A little update

I wanted to give everyone an update since people are constantly asking about Sophie and I know I haven't posted since her surgery. Today is a good day for Sophie, she finally was able to go the bathroom (its been a week, poor thing!) Last night we finally caved and took off part of the bandages and hope to take off more tonight. They were leaking and we were unsure of the color and odor of the leakage. Man I wish I had paid more attention when studying wound care in grad school, I had NO intention of treating wounds because I normally don't have the stomach for that sort of thing. Its amazing what God and love can do. I found myself praying little 10 second prayers for Sophie all day long yesterday. I was so anxious at work knowing that we were going to do the whole bandage thing last night. It went amazingly well thanks to prayers from myself and all of you I am sure. In fact when I think of the fact that the bandages were on nearly a week compared to the one night last time I am so thankful of how she is doing. And she has maintained her sparkling personality throughout this time, albeit a little more quiet and reflective still smiley and talkative when she wants too. In fact she has a new friend! I put this little bear blanket in her crib with her the other day and when I went to get her up after her nap she had her arm around him. Super cute!

Her followup with the surgeon is not until June 1 so we have a ways on our own yet and I plan on taking a little of the dressing off every night as able. Ironically with all the prayers for her bandages to stay on they are stuck on pretty good but like I said they were leaking and due to the color, etc. we need to take the bandages off and dress them with special cream with antibiotics in it and now the bandages are taped on so good they won't come off. She was crying quite a bit last night and we only got the worse part off so lift us up in prayer if you think about it between 7 and 8 pm every night as we will need to change the bandages. Ok I decided to link a song now and again to share my feelings in a more eloquent way from time to time. The above video is a song I have been singing to little Sophie a lot lately. I hope she will feel the same confidence in God's plan someday, I know I have used this song to get through other rough patches before in my life. Peace and Love, Amanda

Mothers day/Sophie's dedication in 90 year old family christening gown

Surgery was successful and we are home and she has literally been sleeping all day thanks to morphine. Once again I will update the specific requests.

1. Easy time coming out of anesthesia - easy as pie, they gave her morphine and she hasn't been crying because she has just been sleeping. When she has opened her eyes at the most she has just been a little fussy.

2. Not too much pain- so far so good. We are getting ahead of the pain by using codeine until we know if her bandages are staying, plus now she is old enough to have Motrin so she can get better pain coverage. Praise God.

3. That she'll be OK to come home- at first her oxygen kept dipping low because she was sleeping so soundly. Then we did a bugger flush of her nose (trust me that is technical medical jargon!) and her O2 level jumped up to 95% and we got to come home.

4. That he will be successful in removing a bunch with the dermabrasion - this is always too early to tell. He did a second pass on a lot of areas that he had already done including a bunch on the legs. He also did new spots and avoided the lower areas near the diaper.

5. That she will do OK in the morning before with the fasting! She did pretty good at the hospital, was a little fussy but not too bad. Praise God we got to go first thing in the morning this time.

6. That healing will be quick /7. The bandages will stick to minimize the mess and pain - I should combine these two as six depends on seven. So far so good, he was prepared for this complication and hopefully accommodated accordingly to avoid the bandages coming off. At least if they do we are better prepared to handle it to but so far so good. Last time they were already leaking before we even left the hospital and so far they are holding but this is definitely an area that needs continued prayer.

8. That I will have peace as I have been bombarded lately with people telling me this is the wrong course of action. - the people really are trying to help educate me, but it is hard to have doubts about such big decisions. I had great peace today so thank you, I do plan on addressing my concerns with Dr. Mann at my follow-up but as of now did not feel the need to interrupt the course prior to the surgery.

A new one: Sophie has intermittently been having some redness on her balloons, when looking at it this morning he thought they may be showing early signs of infection. I guess sooner or later your body rejects the foreign objects and you get an infection. He said we should tentatively plan on the removal a month from now. So that surgery is going to be much more major, she will have to stay overnight again and the healing will be more difficult. So I pray for the planning of that to go smoothly. Also for the tough discussions involving my questions for the Dr, I trust him and don't want him to think I doubt him but also need answers to my questions as I learn more about this condition and there are many more variables than I imagined. Thank you all who prayed, and helped out with Grace and such. I appreciate everyones love and support more than anything. God is lifting me up daily. I know I don't always report the good as often as the struggles but I give the Lord so much glory for how he loves both Craig and I through every aspect of this. The Lord loves us so much, I had an AMAZING Mother's Day/anniversary weekend that was the perfect respite before a potentially difficult week, my pneumonia is healed, and my asthma has made a tremendous recovery since Monday and I even got to talk with a lactation specialist today at the hospital as I am dealing with possible infection and both my primary Dr and OB said they didn't know how to help me and by this woman's recommendation I am feeling TONS better now than I have for the last week! Praise God, look at what power there is in prayer.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God,

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

Thank you all, a Happy and relieved Mom

Now to prepare for the Lost finale...

Surgery is wed 5/13 at 830am. I am resurrecting the prayer list from last dermabrasion. Prayers are:
1. Easy time coming out of anesthesia
2. Not too much pain
3. That she'll be ok to come home
4. That he will be successful in removing a bunch with the dermabrasion
5. That she will do ok in the morning before with the fasting!
6. That healing will be quick
and I am adding
7. The bandages will stick to minimize the mess and pain
8. That I will have peace as I have been bombarded lately with people telling me this is the wrong course of action.
Thank you and I will update Wed afternoon when we get home! Love to all, Amanda