Emilie is now 28 weeks old. The doctors are hopeful that she has passed through the most fragile point of her journey. The next step in Emilie’s care is to prepare her for oral feeding. We’re hopeful this will begin tomorrow. Her surgery on Tuesday to place a small reservoir in her brain was successful. This will allow any extra fluid on her brain to be manually drained. On yesterday the doctor removed 14ml, and today another 12ml. He will continue this process for the next several days.

While the reservoir will alleviate cranial pressure and stabilize her breathing, it will not address the bleeding that has already affected her brain tissue.  

Allow me to explain (in layman’s terms). The condition of Emilie’s brain is similar to that of a bruise on your arm. A bruise is the result of broken blood vessels in the tissue. These broken vessels result in a blackish/ blue mark under your skin that is sensitive to the touch. Over time your body will reabsorb these broken vessels and the bruise will go away.  The same thing has essentially taken place with Emilie, however the bruise is in her brain. As a result of the trauma she experienced due to childbirth her blood vessels, which are highly fragile, ruptured and left bruises on the brain tissue. However, unlike your arm, brain tissue is extremely sensitive because it’s the motherboard. Consequently, if it gets bruised, it does not easily recover. A level four bleed means there is significant bruising in her brain.

Further, once the blood vessels in your brain rupture they clog the drain in your brain that allows spinal fluid to drain. If this drain is clogged (just like your kitchen sink), everything backs up and overflows. Because the fluid cannot drain, it leads to an abundance of fluid on the brain, which produces hydrocephalus. Consequently, a reservoir (or shunt for larger babies) is placed in the brain that allows the fluid to manually be removed.

While we rejoice that the reservoir surgery was successful, we are fully aware that only the Lord can heal the bruised brain tissue. And so Emilie eagerly looks to Jehovah-Rapha, her Ever-Present Healer.