Looking Brighter For Audrey, Additional Prayer Requests

Audrey is Making Strides

They were able to take Audrey off of her breathing tube a couple of hours ago and she is breathing well.  Praise God!  She was initially in pain, but they've given her some meds and she's resting fairly well.  Her throat seems to be sore and bothering her from where the breathing tube was.  She is hoarse and is aggravated about all the stuff she is still hooked up to.  She does have two remaining chest tubes that have been draining fluid around her lungs.  They have already ordered one to be removed this afternoon, and they think the other will come out in the morning and maybe even this evening.  If all continues to go well, she'll be out of the ICU tomorrow.

William Stettner

We found out this morning that back home in Johnson City, there was an explosion at a local auto repair shop.  From what we've heard almost everyone escaped with only minor injuries, except one man, William Stettner.  He is on the way to Vanderbilt by ambulance now.  I have met William on a couple of occasions, but we know his wife very well. I used to work with her and her company does work for the camp, so we see her a couple of times a week.

I don't know the full extent of his injuries and I don't know how much they want share.  I will say, I have been told that they don't feel they are life-threatening at this point, but please keep him and his family in your prayers.  Life-threatening or not, they must be very serious for them to rush him here.

As long as Audrey continues to do well, we will try to take some time and go see Mary.  If Mary wants me to, I'll include updates on William.  This family is very sweet and wonderful people, please keep them in your prayers.

Abigail Nageotte

The Nageotte family travelled with us to China and adopted little Abigail.  She had cleft palate surgery yesterday.  We haven't heard yet how it went.  Please keep them in your prayers.  Please also pray for Abigail's adjustment. She's had a harder time adjusting to her new life than Audrey has, and I'm sure they are praying that the surgery and recovery time in the hospital will cause them to grow closer and not make adjusting any harder.  They also have a blog if you want more detail: http://journeytoabigail-jeunesse.blogspot.com.

Alex has a Ride

I just wanted to give a quick update. Our prayers have been answered for getting Alex down here for the weekend. Thanks to Brett Hyder, Craig Bennett, and Lee Arrowood, we're able to get him both ways. I also want to say thanks to many others who have offered to drive him parts of the way too. These three fit together the best.

Audrey is resting well now. Please continue to pray for her. We're anxious for her to be off all of the sedation and pain meds and past these lung issues. Thanks for your prayers.

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.  

Another Night of Lung Treatment

The goal of intubating Audrey was to be able to send the treatment she was already receiving directly into her lungs. After 3 more rounds of treatments, the morning x-ray showed no improvement in her right lobe. The right side had the secretions in the air sacs inside the lung. The left lung had fluid around it, which was successfully drained with a new chest tube, that should be removed tomorrow.

Since the right side wasn't responding to treatment, they sent a scope down this afternoon and discovered, in the most basic terms, the upper lobe of the right lung (the one with the mucus secretions that won't clear) is positioned higher than normal, and that the breathing tube was inserted in the normal location, past that lobe. They believe that lobe was not receiving the treatment due to its position. So, they repositioned the breathing tube and she's receiving the treatment again until morning x-rays to see if there is more improvement.

If there isn't improvement, they feel like she has a strong enough cough now, that will only get stronger, and that she will be able to clear this lobe and open it back up over time. They just wanted to do everything they can to clear it for her. So it appears they will remove the breathing tube in the morning either way. They are keeping her pretty sedated and comfortable until then, which is good. She will respond to our voices, kick and reach for us from time to time. They say this is mostly a dream-like state for her. The nurses are great about keeping her as comfortable and pain-free as possible.

The really good news for the day is that they removed the 2 larger chest tubes that she has had since surgery. Once she's off of the breathing tube, and they remove the small chest tube they put in yesterday, she'll be down to a central line IV, which can be removed anytime.

We're still praying that she'll be discharged no later than Friday, but obviously our priority in praying is that she is healthy and ready to leave, whenever she's discharged.

Thank you all so much for praying for her. Please keep it up. God is watching over her.

