Will a New Year bring New Beginnings.....???

Erica seems to be doing very well. We are having weekly echo's to monitor her PDA and Aorta. The PDA seems to be closing but at a very slow rate. We've slowly been getting her feeds back up (they had to take her off the feedings as they weren't sure if she was going for surgery or if they needed to give a med to close the PDA, which they've decided to do neither.) and she seems to be getting better at the bottle feeds. We are only allowed to give her a bottle now every 2nd feeding. Erica also got moved into a Crib today she's also got herself a little Ocean wonders mobile to keep her a little entertained. Here's hoping that this is the start of a bright new and healthy new year for our little sweet pea.

A Christmas Gift

After all that has happened, we had come to terms with the idea that we wouldn't have christmas all together as a family... Until Santa wrote to Emily and Brayden on Christmas Morning that he talked to the nurses and Dr's at the hospital and they agreed to let them come to the hospital to visit their baby sister, but only for a little while and they had bring her stocking with them.
It was the best Christmas present in the world. The kids were so excited and got to hold and kiss their baby sister for the first time. We later asked Emily what her favorite part of christmas was and she replied with "That we got to spend Christmas as a family with baby Erica"
Erica got many gift's from everyone. She was very spoiled. She even got 2 stuffed animals from previous NICU parents and patients and a knitted hat from a local elementary student named Paige.
Thanks everyone!

Answers

Today we meet with the Cardiologist Dr. K from Saskatoon. He came to see Erica because of her rapid breathing and low oxygen. We weren't really expecting any diagnosis but rather had a bunch of questions as to what they figure could be wrong, where do we go from here, if they think it could be hereditary, etc... We ended up getting a diagnosis of Pulmonary Vein Stenosis.

Pulmonary vein stenosis is a rare and serious condition in which there is an obstruction (blockage) in the blood vessels that bring oxygen-rich blood from the lungs back to the heart. It can be isolated to a single pulmonary vein, but most often occurs in multiple veins simultaneously.

The stenosis occurs due to an abnormal thickening and, thus, narrowing of the walls of the veins. Pulmonary vein stenosis frequently progresses. As a result, partial loss or even total obstruction of flow to a vessel or vessels may occur.

Surgery to widen the narrowed veins and catheterization to stretch the vessel are usually short-term solutions since the obstruction typically recurs within a month to six weeks. **** Taken from the Children's Hospital of Boston Website****

So he decided that they would put her on Oxygen (just a little to help her not work so hard and regain her energy back) and Viagra... Yes you heard me right my baby girl is on Viagra.