Dr. appts.

So, she gained 5 ounces in one week! She's now a whopping 6 pounds, 3 ounces! We are so glad to see that she's gaining weight. We even upped her volume again - to 55 ml every 3 hours. Before each feeding we check her residuals. That means we use a syringe to pull the stuff out of her stomach to see what is left over from the last feeding. Since she can't tell us if she's hungry - or NOT hungry, this is the only way we can make sure that she's digesting all the food that she's been given, and that she has room in her belly for the next feeding. Lately she's had virtually no residuals, which tells us she's ready for more volume per feeding.

We saw the cardiologist today. Everything looks good and on track for her next surgery. We are shooting for March. They want her to be bigger and stronger - and out of the winter season.

As far as the oxygen situation goes, as long as she responds to the oxygen positively, then we know that it is not a heart problem, it is a respiratory problem. If we put her on oxygen, and her numbers don't go up, then we know its a heart problem. So, we were glad to hear that.

As far as the surgery, it looks like they are leaning towards doing a "double switch". I don't know if we've given details of her heart defects... but she has "congenitally corrected transposition of the greater arteries" (her left ventricle is on the right, and her right ventricle is on the left), and "VSD" (which is a hole between the ventricles of the heart). With the transposition (in basic terms), the big ventricle is supplying the blood to her lungs and the small ventricle is supplying the blood to her body. So, the small pump is doing more work than it should, and the large pump is doing too little. That's really all I know and understand right now. I do know that the surgery is a big one, but we can't think about that now.

Well, that's about it for tonight. Talk to you soon!
-Christy