Meeting with the Doctors

We had a meeting with Blaise's doctors today to discuss her status and the path we'll be taking from here. We weren't really told anything we didn't already know, but it's still hard to hear.

The state of her intestines is not good. She has very little in the way of healthy small intestine and we're waiting to find out more about her large intestine. The problem here is that the small intestine is responsible for absorption of most nutrients and fluids, so getting adequate nutrients without much small intestine is very difficult. The next two big steps for us involve finding out how well her remaining small intestine absorbs nutrients and determining how much of her large intestine is functional. For the time being, she's receiving all of her nutrition through IV. The timescale for this is many weeks because our first priority is making sure she's as big and strong as she can be before adding any more stress. We also need to be sure that she's recovered well from her surgery. We're taking our cues from her.

In less medical news, we're pleased to report that although she's the youngest baby in her part of the NICU, she doesn't let the others push her around. She's got quite a voice and can out-yell the other babies. When she's quiet and alert, she has a hilarious set of facial expressions, including this funny little smirk that makes us suspect that we're not in on the joke. She loves to be swaddled, held and sung to and we read to her all the time. We've also tried explaining such important life-lessons as the difference between a standard crossword puzzle and a cryptic, how many Super Bowls the Steelers have won and why she can go to any college she wants as long as its not CalTech.