Saturday Morning update

Good morning everyone. It's me, Erica (it's funny that I have to identify myself on the blog now :) We had a pretty good night last night, our first night in a regular room. YouYou only had one long crying spell and then a few moans and groans throughout the night. She even took her medicine and had her stat's checked in her sleep. I completely understand the constant checking during the night...at this point it is actually reassuring to me to hear that her "numbers" are looking okay. But I did have to put my foot down when someone came by this morning at 3:50 am to take a chest x-ray. Well really all I had to do was ask if they could come back later because she was sleeping...so they came back at 6:15 and I had to let them wake her up.

Hollie and I were a sight to behold last night. She was curled up in a recliner for most of the night, snuggled up with the giant purple elephant that she brought for YouYou on Thursday. I went back and forth between the fold out bed and the foot of YouYou's bed, but for the most part we slept okay (probably in part to the Tylenol PM). I was shocked at one point around 11:00 pm when YouYou started crying and we couldn't calm her and I went out to the nurses station in my pajamas, no makeup, wild hair and all...to find Dr. Romp (her cardiologist) sitting alone at the desk. I'm sure I "shocked" him as well :) Anyways, he ask the nurse to get her some Tylenol with codeine and then came by the room later to check on us again.

I had to say goodbye to Hollie this morning, although I really wasn't ready to have my friend go. She has been a great cheerleader, exactly the kind of friend I have needed at this time. I keep hearing the uncertainties and negative (and negative probably isn't the best term I just can't think of another one) things that the Dr.'s are saying and she keeps reminding me to listen to the positive things as well. This is exactly what my husband is doing too...so Hollie was just his "fill in" while he has been at home with the boys. I will be honest here and say that I have been hoping that each time we speak to a Dr. that it might be the time when they say something REALLY positive, like, "WOW...she is doing remarkably better than we ever imagined"!!! Now I don't want them to lie to us, but that has been my hope. A mommy just wants to hear that everything is going to be okay. But you know what? My true hope is not in what the Dr.'s can tell me. It is in Jesus Christ. I know He has brought YouYou to us, to this hospital, at just the right time, and I will continue to put my hope in Him. He is not surprised by any of the things the Dr.'s are seeing or telling us, and He alone is my strength.

I want to thank so many people right now, but I'm afraid of leaving someone's name out and hurting someone's feelings. So if you have come by, brought snacks, helped with the boys, prayed for us, called or texted us (even if I haven't been able to call you back), commented on the blog,...please, please, please know that I am so very grateful.

Specific prayer requests at this point:

- YouYou's mouth or throat, or both, are very sore and irritated. At one point her gums bled last night. They have done some blood work to be sure everything is okay and they are ordering something that should help. But it is hard to get more than one bite of something in her mouth because she cries out in pain and says "Owie" as she points to her mouth. And, they really want her to be eating (and you know I do too)!

- Her left lung is still having problems, but they are not overly concerned...they just keep taking x-ray's and echo's to be sure it is getting better. We are encouraging her to blow bubbles and we are "beating" her on the back on her left side to help break up some of the gunk.

- There is still some concern about the mitral valve that was stitched (the one that had the cleft). The pressure in the valve is way lower than it has ever been, but still higher than they want it to be. She is on some medication to help this but so far it hasn't shown to be helping much (although Dr. Colvert, the head of cardiology did say he was pretty confident they could get it lower).

- We should be able to have YouYou's chest tube taken out today, so pray that that does indeed happen. She is still on oxygen, and I would love for that to be removed too, but they don't think she is ready for that yet. I'm just ready to have her unhooked so I can snuggle with her better!

Love to you all...

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