The Waiting Game

It's 8:45pm and we're in the NICU.  This is where we've spent each and every night since our girls were born.  We manage to squeeze in the time after the nurse's shift change at 7:30pm and before they kick us out for "sterile mode" at 10:00pm.  It's become our new date night.

We were expecting just another run-of-the-mill outing with our girls, but it wasn't to be.  We arrived at the hospital to find that Isabelle's stomach was swollen with air again.  The drain that they already placed in her stomach isn't helping the same way it did a week ago.  She's in obvious pain and it's so hard to sit idly by and wait for the surgeon to get to the hospital and place another drain in her belly.  Her eyes are open, but her arms and legs are all over the place.  They need to put the breathing tube back in so they can administrator the pain meds, but the first doc couldn't maneuver past her vocal chords.  They had to call Dr. Fitzgerald to the hospital and he had it in less than a minute.  He was in and just like that, he was on his way back to the ice rink.  Amazing.

We're still waiting for Dr. Mac for the actual procedure, but it's getting more and more difficult to wait.  Meg is obviously distraught seeing our tiniest suffer and I'm doing my best to be strong, hold her tight and let her know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Somehow, we just can't manage to hold back the tears. </p>

The doctor said that what's happening to Izzy isn't life threatening.  It's just difficult watching your kid suffer--a completely new and unwelcome emotion for me. 

We're going to stay here through the procedure until we can visibly see her belly return to normal and know that she'll be getting a good night's sleep.

Before bed tonight, we would really appreciate it if you could say a small prayer for Isabelle.

I'll post another update when we know more.