Long Day

Today started off around 5:30 this morning as I quickly gathered things and headed to the hospital in order to be there for Emma's little procedure. Around 8 o'clock there still was no sign of the pediatric surgeon. At about 9 am the neonatalogist came in to tell me that himself, the radiologist, and the pediatric doc had all decided that putting a needle in her abdomen and trying to extract air was not the thing to do. They all agreed that Emma needed a Penrose drain put in. He continued to explain that this would be a little more invasive than the little procedure they had previously planned to do. This would require the surgeon to make an incision on each side of her belly and pull a tube from one side to the other. This would allow air, or whatever to evacuate her body by seeping out the sides of the tube. The tube will be left in for weeks or until she is tolerating feedings, but those won't start for awhile. Around 5:30 they finally got the procedure done. Dr. Shropp told me that there was a great deal of air and pus that made it's way out. They will do cultures to make sure they are treating this infection with the right meds, and they will continue to keep a close eye on this. The cause of this is still unknown, but there are many ideas swirling around. We'll just have to wait and see. Did I mention that Patrick (unfortunately) had to fly to D.C. yesterday?? It just about broke his heart to leave.

Hope you all are able to understand this all. I'm exhausted and my thoughts don't seem all that organized.