What’s Next

It’s Halloween, 2010, and I don’t feel like celebrating anything. Abby is still in the NICU 12 days after she was born. Normally I love celebrating the Holiday as a child, a chance to dress up and collect candy, and attendand parties, and it’s also my brother, Alan’s birthday. But this year I stay in watching TV. Abby’s nurses decorated her crib, making a wreath out of a paper plate and orange construction paper with her footprints arranged to look like black leaves on the perimeter with the spider web in the middle. It was a sweet gesture, but it did little to lift my spirit as I’m still waiting to heat what is next. A few more days go by and finally one of the NICU doctors, tells me that evening, Abby is still having breathing issues, still turning blue despite being on Anti seizure medicine and oxygen, so she needs to be moved to a NICU Level 4 hospital. Currently she is in a Level 3, they recommend a couple of different choices of where to go, a hospital in Overland Park, or Downtown Children’s Mercy Hospital. We choose Children’s Mercy. The ambulance takes her there that night. Once she gets settled in New doctors get to see her, neurologists, cardiologists, blood doctors, physical therapists, even a genetic doctor and a baby psychologist. They first remove the port for needles from her head, ( the only vain the hospital staff, from the pervious hospital could sick a needle in was in her head) and sick a needle port in her arm. The doctors soon relized that what was causing Abby’s breathing problems was because of the feeding tube down her throat was blocking her air passage. Abby was 10 days over due but way underweight a little over 5lbs . (I learned later that I have sleep apnea which when pregnant makes you have small babies) so now all Abby has to do is breath on her own and gain weight before she can come home!