Elizabeth Archives - Day 35

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that yesterday's email silence didn't cause you any additional anxiety. Sara has been battling a cold and I was just too tired. Nothing had changed much, so we took the night off.

Since emerging from her abdominal surgery on Wed, Elizabeth's condition has been "stable." She remains on the breathing machine and her swollen abdomen and legs have not gotten any larger. She needed another blood transfusion overnight, but otherwise her labs are looking good. Today was about decreasing the amount of morphine she receives each hour, allowing her to wake up and begin breathing on her own. She's seems to be tolerating this process well, and in the next day or two, they hope to be able to remove her breathing tube altogether. They also tried to start feeding her small amounts through her new G-tube, but the pressure in her abdomen is still too high and forced the formula back up the tube!

With all of the new surgeries, lines, tubes and issues, it's easy to overlook the one huge area of progress- Elizabeth's chest tube output has been miniscule since the surgery! So it would seem that the surgeons' goal was accomplished and now we're dealing the consequences of diverting all that fluid.

In other news (What? There's something other than Elizabeth happening on this planet?): Sara has been wrestling with a cold for two days now. Because Elizabeth has low infection-fighting proteins and cells, Sara has not wanted to risk exposing her to this virus. She has been hanging out at home, longingly watching the video footage and photos I've been taking. Obviously, she's missing Elizabeth terribly and it's been hard for her not to be with me at the bedside.

Returning to the list method of prayer requests:

-Pray that Elizabeth's veins and lymphatics take up the slack and help drain the excess fluid causing her to be so swollen.
-Pray that there would be no further complications that would slow down her progress!
-Pray that Sara recovers quickly to resume her daily presence with Elizabeth, and for the grace to be at home while unable to visit.
-Pray that Matt's return to work Tuesday would be smooth and that God would continue to give him wisdom about going/staying back, AND that his department would continue to be as graciously flexible as they've been to this point.

Thank you for your faithful prayers.

Matt and Sara

PS: Several of you have wondered how our daughter could have been through so much and still manage to look so good for her photos! The quick answer is, she's the cutest little girl in the whole world. But the real answer is, we're only sending out the cutest ones. Rest assured, we've photographically documented the toll her surgeries and procedures have taken on her little body, in case she wants to look back as she grows up. But we hesitate to mass-mail these more graphic photos, partially in deference to the queasy among you, and partially out of an attempt to preserve a bit of Elizabeth's privacy. Now, if the text of our emails seem dire in comparison to the photos, you'll understand why.