Seventh Smith

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