There are so many things that God is showing me to treasure up in my heart during this time. Luke recorded how Mary treasured the miracle of her Christ child up in her heart when all who heard His story were amazed. When everyone was partying and praising God for His miracle of Jesus' miraculous birth, Mary quietly reflected on those amazing moments as the mother of this Miracle, and she treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 2:17-20, "When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."
I don't want to miss the things that God wants me to treasure up and ponder in my heart.
Tonight God brought my friend JaLynn (who was actually my sister's friend first, but is just as sweet to me!) to the hospital to deliver me a meal. God used our special time to allow me to treasure up some things so I can forever ponder them in my heart. Sweet blessings, tender moments, miraculous happenings. There's so much going on that I feel at times that I'll never be able to recall all that God has done. But God allowed me to remember so many details that I hadn't even journaled as I sat and recalled events with JaLynn. In the process of sharing God's many testimonies of His mighty hand, His miracles, His love, His tenderness, His mercy, His grace, God blessed JaLynn and I with a rich time to really treasure up all of these things so that we can ponder them in our hearts. It was a sweet time of fellowship, and I realized I haven't really gotten a chance to "discuss" (out loud) with pretty much anyone what all God has done in this hospital. (I've journaled much of it in this blog, but I haven't really had a moment to think, much less talk!) Thank you, God, for this sweet time to treasure these things up.
But mid-way through our visit, Chrissie decided she wasn't quite getting the attention that a special princess deserves, so she decided to toss a little drama into our night of fellowship! Chrissie started to stir and was a little uncomfortable, then she started tossing her arm around. She was making her "frustrated" face (which is when she grits her teeth together and shakes her body as much as she can...a common self-controlled tantrum that Chrissie is famous for), and we were talking to her and rubbing her arms to try to calm her down. Then I noticed blood was on her wrist, where her IV is. It ended up that in all of Chrissie's arm thrashing events earlier today, she jostled her IV loose, and it was bleeding, but still intact. (She had an arm board around it, with lots of tape, but she was so restless earlier that she banged it all up and had destroyed the set-up.) So, 2 nurses had to hold Chrissie's arm down while I prayed over her and loved on her, trying to help her feel that peace that passes all understanding. (Chrissie HATES IV's and anything to do with a "boo-boo", so she was fighting having them "fix" the IV.) They got it all fixed up after about 15 minutes, and then the doctor decided it would be a good time to try to switch Chrissie to the conventional ventilator since she was getting SO agitated with the transitional ventilator. (Apparently the transitional/intermediate vent forces breaths, making it almost impossible to take breaths oneself, so Chrissie was super agitated with fighting the ventilator.) All of a sudden, Chrissie was switched to "normal" settings on the ventilator, which meant she could now take her own breaths, and the ventilator would kick in to provide her with a breath if a set amount of time passes between Chrissie's own breaths. Well, a few minutes into the new vent settings, Chrissie began to get really angry. She was biting the breathing tube (which makes it impossible for the vent to puff air into Chrissie's lungs), and she was gritting her jaw together, shaking her entire body in true Chrissie full-fledged-fit-throwing. (That's my girl, my fighter, my warrior princess!) This extreme shaking, jaw clenching, tube-biting fit caused Chrissie's oxygen sats to drop down into the 50's, and she was quite purple in her face. It was at that moment (full tantrum mode) that the doctor on call decided to give Chrissie some "Vec", a drug that paralyzes her. She also upped her morphine and started Methadone (that helps with morphine withdrawals and stabilizes the drug so she doesn't have as many ups and downs while on morphine) and she upped her sedative, too. I was glad the doctor got to see a glimpse of the "monster unleashed" so she could help tame her, which she accomplished in a matter of just a few minutes. During this time, the respiratory therapist disconnected the breathing tube from the machine and "bagged" Chrissie (using a bag of oxygen that attaches to the breathing tube at Chrissie's mouth) to get her oxygen sats back up. This only took a few minutes until she had the O2 sats back into the 80's, and Chrissie's color returned to normal. Then they reconnected the normal vent and she's been on it ever since. (This occurred probably around 9PMish.) Chrissie's oxygen sats are now at 95%! They have to keep checking her blood gasses to see if she can get her carbon dioxide down (it's in the 70's now and they need it at 40 or below, ideally), but for now, things are stable enough to keep her on this vent!!! Praise the Lord, hallelujah!!! This was the goal for Tuesday, but it actually occured Monday night around 9PM! Now, just be praying that Chrissie's lungs will clear the blood of Co2 and keep her O2 up, amongst a few other things.
We are definitely heading in the right direction, and prayerfully things will continue progressing in this way.
Oh, another praise: during Chrissie's extreme tantrum, her right shoulder and arm moved several times!!! Another hallelujah, praise the Lord moment! (Even though the circumstances weren't ideal, with the big fit she was throwing, but huge praises that there was movement on the right side!)
So, today on this Treasure Up These Things Tuesday, I pray that God will continue to allow me to treasure up all of His miracles and blessings. There are too many to count, too many to record, so I pray He'll allow me to treasure them all up so I can ponder them in my heart.
JaLynn took this picture as the nurses worked to fix Chrissie's IV and I prayed over Chrissie, rubbing my face against hers. (Chrissie's love language is physical touch, and she LOVES to smell her momma!)
WARNING: You may want to skip the next photo if you have a weak stomach!
While they had Chrissie paralyzed, they decided to change her dressings over her incisions. The 3 tubes coming out are drainage tubes. 1 for each lung and 1 in her chest cavity. They drain the extra blood and fluid out of those areas so that it doesn't pool up inside of Chrissie. She has a couple of extra holes that they pulled tubes of gauze out of (that went down in her body...eewwwww and ouch!) where other tubes had previously been. My little warrior princess has plenty of battle wounds that display the Lord's favor upon her and proclaim His miracles to the ends of the earth.
The kiddos at Seaworld. Kiefer didn't know what to think of this strange penguin!!!
Look at these sweet boys. Brothers through and through. Such a sweet photo to treasure up in my heart. There are no color or culture barriers, thanks be to God! (Kiefer is really a VERY happy guy, but he's not fond of photos...yet!)
PS Just thought I should mention that Chrissie's temp has stayed normal most of the day or very low grade fever. Nothing has shown up on the cultures yet. They're checking everything from urinary tract to every nook and cranny that could possibly have an infection...nothing yet, besides the MRSA, which is already being treated.
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