our little big combattant had a very very special day today, a day few people are allowed to have: a second day of birth!

as certainly sufficiently communicated, today was surgery day, intestine surgery... after all, what good is the strongest heart, the toughest lungs, the busiest kidneys and the sweetest smile, if no nutrition is contributed?

prior to the surgery there were carefullest estimates of what it would yield on the other side, which is why we did not go crazy to hopeville. exploratively, the surgery was to commence. lots of decisions to make mid-operation. decisions based on facts and information no-one had ahead of time.

on top of the hour it started. loving caring and very effectively we were distracted by the nurses, snuggled ben & vic, washed them and pampered them: time almost flew by, given the circumstances! (hey, i only had 3 or 4 smokes in over 5 hours!)

we were kept on top of events. what's happening, what parts of the surgery are complete, approximate time of completion, that they encountered no complications, so far...

and then, many people in short sequence came into "our" room, good news and better ones! everything good. not only continuity, but massively more length than anyone dared expecting. no more artificial exits! this represents the absolute maximum configuration of all theoretical possibilities: the millions of dollars winning lottery ticket!

never before such a load dropped from off our hearts! never before have we been - despite all hope - so positively blown away! never before so happy!

our son will stay with us! because we are positively beyond a doubt that the 3 sutures will heal allright! because everyone of us knows - and so do you:
OF ALL GOOD THINGS THERE'S THREE!

of all the 82 days our triplets are in the clinic by now, today was by far the most flawlessly positive one!

friday, the 13th - black friday actually, and a dreaded day of bad luck for most people - today was TOTALLY pink! and that's not girlie pink, that's joyous rosy pink!

what the setting sun saw today was an all time new!
a surgery success second to none, 8 inches of pure mystery, tears of joy, hugs, candles, thoughts, phonecalls, text messages...

we - CONTINUE TO! - have - no less than! - triplets!

friday, 13th,
...12 o'clock,
......11 weeks,
.........10 fingers,
............9 lives,
...............8 centimeters,
..................7 countries,
.....................6 doctors,
........................5 in the family,
...........................4 years,
..............................3 languages,
.................................2 parents,
....................................1 objective:

today is - FINALLY! - a good day again. no, i mean a REAL good day. a day when nothing and noone can beat my good mood. today it could have snowed and hailed on my parade and i still would have gone barefoot. and here's how this was:

pleasant visitor after long time: professor skopnik sat through a rather long conversation with the two kangaroos. as announced in chapter 92, there will be another surgery soon. collin did earn it after two ripening weeks at best health. as announced this surgery will have a widely explorative agenda. but they have - not entirely unlike a chess player - some consequencial moves in mind. and this is where it starts outperforming our hopes:

there is a - not closer quantifyable - probability that even during this first surgery (of probably many more) continuity, reconnecting beginning and end, of collins digesting path may be achieved!
they are considering implanting a semi-permanent port for artificially nourishing, which in the long term has tremendous advantages over in intravenous access.

and the sheer MADNESS, the snow-and-hail-on-my-parade-MADNESS we never dared to hope: possibly, BY CHANCE there may be a way to make a transplant superfluous! this time is definately much too early for details, but take a minute to disect from what low depth we got to what soaring heights within one single month!

so anyone who still has a finger, or knows of anyone who knows of anyone who still has a finger, uncrossed, PLEASE PLEASE, keep them crossed!

...that we broke a massive ten thousand hits on our diaries? not to linger in bragging too long, but it DOES feel good... :)

also for this a big THANX to all readers. this IS indeed loyalty!

oh, and before i forget: the one who can send me the authentic screenshot of the "10000" with date and time will receive something special from me in turn... :)

For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (matthew 7,8)

our three lie in one and the same bed - called "unit"! with doctor's blessing! a little tight, but we just call it cosy... and honestly: do these look unhappy? :)

normally it is a good thing: a message from a sender, transported by a carrier reaches an addressee. this way we can communicate, make life easier. but not all messages are good news. for instance in the eye: the avascular retina emits signals containing growth orders for the blood vessels. so-called growth factors are the carriers for these signals, while the blood vessels, growing from the rear end of the eye towards the front, are the addressees, the receivers.

unfortunately, due to the extremely early birth, more messages are sent out than good and necessary, which causes the blood vessels to grow excessively, uncontrollably, too fast, in the wrong directions and everything but straight. through several stages the problem can worsen into complete blindness.

luckily there is counter measures: the message system - sender, carrier, receiver - needs to be interrupted. while executing the receiver obviously makes no sense at all, we are left with two alternatives: in the past the sender was neutralized: by means of laser the avascular retina was kept from sending out more signals. but dead senders can send no more messages, not even good news, and therein lies the disadvantage. a very newly developed cure follows a different approach: better to just keep the message from arriving, raid the stage coach, in more graphic terms.

this is possible, with medication. and precisely this was done on our boys last friday (girls are not as prone to the problem.) under sterile conditions a substance was injected into the eye directly, which binds the growth factors. this way the blood vessels no longer receive excessive growth orders and retreat to normal, safe levels - checked during the follow-up inspection on saturday. monday is the second round.

so, we keep crossing our fingers. and call a relieved "thanx" over the rhine: to an extraordinary opthalmologist with a truly unique career path: do you believe in coincidence, dr. jendritza? :)

and if you find this explanation not scientific enough, look under "retinopathie of prematurity, abbreviated: ROP"...

collin made it through the first of 4 weeks of surgery-maturation, and successfully so!

we recap: he is to stock up on strength, weight, maturity and toughness (even more?!) in order to have more surgery and live to tell. this next surgery will be of explorative nature, which means they will look inside to get status in order to decide where to go from here, and how.

the first week is over now, collin made it uneventfully AND boasts a massive double weight compared to the moment he first saw the electric light of the world, just as his siblings by the way!



in this spirit: well done, son! keep it up!
you have loads of moms and dads by now!

for this, again, we all THANK EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!

the quoote of the weekend: "two third of you are on nurturing!"

what at first sounds like a mix of illuminati secret code and babytalk means really this: two of our three kids moved to the nurturing side. that side where EVERY preemie wants to go (because it is all home from there!)...
and the parents get this information immediately upon entering, lest they stand in the room where just a few hours ago were their babies, but now some other real little needy new citizen is being tended to.
thank you melanie, for this - unexpected at this early stage - news!

interestingly, it is not - as maybe expected - benjamin and victoria who moved, but - surprise! - COLLIN and victoria... benny has caught another little infection, which he is curing now. (so, there is even multiple explanations for the long pause on the blog!) he is, however, doing very well, extubated again already, and will follow his siblings rather soon. then they are again in the same room, one next to the other, just like in real life... :)

the easter bunny has visited the nurses' break room. IF the angels have to work over the holidays, he thought to himself, why not use a little color to make it just this little bit more enjoyable...



what goes around comes around. and that goes double for good mood spread... :)