Never-ending eye appointments

Still no eye surgery!! We had another check today. I guess the plan with her eyes is that she is not in the clear for not having surgery. The doctor said that she will still need surgery (98% chance..) whether it's next week or in a month. The plan is to just keep checking them every few days so that when they do get worse, we can do the surgery right away. The good thing is that with every day that she doesn't need it, she gets a little older and a little bigger. The bigger she is, the easier it will be for her to recover from the surgery. So that's the plan with those eyeballs of hers. Her next appointment is Tuesday. We will wait and see.

Today I did some skin to skin holding and she was on 2 liters of air flow on her cannula at room air... ROOM AIR!! That means no extra oxygen was needed! She was doing so good! It only lasted for like 5 or 10 minutes but then she only went up to like 24 or 25%. Little by little.

What else to update? I've noticed that the last few days I've felt more and more comfortable around her. It helps that I get to do more of her cares and also that day by day she is getting bigger. Of course I know the nurses need to do the important stuff but I just want to swipe her right out of that little bed of hers all the time! At least this way I know that when she comes home I'll probably be feeling much much more comfortable with her!

Here is mine and Clint's special find today! It costs a pretty penny but it is so pretty! The minimum weight for this stroller is 4 lbs! That's like 2 or 3 days away for us! Granted, she's not coming home in 2 or 3 days.. I'm thinking like 4 weeks or so but it's still nice to know there's a car seat out there that she can actually fit into now!!

Darbi's Eyes - workin' hard

Ok.. are you ready for this? I'm serious.. I am about to BLOW YOUR MIND. That's right.. just as we all prayed and fasted for (thank you all SO much..) Darbi does NOT. NEED. SURGERY. There really is nothing this little girl cannot do. The doctor told me that there was approximately a 2% chance that she would not need surgery. WOW.

The doctor came in to see her tonight around 9:15ish while I waited in the Parent Lounge. I came in after the Parent Network ladies came and told me they were done (with sly little smiles on their faces... they knew already.. I'm sure). I came to the hospital ready for the long haul in case surgery was tonight (aka: wearing my pj's... I'd actually been in them all day...) and when I turned to corner to get to Darbi's bedside, my nurse turned to me and said NO SURGERY!! I couldn't believe her! I was giddy!! I ran out into the hallway to call Clint and look for the eye doctor to get his official report. For those of you who understand the details of ROP, she was in Zone 2, Stage 2 and had gotten to that point rather rapidly. The doctor was expecting it to be further into Zone 2, possibly Zone 1 and when he came to check on her, she was still the same. Zone 2, Stage 2. He said that this was excellent news. Her body has stopped the ROP progression which means that it will likely get better. Surgery is not needed and he will come in to check her again Friday or Saturday.

I have been stressing about this whole eye ordeal since last Wednesday, when we first learned about it, and now I feel SO much better. I was able to go grocery shopping on my way home and actually think about grocery shopping!! I'm a little exhausted from worrying about it all day and cannot wait to go to sleep. I am SO proud of my little girl! This day is perfect but the only thing to make it better would be a weight gain of 3 pounds.. Not going to happen today. But I wouldn't put it past her for another day. ;)

ROP update

Clint and his old roommate Ben went in today to give her a blessing to help her through this surgery. She needs to be intubated again and we're hoping for a quick rebound off of it. The eye doctor came in today to check her eyes again with the expectation that they would be worse and surgery would be required today. Her eyes are the same. The SAME. Which is actually really good! He postponed surgery to Monday. He didn't want to do surgery in case her eyes miraculously fixed themselves (which can rarely rarely happen). He will check her again Monday and we will go from there (with probable surgery). This girl, with the help of the Lord through the blessings from Clint, has proven herself capable of just about anything and I'm really hoping and praying for the eyes to fix themselves. I know it's EXTREMELY far fetched but I've got 2 1/2 days of prayin' to do so we will see.

ROP fo' sho'

Darbi had her 4th eye exam today and much to my dismay... she has ROP. :( Apparently it is pretty severe.. But I really don't know that much about her case. Not severe enough to require the phrase "retinal detatchment" in its description but I know enough about ROP to ask some questions but not the important questions. The doctor said he will check her again on Friday (2 days - usually not good when the appointments are so close together) and will probably be doing laser eye surgery. If not Friday, then Monday or Tuesday (the surgery, I mean). The doctor said that the window of opportunity to do this surgery isn't very big so I'm super glad they caught it when they did. I don't know how far along it has progressed. I do know that the surgery will take 30-45 minutes per eye and is actually very painful for these little ones. They will be giving her a lot of pain meds and I hope she doesn't remember any of it.

He said that she will have "central" sight which is basically anything you can see out in front of you but he said that she may lose her peripheral vision.. So she'll be a dangerous driver someday.. She'll be joining every other horrible driver out there (if we live in UT.. ) which I'm crossing my fingers we don't.. sorry Clint :) I was hoping that it would be alright and hopefully correct itself (the ROP I mean.. not the drivers. There's no hope for them...) but he said that he's 98% sure she will need laser eye surgery.

She's still doing alright on her feedings. They fortified my milk to 22 cal and stopped giving her hind milk because my milk is so fatty that she's not absorbing all the calories that I am providing so it's just causing me more work. She is tolerating the 22 cal and I want to just stop there. The doctor today said he wanted to jump to 24... I said NO. She's doing fine... Let's leave her there. And I found out today that they have her on like 15 different meds throughout the day! I don't even know what they are!! All that medication PLUS more fortification that we are not sure she can handle, I know will be too much for her little body. So we're trying to just keep her stable for her ominous upcoming eye surgery.

On a funny note, Clint and I went in tonight to help give her a bath and she kept pooping in her bath water!! We cleaned it up, changed her water, and started all over again.. We were afraid of another mini water bomb but she just decided to keep passing gas and she had Clint doubled over laughing so hard! He couldn't believe such loud (and proud) sounds could be coming from his sweet teeny-tiny little girl! Pretty funny...

Weight today = 1635 grams

Eye exam #2

This time.. I wasn't there for it. One time was enough but then once again, NO ROP!! SO soooooooo great!! I know this won't make sense to most but for those who know a bit about ROP, she is currently in the middle of Zone 2 and the Dr. said he's thinking maybe 3-4 weeks and we are completely out of the woods as far as ROP goes.. I don't want to jinx it but she's doing amazing!

Eye Appointment #1

No signs whatsoever of ROP!!! She will continue to get checked by her eye doctor every week because once ROP does start to develop, it progresses very rapidly. BUT so far so good!! The test is not an easy one to watch but I braved up! I watched it.. I'm sure if I could actually hear her crying it would have been worse. She did really well because she was doped up on meds so she won't remember it.