Beseeching the Lord

We ask you please to be on your knees for our precious Evangeline.

Friday night, respiratory difficulty lead us to have her checked out in the ER.  Initial admission indicated that she had lost a pound and her oxygen was way down.  At one point, her body temperature measured 70 degrees (normal is 98.6)  The ER kicked into a frenzied state and called in a team of 12 people who immediately pulled around a tiny stretcher and began working on our baby.  We watched her symptoms escalate and Evie turned completely white as they worked for two hours poking, prodding, running x-rays, doing a spinal tap and drawing blood, looking for Group B Strep or Meningitis.  It was apparent that they didn't think she was going to make it.  We watched and cried as our daughters precious life almost slip away as they tried to incubate her.  The defining moment was when by God's grace (after many unsuccessful attempts) they finally got an IV in her tiny veins.

The initial prognosis was pneumonia.  Lexington, the hospital we had her at, did not have pediatric ICU, so they stabilized Evie just enough to call an ambulance from a hospital downtown to come and get her and transport her to their PICU. There we were left waiting while they ran more series of tests.  A first ultrasound indicated a deformation of the left chamber of the heart.  A second more detailed ultrasound clarified her condition as Transposition of the Great Vessels...a congenital heart defect.  The two major valves coming out of the heart feeding the respiratory system and the body are reversed, hence, the blue blood and red blood do not run in a pretzel pattern through the body (as it should) and mix, but just runs in circles.  When the blood doesn't mix, there is no oxygen in the blood and slowly Evie was suffocating.

At 5:30 Saturday morning Evie was transported by helicopter to Medical University of South Carolina in  Charleston where open heart surgery will need to be performed.  We situated the other kids at Grandma's and followed by car.  A preliminary procedure was done yesterday where a physician inserted a catheter up her leg into her heart, inflated a balloon to open a space between the right and left chamber so that there is some mixing of blood.  (they will repair this hole when they do the surgery to switch the valves.)  This is to try and raise her oxygen levels a bit so she is as healthy as possible going into surgery.  She is fairly stable.  We will meet with the surgeon monday when he returns from vacation and the surgery will be scheduled for early sometime this week.

Prayer Requests:

1) That Evangeline's heart would continue to mix oxygen.  the level needs to stay above 70%.

2) When they did the spinal tap they found one case of infection.  They are re-confirming the results, but if it is infection they will have to continue antibiotics and it may push surgery beyond this week.

3) Strength!  Her little body needs to be a strong and healthy as possible before the surgery.  Today they may take out the breathing tube and let her breath on her own as well as allow Mandy to breast feed.

Sorry to be so long winded, but we ask that you be praying over all these details.  It is a surreal experience to watch your tiny child hooked up to dozens of cords and wires and beeping monitors.  We see God's hand already in so many of the details and are claiming the verses God gave to us weeks ago even before Evie was born...before we knew the reality of giving her back to the Lord.

Psalm 22

9)Yet you brought me out of the womb

You made me trust in you

even at my mothers breast.

From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb, you have been my God.

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

14) My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me

My strength has dried up and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth

19) But you O Lord, be not far off;

O my Strength, come quickly and help me.

Deliver my life.

24) For he has not despised or destained the suffering of his afflicted one.

He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.

31) They will proclaim his righteousness

to a people yet unborn - for he has done it!