the childrens hospital.

Yesterday and today have been a bit overwhelming... but things are going well. We arrived yesterday morning at 7am to begin the process of surgery for Millie. She was first scheduled for a Cholangiogram, which is a test that is used to see if the bile ducts from the liver & gallbladder to the intestines are blocked... which would diagnose Biliary Atresia if the ducts are blocked. They inject a dye into the gallbladder and see if it properly drains & travels to the intestines. The dye did not properly drain or travel through Millie's gallbladder, so they were able to conclude that her bile ducts are blocked and she does have Biliary Atresia. They called and gave us the news, then continued on in surgery... performing the Kasai procedure to remove the blocked bile ducts & gallbladder and attach a piece of the intestines in their place to help drain the liver. She made it through surgery beautifully (according to the nurse), and we saw her in recovery when she was beginning to wake up from the anesthesia. She has an epidural in to block the pain and can't eat until Monday so that everything inside can heal a bit before she eats & has bowel movements... so she has been a bit cranky because of hunger but no cries because of pain. She seems to be doing well and all of her nurses just love her. Everyone thinks she is such a doll. We are so proud of our sweet little Millie. Hopefully we will know soon if the outcome of the Kasai is a positive one... it could have a few different outcomes and we are hoping & praying for the absolute best.

hanging out before surgery... in the same "gown" as last time.
still no baby pajamas.

post surgery.
it was hard to see all the wires & tubes coming out of our little millie.
monitoring wires, drains, ivs, epidural...
makes us a bit intimidated to hold her.

scriptures, notes, and photos from friends for millie.

she sure loves her dad.

We are doing okay with the whole situation... still in shock but feeling rather peaceful about the everything. I have moments of worry when I think about the future and what it will look like with a child who will have lots of doctors visits and many times of being sick due to this. I know that God only gives us what we can handle, but I don't know how He expects me to be good at this. I will definitely need to rely on Him and others to get through everything that the future holds. Thanks for all the prayers and support for our sweet Millie. She thanks you too!

(a post about the details of Biliary Atresia to come... sometime soon.)