Wednesday MRI and Kidneys

It's a late night in NICU room 459.  This is a new room number for us. Today we got an upgrade!  Our nurse is amaaaazing and got us the bigger room with a view that just became available... It pays to have connections! 😜
Our Annelise had a field trip to get an MRI to check out the VP shunt that was placed a few weeks ago, and also a scan to check out her kidneys. The field trip itself went very well!
The news about the kidneys isn't so great. She has reflux, where the urine in the bladder moves back to the kidneys. And her bladder looks like it has some irregularity in shape and form... it looks like things are working fine right now, it's just that people with a myemominingocele (spina bifida) like Annelise, UTI's are common, and if she gets a UTI, it could spread to the kidneys because of the reflux and do damage that way. So far, she just needs to have another check up in a month so they can keep an eye on her. If we're not here in a month, they have some names of good docs to see in the LA area.
I have no idea where we'll be in a month. Tomorrow holds enough mystery on its own!  We started feeds today, and not sure if enough stayed down to determine whether the fluid around her lung will return 😔 Her tummy was not as excited as the rest of us were for her to start eating again... They only started her on 5ml of skimmed breast milk, and she vomited for the first time today. She hasn't tolerated the feeding tube as well this time around, and has been gagging and sneezing up spit bubbles for hours this evening 😭  They put her next two feeds on hold until her care team meets for rounds tomorrow.
She has finally drifted off to sleep♥️
Some other more fun firsts that Annelise experienced today are:
First big girl NICU crib!
First time wearing a regular onesie! (As opposed to the special NICU clothes that I got online)
Overall, I'm going to call the day amazing.  She is still having withdrawal symptoms, but all the drugs are turned off!! She just gets little doses to take the edge off only if the withdrawals are too much.
Prayers for miss Annelise:
- Future feeds are successful
- She stops having crazy tons of spit that makes her gag.... Or just that whatever is making her gag would not bother her anymore.
- Her kidney reflux issue would not be an issue
- Her chylothorax would stay away and no more fluid would return around her lungs
- continued no infections!
- withdrawals will quickly leave her body alone

Here are some pics of our adventures today!

OH!  For those of you that asked me, she's 5lbs, 4oz 😊