Saturday

We wanted to share with you some more pictures of Trinity and some from her surgery. The third picture down is a picture of her and her surgeon. After the surgery Trinity was left both on pain medication and the respirator. By 2:00 am Trinity was out breathing the respirator quite well. By 10:00 am this morning she was off the respirator and breathing on her own. This was very good except when babies this age are taken off a respirator that does the breathing for them, they often stop breathing. By about 1:00 pm she had stopped breathing about 8 times. When this happens an alarm sounds and the nurses come in and stimulate her in some way and she starts breathing again. These episodes last anywhere from 20 to 40 seconds. This is not something that is terribly uncommon, but when you are in the room it is quite nerve racking. By about 7:00 pm the breathing episodes had slowed way down. Big sister Aubree went to visit today and brought a beautifully colored Dora the explorer picture. She has become a very proud big sister that likes to touch and feel her little sister maybe a little too much. One of the difficult things for Miranda and I is the fact that we want to hold Trinity close and bond with her. Around 8:30 pm Dr Gilmer-Hill showed up to see how Trinity was progressing. She unbandaged the recently closed opening for the first time since the surgery was complete and was very pleased with how the lesion looked. One of the concerns when pulling the skin together over an opening like this is whether or not the blood will recirculate in that area. When the surgery was complete last night the area around the lesion was a very light pale color. After pulling the bandage off you could see that the color of the skin had regained its normal color. To help understand a quick way to check this if you poke your arm with you finger and pull away your finger quickly, you see a white pale color. As you see your finger print quickly disappear and turn to your normal color you know that your blood circulation to that area is sufficient. This is what you see all the way around the lesion. She was very happy with her progress up to this point as a whole. She is however saying that it is probable that she will need to have another surgery on Wednesday to put in a shunt. On Tuesday they will do a cat scan of her head to verify that she has fluid on her brain. At this point she still doesn't see where there is much fluid accumulating. She says that 90 percent of all babies will eventually acquire fluid on the brain. We will continue to pray that Trinity will be part of that 10 percent that doesn't. Miranda and I would like to thank everyone for all the thoughts and prayers. So many have sent us beautiful flowers, stuffed animals, and we even had someone that made her a beautiful blanket and some hats. You will never know how much all of this means to us and our families. Knowing that we have your support and that so many of you are praying for us and Trinity makes this easier to get through. We love you all so much and can't wait for Trinity to meet all the wonderful people that have been praying for her.
With lots of love-Shannon, Miranda, Aubree, and Trinity


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