Transport to University of Iowa...

Don't be alarmed. Last Tuesday Danielle was transferred to the University of Iowa via ambulance. This was not an emergency transport, Brad and I have known that this would possibly be in the works for a few weeks now. Danielle did great with the transfer and we are very pleased with how she is doing and the great care she is getting. You can see from the pics she tolerated things well. The pics of her being loaded into the ambulance and the transport isolet she was just looking around. She was awake the whole time!! Her current doctor at the U is one that Dylan had when he was there. Dr. Ziegler remembered Dylan, the room he was in, a few of the issues he had, and everything all by me telling him Dylan's name. Pretty impressive considering it was 2 years ago and that he has seen probably over 300 babies since then.

So within a day after Danielle was born we became aware that she had a Cranial hemorrhage. Keep in mind this is something that occurred and stopped, a hemorrhage is not something that continues. It could have happened before she was born or after, it is unknown when or why it happened, but it did, and cranial hemorrhages are fairly common in preemie babies. It has been at our discretion not to share this information until now. Mostly because this is something that nothing can be done about. There is no medicine or anecdote to reverse it etc. Unfortunately it happened, but we move past it and believe in the best.

So as a result of the hemorrhage Danielle had excess Cerebral Spinal fluid in her head. For the past month or so the doctors have been draining a small amount out at a time via her soft spot. This is actually less painful for her than to have a new IV started in her arm. They have decided the amount of fluid they would take off depending on her head circumference. So they started the taps out at every 24 hours, then by the time she was transferred they had been able to space them out to every 72 hours. It was hoped that they would eventually be able to stop the taps and the fluid would drain correctly. For a few days it looked like they could space out the in between time, and then 72 hours ended up being the magic time. So we started talking about a potential transfer to the University for evaluation by a Neurosurgeon and talk about a possible shunt placement.

Long story short, she was transferred and had a shunt placed in this past Monday. She was scheduled for Wednesday but they decided about 4pm Monday to do it right then because the OR had time open. Daddy walked his little girl to the OR as far as he could go. He said she started at him the whole time and it made him feel horrible. But he was very glad to be able to take her as far as he could so she knew we were with her. The surgery went great. It was to take between 2 1/2-3 hours and it ended up taking only 2, but the longest 2 hours in our life it seemed like. Basically the shunt will allow the fluid to flow directly into her stomach lining where the cerebral spinal fluid will then be reabsorbed. The shunt is pressurized so it knows when to drain and how much. She had to be placed back on a ventilator for the surgery and today she already came off the vent and back onto high flow nasal canula oxygen. She is now back up to full feedings and all of her IV's were removed yesterday. You can see from the pictures that she has no real special bandage or anything, just a bandaid over the incision on her head and belly. Her neck is a little puffy from the IV fluid but she will pee that out or grow into it. After all she is getting a lot bigger being over 5 pounds now! The Neurosurgeons come and change the bandages and are happy with the way the incision is healing. It is an incision just behind and a little above her right ear. It will be totally coverd by hair. For surgery they had to cut some of her hair and the nice Neurosurgeons put it in a plastic baggie and labeled it '1st hair cut'. :)

So Danielle is a trooper, she is doing great. The lord has been with us thru all of this and protected our daughter. We really believe in her and we have decided that we will keep Danielle at the University until discharge. We have no real reason to put her thru transport again going back to St. Lukes. Although St. Lukes took great care of Danielle and we don't have any complaints, we would like her to be followed by the same people Dylan is followed by in Iowa City. That is who we feel comfortable with and we can deal with the extra driving now and when she comes home in order for our daughter to have the best care possible.

She did have an eye exam today and thankfully her eyes look a little bit better, definitely not worse. They are still keeping her oxygen setting up high to help her retina's, whatever she needs is fine by us! She will have another exam next week. Dylan also had his eye exam in Iowa City today and he was able to see his sister again! He did great, quietly looked at her and when she squirmed he even said 'baby'. It was pretty cute. For a few moments she opened her eyes and they quietly stared at each other. It was precious!! I was really glad he was able to go up and see her. I didn't know if they would let him in, they are even more strict up in the NICU now than when Dylan was there.

It has been amazing to have some of the same nurses that Dylan had and they all treat us wonderfully! Everyone has been amazed at the pictures of Dylan, and they have been very encouraging and reassuring that Danielle will also thrive as much as Dylan has especially when she comes home! The University is the best of the best. St. Lukes was great too but there are so many different things about each place, definitely pros and cons. But having Danielle in a place with all of the top notch technology and physicians really means a lot. 'Changing Medicine, Changing Children's Lives' we can really attest to that statement.

We really believe that when she is sleeping that the angels are speaking life to her and her big brother Dalton is helping give her the strength to fight and know that we believe in her. We are hoping to have Danielle home in a month or so, that is our goal. Thank you lord for protecting our children and blessing our family.~