Olivia is home!

It is SO nice to be back at home! All of us feel so much better just being together in one house again.

Olivia was able to come home this past Monday. We hit the house around 5 pm and it's been a whirlwind around here. We've had two visits at home from a nurse and one visit out to her pediatrician. I love her pediatrician - he's got a well child entrance that is separate from the sick child entrance and waiting area. We were able to go when no one else was in the office so she was not exposed to anything. He spent an hour and a half with us learning about her and looking at her. I was very impressed. He used to work in the same hospital we just left, and is still remembered by the staff that works there with an enormous amount of respect. We have two more nursing visits at home and one more doctor visit between now and next Wednesday - hopefully it will dwindle down after that.

I know our updates have been spotty and they might continue to be so for a while. But to pull it all together with everything she went through, I thought I would list some of the things put on her "unofficial" discharge diagnoses. This is a short synopsis of what she has been through the past two plus months. Lots of medical terminology; hope it makes sense. While I lived through it with her, I'm not exactly sure what some of these are in plain English - I'm just copying off the paper. We have a few more appointments coming up that might add some information to this - hopefully not!

Former preterm infant now 42 4/7 weeks PMA
RDS (resolved)
Left Pneumothorax (resolved)
Respiratory Acidosis (resolved)
Seizures
Anemia
Pneumopericardium (resolved)
Bigeminy
Grade 2 IVH bilaterally (brain bleed)
NEC
Pneumoperitoneum (resolved)
Hypotension (resolved)
Coagulopathy (resolved)
Thrombocytopenia (resolved)
Bowel perforation s/p illeostomy placement
BPD
hypotonia
Bowel reanastamosis
G-tube placement
Gastroesophageal reflux

still early, the day after

I was so overwhelmed in the beginning and still in such a state of shock that when I look at these pictures, I am noticing for the first time some of the seperate wires. So many were going in different directions that she just looked tangled up in them to me.

Jet ventilator

The ventilator she's on was connected to a huge stationary machine by the side of her bed. She couldn't really be held until she went to the next step down on ventilators, and her head had to be positioned very carefully. You can see the original chest tube scar on her right side; the one in there at this point was the second or third one.