Day #16

Good morning!

I convinced my mom to leave the hospital last night to get some much needed rest. Believe me, it's not an easy task to get her to leave! Kathy stayed here with Jen last night. Mom & I arrived this morning to find out Jen is essentially breathing on her own. The ventilator is just helping with the pressure. Her kidneys still aren't working & the dr said if it weren't for her kidneys, they'd be discussing taking her off the vent. The dr also said she was starting to get some fluid buildup due to her kidneys not working. We were thrilled to hear she's breathing on her own, but disappointed to still hear her kidneys aren't working.

We met with the kidney dr last night. He said he was "getting to know her" to help make a decision on when/if to start dialysis. He's meeting with the rest of her dr's today & they will be reviewing all of Jen's records. They will look at everything & decide what action to take. Dialysis is essentially a fake kidney that will do the work for her kidneys. This will give her kidneys the time they need to heal. (I've learned more medical stuff in the last 2 weeks than I ever cared to! Of course, one of the medical people in our family usually has to dumb it down quite a bit before I understand it. :) )

There's no date for her hip/pelvic surgery. This isn't up for discussion until she gets through all this.

The drs still believe there is nothing wrong with Jennifer that can't be fixed.

In the meantime, little Kacyn also continues to improve. He now weighs a little over 5 lbs. He's getting 2 bottles a day, but only drinks about .5 oz from the bottle before getting too tired. The rest of the feeding is then done through his feeding tube. (He eats 1 full oz.) He's still trying to figure out how to suck & swallow. He's got the sucking figured out, but is still working on doing both of these at the same time. But he's getting better at it! They are moving him out of the enclosed bed to a regular open crib today. And they're going to dress him! We brought him some little preemie outfits to wear. They look sooooo tiny, but I know they are still going to be way too big for him! He'll still be in NICU, but in a regular crib. Grammy (David's mom) is down there feeding him now & will be taking more pictures. I'll post new pics to the blog as soon as I get them.

David continues to improve. He can bend his knee more than they thought he'd be able to at this time. We are still looking at 3 months before he can put any weight on that leg, but he's getting closer every day!

Little Josiah is on his way back today. John (our brother) is driving him back. Those of us who know Josiah very well know he'll probably jabber the whole way!

Keep the prayers flowing! They are working! Everyone is getting better every day!

Love,

Lynn