Saturday, April 21, 2007

Faith is a Fighter!

"The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;they shall walk and not faint. "
(Isaiah 40:27-31)


This little girl continues to amaze us. Her will to live is inspiring. She has been through so much, and she has come so close to death, and yet, she fights back. She truly is Faith the fighter.

Yesterday a specialist came to look at Faith's airways to see what was not allowing her to breathe. He found scar tissue and inflammation. He also found something he described as a "shelf" that looks like a canker sore- in her tiny throat it is getting in the way of her breathing (much like if you had something stuck in a straw and tried to suck through it). Fortunately, he did not think the problem is severe enough to require surgery at this point. The plan is to stop the steroids right now and give her another week on the ventilator to rest and recoup. On Wednesday they will resume steroids and on Friday they will try her back on CPAP. If this is unsuccessful then surgery will be required. We feel very comfortable with this plan- we were a little nervous about them trying the CPAP earlier than next week because of what we went through a few days ago. We need to pray that Faith does not pull the tube out herself- the more times the tubes goes in and out the more it irritates her airways and increases her swelling.

Faith received another blood transfusion yesterday. Giving blood to babies as old as Faith is a catch 22. A few weeks ago her body began to make its own red blood cells, now that she was given blood, that process has to start over again. Increasing iron intake is the more preferred route rather than a transfusion, because then the baby would not have to start the process of creating red blood cells again (they can this reticking). Because of Faith's extreme trauma the past few days her hematocirt is very low. She looked very pale (beyond blue, almost grayish) before she was transfused.

We know that that recent events have delayed Faith's homecoming substantially. At this point it is not about Faith coming home, it is about her getting better.

Thanks for keeping Faith in your prayers during this critical time.
Brian and Jen

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow she is a little fighter! I will pass this to all the people that have been praying for her and ask for continual prayer..this is a very vital week as are all of them but this one particularly. God whispers in her ear to not worry He has everything under control and to continue to fight. But this week her body needs to rest and heal the tubes. We love you and I kept checking all night if there was any word but I felt no news was good news. I am telling you, This little angel is going to show EVERYONE what FAITH really is!
Praying for y'all
Aunt Susan and Uncle Mike
x0 x0 x0x0x0 ( a few extra for all her hard work)