January 14th, 2007 - Kaia's comment

We received our first middle-of-the-night phone call from the NICU last night. When I heard the phone ring at 3am, I knew who it was and I knew it wasn't good. Through my groggy sleepy haze, I listened to the doctor tell me that he was concerned about Lauren. She had been rather unstable over the last few hours and he was concerned that she may have an infection. She was retaining fluids, her blood gases weren't good and her heart rate was very high (over 200bpm, although she had been in the safer 170-180bpm range right after the surgery.) Her blood pressure was low and CO2 was high. Basically, her heart was working hard and it seemed like she wasn't getting enough oxygen throughout her body or ridding herself of the waste gas CO2. The doctors planned to switch her to a different type of ventilator (high frequency oscillating ventilator), put her on a high powered antibiotic and begin to diagnose the problem. We knew that the PDA surgery recovery would likely be rocky and sure enough it has been.

Grant and I headed into the hospital this morning knowing that Lauren was fighting a good fight. We have tried to keep a strong and positive outlook, but there have been a lot of tears today. We have been told that she may not make it through this infection, which is impossible for us to swallow. We have been by her side constantly and hoping for the best. The team of respiratory experts, NICU doctors and nurses were very focused on Lauren all morning. So far, test results have not shown a specific infection, but they think she is shunting some blood through another duct near her heart and she may have a sepsis (infection in her blood.)

Grant's brother Matt braved the snow (yes, we had MORE snow last night!) and has been by our side in the hospital today, providing positive encouragement. Fortunately, Connor seems to have recovered today, and we think his 'illness' last night was due to more molars coming in. Poor little guy!! Early this morning, it seemed like our whole family was falling apart. The cat was the only one who didn't seem out of sorts. This afternoon Connor's energy and spark have returned, and he's been playing with his GranD (my mom) who is here to care for us all and help us get through the weekend. With his giggles and smiles, once again our son is the embodiment of hope that we need in such a difficult time.