Hayleigh Report and the Homefront

Door into Hayleigh's Room.  Nurses moved the picture from above her bed to here....nice!

Hayleigh continues to progress toward health.  On Friday she was completely weaned off the nitric oxide and did just fine.  That machine is now out of her room.  The medical team continues to wean her off things like morphine and various sedatives.  Ventilator supports continue to be lowered and there is now talk of extubating her if things continue to go well.   Thank you for your continued prayers for complete healing and returning our Hayleigh to our family healthy and whole.  

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UPDATE SUNDAY 1145AM -- SETBACK AND PRAYER REQUEST

I typed everything else in this letter Saturday night.  Unfortunately, Hayleigh had her first backward step in this recovery process on Sunday morning.  

The medical team had decided based on her progress that they were going to extubate her today (take the tube out of her throat).  She passed all the 'tests'  throughout the night.  However, one of the withdrawal symptoms of being taken off morphine and other drugs is vomiting   She did that in a big way this morning and aspirated vomit into her lungs.  Vomit in the lungs can be a very bad thing.  

Since the tubes were still in place they were able to suction as much as they could, but we are asking for prayers that this aspiration of the lungs does not damage her lungs, create another infection, or set back her progress more than a day.  She will be remain intubated for the foreseeable future.  

Thank you for your prayers.

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(back to what was written Saturday....)

I sleep in Hayleigh’s room at the hospital, and Friday morning I awoke to alarms going off.  She decided it was time to get up and get out of her bed.  She was literally sitting on the edge of the bed, feet on the ground with her hand on the tubes in her mouth trying to pull them out!  She is quite the fighter. 

That episode earned her a new bed which can be moved into all kinds of different positions including helping her get in a sitting position.  More importantly it finalized the decision to get her off nitric oxide.  One of the medical team members wanted to keep her on it a couple of more days at a low setting.  If she pulled her tubes out there was a greater danger if she hadn’t been weaned off the nitric, so they went ahead and got rid of the nitric oxide. 

It was interesting to watch the team switch out the bed (old bed out in the hall, new bed coming in, Hayleigh hanging on the scale!). 

I nominate this poster from the teachers at her old Elementary School as the most creative ‘card’ she has received (yes, those are real candy wrappers...):

On the home front…

Rachel and Isaiah arrived home:

This time of year is sensational in our hometown:

Vienna got her first starts in field hockey and her team dedicated their last games to Hayleigh.  Thanks girls! 

Sarah ran for her Elementary School student council….and was elected President!  Rachel played her the Presidential March music the next morning when she came down for breakfast ;)

Baby Isaiah continues to grow….and Rachel is in full swing with her picture ideas....

One of the few moments of sleep for Rachel…

I went home Saturday morning to take AJ to his soccer game.  We had team pictures today, and I’m the coach of the team.  But I didn’t think to get any pictures of the event itself L 

But here are some pics of AJ the past few days…

As mentioned in my last post, Aunt Gretchen arrived this week and there is NEVER a dull moment when Gretchen is in the house.  Here is what Rachel posted on Facebook Friday…

“Gretchen Powell volunteered to take Sarah Rachel to school so that she could go to Dunkins for a coffee....Well, after a few drive-by's she got to Dunkins, ordered, went to the car and heard sniffing...she turned around and a HUGE BLACK dog was behind her...scared her to death and she realized she wasn't in her car. So, she got out. A man was watching her and he suggested she go to the other side of the building where there was another parking lot. Once at the other side of the building, she realized she didn't have her coffee....She left it in the wrong car LOL...So she hustled to the back of the building to see the car driving away. Gretchen managed to flag the car down, admitted to the lady that she had been in her car and that the coffee in on the seat was hers.....Oy! All in the first 24+ hours....Stay tuned more definitely to come  Gotta love the Aunt Gretchen - she is better than cable any day of the week!”

We love Aunt Gretchen! 

Finally, I prayed a bit last week about when Hayleigh will be home and think I got an answer.  Sarah proceeded to tell Rachel “Well, God told Daddy she would be home on xx date.”  That’s not exactly what happened….just something peculiar happened on the day I prayed about when she would be coming home.  What is most important is that she get the best care possible (which is going to happen at Children’s Boston).  So, while I’m anxious for her to be home I’m not willing to rush anything.

Prayer requests:

1.    Hayleigh healthy and whole in every way

2.    AJ return to health (he has a cold and is miserable / super grumpy…and probably a bit irritated at us for shipping him around for about 10 days)
3. Updated prayer request Sunday morning...pray that the setback described above is minor and that no infection or damage to the lungs occurred.  

Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers.

God Bless,

Andrew

Recent posts:  
http://tsfga.blogspot.com/2013/10/hayleigh-faith.html

http://tsfga.blogspot.com/2013/10/hayleigh-blessings.html