Quick Update

Still a lot of unknowns but Karsie is still doing well. She is being treated for a possible infection as some of her lab work is suspicious for that, but they won't be sure until about a day or so when the cultures have been grown.

Dr. Saenz came by and looked at her. He said everything by sight still looks real good. She had an xray done to see more but they couldn't find anything conclusive on that so they sheduled another one tomorrow morning without her dressing on to see if they could see more. She still had a poop today which is still very good news.

The plan is to continue draining her bowel and start her on feeds tomorrow at some time. The feeling from everyone, assuming she doesn't have an obstruction, is that she had a bug (or small infection) and she should be out in a few days. That's our hope too.

Karsie is still acting like Karsie. Mad as heck she is not eating, but still consolable and happy.

Our Family Minus One

Kevin and Michelle are now home following an exhausting day at the NICU.  Like good ol' NICU fashion the current plan is "we'll watch her and go from there."  Well, we've been told more than that, but that quote did come from someone tonight.  

At this point there is reason to be optimistic.  She had been pooping, which still could mean an obstruction if it occurs in the upper part of the intestines and she is just cleaning out the lower part.  She is not producing the green bile, which means food is passing through.  Also, she is not continuing to vomit after we stopped feeding her.  There is still a good possibility that there is an obstruction, but it seems that if there is it is small and we caught it right away.  

Dr. Saenz wants her there for at least 12 hours to monitor her.  They are deflating her stomach and bowels to give them a rest.  Hopefully during that time (tonight) the bowels will work out the problem on their own.  After that the goal is to "wake up" the bowels again by introducing the feeding.  We were told by one doctor that this process will not be nearly as long as before and hopefully she will be eating and out of there within a couple of days.  

Pinky note:  There is a considerable change in the shape of Karsie's omphalocele.  The best way we can describe it is Mt. St. Helens.  Think of the mountain before it blew up verses after. Pinky looks like the top of the mountain blew off and there's kind of a crater now.  When she breaths it goes up and down like loose skin.  This very well could be the sign that her intestines are moving back into her abdomen, which could be the "kink" in the bowels.  

We miss you Bug...