Fessler Family: Day 36 Update

Good Morning! Thanks to everyone who sent advice yesterday. Hearing your ideas was helpful.

I went to visit Golda last night around 4 pm so I could try to be there when the surgeons rounded. I wanted to ask them about something that came up the other day. I found out that Golda was put on Zantac at the same time we insisted on routine suctioning for her and was told that the doctor felt that the Zantac was responsible for stopping her episodes. This made absolutely no sense to me since she has esophageal atresia and can't possibly have reflux! It was explained that there is usually a piece of the esophagus that comes off the stomach and that the stomach could be refluxing into that and via a vasovagal response, could be causing the apnea. Again, given that the doctor had explained the apnea reflex was from receptors at the back of the throat, at the top of the trachea, this made no sense, especially since we didn't think Golda actually had any esophagus attached to her stomach. I missed the surgeons since they rounded earlier than usual but they left me a drawing (see below) of Golda's anatomy.

You can see the face (lol) at the top with the Repogle tube in the top part of the esophagus, the trachea branching into the bronchi and lungs, then the bottom part of the esophagus attached to the stomach, with her GT tube for feeding, heading down into the intestines. There is a decent sized gap between the top and bottom part so the esophagus and that is what we hope will decrease as she grows larger. The bottom part of the esophagus though is nowhere near high enough to be causing an apnic responses so the surgeon spoke to the attending doctor on her case and had the Zantac stopped. I was pleased to hear this, as well as to find out there was a portion of the esophagus attached to her stomach since this probably means a lower chance of reflux once she is reconstructed (because she most likely has a lower esophageal sphincter).
I got to hold Golda for almost two hours yesterday! Janet came to see our little girl named for Gladys and kept me company while I visited. Golda was extremely happy with the attention and slept like an angel the whole time.

Today's report from the nurse was a good one. Golda hasn't had any episodes, even without the Zantac, as expected. She is still on 27 ml of fortified breast milk, but didn't put on much weight last night, 1447 g (3 lbs. 3.04 oz.). The good news is that she has been maintaining her body temperature so well that they are trying to get her out of the isolette today! It's down to 26C, which is the lowest it can go. When they check her temperature again around 1 pm, as long as it's good, she will move into a basinette!!!

Leah and Micah are growing nicely. We haven't been able to weigh them because the scale has stopped working for inexplicable reasons. A replacement is on it's way and should be arriving today (then we will return the other one). They are getting bigger though - Micah has actually outgrown his first outfit!! It's one of those sack things and he can't stretch his legs out anymore in it. Leah is getting close to outgrowing things too. They have obviously grown in length, Micah in weight, but Leah not so much. She is still looking a little scrawny! Mom has started washing the newborn clothes - so exciting, especially since they would have been 37 weeks 2 days today.
That's really all the news here! Tomorrow we have our tours of Blythedale and St. Mary's and then we will decided which facility we would like to try for first. Here are some photos for you to enjoy!