Are we at Cedar Point?
Instead of the Wicked Twister, we've now moved to the Gemini. Same thrill, different ride. Though, thrill is probably not the word I would use to describe the crap we are going thru.
Let's talk about the peaks of the rides before we get to the valley. Ella has been completely removed from the oscillator and morphine and is now on a CPAP. Yay! She's even responsive to my voice and will open her eyes and look at me when I'm talking to her. It's been pretty incredible. She is also now on the preemie lattes with breast milk and caffeine just like her sister. Now we have some good news about her as well. Emma had a PDA which was on the verge of causing problems. There are two remedies for PDA, one is medicine the other is surgery. Typically, if the medicine doesn't work, surgery is required. After the second and final dose of medicine, Emma's PDA finally cleared up. Yee-Haw! The doctor is confident that it won't show up again. We are so relieved until....
...yes, why can't anything EVER be easy with Emma? The echocardiogram which was used to diagnose PDA showed that Emma has a Ventricular Septal Defect or VSD for short. Now VSD can be nothing if it is small and within the muscle section of the heart. But as is the case, Emma is a not a simple child. She's an adorably cute baby, but simple she is not. The VSD is significant and is located in the membrane section of the heart, which means it won't close up on its own. Surgery will be required for Emma over the next 2 years to correct this defect. Now everything I've read today says that "Surgical closure of isolated ventricular septal defects is uncomplicated in 99 percent or more of cases.". Whew. Let's just hope Emma isn't that 1% case. Looks like we'll be scheduling a surgery for Emma in about 12 months.
I swear I've aged 10 years over the last 7 months, and I know this is just the beginning.