Day 6

Praise the Lord we had a much better day today! Isabella was able to keep her blood pressure up enough to continue to wean off the blood pressure medication! They just turned it off completely, so this is a step in the right direction! They will continue to wean her off of the ventilator. She has not had a fever since yesterday, and she was awake for about an hour and tolerated it well! God is so good!!

We did get some bad/good news this morning. Isabella's cultures came back positive for pneumonia. Initially I was devastated, I knew this would be a setback, and I did not want to have to worry about this on top of everything else. The doctor actually looked at it as a positive, while she did not want Isabellita (as she calls her) to have pneumonia at least this was something they could treat! This is what could have been making her blood pressure drop. She has been on antibiotics for one day (they started it the same day they took the cultures) so she has 6 more days of treatment. She has been awake a lot more today and it breaks my heart to see her so hungry! She keeps trying to eat the tubes near her face, she even tried to get her hand in her mouth!! I am so happy to see her little personality coming out again!  

Once she is extubated (off the ventilator) we will know if she is able to tolerate the regurgitation (leakage) from her valves. IF she is able to tolerate it then they will most likely put her on medication and try to get her to 2-3 years old before they do another open heart surgery to repair/replace the valves. This is what we are praying for! Once she is older it will be much easier to repair the valves. IF she is not able to tolerate extubation and she shows no signs of infection then they will go ahead and do another surgery to see if they can repair the valves. 

I am just so thankful that she is having such a good day! Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers! We appreciate you all! We pray over Isabella every night before we leave and last night we told her she had to keep fighting...And she is! She is a little fighter for sure! I realized yesterday that we have to take this one day at a time. We could drive ourselves crazy with all the what-ifs, I MUST "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him..." Psalm 37:7. Our God is HEALER and we continue to have faith that he is healing our baby girl! 

They passed out these cute heart pillows today so all of her nurses can sign it! So Sweet! 

Isabella loved looking at her balloons while she was awake today! And .. No more chest tubes!  

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. Thank you Marci for sending me this today! It's a great reminder that God sustains us through our suffering and renews us each day!!  Let's keep Praising & Praying!! Thank you all! :) 

Also- Update on the little boy who had the heart transplant... He is doing WELL! So far so good. They said the heart was a perfect match for him and the surgery went along without any complications. 

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I just wanted to share this picture my sister sent of my handsome little man... I miss this boy so much! I know he is in good hands with Annie & Aunt Barbara! He is getting SO spoiled!!