My pretty little girl

The bumper in the previous shots I made in college as an assignment. She seems to really like that it is up.

Hello,

Well Emily had a good day yesterday. They were able to wean her oxygen down to about 60% and she was doing well at her feeds taking at least some of the bottle if not all of it.

However after her noon feeding the cardiologist came by and talked to me. I guess Emily’s Echocardogram showed that her heart is enlarged on the right side, the side that pumps to the lungs. This is because her lungs are stiff and it is harder to pump blood through that side. They have many treatments for this we are told. The first one they are trying is a blood vessel dilator. This is a oral medication. They actually have to grind it down and put it in a suspension just for her as it is typically given to adults and not children and therefore it is only available in a pill. This condition will not go away tomorrow or even next month. This condition will last as long as her lungs are in the state they are in. So 2 years seems to be the consensus from all that we have heard. That is not to say that she will be in the hospital for 2 years though. The doctors all believe that we have months not years though until we can finally take her home.

In the meanwhile Emily has to treated very well. Whatever she wants she gets. If she is stressed at all it puts added pressure on her lungs and therefore her heart. Also they have stopped feeding her by bottle till they get recommendations from the children’s hospital on how to feed her. I hope it is soon since Emily really likes eating for herself! This is because any choke that she may have can cause extreme damage to her. Same is true if she were to become ill. Emily has very little to no “reserve” to breathe with and so she needs to be well at all times. Most babies don’t get the RSV shot in the hospital (hospital is suppose to be a controlled environment) but Emily will because she is that ill.

The doctors seem happy that they finally have a diagnosis for her. Before they were trying anything to help her not having the ability to do things scientifically. Now that she has this diagnosis they can treat her more effectively.

While this is a hard pill to take, we believe that Emily will continue to fight as she has her whole life. She is truly a miracle. All of the doctors say that.

Yesterday I thought I would try to let daddy have more of a role in her so I let her change her diaper (a good start I thought). Well Emily got daddy. Just as he lifted her legs she went all over getting daddy in the process. Amazingly she got the only section of her bumper that is covered in plastic! Good aim Emily!! Needless to say he will not be changing any more of her diapers for a while!

In other news my father and his wife, who already have a 5 year old adopted from China, has sent in the application to adopt a “waiting child” from China. These are often children, to my understanding, that may have slight medical problems. They also can be older children. They are almost always girls and I believe that they requested a girl this time. They hope to get their doctuments (including a picture of little Miss Emily, as last time there was a picture of me) to China by this spring, with a hopeful going to China and a homecoming of next summer. This is much faster then the 2 years that they waited the first go around. My sister came over when she was 10 months old for those who don’t know. Hopefully they will (hint, hint) create a blog of their own so everyone can follow their progress. I will let you know more information as it is available to me.

Jennifer