Oct
09
    
Posted (Tina) in All Posts on October-9-2007


Yes, Ella turned 11 weeks old today! Wow…time has flown and yet it has gone slow at the same time.

Two of my co-workers, Katy and Pam, came to Gainesville tonight. We had a great time hanging out at dinner and then visiting with Ella. It was so nice to see familiar faces. She gave a couple of grins to each of them, and then peacefully fell asleep after all the interaction.

I am pleased to report that Ella had another uneventful day which is great news. Her two blood gases today have been good. The vent was weened slightly at 39% oxygen and 58 breaths per minute. As of 10pm, her chest tube fluid output was 8ccs. Also, her urine output was already 220. We hope that she has a restful night and can remain stable.

We are still waiting for Dr. Kays to come back in town. We are anxious to hear what he has to say about her progress and what steps he wants to try next. We think he might want to remove one of the chest tubes, to see if Ella can tolerate it (she has 3 total; 2 on the left and 1 on the right).

Through all the curiosity of what will happen next, we know that He is ultimately in control and that His timing is perfect.

Lord, we praise you and thank you for our beautiful little girl. We feel so blessed to be her parents and to be directly involved in your work. Help us to draw near to you in this time and become more familiar with your ways.

We lift up Dr. Kays and staff to you and ask that you provide wisdom and discernment for the next steps regarding Ella’s care.

Lord, give us the strength to continue on this journey each day and be a testimony to you and your love for us. Help us to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12).

We thank you for all the wonderful support via our family and friends. Please bless everyone touched by Ella’s story and use this experience to bring glory to your name. Amen.



 
Oct
09
    
Posted (jooosh) in All Posts on October-9-2007


We don’t want to take this “routine” for granted, but Ella is still trekking on a good path. She did get fussy a couple times last night for Nurse Janet, but she was able to calm our girl down without using any fentanyl (just a boost of oxygen and a calming touch).

Ella was wide awake from 5am through her morning assessment at 8am. She behaved very well for the day nurse on shift during this time, and she’s continuing to do so today.

Her stats continue the positive trend too. Her saturations are hovering around 100% with blood gas numbers that looked like this at 6am: pH=7.42, cO2=44, pO2=89. Ella’s maintaining good urine output (275ccs) and her chest tubes only put out a total of 23ccs for the 24 hour period.

We didn’t get any official word on her x-ray yesterday, but there is no x-ray scheduled for today. So, I’m assuming they may not be too concerned considering our baby girl’s overall good behavior.

Her feeds have been bumped up again to 9ccs per hour. With this increase, they were able to reduce some of the other nutrition she’s been receiving intravenously.

They also discontinued one of her antibiotics. She still has a couple others going through her system though.

No sign of Dr. Kays today, so maybe he’s out for one more day. We’re looking forward to getting his thoughts upon his return.

Our journey is still far from over, but we will relish these quiet times.

Thank you Lord for your peace.