We were told this morning that we would “graduate” out of ICU to a
regular recovery room. Throughout the morning however, Evie had
several episodes with the arrhythmic heart beat that they detected a
couple days ago. They performed an EKG when her heart rate elevated
above 215 bpm. Her heart is essentially “short circuiting” and
causing it to “fire” offbeat. They gave her medication to reset her
heart which got it back on track. Throughout the day she’s had
several incidents when they’ve used different methods to reset the
heart rate.

Another concern has been her calorie intake. Its hard to measure how
much breast milk she is getting and she’s pretty averse to the bottle,
so they reinserted the NG tube to feed her through her nose into her
stomach. Half way through the feeding, she started choking and
gagging. We asked them to stop the feed and give her a break. As
soon as she settled a bit, they restarted the feed and apparently
topped her off. She was given too much at once and started vomiting
and the concern now is that perhaps she aspirated some into her lungs.

They still were willing to move us to regular recovery where we would
be under close observation. The nurses packed up her little crib with
portable oxygen and monitors and started rolling. We made it all the
way to the exit door of the ICU when Evie’s blood oxygen levels
dropped to a level that they were concerned about. We were wheeled
back to our spot in the Intensive care Unit where she remains under
observation.

We can look back over this whole saga and see a glimpse of Gods
eternal perspective and split second timing…Izzy’s complications at
birth that led us to come back to the US to birth Evie…Her being two
weeks post date, allowing her gain weight and be strong for all that
would transpire in her first days of life…prompting to take Evie to
the ER two weeks ago when it would have been easy to wait till
morning…C changing his ticket so that he was not back in the
Ukraine when all this happened…

..all of this gives us assurance that God is indeed in all these
details and the timing and our trust in Him is being stretched again
to see His plan even when it doesn’t coincide with ours. Please keep
praying for our little girl!

Its day 12 in the ICU…

Great strides were taken yesterday.  We stand in awe of God’s ability to heal and the very specific answers to prayer from our last update!

Yesterday morning, we walked in to find they had already removed the respirator!  What a joy to kiss and caress her beautiful face without the cumbersome wires and tape around her head.  They gave her a few hours to see how her lungs were functioning, before the ultimate gift…the doctors agreed to let Mandy hold and begin breast-feeding her.  She sat in a rocking chair and held Evie for 6 hours…worried that if we put her back in the bed, they’d never give her back:-)

She is alert and bright eyed.  For the past week-and-a-half, she’s been so drugged up that we haven’t had much interaction with her awake.  The doctors pull blood every couple hours to see her gasses in her blood look.  The last time they extubated her, she had trouble blowing off the CO2 and her blood became acidic.  This time she is doing beautifully!!  The doctors (and we:-) are very pleased with her progress!

The newest concern is a heart arrhythmia they detected last night.  This is not uncommon for people who have had heart operations, but something to monitor closely.

The doctors are discussing moving us to a regular recovery room possibly within the next day.  Their biggest issue is how well Evie is eating.  After a week not eating at all, her sucking reflex has atrophied and she gets tired easily.  Pray that she will eat well enough that we can be assured that she’s getting the nutrition she needs.

We are growing very weary and feeling torn between our time at the hospital with Evie and at home with the other kids. They have been great with Mandy’s sister taking care of them, but we can tell they’re missing the stability of having our family together!  Pray that recovery will continue to progress quickly so we can establish our family again!

God is good!  Rejoice with us in all He has done!!
“Though sorrow may last for the night, rejoicing comes in the morning!”

Prayer:
-For Evie to eat well so that they won’t have to reintroduce the NG tube
-For her heart irregularity to subside
-Continued healing of the wound
-Fluid in her lungs to continue to dissipate
-For Tristan, Abi, Britain and Izzy at home

Evening update…
The doctors evening evaluation led them to give her another night on the respirator.  She had a very rough afternoon and is not toleration the tube well.  She;s had episodes of coughing and gagging and throwing up.  Doctors want her to get a few more hours of feeds in and rest overnight before they pull the tube tomorrow morning.  Pray for rest for her tonight and a smooth transition tomorrow at 9:00 when they pull it….that she will be strong enough to breathe on her own!!!

Since we put out our last email we’ve been pleased with Evie’s progress and care.
Answers to prayer:
1) The last 2 nurse rotations Evie’s had our favorite nurses.
2) An x-ray this morning showed that there may be signs of slight healing in her lungs. (hopeful)
3) She’s passed her CPPAP tests that tell how she would do if they take her off the respirator.
4) The opening on her chest does not appear to be infected.

For prayer:
1) tomorrow they expect to take her off the ventilator, pray that she breaths well on her own afterwards.
2) pray that there won’t be too much scarring on her chest and that it won’t get infected.
3) she’s very uncomfortable on the ventilator and often has fits of gagging, coughing, and throwing up.  Pray that she will rest and be at peace with her situation so that they don’t have to continue giving her morphine.