So, birth is traumatic enough! And as you know, Ella has a condition called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. So as soon as she was born, she was unable to breathe due to her underdeveloped lungs. This is the entire reason that we came to Florida – – so that Dr. Kays and his team could work on Ella and give her the best chance of survival.
 
Upon birth and within the first few hours of life, Ella’s biggest challenge is the amount of carbon dioxide in her system. The ventilators were doing a great job at making sure that her body and brain were receiving enough oxygen. Yet, since her lungs are so immature, she is having a tough time getting the carbon dioxide out of her system. Her levels were too high. For a baby, they should be around 60-70 – – she is at 130.
 
So each hour, they have been monitoring her vitals: heart rate, blood pressure (don’t want too much hypertension from the additional stress this condition places on her heart trying to pump the blood to the lungs), oxygen levels in her brain and body, pH levels, etc. They are working diligently with 24/7 monitoring and care to try their best to stabilize her. They want to stabilize her before they perform surgery.
 
She is very sick and has done well adjusting to the various therapies and medications during this first day. Continue to pray that her vitals will improve and that she can be stablized without requiring ECMO. Keep in mind that it is very likely that Ella will need ECMO at some point during her recovery. However, her recovery will be significantly delayed and make her fight for life even tougher, if she has to go on ECMO prior to surgery, where they move the contents from her chest to her abdomen.
 
We just checked on Ella before we decided to go to bed. Her carbon dioxide levels improved, but then it swayed the amount of oxygen she was receiving in her body. So, better progress on one vital sign, but it threw off another. We have asked God to watch over her throughout the night as she fights.

Morning Update
Ella had a rough night last night (Tuesday night into Wednesday). She continued to fight but her levels were all over the place – – one area would improve, but it would worsen something else. They are trying some more tweaks with medications this morning.

Mid-Day
Ella’s vitals and latest blood gas check-up looked promising (they draw her blood and measure the amount of gases in her blood). As we visited with her, it was time for another blood gas check-up. As we left, she had 2 good blood gas reports. We are leaving to go update the blog and hope that we can deliver more good news later.

Evening Update
Ella had some pretty big swings this evening. Unfortunately she’s been hovering more on the bad side. So much so that Dr. Kays will be staying the night at the hospital. Thank God for the amazing staff here and their dedication to our baby girl. Do well tonight Ms. Ella Renae. Mom and dad are going to bed…

Our baby girl is not doing as well as we hoped. We knew putting her on ECMO was a high probablity, but now it’s happening for sure. Dr. Kays tried all other methods to stabilize her, but her stats have continued to be unstable. As I write this they are preparing her area for surgery. She’ll be placed on ECMO today. Please pray for a smooth surgery and a overall successful outcome. We continue to trust God through this time and thank you for all your prayers.

Today, we connected with Tracy, the mom of Baby Jonathan. As we mentioned earlier, it has been 12 weeks since Jonathan was born and he was admitted to the NICU. He spent the first 30 days of his life on ECMO and went back on ECMO for a second round at the end of June till now.

Each day, he has continued to become more and more ill. His stats have not been improving. Tracy has been at his bedside each day. Jonathan is very alert and responsive to his mother. They hold hands and spend lots of time together. When he is sleeping and hears his mom’s voice, he wakes up from sleep and responds. They have a special bond with each other.

Since Jonathan has been on 2 rounds of ECMO and his stats are not improving, Dr. Kays is recommending that they remove Jonathan from ECMO tomorrow morning, July 27, 2007 and just wait and see how he does. Dr. Kays is not relaying positive vibes that his condition will improve – – if anything, he has prepared Tracy for the worst.

Tonight, Jonathan’s father Keith is arriving. Tomorrow is a big day for the Mitchell family since they are unsure how Jonathan will respond when he is removed from ECMO. Josh and I will be getting together this evening with Tracy to pray for Jonathan…to pray for the Lord’s will in his life. God can choose to take Jonathan tomorrow to be with Him, which is not what we want. But in the end, we all really want the Lord’s will, since we know that is best.

Please say a prayer for Jonathan…

Ella went on ECMO this afternoon.
 
When a child has a severe condition that has not responded to the normal therapy of a respirator, medicines, and extra oxygen, they could die but ECMO can be used to help save their life. ECMO stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. The ECMO machine is very similar to a heart-lung bypass machine that they use for open heart surgery. When a child is placed on ECMO, the blood receives oxygen from an artificial lung in the ECMO circuit. The artificial lung in the ECMO circuit provides the child’s blood with oxygen needed to live until her lungs are able to function on their own.
 
