January 14-- Roller coaster ride

Today was crazy but good. I went to the hospital bright and early to be there while Elsie was transported to PCMC. Although we were just going through some hallways and elevators, she was "Life Flight"-ed; at least, that's what they call the transport team. In reality, it was a tiny incubator on top of a gurney that had all of the hook-ups that Elsie needs, such as oxygen, and all of her monitors. They hooked up all of the equipment onto the gurney and then carefully lifted Elsie into the incubator. Then we said our goodbyes to Elsie's sweet nurse and walked through the hallways and through the "bridge" that goes from the U to PCMC.

Once we got there, we went into the exam room where she was transferred from the incubator onto the exam table. And then she had basically a colonoscopy to determine what was causing the blockage. From what they could see, it appears that she is just backed up with meconium. Her intestines are very small and seem to not be doing their job yet to move the meconium along. They could not see any incomplete bowels, where the bowel might not have been fully formed. So as of right now, she does not need surgery to fix her intestines! She received an enema to try to break up the blockage, and will probably need a few more. And, even more exciting, was that by the time she was put back into her regular incubator, she had a little bit of poop in her diaper. Who knew that we'd be so happy over a poopy diaper!

Because she does not immediately need surgery, we were informed that she would be going back to the U, since space at PCMC is limited and saved for babies who will need immediate surgery. After all of my worrying and silly concerns about moving, we were going back. For now. Who knows, we might be switched to PCMC sometime in the future, and that's ok. Elsie handled the transfer like a champ, didn't need any additional oxygen or anything else that would signal distress. We are happy to be back at the U for now and were so glad to get good news today. What a crazy roller coaster ride our life has become.

Little t-shirt that we were given from the Life Flight transport crew.