Another bittersweet day

Today was extra special - we got to hold Gabriel for the first time. Unfortunately it may be a few days before we can do it again. Dr. Rouse wants to do surgery for the chylothorax tomorrow afternoon. He called the procedure a pleuradesis (sp?). Gabriel's left chest tube is still putting out lots of lymphocytes. Since he is losing white blood cells and proteins, if he were to develop an infection, he would have a hard time fighting it off. Right now he is doing well, so better to address it now, especially since it is not improving enough on its own. Apparently they are going to "rough up" the outside of the lungs in the hopes of creating scar tissue allowing the lung to more or less stick to the chest wall and hopefully seal up the leak. That is how we understand it. We asked about the risks - the response was that the risks of putting it off far outweighed the risks of proceeding.

Today, Laura (our nurse) told us we could probably hold Gabriel in a few days. Last night the couple across from us got to hold their baby and it made me happy for them, but sad for us. It sometimes gets difficult to watch other babies making those next big steps. Anyway, I told Laura how excited I was to be able to hold him soon, and admitted I'd had "baby envy" the night before. Next thing we knew, she had called Dr. Little and we were able to hold him. I sat in a rocker with him for two hours (my butt was numb, but didn't care!) and Josh held him after that. We found out about the surgery while we were holding him, and were so grateful we got that chance. We put up new pictures to show how much it meant to us. He also got a new "blankie" and got a pacifier today. He really liked it!