St.Patrick's Day!

For sure she'll be home by St.Patrick's Day! There's still technically a chance for Valentine's Day, but FOR SURE St.Patrick's Day (to be fair, I also said this about New Years, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc.., but who's counting?!). The important thing is that Lana is safe and she's doing well. How many more holidays until Lana comes home you ask? As many as it takes!!!

I guess I should start by saying that Lana is actually doing really really well! She had another ECHO and her PDA closed on its own. There was a point in time where the goal was to get her stable enough to get her transferred to another hospital to get it surgically closed. It was a pretty large hole to be perfectly honest, and it gave us nightmares thinking about it. There were many days we spent more time praying than breathing. Then they noticed about a month ago that her heart murmur isn't audible via stethoscope anymore, but you can't confirm it's truly closed without the ECHO. Well I'm happy to report that after today's ECHO, her PDA is closed. Let me repeat it again, her PDA closed on its own! That's definitely something to write about. God is good! 

So what else is left? Well she's gonna come home with an oxygen tank, and a pulse oximeter to monitor her respiratory status. I took it for a whirl today and tested it on myself, and it seems pretty straight forward. She doesn't have an NG tube to feed from anymore either. All her milk and medications are taken orally just like anyone else. However, the last big hurdle is really to keep gaining weight. She's still getting used to drinking through a bottle, and sometimes she just tires out and falls asleep. She lost a lot of weight (77 grams) on Sunday night. Her physicians want to make sure that she isn't gonna keep losing weight when she gets home. Although it's a tough pill to swallow, Lana staying in the hospital for a little bit longer is what's best for her. I know some of her nurses and RTs will be happy to spend a little more quality time with her.