Friday's Progress

Today Willow continued to make gains. They removed her chest tube and at some point tonight, they will remove her ventilator. They did 3 sprints today, which are practice runs without the ventilator to make sure she was ready. She did great! My mama heart broke tonight when we were there. She was trying to cry, but couldn't with the vent in. All the nurses said she was ready to get it out and would when the first possible doc was available but a new kiddo was admitted into the bay after a long surgery and all the doctors that were available would be helping with that. We were also kicked out so that they could get the new little one admitted. I get it, I just felt bad for my baby who is uncomfortable and wanting the vent out. Once she gets the ventilator out, they wait 6 hours and then I can try to feed her! And I can hold her! It brings tears to my eyes! They continue to take cords off and meds down and today would be a great day... except for the pacemaker. She is still in heart block. And all of these gains seem tainted with the pacemaker still in, because she will go back on them all if they have to do another open heart surgery. So tonight I am begging you to flood the gates of heaven with pleas and groaning for the conduction of Willow's heart. That it would fire without the pacemaker and in perfect unison. That they would be able to remove the pacemaker tomorrow and that she would NOT need another open heart surgery for a permanent pacemaker. They won't make that decision till Tuesday, but the farther out from surgery we go, the less likely it will start beating on it's own and in all honesty, it's also just so stressful for me! I can barely have joy in her other gains with the pacemaker still taunting me! Thank you for continuing to pray and support us. This really would be so much harder without your prayers and encouragement!

ps. I love Ann Arbor and the people here! I have already made life long friends with two nurses! We have been here for 5 days and there are bits and pieces that feel like home or family. Except we still really miss home. We were on the waiting list for Ronald McDonald House and finally got in tonight, so that will be a different experience too. Pray it goes well.

Willow got her dressings off yesterday.

 For those of you who have prayed for Cale, your prayers are working. He has been a Superman through all of this!

 Probably because he still gets so much attention! (Playing Guess Who)

Strangers at restaurants are drawn to him and let him walk their dog!

One of our angel nurses Kathy- We called her Kitty Kat. Those of you who know us, know how much we love cats;).