Monday, July 11, 2011

Very Special Visitors (that made our day better!)

This morning was extremely difficult. It just started out bad! Poor Elle didn't sleep great Sunday night which meant I didn't sleep that well either. She woke up around 6:20am - just early enough to say goodbye to Lee as he headed to work. Thank goodness we have a coffee maker in our room because that first cup of coffee sure was needed after only about 3 hours of sleep! Right after Lee left for work, Elle had to have some blood drawn. Since they have removed all her lines, they have to stick her little fingers to get the blood. It's just awful! The technician drew 2 vials of blood and poor Elle was screaming the entire time. Right after the tech left, our nurse came in and told us that one of the CV nurses was on her way to come and pull the pacing wires that were still in Elle. The pacing wires are two little wires that were situated against Elle's heart and then they extended outside her body. Just in case her heart stopped, the pacing wires could be attached to a little defibrillator to re start her heart. So...around 8:00am, the nurse came down and pulled out Elle's pacing wires. This is done with no drugs because the doctors and nurses need to be able to see how Elle's heart responds to the wires being pulled. Of course Elle is was crying and to make matters worse, after the wires were pulled, Elle's blood pressure had to be taken every 15 minutes for an hour. The cuff was attached to the portable machine and it would just start automatically and scare Elle. Ugh! Poor little girl! Around 8:30am, Elle's respiratory therapist came in to do a treatment to help her breathe a little better and (thankfully) she responded well to the treatment. Close to 9:00am (and right after Elle's final blood pressure was taken), the technician that had done the earlier blood draw came in and said that she needed to draw another vial of blood. Ugh! Poor Elle just couldn't catch a break and it was only 9:00am! Dr. Morales came by to check on Elle. He asked if she was going to have an echo today and I told him no - it was scheduled for Tuesday. He got this puzzled look on his face and after checking out her scar, he left. Not two minutes later our nurse came in and said that Elle's echo had been rescheduled to 9:30am. Oh the powers of the surgeons! As I was putting Elle's shoes on her to go for the echo, our nurse noticed that one of Elle's iv's that was in her foot had come almost all the way out. She needed to completely pull it out before we went for the echo - and after some more screaming from Elle and lots of blood we were heading upstairs for the echo. Elle still wasn't completely calmed down from all the activities of the morning so it wasn't surprising that she screamed for the entire 30 minute echo. She has never screamed during an echo - usually she just sits there and watches whatever movie is on and holds the wand as the technician moves it over her chest. Not today! By 11:00am we were back in our room and I asked the nurse if anything else was scheduled for the day because poor Elle needed a break. Thankfully, she said no and we could rest. Elle went right to sleep and slept for a solid 2 hours. Praise the Lord! When Elle woke up from her nap, we had two very special visitors. My bestie from college, Laura, and her husband, Matt....aka Aunt Eldy and Uncle Matt. Matt is taking a big medical test here in Houston tomorrow so it worked out well that they could come in town all the way from Mississippi to visit Elle Belle. Elle loved all the attention. She took Aunt Eldy and Uncle Matt on a walk all the way around the unit - not once but twice....and she lured them in to reading her books. She was patting beside her in the bed saying "Eldy sit." Laura and Matt's visit was exactly what we needed to cheer us up after the eventful morning! I am so thankful for such amazing friends!

Matt and Laura left around 4:15pm and as they were leaving, Elle and I were being escorted down for Elle to have an x-ray. She did great during the x-ray and we were back in our room (our "home" as Elle calls it) with an hour. Tonight my Aunt V and Uncle Jim drove in from College Station with their daughters Emily and Sarah. Elle was so excited to see them and she entertained them for quite a while. We even took them on a walk around the unit - Elle's goal is to walk around the unit 4 times and with the help of all our visitors, Elle did it!
I am doing a Bible Study over the book "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges. The events of the morning made me reflect back over the book so much. As I was trying to calm Elle down after the echo, I kept praying that God would give Elle peace and that I would calm down as well. In the book, the author states, "Psalm 139:16...But the same truth that God has ordained all our days, with all their ups and downs, their blessings and disappointments, can help us deal with the circumstances that tempt us to be discontent. Your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that they are ordained by God for you as part of His overall plan for your life. God does nothing , or allows nothing without a purpose. And His purposes, however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to us, are always for His glory and our ultimate good."
Amen! God brought about our hard morning so that we could truly be thankful for the events of the afternoon - wonderful visitors and a wonderful Healing Father!

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