Another Spin on the Merry-Go-Round

Just when I think this crazy ride is slowing down and we're about to get off, God gives it another fling.

The older kids are sick again, this time with a bad cold. I've always had visions of finally bringing home a healthy baby and having a wonderful reunion with the rest of the family. Those dreams are dead. If we get to bring Hope home, she's almost certainly going to still be hooked up to IV fluids and oxygen. She's not getting any of my breast milk so she's not getting any of my immunities. I have no idea how this is possibly going to work. A baby who needs to be in isolation with a bunch of older siblings. Hmmmm.....

Of course, it's probably a moot point anyways. Hope's not going anywhere anytime soon. She has taken a turn for the worse. She had a fever last night. Her blood is showing signs of infection again and there's blood in her stool again and so she's off of feeds again and on antibiotics again. Again, no one has any idea what's going on. They have done a CT scan and are waiting for results. I should hear something by tomorrow. They are culturing her stool. We should hear something in the next 24 - 72 hours. They are testing her blood for Chrohn's. We should hear something in 2 weeks, and even then it's not definitive at all. The GI doc doesn't want to scope her yet because of the risks. He also doesn't want to do the dye study to see if it's a hemangioma because of the possible damage to her kidneys. So we wait again.