Wednesday, May 13, 2009

U of M visit


Saying good-bye to Big Bird on the way out of the hospital

I am very happy to report that Kate had a wonderful post-op visit today. She doesn't need any more bandages (yay!) and we are going to try taking her from twice-a-day Lasix (diuretic), to once a day. Her Coumadin and baby aspirin will be for life, which we already knew. We don't have to go back for a month! We are so thankful that God answered our prayers for Kate and believe that her fast, and continued healing has been miraculous.

I know that not every child who is prayed for is miraculously healed. I do not pretend to know all the answers, but I know that God has His own plans for each of us. For our family, He wanted Kate in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks and then He brought her home. We are thrilled, but know that if He had planned for her to be there longer, He would have provided for our needs. We do believe that God miraculously dried up the flow of her chest tubes and we are in awe of that.

We stopped by to see baby Mason...and oh, does he need prayers. He had orders to leave PICU and go to the regular floor last Friday, but there were no beds available all weekend. Monday, he started having difficulty and they found out that some of the stitches on his right diaphragm had come out. (His right diaphragm was nicked during surgery, which has permanently paralyzed it. This prevents his lung from inflating properly. They had stitched his diaphragm down, to help his chest muscle begin to compensate. It is hoped that this will be successful, but the doctors just don't know if it will work.)

They will now have to go back in and re-stitch the diaphragm down. He will have to go back on the vent, back on morphine, etc. It is such a discouraging set-back for his family. They sure could use prayers...and have mentioned how encouraging it was to have you guys post comments on their website. Thank you sooo much for doing that--and please, would you go do it again? I saw tears today from his family and it was just so heartbreaking. Mason is so tiny--but he is fighting hard. He will have to stay in PICU for awhile. The doctors have told his family to plan to stay in the hospital until early June. Mason's dad said, "So, unless something miraculous happens, we're going to be here awhile." Well...lets pray for something miraculous!!