Hi Everyone,
You guys have been so wonderful to our little Jacob by keeping him in your thoughts and prayers and we really believe that it made a difference for him. One of his NICU mates, Morgan is in great need of prayers. She was born prematurely on June 15th, so she's 7 days older than Jacob and she's been in the NICU at Presbyterian/St. Luke's since her birth. Below I've pasted an e-mail we just received from Morgan's Mom, Sue updating us on how she is doing. She really needs lots of prayers :-(. If you could also keep Sue in your thoughts and prayers, she's been through so very much! I'm going to print your responses and give them to Sue so she will know how many are keeping her and Morgan in their thoughts.
Thanks Again!
Deb
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E-mail Message from Sue:
The bravest person I know is my daughter.
Well, just when I had some hope that things were coming together, that little flicker of hope has been snuffed out. I'd better warn you that this might be a real downer of a message.
Let's see. Where to start. After much back and forth, it was determined that Morgan needs surgery to do a G tube and Nissen Wrap. Just what you wanted...more vocabulary to learn. A G Tube goes into her tummy and I'll feed her through a tube there. It closes like a beach ball. Nissen is where they wrap a small portion of her stomach around the base of her esophagus to prevent reflux. See, what is happening is that she refluxes and aspirates the reflux into her lungs. That is a dangerous situation. They were going to do the surgery on Thursday (12th) or Friday. But now it turns out that she has RSV (a respiratory virus) and is one sick little girl. So they postponed the surgery to Tuesday. Well, she is not getting over the RSV and in fact, this morning had a temperature of 102, so they have postponed the surgery indefinitely. They don't know what is wrong with her, so they are running a bunch of blood tests and will do a chest x-ray to try to figure it out.
Since she is refluxing after she eats, they have stopped all feeds by mouth, so she just has an IV. Well, she hasn't eaten since 5:00 a.m. on THURSDAY, so she is one hungry little girl and cries inconsolably. They can't sedate her because that would lessen her ability to cough. She looks a wreck. She hasn't slept well for days (combination of being sick and hungry), has black rings around her eyes. I tell you, it is hard to go up there. The other night (Friday) I was visiting her and just as I was about to leave, they did a respiratory treatment (where they pound on her back...it looks like it would feel really good, actually). But during the suction that followed (to get all of the gunk out that she can't cough up) she cried so hard she pulled the IV out of her head. Well, I couldn't leave her then, and she was crying so hard that every IV they put in her (and they hit the vein the first time, every time) the pressure from her crying caused the vein to collapse. So for more than an hour they stuck her repeatedly trying to get the IV going again. I can tell you, that scene will haunt me. Her cries of pain as they stuck her still ring in my ears. But as her mom, how do I leave when they are doing that to her? If I had left 5 minutes earlier, I would have missed the whole thing. Anyway, they finally got the IV going and (thank God) it is still in the same place this morning.
What gets me in all of this is that SHE LOOKS LIKE A WONDERFUL HEALTHY CHILD! She weighs (or at least she did before the IV started) 8 lbs 12 oz. She has a beautiful face and wonderful expressive eyes. She has pudgy everywhere she is supposed to have pudgy. Andrew, Jacob, Halie, Bethany, Brielle, Blake, Cayden have all gone home weeks or months ago. When is it Morgan's turn? This is an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone. Not even someone I don't like very well.
Perhaps my next note to you all will be to say that we are going home. Pray for my little girl, will you?
posted by Deb Shrieves at 11:54 AM
