Carissa turned 12 days old today. Pamela suggested that I write a Twelve Days of Carissa song but I assured her I didn't have the patience and I have no desire to show I don't have the creative ability our friend Wendy displayed when she wrote a version following the White Elephant gift exchange our church did. Carissa and the Great Physician's touch are certainly song worthy so in that light we would appreciate it very much if you would hum something appropriate while you read this update. So that you have something to look foreword to I am planning on writing the April 31st update in iambic pentameter.
I was in the proximity mid-day so I stopped in with Martha, our sales manager at Trendmaker. Martha got to be there for the first sucking of the thumb by Carissa. I kind of like it that my daughter was like "If you people won't put that thing in my mouth I will just find something else to suck on." When I got back down to the hospital around 5:30 or so Pamela was taking a little break and I walked into one of those pretty few times when Carissa was just very awake and alert and just squirming and staring and doing that baby cooing thing some. We had the best time just singing and talking...apparently a little louder than I realized. One of the nurses from toward the entrance of the NICU came down and asked if that was me that they heard singing from up front. I did that thing where you answer a question with a question..."I don't know. Is that an official request to stop?" They claimed it wasn't but I toned it down a little anyway. Never once has anyone complained when I am singing along with Pamela. At least they didn't immediately call CPS when I tried it alone. I thought their tears when I had been singing previously were because they were touched to hear a father singing to his daughter.
Those times of alertness really help you see the hope of the future along with the answered prayers of the present. You see past all the wires and tubes and machines and pumps...and you clearly see this incredible little blessing from God that has been the object of so many intercessions from y'all and the beneficiary of so many prayers being answered. I share things like this to hopefully give you a fraction of the encouragement we receive when we are there and to also hopefully inspire you to pray for Carissa. I sincerely hope that whether or not it is your regular practice that you do take things to our Heavenly Father on a regular basis...big things, small things, family things, church things, work things, school things, problems, challenges, gratitude, fears. I want you to know the power of your prayers to an Almighty God. I don't want you to wonder about their effectiveness. Pamela and I were discussing tonight that, without a doubt, your faithfulness in praying and our blessing of seeing them answered every day is making us better intercessors.
Carissa also had her milk amount increased again today to 23 cc's per feeding, which occur every three hours. Dr. Adams stopped by to tell us that no other tests have come back but that they were going to be checking on some of the longer tests that were sent three weeks ago from the amniotic fluid as well as almost two weeks ago from the cord blood in addition to the blood samples taken from Pamela and I last Monday. They consulted with the geneticists yesterday and decided to wait on some of those results instead of taking a lot more of Carissa's blood right now to run additional tests. He said that they just wanted to concentrate on keeping Carissa getting well. Carissa's platelet situation has improved some so they started just testing them once a day now as opposed to the recent pattern of every 12 hours which itself was an improvement from a week ago when it was every 6 hours.
We did have a moment of anxiety today when we learned from the doctor working with Dr. Adams that as of Friday the orange team would have a new head doctor and fellow. It seems that the doctors rotate around the 5 teams, staying on each team a month. I'm glad Mack Brown doesn't go by that rule. I think the doctor that told me and the nurses around saw my look and started to assure me that the next doctor was amazing and his fellow was very good. I told them I have been impressed and amazed at every doctor we have dealt with so far but that it was just easier for me to grasp things when it was spoken with Dr. Adam's Texas accent. They laughed and said that I would be in good hands then because the next doctor had a Texas accent as well...so we've got that going for us. The fact is that it really did cause me some anxious thoughts and then I considered everything Carissa has overcame through God's strength and power and I realized that a fresh look from some new leaders might even be part of the plan to help her keep moving down this very positive path she is on and might even lead to answers that have somehow been overlooked by someone being too close for too long.
Please thank God for another really good day for Carissa and for the amazing progress she has made these last 12 days. Please also thank him for what I believe sounded like a report of a good couple of days for the other baby in Carissa's area, Dante, that I asked y'all to pray for recently a couple of times
Please pray the Carissa can start to develop fewer, deeper breaths which will allow her to better coordinate breathing, sucking, and swallowing so that she can start being fed orally and start breastfeeding.
Please pray that Carissa's platelet count will continue to stabilize
Please once again pray that those who hear of Carissa's story, by whatever means, also hear the thanks for the doctors, nurses, technicians and other experts along with the credit and praise being ultimately directed to the Great Physician and that He gets the glory.
Please pray that the transition to the new doctor and fellow goes well. Everything in the last 3 weeks has happened for a specific reason and I am sure that the timing of this change is no different.
Thanks again for your prayers...and please keeping asking the Almighty God to keep healing Carissa.
Yours and His,
Terry
Please stop reading now if you do not want to hear something UT related. Karla and Van visited us this evening...ok they visited Carissa and Pamela but I was there and holding Carissa so I was involved. At one point Van asked "I wonder what she would do if she heard the Texas fight song"...or wording very similar to that. I, of course, started humming "Texas Fight" and Carissa proceeded to break into probably the biggest smile we have seen her make. All the obligatory jokes were made about that just being gas and I hummed a couple of other songs she is familiar with and there was no reaction. I start humming Texas Fight again and the same smile appeared. I can get sworn affidavits if you need them.
