An Answer to The Jaundice

After spending 4 hours down for her test on Friday and another half hour on Saturday they finally know what is causing Kali to be so jaundice. I will spare you the whole roller coaster story that took place to get to this diagnosis and just tell you the bottom line and what it means. Kali has what is called "biliary hypoplasia". To explain that I will give you a quick anatomy lesson. Bile is made in the liver, it then goes into your gall bladder where it is stored, from the gall bladder the bile drains into your small intestine through a bunch of little ducts. In Kali's case she doesn't have many of those ducts. So the bile backs up and she is jaundice (yellow).
In the long run what this means is that she will most likely always be jaundice. Not extremely jaundice but she will always have a tint of yellow to her. The doctor said she will look Mediterranean, which is fine because she will fit in perfectly. We may resemble the Jolie-Pitts with our children but it will give us a uniqueness that is ours alone!
We may run into other issues later in her life because of this but it will not have a negative effect on her at this point and she will be able to continue on her journey to get out of the NICU and home where she belongs.
I was able to hold her again yesterday (which, after what I went through with the doctors, I really really needed). I held her for 30 minutes again and she tolerated it very well. At first she just looked at me while I talked to her and told her about her crazy brother and sister. Then she fell asleep and was so relaxed the rest of our time together. She really liked being held.
Of course we are going for another visit today and we are hoping for a smooth relaxing day with no issues!

Happy Mother's Day!!