Page 45 - Journey of Hope by Raymond Moldenhauer

DAY76

THE LORD IS GOOD

Alyssa had a wonderful day. She had bowel sounds and even
had 2 bowel movements today (not food, because there was no
food in her because of the surgery, but the contrast medium
from the pre-surgical X-ray passed through with flying colors!).
That means that the care team will now begin to feed her
calculated portions of milk from the bottle to test out the newly
attached intestines. In a few days, she could be back up to her
regular portions and thus continue the weight gain.

She was also totally taken off of the morphine today and
appeared to have no pain (they can tell by her heart rate). In
addition, the nasal canula was removed as well (so she was just
breathing air on her own). And if that were not enough to be
thankful for, the care team also moved her to a “big girl’s crib”
(as Heidi called it in her text message to me) for a little while.
She had to go back to her incubator later on because she was
getting cold. But Alyssa’s nurse thinks that was more because
the room was drafty where the crib was located. The incubator,
however, was only set to provide room air and not additional
heat. The cover will just shield her from the draft.

The only negative issue at all today was related to the follow-up
eye exam that Alyssa had. The Doctor indicated that the eyes
have slightly regressed to a Stage 3 ROP, which they will check
again in one week. Heidi sounded discouraged as she reported
the diagnosis to me via the text message. I simply responded
that: “We will all have to pray more. I am still counting on a
miracle – this just makes it bigger!” My prayer request to all of
you is that you focus your attention and prayers for Alyssa on her
eyes in asking God to heal them in a big and miraculous way – as
only He can, because the Lord is good.