I was in the proximity mid-day so I stopped in with Martha, our sales manager at Trendmaker. Martha got to be there for the first sucking of the thumb by Carissa. I kind of like it that my daughter was like "If you people won't put that thing in my mouth I will just find something else to suck on." When I got back down to the hospital around 5:30 or so Pamela was taking a little break and I walked into one of those pretty few times when Carissa was just very awake and alert and just squirming and staring and doing that baby cooing thing some. We had the best time just singing and talking...apparently a little louder than I realized. One of the nurses from toward the entrance of the NICU came down and asked if that was me that they heard singing from up front. I did that thing where you answer a question with a question..."I don't know. Is that an official request to stop?" They claimed it wasn't but I toned it down a little anyway. Never once has anyone complained when I am singing along with Pamela. At least they didn't immediately call CPS when I tried it alone. I thought their tears when I had been singing previously were because they were touched to hear a father singing to his daughter.
Those times of alertness really help you see the hope of the future along with the answered prayers of the present. You see past all the wires and tubes and machines and pumps...and you clearly see this incredible little blessing from God that has been the object of so many intercessions from y'all and the beneficiary of so many prayers being answered. I share things like this to hopefully give you a fraction of the encouragement we receive when we are there and to also hopefully inspire you to pray for Carissa. I sincerely hope that whether or not it is your regular practice that you do take things to our Heavenly Father on a regular basis...big things, small things, family things, church things, work things, school things, problems, challenges, gratitude, fears. I want you to know the power of your prayers to an Almighty God. I don't want you to wonder about their effectiveness. Pamela and I were discussing tonight that, without a doubt, your faithfulness in praying and our blessing of seeing them answered every day is making us better intercessors.
Carissa also had her milk amount increased again today to 23 cc's per feeding, which occur every three hours. Dr. Adams stopped by to tell us that no other tests have come back but that they were going to be checking on some of the longer tests that were sent three weeks ago from the amniotic fluid as well as almost two weeks ago from the cord blood in addition to the blood samples taken from Pamela and I last Monday. They consulted with the geneticists yesterday and decided to wait on some of those results instead of taking a lot more of Carissa's blood right now to run additional tests. He said that they just wanted to concentrate on keeping Carissa getting well. Carissa's platelet situation has improved some so they started just testing them once a day now as opposed to the recent pattern of every 12 hours which itself was an improvement from a week ago when it was every 6 hours.
We did have a moment of anxiety today when we learned from the doctor working with Dr. Adams that as of Friday the orange team would have a new head doctor and fellow. It seems that the doctors rotate around the 5 teams, staying on each team a month. I'm glad Mack Brown doesn't go by that rule. I think the doctor that told me and the nurses around saw my look and started to assure me that the next doctor was amazing and his fellow was very good. I told them I have been impressed and amazed at every doctor we have dealt with so far but that it was just easier for me to grasp things when it was spoken with Dr. Adam's Texas accent. They laughed and said that I would be in good hands then because the next doctor had a Texas accent as well...so we've got that going for us. The fact is that it really did cause me some anxious thoughts and then I considered everything Carissa has overcame through God's strength and power and I realized that a fresh look from some new leaders might even be part of the plan to help her keep moving down this very positive path she is on and might even lead to answers that have somehow been overlooked by someone being too close for too long.
Please thank God for another really good day for Carissa and for the amazing progress she has made these last 12 days. Please also thank him for what I believe sounded like a report of a good couple of days for the other baby in Carissa's area, Dante, that I asked y'all to pray for recently a couple of times
Please pray the Carissa can start to develop fewer, deeper breaths which will allow her to better coordinate breathing, sucking, and swallowing so that she can start being fed orally and start breastfeeding.
Please pray that Carissa's platelet count will continue to stabilize
Please once again pray that those who hear of Carissa's story, by whatever means, also hear the thanks for the doctors, nurses, technicians and other experts along with the credit and praise being ultimately directed to the Great Physician and that He gets the glory.
Please pray that the transition to the new doctor and fellow goes well. Everything in the last 3 weeks has happened for a specific reason and I am sure that the timing of this change is no different.
Thanks again for your prayers...and please keeping asking the Almighty God to keep healing Carissa.
Yours and His,
Terry
Please stop reading now if you do not want to hear something UT related. Karla and Van visited us this evening...ok they visited Carissa and Pamela but I was there and holding Carissa so I was involved. At one point Van asked "I wonder what she would do if she heard the Texas fight song"...or wording very similar to that. I, of course, started humming "Texas Fight" and Carissa proceeded to break into probably the biggest smile we have seen her make. All the obligatory jokes were made about that just being gas and I hummed a couple of other songs she is familiar with and there was no reaction. I start humming Texas Fight again and the same smile appeared. I can get sworn affidavits if you need them.
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