Saturday, May 3, 2008

More Bad News ... and some good news

Hello All:
 
Last night we learned that scan of Hope's head indicated "lesions" on her brain.  And as best we can understand, they are not thought to be the result of yesterday's trauma, in other words they are older indicating she had some kind of problem during pregnancy that we never detected despite many many ultrasounds and several more detailed analyses along the way.  (Of course, these problems might be why she struggled so much yesterday -- or part of the reason.) You just shake your head and say: "How could they possibly miss this?!"  But with all our technology, I still think it's hard to see everything.
 
You can imagine this has us worried.  It's like we've gone from bad to worse for our little girl.  The positive news is they have made some progress with her breathing though they are still having trouble getting her blood pressure stabilized and the meds they have tried -- as of early this morning -- really have not worked.
 
Grandma Gates and I will go to Hopkins today to see Hope and also have a meeting with doctors.  I am sure they want to explain to me (us) what is going on in more detail. 
 
The better news is that Becca seems to be doing well.  Dad got his first chance to hold her last night and again this morning.  Mom is getting up on her feet after surgery and hopes to get to the NICU to hold her daughter this morning.  They also hope she can try breastfeeding Becca today.  The key to her getting out of NICU is being able to eat -- she is now breathing ambient air and seems to be doing fine as of this morning when daddy visited.
 
Just keep praying.  We still believe God is in control even if we feel like we are totally powerless and spiraling out of control.  We need the prayers of others right now because sometimes it is hard to put words to your own prayers when you are feeling, if I may speak bluntly, pissed off at the whole situation with Hope's diagnosis.  We "did everything right" with monitoring and they still managed to miss something that appears to be pretty major. 
 
ALAN (For Alan & Laurie)


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3 comments:

ronrab said...

Best of luck to you and all three of your girls, Alan. I wish you all well.

Unknown said...

Alan,

I am an online friend of Laurie and we chat quite frequently. I have learned a lot about Christian theology and I hope she has learned something about Judaism from me. Here is a Jewish prayer for healing that I find very comforting. http://www.kolhalev.net/gems/misheberach.html
This prayer is usually recited between the reading of the Torah and Haftorah and typically congregants offer names of loved ones in need of God's healing. I find it to be very comforting during times of trouble.

I am so glad to read of good news about Rebecca. Hope and the rest of your family will be in prayers.

I will continue reading your blog for updates. And please let Laurie know that I am thinking about her.

jcanter said...

We are so happy to hear about Rebecca's progress and are so sad to hear about Hope's struggles. Your family (especially Hope) are in our prayers.
Kenny, Jenny, Kristen, Ashely, and Beth

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