Down, down, down, up.

So the rest of this week, in a word, sucked. Her heart is in the same shape as it was before so nothing new there. They will be doing another echo on Wednesday to see if there is any improvement (I'll take a 'skoch'). Her wound will be looked at again tomorrow when the nurse practitioner (Rebecca) changes her dressing.

The week sucked because her PICC line gave out. Her first PICC line had to be removed because she got a clot (which led to a host of genetic tests on whether she had a clotting disorder...no she doesn't). The second PICC line "migrated to an unknown location" so it had to be removed. So they tried to put in a third PICC line. It didn't work. So they tried again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Seven times in two days. Now our poor baby has even more of a shaved head and 14 new prick holes in her head. It was really hard to endure. Her and us. Poor thing has been exhausted and freaks out when they swab her with alcohol because she knows what's coming. Finally they decided PICC lines were not her thing. So they put in a central line, which is a small surgical procedure where they put an iv directly into her arterial vein. Fortunately they sedated her so she didn't feel a thing. And it's done.

But then she got a low grade fever. So they had to collect blood to test for infection. More needles. I stayed with her this time (I'm not allowed to be there when they do the PICC or central line procedures) and it took FIVE times to get blood out. The reason is because she's been drawn blood on so much that her veins are shot. I had to leave after the third attempt because she was a crying mess and so was I. They stopped after 5 attempts but still didn't get as much blood as the docs wanted. They sent it down to the lab anyway, hoping it was enough. Well...the blood clotted on the way down and was unusable. So they had to do it again.

Finally they got enough. So far the blood culture has been negative. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

They also did a CBC which showed her hemocrit (red blood cells) were 24% when they should be more around 40%. Basically this is because they have drawn so much blood that they made her severely anemic. Babies don't make blood for a few months so all the bloos they were drawing was not replaced. So last night they did a blood transfusion. Thankfully. She has been lethargic for the last three days and finally she is more back to normal today.

And it was just in time for Aunt Jess and Uncle Jim to meet her. They got nice Molly awake time. Her fever is down. No infection has shown on the cultures yet. And she got to be held for hours today by Jim and Jess. So we ended the week on a good note.

But I hope this week never has to happen again. I'm over it and told the docs to stop torturing our child. The nurses have been so great through all of this with sympathy and extra loving to Molly. The charge nurse Naomi knitted her a lovely hat because she knew I'd be upset about their shaving of her head again. And another nurse, Mary, gave her new look a cute accessory (pic below).

Are we home yet?

"I'm watching you, monkey." says Molly with her comically small bow.

Molly's Menagerie

She has the cutest hands when she sleeps.

With Aunt Jess

With Uncle Jim

With grandma

With Aunt Hannah