Exciting news everyone!
Elizabeth did great over night and the doctors decided to close the incision today! And they're doing it right now! We'll update more when it's done, but just wanted to take a sec to let you all know.
Thanks again for all of your support and prayers.
Grace and peace,
Allen & Steph
Friday, July 01, 2005
Feeling Better
Good evening everybody,
Steph, Elizabeth and I are all doing much better. Thanks to you all for your prayers. God is sustaining us with peace, much of which came just within the last couple of hours. Steph and I went to see Elizabeth late tonight. She looks MUCH better. She has the color back in her face and looks much more restful.
The night nurse for Elizabeth is fantastic. Her name is Laurie and is very personable and very articulate. She spent a good twenty minutes tonight explaining what all the new info on the monitors and new machines actually meant (in layman's terms). We had the monitors and machines down great in the DNCC, but in the PICU, it's a whole new ballgame. Like going from single A ball straight to the majors.
Elizabeth is still on the meds to keep her sedated. She'll be on them til they close her chest. She does move a little bit from time to time and will even open her eyes every once in a while. It's really cute when she does the sucking motion with her lips (and exciting that she still knows how to do that! Sometimes after surgery skills like that can be lost). So even with all the movement and everything, she is still quite out of it, Laurie assured us. It was great to be with Elizabeth tonight though. Her stats got better while we were there (Laurie's observation, not ours), and it was certainly good for Steph and I to see her and to see her improvement. We know that it won't be an easy couple of days, but tonight was such a huge comfort. Elizabeth even has her cute little baby smell back.
As for when they will close her chest, Laurie was unsure. Saturday is looking more likely she thought. But that's not for certain. We'll know more after the doctor team does their rounds in the morning. Steph and I plan on being there for that, so I should wrap us this email.
Thanks again for all of your prayers. They have been effective and of great reassurance to us. Please continue to pray that Elizabeth's swelling would go down and that she would recover quickly from the closing (whenever that happens).
More info to come tomorrow after we hear from the docs.
Much love, grace and peace,
Allen
Steph, Elizabeth and I are all doing much better. Thanks to you all for your prayers. God is sustaining us with peace, much of which came just within the last couple of hours. Steph and I went to see Elizabeth late tonight. She looks MUCH better. She has the color back in her face and looks much more restful.
The night nurse for Elizabeth is fantastic. Her name is Laurie and is very personable and very articulate. She spent a good twenty minutes tonight explaining what all the new info on the monitors and new machines actually meant (in layman's terms). We had the monitors and machines down great in the DNCC, but in the PICU, it's a whole new ballgame. Like going from single A ball straight to the majors.
Elizabeth is still on the meds to keep her sedated. She'll be on them til they close her chest. She does move a little bit from time to time and will even open her eyes every once in a while. It's really cute when she does the sucking motion with her lips (and exciting that she still knows how to do that! Sometimes after surgery skills like that can be lost). So even with all the movement and everything, she is still quite out of it, Laurie assured us. It was great to be with Elizabeth tonight though. Her stats got better while we were there (Laurie's observation, not ours), and it was certainly good for Steph and I to see her and to see her improvement. We know that it won't be an easy couple of days, but tonight was such a huge comfort. Elizabeth even has her cute little baby smell back.
As for when they will close her chest, Laurie was unsure. Saturday is looking more likely she thought. But that's not for certain. We'll know more after the doctor team does their rounds in the morning. Steph and I plan on being there for that, so I should wrap us this email.
Thanks again for all of your prayers. They have been effective and of great reassurance to us. Please continue to pray that Elizabeth's swelling would go down and that she would recover quickly from the closing (whenever that happens).
More info to come tomorrow after we hear from the docs.
Much love, grace and peace,
Allen
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Success!
Hi everybody,
GREAT NEWS!!! Elizabeth is doing great. The surgeon came in about 7:40pm to let us know that the surgery went just as planned, excellent, awesome. They were able to go with option #1 (cutting thru the muscle to make the "tunnel" to the valve) and all is well in that front. She should turn out just fine. God be glorified in this hard time.
We do find oursevles in the midst of a hard time still though, unexpectedly. We knew that she would have all sorts of wires and things coming out of everywhere, but we didn't know it would be as hard as it was to see. The surgeons were not able to close up the incision they made due to the amount of swelling in Elizabeth's chest (all normal responses to surgery). So they put a temporary patch over the incision, and they plan on closing it up when the swelling goes down in a couple of days. She is fine and responding as anticipated, just hard for Mom and Dad to see.
