Well, it turns out that this thing actually grew<\/i>. It is most likely, according to Dr. Josephs, either an ovarian cyst or a growth on the intestine. Neither is terribly good — an ovarian cyst could grow, cause the ovary to twist, and end up killing it. If it’s a growth on the intestine, it could end up causing the intestine to rupture.<\/p>\n
So, most likely it will need to be removed. At the doctor’s suggestion, we’re going to wait a month and check it again — there’s still some chance that it will go away in that time. If it’s the same size or larger, we’ll have it removed. The surgery is a pretty routine laparoscopy. To give some idea of what we’re talking about, this growth is nearly 4cm long and about 2-3cm across.<\/p>\n
Now, here’s the NICU saga, the way we found out about this growth in the first place. Here’s the sequence of events, as accurately as I can remember them:<\/p>\n
– Sunday, Oct. 16, 12:33AM: Kaeta is born.<\/p>\n
– Same day, early afternoon: Her temperature is a little low (96.5), so she’s put on a warming table in the nursery for a little while, then brought back to our room.<\/p>\n
– Same day, mid-afternoon: Her temperature is low again. Worried that she may have some kind of infection, nurses take her to the NICU for observation. She was at risk of an infection because Karianne was Group B Strep positive (not normally a big deal, it just meant she got an antibiotic in her IV during labor) and ran a fever during labor.<\/p>\n
– Sometime in there, nurses notice that Kaeta’s stomach is a little bit distended. This may indicate fluid in the abdomen, which could be a sign of some pretty bad things (e.g., liver failure, ruptured intestine).<\/p>\n
– Monday: An X-ray indicates that there is indeed some fluid in her abdomen. Blood tests are ordered.<\/p>\n
– Tuesday: The blood tests show that her liver is fine. In fact, everything appears more or less fine. We are still waiting for her first bowel movement, so that’s a concern. (Years from now, I’m sure Kaeta will be very appreciative that I blogged to the whole universe about her incontinence.) <\/p>\n
– Wednesday: We’d better figure out what this fluid is, so arrangements are made for a radiologist (Dr. Banks) to remove some of the fluid from her belly with a needle, using ultrasound to guide him. This is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Kaeta gets her first bowel movement, to thunderous applause from her parents. Seriously, we almost saved it for the scrapbook.<\/p>\n
– Thursday: An emergency comes up and Dr. Banks has to reschedule for Friday. This was a long<\/i> day.<\/p>\n
– Friday: From the ultrasound, Dr. Banks determines that the fluid is gone! Apparently it wasn’t serious, and it was absorbed by Kaeta’s body. However, there is still something solid there, and we should check up on that in about 2 weeks. It is fairly late in the day, so the NICU nurses tell us that Kaeta will most likely be released the next day. That night, she gets to stay in the hospital room with us.<\/p>\n
– Saturday: A day of utter disappointment, or rather, of hopes dashed. Kaeta will not be released, because she has not gained any weight yet. So far she has lost less weight on each successive day, so it looks like that will turn around soon, but they want another data point before they will discharge her. Of course, that extra data point is extra grueling for her Mom and Dad.<\/p>\n
– Sunday: She lost even less weight this day (still not gaining). We’re told she will be discharged and that we should go put our things in the car and get ready to take her home. All she needs is a final assessment by a nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n
– Around noon, we’re told that her final assessment had a snag: Kaeta was extremely jittery the whole time, which might be a sign of low blood sugar. They want to take her blood sugar level once more before releasing her. This has to be done when she is really hungry, so we’ll have to wait two hours. If her blood sugar is too low, they will have to keep her longer.<\/p>\n
– The longest two hours in history later, they take some blood.<\/p>\n
– The longest 10 minutes in history (this 10 minutes was actually longer than the preceding 2 hours) later, her blood count is fine and we can go home. Here we are, about to leave the NICU:<\/p>\n
![](\"\/images\/photos\/2005_10_24%20Kaeta's%20first%20week\/thumbs\/tn_2005_10_24%20Kaeta's%20first%20week%20074.jpg\")
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