September 9, 2006 

Dear Friends,

Our Lord has been extremely merciful to our precious Alison this week.  Your sweet petitions of prayer to our Lord have been a constant strength for us in our time of need.  We are extremely grateful for your love, prayers, encouraging words, gifts and cards.

Our little Alison has had a big week.  Thursday, Alison turned one-month old and Stephanie was able to hold her daughter for the first time. 

It was truly a precious moment for Stephanie after only being able to hold Alison’s hand for a month.  Unfortunately, I was not able to witness this precious first moment.  Alison’s grandmother (Stephanie’s mom) was there to join in the celebration.

Our Alison now has a propensity to wake up very peaceful and then rediscover her distaste for all the tubes.  Due to the feeding and ventilation tubes that are traveling down her trachea, Alison is unable to cry out loud.  Stephanie and I muse that when the tubes are eventually removed, she is going to make up for all the silent cries.  Yet, we anxiously await to hear our little girl’s first audible cry since she was born on August 7.

Wednesday, the doctors reduced Alison’s feedings because she was not able to digest her feedings fully.  The doctors had been trying to guess Alison’s weight—minus the swelling.  Alison had a second procedure to remove the fluid from her chest cavity that surrounds her tiny lungs.  130 cc’s of fluid were removed from her chest and her oxygen saturation rates immediately rose again.  A chest x-ray was taken after the procedure and it showed some additional fluid on her right side that would need to be addressed later.  Due to the angle of the needle insertion, the doctors are not always able to remove the full amount of fluid.

About a half hour later, the chief neonatologist came bouncing into the room and said, “Today is the day.”  Stephanie and I were not sure what he meant, but he proceeded to turn the nitric oxide off to our little girl.  He then strolled out of the room.  Stephanie and I said a prayer and anxiously watched as Alison’s oxygen saturation stayed strong.  Praise be to the Lord!  The nitric oxide was no longer necessary for our little Alison (a tremendous blessing).

Thursday, our Alison continued her slow climb up the mountain.  Her sedation was reduced and the doctors restarted weaning her oxygen support 2% every hour.  Her rate of breaths (the amount of breaths her lungs are required to take every minute by the ventilator) was lowered to see if her lungs were willing to work a little harder on their own.  Alison’s cardiologist came in and checked her heart for signs of pulmonary hypertension due to the removal of the nitric oxide.  He told us that our little girl’s heart was in great shape.  The Lord is truly gracious!

Alison was moved from an infant medical bed to a hospital crib later in the day. 

Her attending nurse felt that she would be a little more comfortable in the crib and asked the attending neonatologist if the move would be possible. 

The only loss from the infant medical bed is a warmer that is built into the unit to help keep our Alison warm. 

With the warmer gone, our little girl was able to wear her first clothes and be bundled up in her blankets for the first time.  She really seems to enjoy this change.  During this move, Stephanie was able to hold her daughter for the first time.  What a tremendous blessing from our Lord!

Friday brought more changes for Alison.  Her lungs continued to show improvement.  Alison’s rate of breaths was once again lowered.  When Alison’s lungs were the weakest, the ventilator rate was set at 60; the rate is now at 30.  Praise be to the Lord!  Alison’s oxygen support is raised each time the rate is dropped.  When she is able to stabilize, the doctors restart the weaning process of her oxygen support.  We have not seen her oxygen support top 65% in several days, and we have seen it as low as 45%.  The attending respiratory therapist said that Alison could potentially be removed from the ventilator when her rate is down to 10 and her oxygen support is 30%.  Obviously, the doctors will make that call.  Please continue to pray that the Lord will grant healing to Alison’s lungs.

Alison had a third procedure to remove the additional fluid from her chest cavity.  142 cc’s of fluid were removed.  Her attending neonatologist had another chest x-ray taken after the procedure and told us that it was the best chest x-ray he had seen of our little girl since her birth.  Yet, he is concerned about the continuing build-up of fluids in our daughter’s chest cavity.  He said that her lymph nodes were leeching fluid and that he was taking Alison off of her mother’s breast milk for a few days to try a manufactured formula that is designed to help with absorption.  Please pray that Alison’s body would be able to stop the accumulation of fluids in her chest cavity.  The fluid affects the ability of Alison’s lungs to continue to heal.

Alison’s neurologist came to run some additional tests on our little girl.   She informed us that our little Alison is making great strides neurologically.  Praise be to the Lord!  She once again reminded us that an MRI will be important in showing that our daughter’s brain did not suffer any trauma from her loss of blood late in the pregnancy.  Please continue to pray that the Lord would protect and heal our daughter’s brain from any potential trauma.

Our Alison continues to improve, but still has a considerable journey.  Alison’s care at Woman’s Hospital has been exceptional.  The doctors, respiratory therapists and nurses have truly been attentive to our little girl.  Yet, the Great Physician has been ever-present throughout our daughter’s early struggles and continual journey to get well.  With each passing day, Stephanie and I have been able to take refuge in our Lord to thank Him for His constant presence with our daughter.  We will never be able to fully understand why He has chosen to answer our prayers, but we will be eternally grateful.  Your prayers have remained sweet incense to our Father in Heaven.  Please continue to pray for our daughter.  Please continue to pray for wisdom and love for all those who work with our daughter on a daily basis.

We will post some additional pictures Monday that will show our Alison’s progress and the continuing reduction of the medical equipment that has meant so much to her recovery.  Have a wonderful weekend and thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Blessings to you,

Langston and Stephanie