August 23rd, 2009

We arrived home around 8:00pm, Saturday night. What an exhausting trip. I must say that Kinnick and Carver did very well on the long drive. They both got a little frustrated at the end of each day, but other then that, they did really good. Well, except for the pooping. I've never seen so much poop! The car ride must have shaken their intestines clean. Not only did they poop in the car, but as soon as we arrived at the hotel in MI, Nurse Marci was changing Kinnick's diaper on the sofa and Kinnick pooped on the sofa. Oh, and the sofa doubled as one of our beds. We stay at Candlewood Suites, so we had everything that we needed to clean up the mess.

We arrived in MI, Tuesday evening around 8:00pm. David, Stacy, and Conner Larson met us at our room and we were able to have a short visit with them. I met the Larsons when Kinnick and Carver were in the NICU in Royal Oak. Conner was only 1 lb at the time and Kinnick and Carver were the largest babies in the NICU - at 9-10 lbs. Now, Conner out weighs both of them.

Kinnick and Carver's EUA's were scheduled for 9:30am, Wednesday morning. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30am. It was an early morning for us since that would be 6:30am Kansas time. Kinnick's eyes didn't show any change. No change for the better, and no change for the worse. We chose not to do anything at this time since she is doing so well with what she has. I had been worried about the size of Kinnick's left eye - it's smaller then her right eye. I thought that it quit growing. Well, come to find out, there is nothing wrong with the left eye. Instead, the right eye is larger due to increased pressure in the eye. The pressure is causing the eye to enlarge. Her pressure is at 30 and needs to be more like 20. This condition is known as Glaucoma. Kinnick will require eye drops to help relieve the pressure. The eye size won't go down, but the left eye will eventually catch up in size. Carver had to have the lens removed in his left eye. The cataract was bad, as expected. The retina still had spots that weren't attached, so unfortunately, we had to leave the oil in the eye. The cataract was really odd. Normally, the fluid sack that holds the lens is very dirty. However, Carver's fluid sack was clear. The cataract only developed on one side of the lens - the internal side. So, the doctor left the external side of the sack to act as a barrier (like saran wrap) to protect the cornea. Both Kinnick and Carver will need to have the pressure checked in their eyes in 3 months. We can have this done in Wichita, or return to MI. I'm thinking that we'll just have it checked in Wichita, but we'll see.

Carver did really good after surgery on Wednesday, so we headed to the Detroit zoo to meet a couple of other micro-preemie mom's that I've never met, but email and follow their blogs. We met Logan Wilson (26 wkr) and his mom, Rebecca. We met Jonathan (23 wkr) and his mom Laura and her husband. We also met up with the Larson's again. We had such a nice visit, I hated to leave. It was really nice to visit with other micro preemies and micro preemie parents.

We had a follow-up appt Thursday morning. Then later that evening, Stacy Larson invited us over for dinner (couldn't pass up a hot meal). We arrived at their home around 4pm and stayed until around 8:30pm. Again, we had a great time and appreciated their hospitality.

On the way to/from MI, we stopped to see my best friend, Suzette in Kansas City. She wasn't feeling well, but still let us stop to stretch and feed the kids. It was a nice visit, and she fed us a wonderful salad from First Watch. They have the best salads. We don't get to see each other much any more. It seems like we're both so busy with kids and traveling with Kinnick and Carver hasn't ever really been possible until now.

So, it was a nice trip, but I'm happy to be home. Tomorrow, I'll be up early going to the Social Security office to fight for a disability determination on Kinnick and Carver in order to extend my Cobra coverage another 11 months. Fun times for sure.