Thursday, February 18, 2010

photo of one-after


I wanted to post some updated pictures of Sarah. She is doing well and is at the cusp of another great challenge. She is about to be discharged from the hospital!

To the left is her at the beginning of treatment with a lot of edema not much life and some skin peeling







Here she is in the middle of her treatment getting weighed. She still isn't happy, but the peeling is getting better. She looks skinnier because the edema is going away.












Here she is today with not her biggest smile but a girl with a genuine personality nonetheless who smiles, runs to be weighed, and is alive again.

We really like to see that!!


Thanks for praying for us.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Happy Parting

I wanted to you to meet a patient who is leaving the hospital today. His name is Hènoc (french for Enoch).
He is now almost 6 weeks old. He came in about 6 weeks ago weighing 2lb 12oz. He was with his twin brother who, unfortunately, was dead. He has overcome some major hurdles.
One is that he was a twin that was born at 33 weeks gestational age. Another is that on his second day here he forgot to breath (premature infants sometime do this) and needed chest compressions to get his heart and lungs going again. Then when he was about two weeks old, he caught the flu and almost stopped breathing again. He needed oxygen for about 1 week with that episode. Since then he has done remarkable well and today weighs 4lb 6oz.

His mom has been incredible during this time as well. She hand expressed breast milk to feed him by a tube that went from his nose to his stomach, she maintained hope when it seemed to be lost, and she has been a good teacher to other parents with premature infants as well.
The only thing she has not done well is pick me to name the child. I picked the name Enoch for two reasons. One is that I hope like Enoch the child will walk with God. The other is that like Enoch I hope that this child will not die and will leave to see the return of Christ.

Also during Hènoc's time here there have been several other infants who have received the same care but not lived. Why? I am not sure. I know that we live in a fallen world where we see through a glass darkly. One day things will be set right. In the meantime, I rejoice in these victories and pray that my hope for Hènoc will come to fruition.

I also want to thank you for praying for us during this time. Those prayers have been answered in the life of Hènoc.