Oops

Well I was totally wrong about what they were doing. The tube they were removing last night was her chest tube...the one to drain her lungs. Instead, this is just another bad day for my kid. Her oxygen is back up to 85% and her pressure is up just as high, she is back on blood pressure medication and she just refuses to be weaned from the vent. Sorry to get your hopes up (and mine). All I want is to get on here one day and tell you all some good news...permanent good news. Hope it happens soon!

Ventilator

I went in today and was able to see Emily for a few minutes...they were doing surgery on another baby in her room so I had to leave after just 20 minutes. BUT it was good to see her. She is quite gaunt so I didn't take any pics (plus all the lights were on for the surgery so they had her covered up)...will do later.

The reason I am writing is mostly to ask for your prayer once again. They are going to try to take her off her vent tonight. She is not technically ready for this but they want to try so that they can get her out of this cycle of pain, morphine, low blood pressure, fluids, etc. Please pray she will be able to breathe on her own and we can move on with the job of growing and getting better.

Fun with April

It stopped raining so we spent a little time outside with Auntie April...of course, playing on the John Deere ATV.

It was still cold and since this was the first time K has worn mittens, she was VERY distracted by them...we had the same reaction to shoes about two weeks ago.

Can you read her hat? Brrr...it's cold.

Post-Op

Most of you don't know that last night was a little rough for E...her blood pressure dropped and they tried saline and two different drugs before she responded to one of them. They also had her oxygen back up to 80%. Today she is getting better. Her blood pressure is back up and they have her off the medications to help her with it. Her oxygen is slowly dropping and she is at 40% right now. She should be coming out of the general this afternoon.

For us, if we keep getting better, we should be able to visit sometime this weekend. K is on antibiotics and we hit the magic 48 hrs with her today.

PTL!

Praise the Lord! Thank you for your prayers. The operation went well. Her blood pressure is up and they were able to insert a drainage tube into her lung while they were in there. They will remove it in a few days. The dr seems very optimistic that this will solve many, if not all, of her problems...including her need for the ventilator. Please pray this is true as it will mean we can start to hold her. She is not awake yet (still sedated - as we would all want to be after this) so keep praying she will come out of the anesthesia well.

Surgery this afternoon...

PRAYERS PLEASE!!! Emily Grace is going in for surgery on her heart valve this afternoon at 1pm (PST). The biggest complication is actually the general anesthesia and her not waking back up from it. The other two complications are infection and getting an air bubble in her lungs that will make it to her heart. We will update as soon as we know.

Bronchitis

Well, K has managed to turn this cold into bronchitis...real good little girl. On the positive side, she got to wear this cool mask while at the drs office.

Emily seems to be doing a bit better in the last two days. Her oxygen levels are getting lower(25-30%) and her right lung appears to be clearing up a bit. Unfortunately, she also has a bacterial infection in her blood. They have her on antibiotics and don't seem too concerned about it, so I won't worry either. We still can't visit due to the colds we have but hopefully soon that will all change.

K with her friend Z...having fun 'sharing' toys. They just look like two peas in a pod so I had to share.

Gracie

Emily is overall doing the same. We are having up days and down days but nothing dramatic. They are currently working under the theory that a lot of her breathing issues are pain related. The problem is that when she is working so hard that they give her the morphine to calm her down, her blood pressure drops and they have to give her fluids and that whole process starts over again. In good news, her brain scan show no bleeding on the brain. PTL!!

We are both still sick and won't be able to visit for a couple more days. April is here for a week and helping out immensely. I am extra glad since my mom was here for a long time and then I had M helping. Only two days on my own and I barely slept, started bleeding and got really down on life. I guess I just need other people to help me fight off all the thoughts and emotions right now.