February 14, 2007

Dear Friends,

Our family celebrated Alison’s six-month birthday last week on Wednesday, February 7.  We were able to reflect on how merciful our Heavenly Father has been throughout Alison’s storm. 

Dear friends, we believe her progress would not be possible without your willingness to stand in the gap for us in prayer on a daily basis.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.  It has been such a blessing to witness how our Heavenly Father has favorably answered our collective prayers for our daughter.  We continue to kneel in awe before His holy throne.  Praise be to our Lord!

Our family has much to be thankful for.  Alison continues to grow into a strong and vibrant baby girl.  She is growing taller (she is currently 25” long) and gaining weight (she currently weighs 11 pounds, 11.3 ounces).  Alison’s vocabulary of coos and cries are becoming much more diverse and pronounced, and her hair is coming in fuller and growing in length. 

Her little legs and arms are beginning to show baby fat, and she is becoming more inquisitive with her hands as she feels textures and our faces.  Sunday, Alison spent approximately 30 minutes exploring my face with her hands (I couldn’t help but cry at our Lord’s goodness when seeing her little fingerprints on my eyeglasses).  Stephanie and her parents heard our daughter giggle for the first time on Friday night (Alison thought her granddaddy’s singing was funny). 

Alison is beginning to take a lot of interest in her puppy, Bayley (she reaches out to touch him whenever he gets close to her).  She loves her playtime each day as she becomes increasingly animated and vocal (when her reflux is not active).  Finally, Alison has begun eating rice cereal in her bottles at every other feed (she even takes cereal by a spoon at times).  Praise be to our Lord!

Alison continues to be a finicky eater.  She sometimes eats her full feed (without a cry) in record time; at other times, she loudly protests whenever you bring the bottle near her mouth.  There seems to be no discernable pattern to her eating habits. 

Alison needs to be able to eat a greater volume of breast milk and cereal each day to help her body grow (she is still near the bottom of the growth charts, but she is growing consistently—thank you, Lord!). 

Please pray that the Lord would bless Alison with an increasing appetite.  Please pray that the Lord would bless Alison with the desire to eat every feed completely.

Alison is beginning to regain some of the early momentum she enjoyed before a bout with a stomach virus.  The stomach virus seems to have irritated her esophageal sphincter; which in turn, continues to cause her stomach to reflux.  After witnessing our daughter battle vomiting, spit-ups, and reflux (for approximately five weeks), we were finally able to see a gastroenterologist (we could not get an earlier appointment).  The gastroenterologist ordered several tests to determine the health and mechanical function of the valves between Alison’s esophagus and stomach (esophageal sphincter) and her stomach and small intestine (pyloric sphincter).

Last Wednesday, Stephanie’s dad and I took Alison to Woman’s Hospital so she could undergo a gastric emptying study to check if her stomach was emptying into her small intestine as it should (the result showed her stomach emptying was normal—than you, Lord!). 

In early March, we will check into Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center for approximately 36 hours so a probe can be inserted into Alison’s esophagus (near her stomach for a 24-hour period) to measure the amount and time intervals of the reflux.

In addition, Alison’s pediatric surgeon and pulmonologist will remove some tissue samples to check for potential complications from and/or mechanical causes of the reflux.  Please pray that the Lord would grant His healing to Alison’s digestive system where any weakness might exist.  Please pray that the Lord would grant His wisdom and His knowledge of Alison’s body to her physicians.

The past six-weeks have been difficult for Stephanie, Stephanie’s dad, and me (due to a lack of quality sleep and having to watch our daughter vomit, spit-up and reflux). 

We have had to feed Alison around the clock on a three to four-hour schedule to help steady Alison’s stomach and to keep the total volume of food up.  When Alison was vomiting on a daily basis, we were feeding her every two hours to help keep her from becoming dehydrated.

Thankfully, she now seems to be gaining strength with each passing day, and she is doing a much better job at keeping her feeds down (she has had minimal vomiting or spit-ups for several days—thank you, Lord!).

