Rebecca Needs Prayer

On March 31, I blogged that Joanna needed your prayers. Now Rebecca finds herself in that position as well so I ask the same for her. When looking back at the last 7 days that she has been in the CICU, the doctors haven't seen the results that they had hoped for. Their plan was to get her past her infection and be in a place to have her procedure in the next few days. Instead she is still full of fluid and they can't get it off her like they want. Her urine has turned to pretty much blood. They have backed off on the lasix to give her kidneys a break. There have been kidney teams and liver teams in to see her today. They are going to take some blood to do some tests on her liver later today. They have also decided to put her on Peritoneal Dialysis  to help get rid of some of her fluid and are doing that in the morning. The amount of fluid she has is beginning to take its toll on her organs. The cardiologists have scheduled a special meeting to discuss their options for her procedure. Ideally, they would wait until she was back to herself but she may never get there without the procedure. It's a catch 22 so they may elect to go ahead with the procedure soon.

Now for some happy and funny news.

First, all three girls came with Jessica to Cincinnati yesterday to visit. Alexis and Katelyn got to hold Joanna so that was cool. Kenlee got to see both Rebecca and Joanna for the first time which was special too. The visits were very short because they hadn't had naps and were a little uncontrollable. Children's Hospital is very accommodating to families with children there. They have Child Life staff that is their job to help families in any way they can. All of us were able to be in Rebecca's room at the same time to visit and get a picture together. University Hospital is a different story. They have a strict 2 visitor at bedside limit. It really sucks because Jessica and I can't both be there with a visitor, not even our other children. We have dealt with the rule until yesterday. I asked if we could all go back for 10 seconds to get a picture. The nurse in charge was  apparently an enforcer because she wouldn't let us. So, one at a time, I took Alexis, Katelyn and Kenlee back to visit. Then Jessica did the same. They said if one of the other families saw us then they would want to. I guess they wouldn't have been able to see it was just for a picture. Anyway, there will be a complaint or suggestion coming. We then went to Ronald McDonald where we played outside and ordered pizza. The time flew by so they got quick baths and we headed home about 7:00. Alexis' last day of school is Thursday and wanted to know if she could go back that day when she gets out.

Joanna continues to do very well on her cannula at 4 L/min.

Jessica wanted me to tell you about her breast milk experience this morning. Somehow, she managed to throw 10 bottles into the dumpster at Ronald McDonald when she threw the trash out. She places a very high value on breast milk in case you didn't know. So, she went in and asked them if she could get a ladder so she could go dumpster diving. A guy there brought out a ladder on a golf cart and went in for the retrieval.