Snap-EZ Blog

Esther has moved to “the floor” today!  She’s doing great, and has even been off morphine since early this morning, and just on Tylenol and resting comfortably!  They will be removing her central line as well as her arterial IV, and then placing a new peripheral IV before she goes to the floor.  She’s been getting breast milk by feeding tube all night, increasing from 5 ccs per hour to 25 ccs per hour this morning.  She hasn’t had even one episode of reflux at all.

Here’s a sweet photo I got of her late last night when she was bundled to get her temperature back up:

She has been having mucus in her  throat, and for some reason she doesn’t like to cough.  They used deep suctioning to get rid of it last night, but this morning, they really want her to cough it up, and so far she’s doing well.  She’s been having trouble regulating her temperature – bundle her and she gets too warm (like 99.9), but if left with out a blanket she gets really cool.  Sometimes even just a blanket loosely over her can make her too warm too!  Hopefully she’ll level off once we can get clothes on her (once her lines are out she can wear clothes again.

She also gets to start binky training again today!  She will be so happy!  She’s been sucking for all she’s worth whenever she’s not sleeping.

I finally went through my memory card and got some of the photos we took last weekend when Esther got many visitors!

First Uncle Ed, Aunt Denise, and Uncle Duane came by:

Aunt Denise even got some smiles from Esther:

Then Auntie Lisa came and had a great time talking with Esther:

Auntie Lisa brought Esther the cutest Lady Bug, whom we will call “Lady” – Esther loves the bright colors – we suspended her from the mobile above the swing, and soon Esther was taking aim and hitting Lady like she was a pinata!

Then after lunch, Daryl’s sister, Jeanne (Esther’s middle name is Jeanne), and her family came by on their way home to Indiana!

Here’s Esther with her cousin Caitlyn – she had the touch and soon Esther was sound asleep, and sprawled in her lap”

And here are Caityn’s brothers, Aaron (has his pilot’s license and is going to college), Nathan (also attending college), and Derrick (he and Caitlyn are in high school):

and here’s Jeanne and Dave laughing with Daryl:

That was a lot of visitors, that’s for sure!

 This morning my Itunes was playing “It Is Well With My Soul”

It is well with my Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

- Words by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873
- Music by Philip P. Bliss, 1876
The words to this hymn was written after two major traumas in Spafford’s life. The first was the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, which ruined him financially. Shortly after, while crossing the Atlantic, all four of Spafford’s daughters died in a collision with another ship. Spafford’s wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram: “SAVED ALONE.” Several weeks later, as Spafford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, he was inspired to write these words.

Bliss originally named the tune “Ville de Havre” after the ship on which Spafford’s four girls perished, the SS Ville de Havre. Ironically, Bliss himself died in a tragic train wreck shortly after writing this music.

(http://www.the-synergy.com/lyrics/itiswell.html)

This morning I reflect on all I have gone through this year, and I see that God has lead me through very difficult trials, but that through it all, He has given me the grace to stand faithful to His call.   In light of the tragedies that Horatio Spafford went through (it doesn’t mention it above, but preceeding the fire, his only son died suddenly at just 2 years of age), my plight seems small indeed.

She is uncomfortable when she is moved, but soon settles in.  She had a great awake period after I held her, but I was so exhausted, I just had to sleep, so she got some daddy time instead.

Here we are all together:

Getting her into my arms is a three ring circus – she has more lines that you could ever imagine!!

And here she is during her super awake time – she was evenbatting at her Lady Bug toy from Auntie Lisa!

We found out today that our propane tank is empty – the kids came home to a cold house, could water, and Daryl’s shop smelled like propane – that 500 gallon tank was topped off in October, so we are thinking that something went wrong with the heater in he shop and it drained the tank. This is very upsettiing as it is a fire hazard and that is hundreds of dollars of propane gone. This month has not been easy on our finances, and December is notorious for being slow in the cloth diaper market…and thei year was definitely no exception.

I’m not sure how we are going to make ends meet over the next couple of weeks, but I know God will provide.

Esther is looking so much better!  They’ve removed the drainage tube and wires from her chest, her urinary catheter, her stomach suctioning tube, and her breathing tube!  She’s breathing on her own, and is getting very little oxygen.  She breaths soooo slow now that I just can’t get used to it!

Oh – and she’s past the critical “first 24 hours”, so unless she develops an infection, things should go great from here on out.  She’ll be coming out of ICU sometime tomorrow, or maybe Thursday at the latest.

If you remember, her “baseline” for breathing was 60 – 70 breaths per minute, but now she’s 20 – 30!   It almost scares me into thinking she isn’t breathing!  I haven’t been able to hold her yet, as they just removed the breathing tube about an hour ago, and they wanted her to rest and level out before we hold her.  So I took a shower and Daryl and I had lunch together.  She’s still sleeping, so we are waiting for her to wake up.

