We made it through another day

More friends from church came to hang out with Ella

There is no other way to say this team, today was hard. Up until about 4am our warrior was doing quite well. The settings on her vent and her oxygen support were lowered, she was comfortable with her mask, things were looking up, that is until everything changed at 4 am. Ella had another episode of collapse. This time the right middle portion of her lung collapsed. I have to confess this morning and early afternoon as I watched my baby fight to breath I felt scared. Scared that she would have to have surgery, scared of what it would mean for her and for our family, but most of all scared that I would not make the right decision in enough time. I asked the doctors to prepare for re-intubation in the event that she did not recover, but I also asked them to give her more support on her vent, more support than she had received previously. Also around this time, Ella's pulmonologist had a special machine delivered to our room that would provide her some additional pressure therapy to her lungs. The combination of this new therapy along with the increased setting on BiPap machine helped to clear out some of secretions and get our baby back to her baseline. The remainder of the day and evening were better. Ella is still on considerable support from the breathing machine, she is also getting more oxygen than normal, but she is comfortable and more importantly she is not going into surgery.

Though this morning's episode scared me, it did reveal something. We know what the prevailing issue is now, Ella needs help managing her secretions. When the breathing tube was removed it generated a lot of secretions and those secretions that trickled down her throat and some of the them went into her airway and got stuck in her lungs. When you pray tonight ask God to clear Ella's lungs of the increased secretions. She needs to get past these increased secretions. 

Ella continues to fight. She is tolerating more than a person three times her size and strength could tolerate. She is an amazing inspiration. Looking at her I realized I don't need to be scared. 

We are all more than Conquerors.