Ella’s doing alright this evening. Tina and I left the hospital at 9:30pm EST tonight, and the photos above show our baby girl at that time.
 
Dr. Kays replaced her ventilator tube with a larger one late in the afternoon today. He did so because her stats were not as good as he wanted and he thought maybe the tube was partly to blame. The larger tube will help with the volume of air moving in and out of her lungs, plus the older one can become obstructed with a buildup of secretions.
 
Ella was stable for awhile, but around shift change she really started fussing. She was teetering on going one way or the other, and she began to stabilize, but then it was time for nurse Jim to do his “hands on”. This involved turning her, changing her diaper, changing out some meds, giving her subcutaneous shot, getting blood from her heel*, etc.
 
After nurse Jim turned her, she started fussing real bad. Her stats really dropped. Dad’s stats really dropped too, so much so that I had to step away for a moment while she calmed down. She finally recovered, and then he had to give her the shot. I once again took a break, but she took it like a champ this time (stronger then dad!).
 
Finally got her to settle down, and this is the picture your seeing now. Sweet little Ella sleeping. Tell you one thing, you can’t even think about leaving her when she’s awake. Just too hard to do. Gotta wait for her to zonk out, then we can sneak off. =)
 
We did get some hopeful news. It looks like (maybe) her fluid output is decreasing. We’ll know better tomorrow, but at the moment it looks like she on track for a lower output number. Thank God. We’re really hoping and praying that this is true. It’s so key for her to get over all the fluid retention so she can move forward.
 
If she can progress enough, Dr. Kays may consider moving her to a standard ventilator next week. No guarantees on this, we’ll just have to be patient.
 
We’re also having some friends come visit us from Atlanta (Brendan and Lesli). We got to know them through the church we attended in California. They had planned to be here around 9pm, but traffic is slowing them up quite a bit. Excited to spend time with some old friends.
 
Please continue to pray for our baby girl, specifically for her fluid reduction. Thanks to all you prayer warriors out there!
 
God Bless.
 
 
*I found out that they need to take blood from her heel because if they were to take it from her arterial line it wouldn’t be as accurate. Her blood sugar has been stable so they’ll be reducing the frequency of these.

Oh sweet Ella. Our baby girl is still very puffy. We’re really hoping and praying for a big change over the weekend, but for now we need to be patient. We are trusting that God’s timing is perfect.

Other then her fluid retention, Ella continues to remain stable. She was very awake this morning for nurse Andrea, and her stats have been in a range where Dr. Kays is comfortable. No other major changes at this time.

The only change they’ve made is removing the heparin drip (anticoagulant), and instead are giving her subcutaneous shots of another blood thinning medication called Lovenox. Dad has to look away while the baby girl gets these because they need to poke her in a fleshy part of the body to give them (picture dad shuddering now).

Oh, and they are checking her blood sugar levels too because of the octreotide. Not as bad as a shot, but they do prick her heal to get a drop of blood (and dad shudders again). Come to think if it, I’m not sure why they do this considering they draw blood from her every few hours from an arterial line, but I’m sure there’s a good reason. I’ll be asking that question today though just to be sure.

Tina’s feeling better these days. Hopefully this run on antibiotics will kill the infection for good.

Dad is doing ok as well, except for the moments he selfishly wants to just rescue his baby girl and take her away from all this. I say selfishly because I know with everything in me that God is sovereign and His timing is perfect, but I still want her to just be better now!

This baby girl has been such a blessing to us and to so many others. God knows exactly what needs to be done, what needs to be said, and what seeds will be planted before we can take the next steps.

Lord, continue to confirm your truths in our hearts, and know that our desire is to completely surrender to you. We praise you Lord, for every day we get to spend with our baby girl, and for all the others who are touched by her testimony. Thank you Jesus. Amen.