I
thought it was time for another update on our sweet Seraya!
Last week Monday Seraya went for another surgery. I know I had wrote earlier that it was Dr. Ajani's plan to leave the resoivoir in for a couple months, but he decided he wanted to take it out now. The reason was because a lot of fluid was still pooling in the resoivoir creating a large bump on her head. This fluid was building up because there was a small hole in the brain ventricle from the resoivoir. Whenever Seraya would cry, fluid from the ventricle would fill up into the resoivoir. Her shunt is inside the ventricle and so that's why this fluid wouldn't drain, because it was outside the ventricle. The surgery went really well which we were so thankful for! Dr. Ajani was able to remove the resoivoir and block the hole where the resoivoir had been. Once again God answered our prayers and guided the hands of the surgeons! All praise be to Him!!
Seraya is on low flow breathing help right now. Basically she is just receiving a little bit of oxygen to help her breathe, but not receiving any pressure to keep her lungs open anymore. We are so happy that her lungs have come this far after so many difficulties! We are pretty sure she will come home on oxygen.
With Seraya being on low flow, I am able to breastfeed her now. This has been such a rewarding gift after all these months of pumping:) She does not have the full endurance she needs yet, to consume an entire feed, which is 87 mls at the moment. Usually she will drink for about 20-30 minutes and take in about 40-50 mls which is still amazing for her to do. It takes a lot of strength for her to orally feed, but so far she has surprised everyone with how well she is doing:) I try to feed her at 9:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm, and 9:00 pm. She still has an ng-tube in and so they top her up with that, or we try to top her up with a bottle, if she will tolerate it. The three feeds through the night, she was being fed through her tube, but just recently, we asked the nurses to start feeding her bottles through the night. We are hoping this will improve her ability to do complete oral feeds. We hope for her to be on full oral feeds when we go home, but we are not sure yet. She is currently weighing around 9 pounds 10 ounces!! Her weight gain continues to be really good which is a blessing!
Brian and I continue to be amazed at how far Seraya has come. She is starting to be more alert and showing us some character. She can have quite the temper when we are changing her:) We are so thankful at how God has allowed her to come this far, despite all the obstacles she had to face in her life already. She's a little fighter and we call her our miracle baby. She is our amazing gift and we are so thankful for her. We are really hoping we are on the road to home, but we have not been given any dates yet, so we shall see:)
We would like to thank everyone for their prayers, cards, gifts and words of encouragement. We appreciate everything so much and are so thankful to be part of the communion of saints:)
Psalm 145: 13b,14
"The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down."