We are going ahead with the tissue studies, because we recognize that it is in Alison’s best interest long-term.  The results could show that Alison is mechanically well, that her medicines need to be adjusted to help prevent the reflux, or that surgery on her esophageal sphincter is necessary for her well-being.   We continue to recall our Lord’s merciful promise that Alison will be whole, so our prayer is that surgery will not be necessary.  Yet, we do not know the Lord’s full plan of recovery for our daughter, so we just continue to place our trust in and wait upon Him—what a wonderful place to be.  Please pray that the Lord’s protection would be ever-present with Alison.  Please pray that the Lord would bind the evil one as the tests proceed.

Alison had a good check-up with her pulmonologist.  He said he believes Alison’s continued need of oxygen support is due not to a disease or mechanical problem, but to her ongoing reflux (and its’ effect on her esophagus).  He shared his belief that once Alison’s reflux is brought under control, that she should be able to be removed from the oxygen support.  Praise be to God!

He removed Alison from the apnea/high-heart rate monitor to a pulse oximeter for use at night (it measures the oxygen level in her blood).  In addition, a digestive medicine was discontinued (Stephanie and I noticed that it was causing Alison to vomit at times), and two new medicines were added to help with the reflux and nasal irritation (from the low-flow nasal canula).  Please pray that the Lord would bless Alison’s lungs, esophagus and stomach with His healing so that she can come off the oxygen support.

The next seven days are going to be busy as Alison is scheduled to visit several physicians.  We will see Alison’s pediatrician, pediatric cardiologist and pediatric neurologist this week.  We will see Alison’s ophthalmologist and endocrinologist next week.  We also have an appointment with the occupational/physical therapist to check on Alison’s social development.  Each healthcare professional continues to be amazed at Alison’s physical and neurological health.  Praise be to our Lord for the great things He has done!

We have been blessed by Stephanie’s parents’ desire to keep Alison the past three Saturday nights.  This allowed Stephanie and me to go eat dinner together and get a quality night’s rest.  We recognize how fortunate we are that Stephanie’s parents live in Baton Rouge and are willing to assist us in any way they can.  They have been an integral blessing throughout our storm with Alison.  They have selflessly spent many days and nights with us (Woman’s Hospital to the present—thank you, Lord).  Please pray that the Lord would bless Stephanie’s parents for their selfless sacrifice on our behalf.

My mom and dad were able to come this past weekend to spend time with their granddaughter (they live four hours away).  My mom had been sick, which greatly limited my parents' ability to see Alison.  They were truly pleased to see how well their granddaughter is doing.  To see the joy on their faces when they held and played with Alison was a sight for me to behold.  Thank you, Lord.  My mom and dad have been an integral blessing as well.  Please pray that the Lord would bless my parents for their selfless sacrifice on our behalf.

The Lord has been more than merciful in His care for our daughter.  Each new behavior our daughter develops is such a blessing, and it reminds us of how far our daughter has progressed.  Alison’s storm has been a tremendous blessing from our Lord because of all we have been able to witness—from our Lord’s faithfulness, to the care she received from the healthcare professionals (and friends) at Woman’s Hospital, to her continued care outside the hospital, and to our friends and untold strangers who have stood by us in prayer, kind thoughts and deeds.  We are truly a blessed family. 

We wish we could thank each and every one of you in person.  We continue to try to get caught up with our thank you notes, but your outpouring of love and concern for our family has made our thank you list a little long.  Please forgive us if we are tardy with a thank you note to you (it is not because we are not grateful).  We look forward to the day when Alison’s physicians release her so she can be around our many friends and prayer warriors.  What a joyous day that will be!

Please continue to lift up Alison to our Heavenly Father as you pray.  Your prayer remains a tremendous blessing for us.  From our family to yours, have a blessed Valentine’s Day.

Blessings to you,

Langston, Stephanie and Alison