I thought I would take a moment to update everyone who are diligently praying for our Matthew and to give you some direction for what to focus your prayer on at this time.
Matthew spreading out and enjoying his freedom from all the equipment lines and monitors
highlighting the good, Matthew was moved to the regular pediatric cardiac area on Sunday after 2 days in the ICU. Today he has been weening off the heavy drugs and has has all of his “tethers” removed as in his chest tube, arterial line in his neck, his IV’s and his pulse/oxygen line. He is most excited about all of these things. Today he also had another heart echo to take a look at the work. The report was really good as far as the repair.
A few of the bad things: Matthew has a partially collapsed lung due to some excess fluid in his chest cavity that could not find it’s way to the drainage tube. We continue to monitor this. The other prayer request is that although Theresa and I are extremely thrilled with everything that has taken place over the last 5 days and feel overwhelmed with God’s blessing and the outpouring of support in the form of your prayer, we are exhausted. I have been with Matthew through the night and Theresa has been with him during the day. I am not getting the rest I need and Theresa is doing double duty with Sarah Anne. Megan has been our “trooper” in that she is stepping up and giving up spending time with her Aunt LInda and helping distract Sarah Anne…showing her incredible gift of servanthood and mercy. We know that when we get home Hannah is usually Matthews buddy and will help in that capacity in absence of a nursing staff.
Now for the best news of all…We are scheduled to be released tomorrow…Tuesday! That is if Matthew has a good night. We are most confident that he will heal best in his own bed.
Many have asked if it is okay to share this blog about our lessons from Matthew…not only is okay, but we emphatically ask that you would. We welcome any chance to show how good God is and how he is working through the power of prayer.
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