She is still sedated and will be slowly brought out of sleep after they remove the patch and close the incision. The aim is to sew up the incision on Friday. Then a couple more days in the Pediatric ICU for recovery / monitoring sake. Then it's back up to the neo natal unit for any "retraining" that might be needed (feeding, etc).
We certainly appreciate all of your prayers and your willingness to go before the Father on our behalf. Our Heavenly Father listened and responded by giving the doctors the utmost in skill. Thank you and thanks and praise be to Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer.
Continued prayers for the reduction of Elizabeth's swelling, a speedy recovery and Steph and I dealing still with the "separation" from her are greatly appreciated. We can't wait to take our little girl home.
Thanks again.
Grace and peace,
Allen
GREAT NEWS!!! Elizabeth is doing great. The surgeon came in about 7:40pm to let us know that the surgery went just as planned, excellent, awesome. They were able to go with option #1 (cutting thru the muscle to make the "tunnel" to the valve) and all is well in that front. She should turn out just fine. God be glorified in this hard time.
We do find oursevles in the midst of a hard time still though, unexpectedly. We knew that she would have all sorts of wires and things coming out of everywhere, but we didn't know it would be as hard as it was to see. The surgeons were not able to close up the incision they made due to the amount of swelling in Elizabeth's chest (all normal responses to surgery). So they put a temporary patch over the incision, and they plan on closing it up when the swelling goes down in a couple of days. She is fine and responding as anticipated, just hard for Mom and Dad to see.
She is still sedated and will be slowly brought out of sleep after they remove the patch and close the incision. The aim is to sew up the incision on Friday. Then a couple more days in the Pediatric ICU for recovery / monitoring sake. Then it's back up to the neo natal unit for any "retraining" that might be needed (feeding, etc).
We certainly appreciate all of your prayers and your willingness to go before the Father on our behalf. Our Heavenly Father listened and responded by giving the doctors the utmost in skill. Thank you and thanks and praise be to Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer.
Continued prayers for the reduction of Elizabeth's swelling, a speedy recovery and Steph and I dealing still with the "separation" from her are greatly appreciated. We can't wait to take our little girl home.
Thanks again.
Grace and peace,
Allen
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Surgery is on its way
Hi everybody,
Well, we finally made it to surgery time. The morning surgery went a little long, and then the surgeons needed to get lunch (a delay I'm perfectly okay with :-)), so Elizabeth did not get wheeled down to the Operating Room until 2:30 (1.5 hrs ago). We met a couple of the nurses and the anesthesiologist, gave our kisses to Elizabeth and came to the waiting room. We should be getting periodic updates from one of the nurses, so once I know something more, I'll pass on the word.
Thanks for praying. Our God is faithful to listen.
Allen
Well, we finally made it to surgery time. The morning surgery went a little long, and then the surgeons needed to get lunch (a delay I'm perfectly okay with :-)), so Elizabeth did not get wheeled down to the Operating Room until 2:30 (1.5 hrs ago). We met a couple of the nurses and the anesthesiologist, gave our kisses to Elizabeth and came to the waiting room. We should be getting periodic updates from one of the nurses, so once I know something more, I'll pass on the word.
Thanks for praying. Our God is faithful to listen.
Allen
Those beautiful eyes
Elizabeth's eyes can be a bit elusive. They were open more than ever yesterday, but it's still uncommon to see them. Here was my attempt last night to sneak a picture of them.
Our little movie star
So Steph and I originally planned on just coming home this afternoon and hanging out. Go to bed early, get lots of rest... yeaaaah. We went back to see our little girl at about 8:30 and left there just after 11. Steph got to hold her for a while and enjoyed giving her a bottle full of 'liquid gold.' Amongst the holding and snuggling, there was this absolutely wonderful moment:
{insert funny caption here}
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Postponed Update
I serve a faithful God whose hand is swift. Just received a call from the surgeon 20 minutes ago. Elizabeth is scheduled for tomorrow, "2nd case" (starting time of somewhere between 12:00-1:00, just like today was).
God's name be praised. He is loving and gracious, and He answers the prayers of His people.
God's name be praised. He is loving and gracious, and He answers the prayers of His people.
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