My visit today....

I slept well last night considering I hate not being with my family. Of course, waking up every 3 hours is a change for me, but now I am conditioned for it. I actually look forward to it knowing it is for the goodness of our son that I do it.

I went to the NICU this morning. You have to tell them at the front who you are and what baby you are going to see. They then call back to your unit and ask if it's ok to come back. They told me "Sure, go ahead!" ... So I scrubbed in and headed back to Kadin's unit. When I got there, there was a tech at hit bedside doing a sonogram on him. The nurse was surprised to see me and said they were supposed to ask me to wait. Woopsie, too late. I offered to go back but she said it was no problem. Anyway ... the sonogram was of his heart. The Dr. said on his chest x-ray there was some indication of fluid on the lungs, which can come from several different things taking place, but one of the most common is that there is an opening in the lines coming from the heart that should be closed. The Dr. said the Tech was not real happy with what he saw on the sonogram, but that they would leave that to the cardiologist to read and decide. If there is an opening, it will need to be closed. Their first option for closing it is to administer medication to shrink the opening and close it. Sometimes that is effective, sometimes it re-opens. Ultimately, if the opening does not shut and stay shut, we are looking at surgery. I was assured we are a long ways from that.

Kadin was receiving more blood this morning. I think this is the 3rd time he has gotten blood. It takes hours to give it to him and sometimes he is a little antsy when they start messing with him so much so the nurse sedated him during all of this and when I left he was resting fairly well. I did not touch him this morning, just wanted him to rest.

Dr. Porter also said that Kadin will get another head scan at some point today. There was nothing that triggered it, just routine to follow up from the first one. He is still tolerating his milk well and I am glad about that. I can actually tell he has grown a little bit since he was born. That is always encouraging to see.

My first night here alone was a little difficult. I made it through, thankfully. I learned from my husband today of all the wonderful things that are taking place back home on Kadin's behalf. I am absolutely blown away by the generosity and care that our community has shown for us. There is an account set up at our bank now, but I don't have the account number or the information. I will post that when it is available. I know several of you have asked me for that information but I did not have anything until today. It will be sometime later this afternoon before I get all the details.

I am just so grateful for every minute that I am alive. My heart has been reformed in so many ways thru all of this. I have forever been changed and I could not be more thankful for it all.

Please continue your prayers for our family. I appreciate the intercessory prayers more than you will ever know ....

Love,Leslie