Dr. Porisch's partner (another pedi cardiologist) visited this morning to let us know that she has a long, hard road to recovery ahead. She's still a long way from being weaned off the oscillator/ventilator lung support, she's still on tons of meds that are telling her heart and body what to do, and there are still so many risks of infection. Kind of a gloomy reality, but our God is so much bigger than those things. They all seem so miniscule when compared to what mountains God has already moved.
This doesn't mean that it's going to be smooth sailing by any means. It just means that God has shown His mighty healing hand in so many miraculous ways over the last 11 days as a direct answer to our prayers and pleads. That tells me that if all of you prayer warriors remain on your knees for our princess, that He's going to carry us through this and overcome all of the obstacles that appear to be impossible to the human mind. God and Chrissie are going to show ALL of the staff at this hospital just how mighty to save He really is, and He's drawing all of you closer to Him in the process.
One reader commented on how Chrissie is performing open-heart surgery on the world. She is circumcising hearts around the world. "The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live." Deuteronomy 30:6 I have prayed this prayer for my own heart for somewhere around 8 years now. God has been circumcising my heart in a mighty way over the years, but nothing compares to what He's done through this journey with Chrissie. I know He's using her to circumcise hearts around the world so that you may love Him all with your heart and with all your soul, and so that you can LIVE. He will breathe His eternal life into your heart, just as He has revived and sustained Chrissie and given her LIFE. All you have to do is ask.
Here are some things to pray for:
- That Chrissie's heart and lungs will continue to improve and get stronger each day.
- That her entire pulmonary system will perform perfectly with the heart carrying blood the way it should, the lungs accepting blood the way they should, the proper "treatment" of the blood (oxygenation and removing CO2), etc.
- That Chrissie would be able to be successfully weaned from the oscillator to the ventilator and then eventually to no outside lung support.
- That Chrissie would not have neurolical damage. (Cardiologist today was concerned with some rolling movement of Chrissie's arm that was indicative of neurogical damage.)
- For Chrissie's comfort during this painful and oh-so-hard to understand time. Chrissie is metabolizing her sedation and pain meds so quickly that they can hardly keep up with her. She's been having panic attacks when she gets enough movement to show us that she "feels like she's drowning" (the way people feel when they're intubated). This has been the hardest thing for me to watch. My daughter will appear to be sleeping soundly when lall of a sudden, she'll wake violently with a jolt while she opens her eyes quickly with a huge startle, as she tries to gasp for air, over and over and over. Picture someone physically drowning and trying to come up for air, yet continuing to sink in the water. Panic. Horrible. Can't stand it. Nothing I can do but pray over her and speak love into her until the nurse can get extra drugs pushed into her line. But she runs through the extra drugs so quickly that it's happening more and more frequently. The doctors and nurses say this is normal and can't be avoided because she's on the enormous amounts of sedative and pain killers already, in a constant drip, plus she's being given extra dosages on top of it all!!! This is killing me.
- Prayer coverage for NO infection, anywhere.
- That Chrissie will slowly and successfully be able to wean from the heart support medications and other various meds that are telling her body what to do.
- Would love for Chrissie to get this tube out of her throat so that she doesn't feel so panicked, but her lungs must clear and her entire pulmonary system must be in much better and stronger condition than it is now. Godspeed on the total healing of Chrissie's pulmonary system...heart, lungs, and everything in between! (Pressures in the veins and vessels and arteries that run throughout her pulmonary system to be acceptable, too.)
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