Pre-Discharge

Lauren got approved for Medi-Cal and CCS. I guess she qualifies because she was born so young and so small so we don't have to worry about her hospital bills anymore! YAYY~! Sadly, I did not get approved so we're still responsible for paying for my hospitalization, delivery and specialists who came to treat me. boo. Oh well... what are you gonna do?

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We've officially started the pre-discharge process so Lauren will likely be home next week. We're so very excited and also a little nervous about it. Remember when I told you that she was off the nasal cannula? Well, she was doing well for a couple of days but then during her feeding times, she'd have some really bad spells of O2 desaturations (not enough oxygen in her blood - when it goes below a certain number, she loses her healthy pink-y color and turns a little purple/blue). She desats because she's getting too tired to eat and so she has an apnea (stops breathing) and then bradycardia (heart rate drops).

So, she will be coming home with an oxygen tank which will be used just for feeding times. She'll have to wear a nasal cannula during feeds for a month or so until her lungs get stronger and she's better able to coordinate the whole sucking, swallowing and breathing thing. *sigh*

She also gets a little cocktail of medications that I'll have to make for her everyday. It's a combination of sodium chloride, potassium, a diuretic, vitamins w/ iron and a soybean oil extract for added calories.

I'll also need to fortify my breastmilk with a little formula to make her meals a little higher in calorie because she needs to gain weight more quickly.

I'll also need to take Lauren to see a pulmonary specialist at Children's Hospital regularly to track the progress of her lungs but our social worker told us it takes 3 months to get an appointment (good gawd!).

We'll also have to go to frequent eye exams (either weekly or bi-weekly) until her ROP (hopefully) resolves on its own.

That was about all the information I could handle today so they said they'd go into more detail about each thing later this week.

I'll keep y'all posted as I get more information. Please keep praying for Lauren...