"More Aggressive Treatment" - Please Continue to Pray

After the last couple of days of respiratory therapy to help clear up the secretions in the air sacs of her right lung that have caused it to partially collapse and fluid around her left lung,  Audrey's surgeon has determined that results have been too little to think that continuing on this path is the best way to go, so she has ordered more aggressive treatment.

What this means is they will be re-intubating her (put her back on a breathing tube), which will allow them to try to break up the secretions with some solution they can put in and be much more aggressive in suctioning them out to open up the right lung, and they will be placing another small chest tube to help drain the fluids on the left side.

Of course, when the doctor explained this to us, he told us of all of the risks, which we know are meant to inform and not scare, but we're human and you hear scary stuff.  So please continue to pray.  This is a "setback" to some extent.  This will result in a longer stay overall and a day or two more in the PICU.  The new treatment will be every 12 hours, and she will be at least partially sedated during this time, so we know she'll be partially sedated for another 24+ hours.

Julie & I are in complete agreement that this needs to be done and are trusting God completely through this.  Please pray for Audrey and us, and pray that this treatment works as they expect it to, that it clears up her lungs, and please pray that there are no complications involved.

Now, on to a sweet moment that happened as I was typing this post.  Julie was at the bed with Audrey. Up to this point, Audrey hadn't tried to talk since the surgery.  She held up her wrist and pointed at the IV marks, looked at Julie and said"Owww", in a long soft whisper.  Don't worry she wasn't exclaiming "ow" in pain, she was pointing to an "ow" that she saw.  

She then proceeded to try and pull every tube and wire off, partially succeeding once, so the nurse had to come in and secure a wire down with tape.  When she finished she looked at Audrey and said, "Now, hows that?".  Audrey clapped for her.

Dad's Turn

In case you are wondering where the incision is, I thought it may be a little shocking or insensitive to some, so I blurred it out.

The PICU Is Like One Big Party

Well, not really.  I guess it is if your version of a party is sleeping almost all of the time, only to be awoken with annoying stuff being done to you from time to time.  Mom & Dad know the things they are doing are good for her, but Audrey is mostly annoyed by it.

So far the ICU has been good.  The doctors and nurses have all been wonderful, although we rarely have the same nurse twice.  They tell us Audrey is progressing normally.  She keeps getting tubes, sensors, & meds removed, which is good.  They have taken enough tubes and things off to allow us to hold her.  Julie got to do this for a little while yesterday, which was a blessing for all of us.  Audrey seemed to rest so deeply during this.  She did get restless after about an hour and a half, and needed to be repositioned, so she went back to the bed.  We hope to be able to do this more and more.

As far as Julie & me, at night we take turns staying in the room with her and sleeping in the family sleep room. This is a small room with a twin bed, TV, and bathroom - plenty for what we need at night.  During the day, we're here with her most of the time.  We'll sneak out and grab a quick bite if she's sleeping well. Julie's parents will come in and sit with her for longer periods, allowing us to get out of the hospital for a couple of hours each day.  Thank you, Jim & Sandy.

Audrey has had one thing come up, that they tell us is common.  She has secretions in the air sacs in her right lung which have caused a portion of it to collapse, so she has had a couple of respiratory therapy sessions to help correct this, along with "deep suctioning" of the lungs.

The first therapy was to roll her on her side and beat the snot out of her back & chest with a small oxygen mask.  It sounds and looks a lot worse than it actually is.  They pound away pretty quickly on each side for a while.  Audrey first had a shocked look on her face, but then fell asleep.  It really seemed like she was just getting a good massage.  The next thing was a mask over her nose & mouth that repeatedly shot bursts of air.  This was vibrating her lungs and breaking up the mucus inside, making it easy to suction out.  She didn't sleep through this one.

It looks like she'll be in the PICU at least one more night.  They want to make sure her lung is cleared up before moving her to a regular room.  

Thank you all again for your prayers and support.  We have felt them and appreciate the encouragement we have received from so many.