A Step Back, Please Pray

We started the day very optimistic, and at 3:30pm this has already become one of the hardest days.  The plan was to remove her breathing tube, and possibly remove the new tube that is draining fluid from the left lung, and move out of the PICU tomorrow morning. We found out early that they'll need to leave the tube that is doing the draining , but they would be able to remove the breathing tube and that we'd be moving to a regular room in the morning.

The first difficult news came from her surgeon, who did tell us Audrey was looking great all except for the one place in her right lung, and that they would most likely want her to stay in the hospital until it is clearer, which best case scenario would be going home in 3 days, but we should really plan on middle of next week.  This is really hard because we want her out and better, but we know they know what is best and she is getting great care.  But this is also hard because that is that much longer without Alex.

After this, they were able to remove her breathing tube, which only lasted about 2 hours.  After removing the tube, they determined that her airway was swollen, her breathing was very labored and she was not getting enough oxygen on her own.  So, they determined the best course of action was to re-intubate her with a smaller tube and give her a steroid for 24 hours to reduce the swelling.  The plan is to take her off of this tube tomorrow, hopefully for the last time.

They've also noticed some fluid around her other lung, so they are now putting in a drainage tube on the right side.  She is OK and still under the best care we can imagine, but greatly desiring her to be further along, seeing her struggle so hard to breathe, seeing her re-intubated, knowing that she's needs another tube to drain fluids, knowing that she now has at least 2 more PICU nights ahead of her, seeing her sedated again, and knowing how stressful this must be on her body.  Put all of this on top of missing our son too, it's taking a toll on us.

But, God is so good and giving us all we need - we're resting enough, eating enough, and we've got so much love and support here in town and back home, we know we'll make it fine.  So we are keeping our kids as the priority.  Please keep Audrey in your prayers - specifically that she would be able to come off the breathing tube tomorrow and do well without it, that the fluid around her lungs would drain as needed, and that the upper lobe of her right lung would see improvement.  We do need and appreciate your prayers for our strength, but of course we are more concerned with her than ourselves.

Please also pray that we find a way to get Alex here for the weekend and back home on Sunday.  So far we know we can get him from JC after school tomorrow to Knoxville.  We're working on getting him here from Knoxville and back home on Sunday.  If anyone is already making either of these trips and willing to take a well-mannered 16-year-old (he really is, no joke), please let us know.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.