I Finally Made it Home!

My name is Marriah, and I'm three weeks old. I have finally been removed from the collective, and am living at home.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. I failed my third and final PGE trial, so the doctors out me back on PGE. I rested, ate, and spent lots of time with mommy. Good thing I ate a lot, because the next day was starvation!

The doctors decided it was time to put in a stent to open the DA. If succesful, I would be able to go home in a couple of days. The bad news was the need for anesthetics, which meant I couldn't have anything to eat. By late afternoon I was very angry, and even more hungry. I was being starved like a cow, leaning up for the slaughter. By evening the doctors realized they couldn't do the stent until late the next day. After all that torture, I was finally able to eat... until early tuesday morning.

The whole time I was off PGE again, so the DA could close to the size they wanted. There was frequent monitoring with echocardiograms. By tuesday morning, my blood was no longer my own; I had to have a blood transfusion to keep my oxygen saturation up.

They starved me fore a few hours before going to the cathederization labs. The doctors threaded a catheder line through my heart into the Ductus Artery, where they placed four metal stents to keep it open. And then they watched to see how the stents settled. They weened me off of oxygen by bed time, and I was doing well.

Wednesday was a lot of ultrasound exams, but by the end of the day, I had been completely de-borgified! No more arterial catheder - no more PIC line - no more PIV - just an o-sat sensor on my hand and resperatory / heart rate monitors taped to me. By thursday morning all that had been removed, and all I needed was a periodic check from a nurse.

So, on Thursday, it was time for a road trip. I finally got to see my home, after nearly three weeks in NICU! I got to sleep in my own bed. Mommy and daddy were beside themselves with joy that I was finally home, after seemingly forever. That is to say, for me, it had been forever; I was 19 days old, and lived every one of them in the NICU at Seattle Children's Hospital.

So, I really got to appreciate my first full day at home. I had a good appetite, feeding often, without taking too long or expending too much effort. Mommy even took me for a walk outside, in my own stroller. Saturday was a good day to turn three weeks old, where I celebrated my second full day at home. By the end of Satuday, mommy and daddy were beginning to adjust to their new life at home with me.

Now I get to be a baby, at home, like any other, and this makes us all very happy.



PS - daddy setup a paypal account for donations toward my hospital bills. He's not one to ask anyone for anything, but if any of those lives he has touched, through his friendship or ministry, could help; any little thing will go a long way.