More prayers needed.

Dear friends,

More prayers are needed once again for Madeline Grace. She’s hit some rough patches on Saturday night and Sunday where her sats (blood oxygen levels) drop low. Normally she has these desat episodes and recovers quickly on her own with little or no adjustment to her vent settings. But these ones went lower and took her longer to recover, on a couple of occasions the nurses had to bag her to bring her out of it. Also, her heart has been dropping real low with some of these.

Madeline is riding a fine line between having her lungs oversaturated with blood and insufficient weight gain as a result of the diuretics. The docs are thinking they need to go ahead with the surgery to fix her paralyzed diaphragm. They are working on getting the cardiologists, pulmonologists, and the surgical teams together to discuss her case and come up with a plan, but it sounds like another surgery is in Madeline’s near future. I am not looking forward to it.

Tonight I was holding Madeline’s little hand as she was trying to fall asleep. She was crying a little as kids often do when falling asleep. As I held her fingers and gazed into her eyes, it hit me - This Friday she’ll be two months old, and still I don’t even know what she sounds like. Asides from a couple of little sounds, I haven’t heard Madeline, her vent tube prevents her from this. Maybe it was culmative, but it really hit me hard tonight. I really want her to get off the ventilator so I can hear her, even if all she does is scream and cry.

Another small boy passed away here on Sunday.

Please pray for Madeline, pray for a miracle to occur, I’m ready for this, I think she is too. Pray for her health, that she can grow and become strong. Pray that if the surgery must happen, that it goes very well. Pray for Lisa and I, that we can always find comfort and peace in the arms of Jesus in whatever happens. Pray for the family of that little boy, that they would be comforted.

Grace,
Shanker & Lisa.