Twins Summary

I figured I would start by providing more or less a medical summary since my last update on my Comomotion blog way back on Jan. 31st. This may be quite redundant for some of you. Kristina has blogged about this time in some detail as well (Third Floor Home blog).

You might recall that Evelyn had already come home from the NICU on Jan. 21st and Clara was set to come home on Feb. 1st. Clara in fact did come home on Feb. 1st and at long last we finally had everyone home.

Clara did come home with attachments. She came home on oxygen (on 1/8 of a liter) and a pulse oximeter (for which to measure the amount of oxygen in her blood). Our pediatric pulmonologist diagnosed her with Chronic Lung Disease (sounds awful, but basically means she has underdeveloped lungs) and estimated that she would probably remain on oxygen until the end of summer. This was disappointing news since predictions by the staff at the hospital were around 2-3 months. Clara seemed to be progressing well with the oxygen, but both girls caught a nasty virus towards the end of February. Clara got in such a coughing fit (coughing for about 20 minutes nonstop) that we took her to the ER. She was hospitalized for 4 days, mostly just for monitoring. The virus made her take a step backwards in her oxygen needs and she came home on 1/4 liter of oxygen (maybe even 1/2 liter). Evelyn handled the virus reasonably well, so no visit to the hospital was necessary for her.

The next month and a half was fairly drama free. The girls were cleared of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP - a condition which can lead to blindness). And Clara was cleared of any anomalies in her heart. A heart ultrasound was done because, in some cases, high oxygen needs can cause extra muscle to build up on the heart because the heart is working harder (I can't recall why this is bad).

In mid-April we had quite a scare. A routine doctor's appointment revealed that Evelyn's head was growing significantly faster than normal. This can be attributable to a condition called hydrocephalus (basically bleeding in the brain) and such a condition is, shall we say, undesirable. After a head ultrasound and an MRI, which meant on overnight trip to Children's Hospital, Evelyn got the "all clear." Well, practically an "all clear." The largeness of her head is attributable to something called extra axial space and in Evelyn's case it is benign. Meanwhile, as a precaution, Clara received a head ultrasound too and all was well. The ultrasound also showed that her slightly enlarged ventricles in her brain had not increased in size (a very good thing). So we are still hopeful that she has no long term effects due to this. For a more detailed account of this episode please see Kristina's post: Phew!

So now it's mid-late May and no new drama. The girls have started physical therapy already since their strength is not only behind chronologically, but also gestationally (i.e. age adjusted). I'm not real concerned about this since the girls are getting intervention so early. Also, Alex had speech therapy for about a year and caught up well. Finally there is fabulous news to report that Clara now only needs oxygen while she sleeps. We are hopeful that she will be off oxygen completely in about a month.

There you have it. The girls are a lot happier and easier than their big brother, Alex, was at this age. They like to give smiles and I think I've even heard a little laugh starting to bubble up. Due to a size difference at birth and the virus hitting Clara pretty hard, Evelyn is a moose compared to Clara. Because of the size difference I wonder if the casual observer would think they are identical...until looking at their faces. Kristina has quit her job. This was something we were batting around all along, but Clara's oxygen needs and the girls' medical scares made the decision a bit easier. Mom definitely wants to be around for these girls. Alex has done great playing big brother. He is very loving and helpful. Sure, sometimes he is extra demanding of attention, but he has shown no malice towards the girls at all. Alex is now only going to preschool 3 days a week (instead of full time). Finally, I'm doing well too. After taking a couple weeks off of work when Clara came home I've been back at work.