Praise

It’s been a very stressful couple of days.  I’ll get right to the point.  I’m happy to share that Sophia’s heart problem is fixed!  Here are the details…

At 11pm Tuesday night, Sophia started on indomethacin to hopefully close a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).  The best odds the doctors gave the medicine was 50%.  If the medicine didn’t work, then Sophia would need surgery.  She got the medicine every 12 hours and got her last dose around noon today.  We were on pins and needles all afternoon waiting for the pediatric cardiology team to evaluate Sophia’s heart.

Tanya was only able to spend an hour with the twins yesterday because of an emergency operation on another kid in the NICU.  Sophia’s stats looked better yesterday than Tuesday, so we were hopeful that the medicine was working.  Today, we both got to the NICU around 11am.  We were happy to see her oxygen levels consistently near 100%…

The cardiology team showed up about 4pm.  Two techs arrived first and set up the sonogram machine.  Unlike everything else in the NICU, it looked straight out of 1990…

The techs got everything ready, then two cardiologists showed up.  The first doctor walked over to the sonogram machine, looked at the display, and said “hmmm….”  More pins & needles.  Sophia tightly held Tanya’s finger during the checkup as if she was hanging on for the news.  After an extremely long few seconds he said…

“So, her ductus is closed.”

Somehow I was expecting fanfare, fireworks, or something similar when he gave us the news.  I guess there’s not really room for fireworks in the NICU.  It was exactly the news we were hoping for.  Sophia’s PDA problem was gone.  This meant she didn’t need surgery to fix her heart.  I can’t really think of a way to explain how happy we were (and still are).  Outstanding news.

She’s still not completely out of the woods, but we have a much higher chance of everything turning out ok now.  It’s still possible for the PDA to happen again.  If that happens, then she’ll need surgery.  The cardiologists are going to check back in a week to see how her heart’s doing.  They’ll do another couple checkups before she leaves the NICU to make sure her ductus arteriosus stays closed.  They’re also going to watch a couple other minor heart things that should clear up as she grows.  She’s wearing a cannula again to get a little bit of oxygen to help stabilize her breathing.

Here’s Sophia after her checkup…

We both got to hold Cameron twice today.  We didn’t really time it, but we held him for a total of almost 4 hours.

Tanya demonstrated her Cameron bottle feeding power this morning, so I tried my hand at it later in the day.  He wasn’t interested & barfed on me to make sure I understood.

Still, he seemed to really enjoy just laying in my arms.  Here I am (looking tired) with Cameron (looking tired)…

Cameron made quite a few faces while I was holding him.  They’re pretty comical.  Here’s his pouty face…

In other things of great news, both of the kids are now at the 4 lb mark.  Last night Cameron weighed 4 lbs 2 oz and Sophia weighed 4 lbs.  Cameron’s self-temperature control is getting better very quickly.  He also is doing well enough with his feedings that they took out his PICC line.  So, all of his food now gets processed through his stomach.  Sophia’s going to start eating again tomorrow.  We’re hoping she’ll jump right back into daily improvements.

Like I said before, it’s been a rough couple days.  We can’t thank all of you enough for the love & support this week.  Sophia’s literally been the target of prayer groups, dinner table conversations, and countless other kind thoughts from all around the world.  Thank each and every one of you.

3 thoughts on “Praise”

  1. Keep you faith and spirits up. These gorgeous angels are going to be okay.
    I am the mother of a preemie, my daughter was born three months early with only 1 pound 11 oz.
    We had a three month journey in the NICU and I totally understand what you are going through.
    My daughter is now 9 years old and we are blessed to have her in out lives as you are to have these two wonderful miracles in yours.

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