Finally at about 1:30 am 10/5 Paisley arrived at PCH, They said she had another seizures on the ride over. Jeff found the room and saw Paisley in a new NICU with nurses all around her, doing more tests and getting her hooked up to machines and tubes. They tried filling him in and telling him what was going on. She was already on medicine to help stop the seizures and it eventually began to work. They began a process involving cold therapy. Basically she lays on a mat (sometimes they use a cap) that has water flowing in tubes inside. The machine can adjust the water to her temperature, with the goal of lowering her temperature to a level when her body is dormant and can relax. She lost a lot of oxygen and may have damaged her brain in the process. When the brain cells die, the natural reaction for the brain tissue is to swell up. This swelling just caused more damage. So by cooling her down, the swelling is minimized as well (like icing a sprained ankle). This cold state also allows her body to slowly recover without working too hard. She remains for 72 hours at exactly 33-34 degrees Celsius (as close to 33.5 as possible).
The next day they began lots of tests, They were beginning EEG tests to see how much, if any, damage was done in the brain. This is done by placing some 30 small patches on her head which are wired to a machine, which reads brain activity. It is a more in-depth version of the brain scanner machine that is hooked up to her throughout the day. It also reads and records her brain activity but in not so great of detail. There is a monitor that shows the results, like recording music, in wave-like motion. Jeff saw a chart of what it should look like. Her images did not look normal. Hard to describe, but it was low, in the 1-range, with sporadic spikes here and there, and not very tall lines. It has slowly gotten better over time. It needs to be in the 10s. Next was an ultrasound of the heart to check for murmurs, echoes, or other complications. They also did an MRI, which is another way to test and provides a great snapshot of the brain and they can check for spots and signs of damage.
That was Tuesday, Tuesday night was SO hard. The funny/amazing thing is that after sharing stories Jeff and I realized that we both received peace at about that same time that night that everything was going to be ok. I could finally get some sleep I knew that my baby was going to be ok. It was a long morning waiting for the call from Jeff but finally on weds at about 11am Jeff called with the greatest news ever! results came in. The main doctor and head of the cooling treatment was the one to explain what they found. She was surprised and pleased with the results. They showed no signs of brain damage. They did not report any event of seizures either. The heart looked healthy. The EEG monitor, Jeff could see, and the waves were steadily getting higher (in the 5 and 10 range). More brain activity was happening and approaching normalcy. Of course doctors are careful what they say as they can never be 100% positive, but she anticipates no serious learning disorders. It was a miracle, I had had a Dr. just a few days before tell me that my baby had brain damage but Heavenly Father blessed us with a miracle and Paisley was going to ok. At least now we know she has a chance at a healthy happy life. A huge dark cloud was lifted from my hospital room, after that phone call. I was bawling I'm sure everyone thought it was bad news but I was just so happy! I quickly called as many family members as I could to tell them the news!
Friday I finally get to PCH It was so weird for me, I kept telling my mom on the way to the hospital that I felt like I was going to Jeff's hospital to see Jeff's baby. I didn't feel like she was mine! Jeff did great at filling me in with everything that was happening but I still felt out of the loop. It was so hard to see her all hooked up with wires, but she looked good. And she was little haha because she was 8 lbs 11 oz I kept thinking she was HUGE. She was a chunk but she was still a little newborn that made me happy. I didn't want to miss a moment of her life. Not long after I got there it was time to take her into her 2nd and last set of test. We walked her in to the MRI room and I bawled all the way back to the waiting room.
A few days later we got the test results back, everything still looked great! The Dr says she thinks she will be 100% ok! That is the best thing you can hear from the doctor.
Anyways lots more happened in the hospital but basically after she was taken off the cooling therapy and the last set of tests were done we now had to slowly take out tubes and get her off meds, learn how to eat and we were out of there. She did those all in record time, 10 days in the NICU a record for a baby on the therapy she was on. A miracle once again!
