeks they will introduce the bottle and see how that goes as its obvious she is not happy with a feeding tube. The ride to the new hospital is so easy now its only 20 mins or so away from home so its easier to visit her and we can visit longer and time our visits around the times she gets care so we get to change her, take her temp, and feed her. She is now 2 lbs 11.4 ounces and is looking more and more like her daddy everyday!

9/7/09

Transfer scheduled for tomorrow morning

Just got home from visiting Brianna and she is doing great...she is up to 2 lbs 9 oz and her feedings have increased to 16 cc's every 2 hrs and she is doing good with them and her belly looks good...she has graduated to the back room and out of the critical side of the NICU and was moved yesterday. We spoke with her NP today and as long as Elliot isn't too full she will be transferred tomorrow morning...fingers and toes and everything is crossed! Her NP was so nice and said she is going to miss her little spitfire but is so happy to know we will have more time to visit with her and bond with her being closer to us. She also wanted to tell us that she is truly a miracle baby and she has done much better than any of them expected and sooner than they expected too....we already knew she is a special little girl and is a miracle baby.

transfer didn't happen

Well we are totally bummed out Brianna wasn't transferred today. The team from Elliot went to Hanover and were ready to transport her when she decided to start swinging really low on her oxygen stats. Then her belly started to get swollen again and they decided to stop her feedings for today and resume again tonight. She might be transferred tomorrow or Tuesday the latest due to the holiday. Her nurse and main nurse practioner are not too concerned as they think this is all related to her being stressed out this morning. This morning they did an eye exam on her and dialated her eyes 1 hr before she was to be transferred and I heard she didn't like it at all. They had to hold her down and she got extremely upset and was crying pretty hard which in turn filled her belly full of lots of air which then made it hard for her to breathe so it was a total chain reaction. We just got home and she was doing much better than this morning every time her nurse practioner walked by she would smile and all the nurses were cracking up they were all joking she just wanted the attention today as usually she is real quick at rounds as they have no issues as she has done so well that its a quick little conversation. Her doctor agreed that no more eye exams until she gets to her new home away from home.....the good news is her eyes look good.

9/1/09 2 lbs 6 oz

Tomorrow is transfer day!

Brianna is doing great and is up to 2 lbs 6 oz now! The best news is tomorrow morning Brianna is being transferred to Elliot Hospital and will only be about 20 mins away now! We are very excited to have her closer to us it will make visiting her a lot easier. We thought it would be happening next week but all the doctors, nurse practioners, and nurses agree that she is doing so well that she is going to do great at Elliot and they have a great NICU. They did a followup head ultrasound and all looks perfect she has no sign of any kind of brain bleed it looks exactly the same as it did at birth. Tomorrow Hanover will do bloodwork in the morning to doublecheck all her blood levels and will do an eye exam to check her eyes. Tonight one of the nurses was so sad that tonight was her last night to care for Brianna all the nurses think she is so cute and such a stong little girl. Her nurse today said nobody ever expected her to do so well so quickly after having such a rough start and that she has amazed them all. It is a little sad as we have grown very close to a lot of the nurses and they have given her such amazing care and have worked wonders. They said they like to get cards and pictures so I will be sure to send them lots of updates.