"She surprised me"

First of all, Kylie is doing much better.  

Kylie returned from surgery on a ventilator, as we expected.  Not much changed on Saturday or Sunday morning when we saw her.  Sunday evening we got a call from the resident telling us that she had an infection and they were starting antibiotics.  At the time, it wasn't explained how serious the problem might be.

 

Monday morning we got a call that she was not doing well at all.  We rushed up to find her unbelievably swollen.  The infection had become very dangerous.  We were told that her kidney (remember, she only has one, and it doesn’t work too well) had failed, her blood pressure was plunging, and the infection was in her blood stream.  Monday afternoon, the doctor sat us down and prepared us for the worst, because they didn’t know… it was absolutely the most horrible moment of our lives.

 

Kylie began to stabilize little by little that afternoon.  By evening, she didn’t seem to be in immediate danger anymore and the pediatrician even recommended we go home for the night.  We made everyone swear to call us if anything changed and eventually left.  It wasn’t a restful night’s sleep, but each time we called to check we found out she was slowly improving.

 

Tuesday she continued to improve.  When I spoke with the doctor, he was very optimistic.  I asked if she would make it, since she appeared to be so much better.  We both needed to hear it from him.  He said that he had left very skeptical and doubtful the night before, but “she surprised me”.  He hadn’t expected her to recover nearly so fast, if at all.  A few of the nurses also commented on how relieved and surprised they were at her rapid recovery.  There is no doubt in my mind that the prayers offered by so many of you played a part in her recovery.  She is fighting off the infection and slowly regaining her strength.  Her kidney is working again, her blood pressure has stabilized, and her electrolytes are in normal range.  

 

They are drawing blood so often that she has received two transfusions of blood and one of plasma to keep her stable.  I never knew that they are much stricter on blood for newborns than for adults.  They basically give her blood that would be used for cancer patients or people without immune systems, so it is extremely safe.  I have the same blood type as her, and they wouldn’t even take mine.   There are antibodies that that the majority of adults carry that they won’t pass to newborns.  It is relieving to hear how strict they are. 

 

It turns out that Kylie has an E. coli infection.  We don’t know how she got it, but the leading theory is that when her blood pressure dropped after surgery, it escaped into her bloodstream.  Apparently we all have it in us, but our bodies can usually handle it without problem.  Her kidney failure caused her to gain 2 lbs of water weight.  That's nearly a 40% increase, for those of you keeping score at home.  By Wednesday, she had dropped all the way down to 4 lbs 15 oz again, about what she was before surgery.  She hasn’t had milk in nearly a week, so she certainly has lost weight.  She is still a little swollen, so we know she still has some fluid to lose.  She is still on the ventilator, but is little by little weaning off of it.  They finally turned off the morphine and blood pressure medicine and she is doing fine without them.  There are still more tests to be run, and she is still very fragile.  Needless to say, she won't be coming home as early as we had hoped.  The road is much longer than we previously thought, but at least we get to keep walking down it.

Memorial Hermann NICU is one of the best in Houston, if not the country.  When the attending pediatrician pulls you into a room for “the talk”, that means things are very dangerous.  For him to say he was surprised seems very significant.  He sees sick babies every day, so he knows what to expect.  Thank you, to everyone praying for Kylie and our family.  We have been blessed with a modern day miracle, and have Kylie with us for a while longer-hopefully for many, many years.  Don’t ever doubt the power of prayer, or the reality that our Father in Heaven knows us and watches over us individually.  I do not know why we were blessed when others are not.  We have seen other parents who have not been so lucky, and can now understand in a very small way what they are going through.  All we can do is be grateful for the blessings we are receiving and thank Him who gives them.