**Note: This is 30 Days of Reflection on Ella's first 30 days of life and her battle for survival as we all prayed for miracles**
Monday, May 15, 2006
Ella update Monday 12:00 p.m.....
Well there aren't a lot of updates since yesterday. They are not doing Ella's CT brain scan today. No results on her chest x-ray at this point. Her blood culture has come back negative for 72 hours now, this doesn't mean she doesn't have the disease anymore it just means it isn't multiplying. She is doing good and making a lot of movements. She wrinkled her nose at Joe today which he just loved. We have a few specific prayer request. One is that Andrea get better. (PRAYER ANSWERED) She has had a few minor complications with her healing due to Ella not being able to nurse. Pray for her recovery. Pray for Joe and his lack of rest. He is planning to go back to work on Wednesday and needs to get plenty of rest so he can be 100% when he gets there. (PRAYER ANSWERED...no delay or hiccup in his work) Prayers for Ella are that she start to urinate more. (HA, she pees all the time now!) She has to produce twice as much urine as a normal baby in order for her swelling to go down. Pray for her swelling on both the inside and outside to go down as it is all a snowball effect in her recovery. (ANSWERED) She can not be taken off of the ventilator until her swelling inside goes down. We ask for prayer that her bowel's start to sound better soon so they can start feeding her Andrea's milk, which she needs to build her strength and continue to get better. Please also begin to pray that there are no long term effects. (STILL WORKING ON THIS ONE) We know she will have many specialist to see until the age of 3 and we just pray she not have anything long term to see them for. We thank you all for love and support and will keep you all updated- Sara
Ella update Monday 12:00 a.m.....
Well it is midnight and I am just getting a chance to get this thing updated. Ella is doing well and not much has changed today. She looked great tonight and I even caught her yawning. She sucks on her ventilator and will stretch her little limbs when she feels the need. She has been taken off of one of her sedation meds and is slowly being taken off of the other one. She is slowly becoming alert although still clearly sedated. They have lowered her antibiotics. Her spinal tap came back good although it did have a few white blood cells and bacteria in it, doctor is not concerned. They will begin to wean her off of her seizure medication in the next day or so. She has good urine output but needs to increase to take down the internal and external swelling. She is moving around more and they are trying to get her to wake up a little to really breath and urinate on her own. They should start giving her Andrea's milk tomorrow. These are the doctors specific prayers: that the infection stays under control, (DONE) that she will not have seizures while coming off of her seizure medication, (no seizures for 3 years!) starts to breath well on her own so they can remove the ventilator, (has never had breathing problems!) starts feeding well and soon directly from Andrea. She is NOT considered life threatening anymore it is now just a matter of time to recover. He prays Ella has no long term side effect, mainly neurological. (Still a big prayer request) Please also pray for Andrea as she seems to have some unknown infection as well and has to stay away from Ella for 24 hours while taking antibiotics. If she is not better at that point they will admit her into the hospital to treat her. Pray she breaks her fever which has been as high as 102.4 today. She feels miserable and keeping her from her little girl only makes it worse. Pray for her healing as well as rest for Joe and Andrea. I will probably begin to send updates once a day now, so do not worry if you only see one a day. Thank you all for prayers and support- Sara
Ella update Monday 12:00 p.m.....
Well there aren't a lot of updates since yesterday. They are not doing Ella's CT brain scan today. No results on her chest x-ray at this point. Her blood culture has come back negative for 72 hours now, this doesn't mean she doesn't have the disease anymore it just means it isn't multiplying. She is doing good and making a lot of movements. She wrinkled her nose at Joe today which he just loved. We have a few specific prayer request. One is that Andrea get better. (PRAYER ANSWERED) She has had a few minor complications with her healing due to Ella not being able to nurse. Pray for her recovery. Pray for Joe and his lack of rest. He is planning to go back to work on Wednesday and needs to get plenty of rest so he can be 100% when he gets there. (PRAYER ANSWERED...no delay or hiccup in his work) Prayers for Ella are that she start to urinate more. (HA, she pees all the time now!) She has to produce twice as much urine as a normal baby in order for her swelling to go down. Pray for her swelling on both the inside and outside to go down as it is all a snowball effect in her recovery. (ANSWERED) She can not be taken off of the ventilator until her swelling inside goes down. We ask for prayer that her bowel's start to sound better soon so they can start feeding her Andrea's milk, which she needs to build her strength and continue to get better. Please also begin to pray that there are no long term effects. (STILL WORKING ON THIS ONE) We know she will have many specialist to see until the age of 3 and we just pray she not have anything long term to see them for. We thank you all for love and support and will keep you all updated- Sara
Ella update Monday 12:00 a.m.....
Well it is midnight and I am just getting a chance to get this thing updated. Ella is doing well and not much has changed today. She looked great tonight and I even caught her yawning. She sucks on her ventilator and will stretch her little limbs when she feels the need. She has been taken off of one of her sedation meds and is slowly being taken off of the other one. She is slowly becoming alert although still clearly sedated. They have lowered her antibiotics. Her spinal tap came back good although it did have a few white blood cells and bacteria in it, doctor is not concerned. They will begin to wean her off of her seizure medication in the next day or so. She has good urine output but needs to increase to take down the internal and external swelling. She is moving around more and they are trying to get her to wake up a little to really breath and urinate on her own. They should start giving her Andrea's milk tomorrow. These are the doctors specific prayers: that the infection stays under control, (DONE) that she will not have seizures while coming off of her seizure medication, (no seizures for 3 years!) starts to breath well on her own so they can remove the ventilator, (has never had breathing problems!) starts feeding well and soon directly from Andrea. She is NOT considered life threatening anymore it is now just a matter of time to recover. He prays Ella has no long term side effect, mainly neurological. (Still a big prayer request) Please also pray for Andrea as she seems to have some unknown infection as well and has to stay away from Ella for 24 hours while taking antibiotics. If she is not better at that point they will admit her into the hospital to treat her. Pray she breaks her fever which has been as high as 102.4 today. She feels miserable and keeping her from her little girl only makes it worse. Pray for her healing as well as rest for Joe and Andrea. I will probably begin to send updates once a day now, so do not worry if you only see one a day. Thank you all for prayers and support- Sara
May 15, 2009
Such a great day! We mainly just played around the house. We let Ella and Will feed themselves a cupcakes (Sprinkles of course...right, Kristie?) and then let Ella feed herself lunch...a little messy. After baths and a good scrub down of the deck we just hung out at the house. When Daddy came home we all decided to go up to the Wildflower Festival and have some family time. It does hit us that Ella is so different...she can't do all the things that the other kids can do in the toddler area, but she got to pet some of the animals and sit and take pictures. Overall I think she had a pretty good time. Thanks Sara, Mike and Mom for hooking us up with parking spots and passes!
