One Step Back..

Unfortunately, surgery is not happening tomorrow. This afternoon, Lily spiked a fever. The NICU doctor came to see her immediately and ordered several lab studies. Until infection is ruled out, she cannot go to the operating room. So they checked a urine test, blood work, blood cultures, and a lumbar puncture for spinal fluid studies. So far, everything has come back negative, but the cultures will need at least 36 hours to grow. If everything stays negative, the teams will reevaluate on Monday to see if she is ready for surgery.

This was heartbreaking news for us. We understand the importance of ruling out infection before surgery, but we were so hopeful that the surgery would improve her breathing, help her to be more comfortable, and move her forward in this long journey. If something does come back positive, they will treat with antibiotics specific to the infection and surgery will be postponed most likely 7-10days. They did start her on a couple broad spectrum antibiotics right away. Thankfully, the ECHO today showed that her PDA closed some, and that it did not cause any narrowing of the aorta. So no sign of coarctation which is wonderful. Sounds like they will still close the PDA all the way and do the pulmonary artery banding in surgery.

Lily was back on phototherapy today. Her labs other than high bilirubin all look good though. Her blood gases are good too, but she's still on CPAP to help her breathe easier.

Cora is still doing fabulously. She's maintaining her temperature, gaining weight, and starting to take small amounts of milk by mouth. We're hopeful that she will come home sometime next week.

Today was another emotional day, and we appreciate your prayers for us as well as for the girls. Sorry about the issues with the blog link. Hopefully we can get it sorted out with facebook soon. For some reason, it thinks our blog is inappropriate content.

Sweet Cora Marie

The nurses decorated the girls' door :)

Rose is SO excited to be a big sister