5/20 update

The blood was drawn around 11:30 for the test to see if there were abnormal blood cells that would require Carissa to have the painful bone marrow tests to see if she had blood cancers. Our wonderful nurse followed up to make sure the lab received the samples and found out it would take 2 hours for the test results to come in but also found out they would go directly to the head of the hematology department as opposed to being entered directly into the system where she could check them. Two hours came and went with Pamela anxiously waiting with Carissa and me almost breaking my belt yanking my blackberry off to read it every time it buzzed. Another hour went by and then another. Finally it was time for Pamela to leave and for me to show up to be there in case the doctor still came by and I was fearful that we would miss them in the few minutes that neither of us were cribside (I'll put off the results so y'all can experience some of the wait with us.).


This morning Pamela and I were talking about the mix between fear and faith that we were feeling and discovered that God had brought to both of our hearts separately as we drove home last night the account from Mark where the father of a demon possessed boy tells Jesus "But, if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" Jesus replies "If you can? All things are possible to him that believes." The man then cries out "I do believe; help my unbelief." That is where we were. We had both been praying that exact thing at the same time without knowing it. "I do believe; help my unbelief." My quoting Genesis 1: 1 last night probably makes more sense now that you know what God was leading us through last night. He was reminding us again that the Almighty Creator God, our merciful Redeemer God, can absolutely handle any issue that Carissa Faith Shuffler has facing her. She is, after all, on loan to us from that same God, just as Colton and Luke are.


I was holding Carissa and visiting with my brother who had stopped by when I made a somewhat kidding but mostly sarcastic comment to the nurse about maybe making the doctor wait on something like he was making us wait on this news. Sure enough, the words had hardly left my mouth when he came walking around the corner...approximately 4 hours and 1/2 of eternity after the results were likely sent to him. We had been told that the lack of promptness was probably a good sign for us but that is hard to believe when you are in the midst of waiting. Praise God that the results he had to tell me really were good in that there was no sign of "abnormal" or "peculiar" cells in Carissa's blood that would warrant the painful bone marrow sampling to check further for blood cancers. Can I get an Amen?! They are going to repeat a test they did at birth for another type of antibody disorder that might be causing Carissa to destroy some of her blood cells.


Carissa took most of her bottles today, often while appearing to just sleep and suck at the same time. Her blood counts today showed some deterioration of some counts while the neutrophils continued to slowly rise. Some of the decreases can be tied mostly to the repeated blood draws she has been having since last Friday. She seems headed for another transfusion. I asked the hematologist about just waiting for further blood draws for a couple of days to allow her to try to build up some on her own. He is fine with that but there are other concerns by her regular neonatal doctors that might keep them running the counts daily. We have asked that they at least consider this. If her oxygen saturation or anything else point to needing to test sooner we would, of course, be in favor of that.

• Please thank God for the great results and for all He has done in Carissa's life.


• Please pray that the doctors and staff will have perfect wisdom in deciding whether to give Carissa a couple of days to try to build up some of the blood numbers on her own.


• Please pray that Carissa will continue to grow stronger and that her body will produce the blood cells and components she needs and will regulate them properly and that her heart rate will remain in the range that it needs to.


• Please pray for Dante and his mom, Misty, and for a chance for Pamela to visit with her.


• Please pray that God will continue to get the glory in Carissa's story and please take advantage of opportunities to see that He does.

Thank y'all so much for interceding for Carissa as well as your prayers for all of us...and please keep praying!

Terry