Jessica and the kids are on their way home right now. They wanted and needed to be home.  Daryl is staying here, and we are with out a car, but Jessica can come down when she gets discharged, or maybe God will surprise us with an unexpected ride home like last time when Daryl’s sister-in-law had to be down here for a doctor’s appointment and was able to pick Esther and I up and take us home!  Who know!

Today I’m really tired and out of sorts – I think the stress of the last few days has really taken a toll on me.  I’m going to make this short for now and take a nap until Esther wakes up.  I’ll try to post some photos tonight!

Esther is doing well.  She’s heavily sedated, but she does respond to my voice.  I am so exhausted I don’t want to do anything, so I’m going to keep this short.  They are going to keep her on the ventilator until morning and possibly longer since her lungs have been so overworked lately and still had fluid in them.  With the ventilator in she’s not working hard,  so it will be easier for her right now this way.  I won’t be able to hold her until the ventilator is out, so I’m just resting here.

We did find out that in CICU a parent can stay in the room and there’s a couch/bed.  That was such a relief as the “caves” are full, and the RMH will only allow 6 in the room.  The 4 oldest boys went home, so we don’t have the hotel room anymore, so that meant we had one extra person.  We were trying to make arrangements with a brother, and it would have worked out, but it’s so nice not to have to deal with that now!

My sister is going to stop by tomorrow before she leaves, and she was able to talk with her doctor.  She’ll be having surgery once she gets home.  Lisa sounded so much better today, and God is giving her much grace right now.  She was so relieved to hear that Esther was doing so well.

We also got a visit from Pastor Steve – yes, he drove down her from Bellingham today just to see us and Esther and pray with us.  Now that’s a caring pastor!

Here is a photo Daryl took of Esther while I was cuddling with her, waiting for the call to go to the OR this morning:

And here’s on he took just after we were able to see Esther in the CICU:

She’s not really looking at me, I was just trying to stand where she could see me if she was able.

I’ll try to blog more and catch up on photos of Esther visiting with her auntie Lisa as well as her cousins from Indiana!

Please pray for Esther as she goes through this critical first 24 hours – there’s still many things that could go wrong, but she’s made it through most of her hurdles.  And also pray that she won’t get any infections or illnesses.  Thanks so much for supporting us through all of this!

All is well and we should be able to go back to see her any moment.
Praise the Lord
I can not describe how relieved I am!!!!!!!!!

And everything is looking great! We should hear from them again in about an hour – they still have to close everything up and work her way to CICU. The next call will be for us to go talk with the surgeons and then we should get to be with her soon after that.

They just let us know that she’s doing great…that was fast!
I’m so tired I can,t keep my eyes open, so I’m going to nap until the next call.

We just got the first of 4 pages, this one was to tell us that they had started and that things are going fine so far. The next page will be to let us know that she is on the heart lung machine and they see what needs to be done.
So far, so good.
Handing her to the nurse and walking away was the hardest thing I have ever done.
My sister, Lisa, will be going home tomorrow, and she hopes to come by later today. She doing well under the circumstances, but please pray that she will experience the peace that passes understanding while she waits to go home and get to the bottom of her pain.
I will post again after the next page (I’m using my blackberry to post today).

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Cor. 4: 8-9 (NIV)

I don’t know what to say….I really thought things would not bet  getting anymore difficult  than they already are. I was wrong.

My sister is going to be heading home to California tomorrow to have some biopsies done to figure out what’s going on.  I feel so bad for her.  She’s tried to hard to eat right and live a healthy lifestyle, yet has had to undergo 2 major surgeries this year, and now this.  My last phone conversation with her this evening we were both encouraging eachother to not worry about this, but to trust God because we can’t change anything by worrying about what might be or what might not be.

I was totally losing it earlier, and still feel like I’m on the edge, but I’m also feeling a sense of peace again.  I just know that if I get any sleep tonight, it will a gift directly from God.

My Polyanna moment (man I need t play the glad game tonight) for tonight is that I am soooo glad that she was able to come and have such a great visit with us today.  Esther was wide awake, talking to her Auntie Lisa and smiling.  Here’s one of the photos I took today – you can see that Esther is really telling her Auntie Lisa all about something, and it must be something she really liked:

We had many visitors over the last couple of days, and I’ve got lots of photos to share, but I’m going to wait until Esther’s out of surgery and I’m spending time in ICU with her (can’t use cell phones, but I can be online with my laptop in there!).  So I’ll catch you up then, as well as post updates as often as necessary as Esther recovers.