The Knowns & The Unknowns

Here's what we know so far...

*This occurs in 1 out of every 5,000 births.
*There is a huge spectrum of severity...she's on the better end. The bad end results in horribly sick babies that have trouble immediately after birth or pass away quickly after birth.
*She DID come home for a short time and that's a good thing.
*We caught it early, before it became an emergency.
*There is a hole in her diaphragm.
*Major organs vital to life are in the wrong place.
*The surgery will happen early tomorrow morning when the surgeon has his regular team and they are all fresh. I appreciated him taking that into consideration. He said he can take pictures inside for us too.
*She is STARVING, but can't eat. The IV is just not how she wants nourishment.
*Leaving her at the hospital is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. You're not supposed to have them home then have to take them back and leave them.
*She's being very well cared for.
*Stephen is in the middle of his 6 days off and can stay while I get things squared away for when he's back on.
*She is darker complected than Lincoln and me, but NOT as dark as I thought she was. Her dark coloring was from the lack of oxygen in her little body. After they put her on oxygen last night she looked like a different baby. I've never seen her that pink.
*She is not another self pay baby. That would have put us under.

Here's what we don't know...

*How big the hole is. The size of the hole determines the surgeon's course of action AFTER he gets in.
*The state of her lung. The fact that she was alright after birth has the surgeon thinking that it should be pretty good.
*How well the vascular structure of the lung was able to develop. She won't be able to make any more of the little air sacs, but the ones that are there should be able to expand and fill the whole chest cavity with time.
*The health of her heart. They did an ultrasound this morning and will have the cardiologist read it sometime this afternoon. It was weird to look down and see the ultrasound wand on the wrong side of her chest. The Drs think it should be fine.
*How long her recovery in the hospital after the surgery will be. It is totally dependent on her little bowel. There is so much up in her chest it's going to freak out being moved.
*Several of our questions were answered with that will depend on what we find when we get in.
*How the boys will react. We were just getting them back from the body snatchers that took them and re-establishing their routines. Just the slightest hint of the insanity was starting to fade.