Ella had a successful trip down to radiology. The CT scan went well; they were able to transport her and do the scan without requiring any sedation.

Tonight when we came to see Ella, they had made one other change during the day. At noon, she had a blood gas of cO2=79, pO2=88, with her pH level down. Her carbon dioxide was definitely too high, so Dr. Kays bumped up the ventilator to 50 assisted breaths per minute.

Then, her next blood gas was at 4pm. It improved quite a bit, cO2=65, pO2=92, with a better pH level. While we are sitting here at her bedside, she had another blood gas at 11:30pm, cO2=64, pO2=116, with a good pH level. Much, much better.

Dr. Kays decided to hold off on replacing the left chest tube yesterday and today, until he got the results of the CT scan. Fortunately, the CT scan gave him the information that he needed.

Her right lung looked good and there was just a slight amount of fluid retention in the chest cavity. However, the left side of her chest has a tremendous amount of fluid, confirming Ella’s difficulty in progressing forward.

Dr. Kays is still trying to decide the best way to treat Ella’s condition. We know that it involves Ella having surgery this Wednesday, but we do not know how extensive. Some of it may have to be decided once he gets the camera in her chest to see.

Fortunately, Ella has been doing better. If you remember 2 weeks ago when Dr. Kays removed the left chest tube, she took several steps back in her progression. Now, it is almost as if her left tube is out since it hasn’t drained anything for days, and yet her blood gases and saturations look better. And as we have experienced, she seems comfortable and in a pleasant mood when we visit her. So her toleration of the fluid in her chest cavity has improved significantly.

We are looking forward to speaking to Dr. Kays tomorrow to hear about his plan for Wednesday.

Please keep praying for Ella and her surgery this week- – that it will go well, be on the less invasive side, and ultimately resolve the fluid issue.

We trust that the Lord will provide wisdom to Dr. Kays. We are taking comfort that Ella is in the hands of the Almighty God.

If you did not have a chance to read yesterday’s post, you might want to catch up!

We just called to check in on Ella and discovered that nurse Angie is taking care of her today. What a nice surprise!

Ella’s blood gas last night at midnight was cO2=66, pO2=66. Thankfully it is slightly better this morning, cO2=61, pO2=90. She mentioned that Ella seemed comfortable and was sleeping sound.

As of yesterday, the plan was for Dr. Kays to replace Ella’s left chest tube. When we called to check in around 10:30pm last night, he had decided to wait until today, once the CT scan was performed. Although we have not talked with him, it would make sense that he might want to review the results of the CT scan before replacing the left chest tube and giving her one last chance for her body to resolve the issue.

We have not heard the exact timing of when the CT scan is scheduled, but we understand that it will be sometime this afternoon.

Again, Ella is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, since Dr. Kays is not expecting her to improve. We know that the Lord could choose to resolve the fluid situation instantly. But we also recognize that whatever happens, His timing and ways are perfect.

Lord, we pray for your peace and comfort at this time. We pray for Ella’s safety during transport to radiology today. We ask that you bring wisdom to Dr. Kays and staff; we want to achieve great learnings from this scan.

We praise you and thank you for who you are – that we can have an intimate relationship with the God of the universe, that we can come to you for comfort and peace, knowing that we will never lose when we are centered in your will.

You always have our best interests at heart, even though we may not understand.

Thank you for the blessing of this little girl. Amen.

Hebrews 10:35-36
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.