261st day in the NICU

The care conference went very well today. As in surprisingly well. It does make a difference when your attending specializes in pulmonary hypertension. She is amazed at how tough Drayke is and is projecting he may be home by his first birthday. She does not believe in using paralytics on babies so he will have a signifigant amount of pain meds for about 4 days. At least we wont shut down his bowels like what happened while on the vecuronium. Dr M also mentioned how they are keeping Drayke on tight calorie control. She does not want him to get too chubby because that would cause more of a strain on his lungs & heart.

So we are a go for Friday. He officially goes on "the board" tomorrow and that is when we will find out the time.

One of the surgeons came in and told us how the procedure will go. He was talkng about how the G tube and nissen will be done as an "open" procedure, not laproscopicly(sp?). I asked him how large the incision will be, expecting a couple of inches, which on a baby's belly would be huge. He advsied it is going to be maybe 2-3 centimeters. He will hardly have any scarring at all.

All in all the surgery should be no longer than 3 hours. Dad & I are counting down until Friday.

On a different note: I made Drayke 2 receiving blankets from fabric purchased at Walmart a few months ago (see Day 230 to view the fabric, http://draykecrom.blogspot.com/2008/12/230th-day-in-nicu.html). I can not find them anywhere now. They have been lost either at the hospital, on a transport shuttle or here at the RMC. Has anyone seen this fabric anywhere? Our Walmart no longer sells fabric and I am REALLY wanting to get more of this fabric. It is called zen monkey, the base color is purple/lilac/lavender. Thanks for any help tracking this down.