Day 42

Avery is slowly getting bigger.  It's easy to forget that things change when you see the girls and think about them every day.  Today a nurse was on that we hadn't seen in a few weeks, and she couldn't believe how much bigger Avery and Wren had gotten and was happy to see how Avery had done with her surgeries.

I got a few more pics:

This is Avery holding a little rolled up bandage that the nurses were using under her jaw to help keep her mouth closed (so that the CPAP would work better for her).  She grabbed the bundle out and held it tightly in both hands like a teddy bear.

This is Avery's very awake and alert face.  She always loves to extend out her arms and legs as much as possible, where Wren likes to keep her limbs in tight.  Her face kinda looks like mine after watching Stranger Things at night.

The latest shot of Wren with my hand for reference on her size.  She's a couple of inches longer than when she was born, and about 12 ounces heavier.  I told her to wake up because it was time to go to school, but she didn't seem interested.

Shannon got to see Dr. Merchant again today, and she was excited to see Shannon and Wren's unbelievable progress.  She had been off for a while, and while she was off she followed Wren's charts and couldn't believe that her blebs had gone down on their own, and also that the infection didn't damage nearly as much of the lung tissue as they originally thought.  She still has work ahead of her.  Dr. O'Riordan saw her today and evaluated a new echo that was done this morning for her heart murmur.  The cardiologist said that the PDA was very sizable and a ligation would definitely be needed.  So, the doctors are faced with a dilemma.  On one hand, she has a sizable PDA like her sister's that is currently causing a buildup of fluid in her lungs, making them in general less effective as they are less able to oxygenate and the ventilator requires greater and greater pressure.  On the other hand, ligating the PDA requires them to surgically go in through the back on the left side, collapse her healthy left lung, and work on the heart for up to thirty minutes or so.  It's a scary proposition because they don't know whether she'll be able to withstand the procedure very well with the one bad lung, and on top of it, it could put her blebs at risk of opening up again.  This surgery will likely happen sometime Wednesday morning.