Recap

I’ll just give a quick recap for today. It started off by Eli deciding he didn’t need his NG tube anymore, so he pulled it out. 🙂 I think he was in a disoriented state of waking up and he felt it and pulled. At any rate, the doctors had said that it would probably come out today, so he just made that decision for them. 🙂 We also got rid of the catheter, the tube that was in his mediport, and all of the various monitor stickers that were on his body. Basically everything was slimmed down to the IV pole and oxygen! It made taking walks much nicer. We tried to ditch the oxygen for our walks, but his O2 levels would drop to below 90%, which no one was comfortable with, so we had to drag the oxygen tank along with us. I understood why Eli didn’t like to talk when the NG tube was in because it went down his throat, but for some reason he doesn’t like to talk much with the oxygen going into his nose either. So, he mostly mumbles and points unless I just make him say it. They also took blood cultures from every one of his lines to make sure there are no infections. He has been flirting with a low grade fever quite a bit.

We did get out for quite a few walks today, and that really helped his oxygen go up. It also made his bowels go from silent to making slight noises, so that’s a good sign. Definitely progress. They said that we might possibly have him start to drink a little bit tomorrow, but we don’t want to rush things and have him throwing up.

The keys to getting out of here are if he can eat, drink, have good O2 levels, and prove his bowels are working. We don’t really have a timeframe on that, it’s all up to Eli’s body. All we can do is make him as active as he can stand. He is still getting morphine doses certain times in the day because his belly really hurts him, but otherwise he is doing great with handling the pain.

That’s about it for today. We didn’t get to see any fireworks from the window, but we tried to keep him distracted enough he really didn’t feel like he was missing out on anything. There’s always next year!

I thought I’d include a story I shared with some people and I’ve been meaning to post for a few days. It goes back to Wednesday, July 3rd when we were waiting for the OR to be ready for Eli’s emergency surgery:

I VERY rarely listen to Lacey’s iPod. But on Wednesday I was bored waiting for surgery and I pulled out her iPod and wanted something “worshippy” so I picked the Hillsong United album I had loaded on there a long time ago and went to the last few songs to listen to them. I remember drifting off to sleep to the song, “All I Need Is You”.

Then on Wednesday night (July 3, 2008), when I was getting ready to go to bed in the Pediatric Observation Unit, I decided to go back one year on Eli’s CarePage and see what I had written that day. This is the last part of my post from July 3, 2007…

Cornerstone Church’s Preschool Ministry Coordinator stopped by yesterday and left us some great gifts, one of which was an awesome Hillsong United CD full of great worship tunes. Here’s one that hit me today:

All I Need Is You
Left my fear by the side of the road
Hear you speak, Won’t let go
Fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray
Got every reason to be here again
Father’s love that draws me in
And all my eyes wanna see is a glimpse of you
All I need is You
All I need is You Lord, is You Lord
One more day and it’s not the same
Your spirit calls my heart to sing
Drawn to the voice of my Saviour once again
Where would my soul be without Your Son?
Gave His life to save the earth
Rest in the thought that You’re watching over me
All I need is You
All I need is You Lord, is You Lord
You hold the universe
You hold everyone on earth
You hold the universe
You Hold, You Hold (Eli)

Some say it is a coincidence. A friend said, “God is reminding you of His ever-present help and grace.” I say, “All we need is You Lord.”