Catching Up

Hi all,
Yesterday was a busy day for Ella and her team. Her white blood cell counts went up so they were nervous there was an infection. The lines that they have in her were getting old so they thought this could've caused an infection. They took out the umbilical cord line and replaced it with one in her right wrist. They also took out the drainage chest tube in hopes that they wouldn't need to replace it but decided she needed another one put in on her right side to help remove some of the excess fluid and gas around her lungs. They also removed the external pace maker lines! 🙌 Yay! We can see her tummy and chest much easier now and there aren't as many cords lying on her bed.

Ella is still on the ventilator. Her body has gotten pretty weak because she was not able to have food for so long. Her legs have gotten so skinny it's hard to see... she is a bit malnourished and they are trying to feed her more through the IVs to give her more strength so maybe she can start breathing on her own. Yesterday they did "sprints" where they had her off any help from the ventilator for a little while and she did well in the morning (3 hours before she got tired) then in the late afternoon she didn't do very well so they decided to give her a day of rest today. They will start the sprints again tomorrow... it's starting to feel like she will never get off of this this thing... the earliest would be Sunday. If she is unable to resolve this on her own in the next two weeks she will need to have a tracheotomy put in... the PICU doctor says it's still a 50/50 chance... talk about a hard blow. Sometimes I just think Ella's never going to catch a break. Matt reminded me that it was looking like she would definitely need the pace maker and she doesn't, so maybe this will be the same. He always puts things into a good perspective. I just get overwhelmed and can't think positively for a little while after we are given news like this. That's one of the millions of reasons why it's so good that we are together in this!

Please pray for her white blood cell count to go down and that her lungs will kick it into gear soon.

Love,
Jillian