In Ella’s case, the surgical procedure to connect her to the ECMO machine requires tying off her carotid artery. If you think about it, this is surgery in and of itself! Dr. Kays reported that Ella did well during the procedure.Although ECMO has its own risks, we are hoping that this machine helps to stabilize her over the next few days. As you will see in the photos, this is a MASSIVE machine that requires a specially certified technician to monitor the machine at all times.
 
For the first few days, Ella had a nurse 24/7 at her bedside monitoring her stats. In addition, she will now have a respiratory specialist that is certified to operate ECMO equipment at her bedside to monitor the machine and make sure that the levels in the machine are proper (all the blood gases in the machine, platelet count, etc.) and try to minimize any failure of the machine, since that can have devastating consequences.
 
Her first hour on ECMO was very promising. All of her stats looked the best that they had been since she was born (good heart rate, blood pressure, blood gases in line, etc.). This is the result of the ECMO machine. Since the ECMO machine is doing the work of the lungs, it will give Ella a chance to rest. Her body has been taxed the past few days; it has tried very hard to work…and yet unsuccessfully. The ECMO machine should bring all her vital signs of stability more in line where they should be while giving her body a little break.
 
Please continue to pray for her…we want to see her get stable enough so that she can have surgery to move the extra contents in her chest back down to her abdomen…which will give her lungs the room they need to grow! The next few days are very important!

Ella has been having a good day – – she is still very sick.  But, her stats have been stable on ECMO throughout the day.  So, ECMO is doing its job and she has been holding steady!  Thank you for all your prayers…let’s continue to pray that her stats can remain this way!

Baby Jonathan went home to be with Jesus yesterday. What an incredible testimony this boy was and the impact he and his mom had on all who met them. I believe it was no accident that Ella was born early. We wouldn’t have been blessed with getting to know Tracy in person otherwise.

Please pray that God’s grace, mercy, and peace will be upon the entire Mitchell family.

Yes…we’re crazy parents.  We went to go see Ella at 3:30am!  Her stats and blood gases continue to be stable (Praise God).  We’re not out of the woods yet though.  This is a 10 mile journey and we’ve only gone a mile.  Thank God for the distance we have traveled safely.   I pray that Ella will continue her current track, giving her the opportunity to heal so she’ll be better prepared for the path ahead.

Be strong my baby girl…be strong.

Oh, I know that little miss Ella is the most important thing we got going, but I figure some of you might want to know how we’re holding up as well =).

Tina was released from the hospital on Thursday the 26th. She’s still a bit sore, but doing well health-wise. Holy cripes what an incredibly strong wife I have! I mean, I knew that I did. Now I REALLY know I do. Also, I know that if men were the ones having babies, we would have died off very quickly after the first generation. God knew what He was doing when He put the responsibility of having babies in the hands of women.

We’re also finally moved into our apartment. It was crazy because we had two trips to make from the hotel, one of those included a cat transfer, and we decided to do this around 10:30pm to be a little stealth with the cats. We had also hoped that it might be a bit cooler, but no coolness in the evening around here. How about 85 degrees @ 10:30 pm with 95% humidity?

Oh yeah, and we were on the third floor in the hotel with a little bit of an elevator assist, but no elevator at the apartment, and we’re on the third floor there as well! I was praying that Ella’s daddy wasn’t going to die with all the steps, heat, and humidity. We were up ’till 1:30am doing the move which explains why we went to visit Ella so late last night. We made it though, and it’s so nice to be moved in here.

How’s daddy holding up? Well, to be honest I would have thought I’d be a total basket case, just an emotional mess seeing all the things I’ve seen. But God has given me a strength that I would have never expected. To be able to stand there and caress my baby’s arm seeing her hooked up to all those machines and not totally ball, isn’t me! For God to give me the strength to sit and pray next to the Mitchell family and not totally lose it as Tracy’s baby boy passes in her arms, not my strength! Let me be clear, it’s not that I’m not being affected emotionally. It’s been an incredibly heavy thing to experience. But the only way I’ve been able to survive, and not be curled up in the fetal position on the floor, is by the strength God has given me, and I know that I know it’s because of the prayer support YOU are providing.

All the emails and comments are so uplifting and give us a taste of home and family when we’re so far away. Thanks to all of you for being there for us.

God bless you all.