7/31 BIG update

Quick interview with Carissa:

Well, good afternoon, Carissa. Looks like you may have just had a bath since you don't have your nasal cannula in.

I actually have some pretty good news I would like to tell you. Are you ready to hear it?

I got a call this afternoon from your doctor's office and you do not have to wear the nasal cannula because you no longer need supplemental oxygen. You also do not have to listen to that annoying pulse-ox monitor and its loud beeping. How does that all make you feel?

Me too!

Praise God for the great news today! Thank you for each of your prayers and please keep praying. We have another visit to the hematologist two weeks from today. We have never gone 3 weeks between visits before.

The news about the oxygen was a huge high for us and is especially timely because we are actually packing to move and moving over the next few days. God's timing is perfect, as usual. Our new address is:
19403 Sapphire Circle
Magnolia, TX 77355

• Please thank God for His healing of Carissa. Take a look back at some of the updates if you want to be reminded of how amazing and how powerful God is.


• Please pray that Carissa will continue to improve on her breathing and lung development even beyond where she is today and that she will be protected from illness.


• Please pray that Carissa will continue improving on holding on to her blood components and that she will also keep manufacturing all the different components.


• Please pray that the Great Physician keeps getting the glory for Carissa's progress and please help make that happen.

Thanks again for all your prayers and please keep lifting Carissa up to our Heavenly Abba Father.

Psalm 103 says it best. Please read it all and join us in acknowledging the Lord for who He is:

1Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. 2Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; 3Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; 4Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; 5Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. 6The LORD performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed. 7He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. 8The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 14For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. 15As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer. 17But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children, 18To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them. 19The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all. 20Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word! 21Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will. 22Bless the LORD, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the LORD, O my soul!

Yours and His,

Terry

7/28 almost update

You ever study for a test, think you are ready, and look forward to finding out what you made only to learn that the teacher won't grade the paper for a couple of millenia...I mean days? We are in the middle of the BIG TEST, the FREE MY PEOPLE (daughter)TEST, the Testimus Maximus, the Test to end all Tests, and we just found out that we will be called in a couple of days with the results? I bet Yao Ming's daughter would find out the same day. I bet Lance Armstrong's daughter would find out the same day.

Carissa's pulmonologist just came in and delivered that news. I am pretty sure she then told us that she anticipates that she will do fine and will be able to get off the oxygen. I could not hear for sure because of all the crying. I hope Carissa never finds out that I cried at her appointment.

On the way to the hospital this morning we were thanking God for His perfect timing...I just wished Texas Children's got a copy of His schedule. Just kidding. We know it is in His hands, whatever the results and whatever the time.

I'll pass along the results shortly after we get them. Thanks in advance for your continued prayers.

Yours and His,
Terry

7/24 update

Woohoo and Hallelujah! It has been 4 weeks and 1 day since Carissa's last transfusion and we are going to be able to keep that clock rolling a while longer. Carissa's rbc and hemoglobin was lower than 2 weeks ago but not in a range that needed a transfusion. Her retic count also shows that she is producing rbc's. Her platelet count is still slowly but surely rising as it has been for several weeks now, and is almost to a normal level.

We ran some errands early afternoon after we left the hospital and when we got home I saw as I brought Carissa in that her oxygen supply was showing no pressure on the meter. We have gotten used to spot checking her oxygen on the pulse-ox monitor because the sound is so annoying and it had been off for more than a couple of hours. I turned the monitor back on instead of just turning the oxygen back on and the reading immediately showed a very good pulse rate and a oxygen saturation level of 98. I have actually just left the oxygen off for the last couple of hours and the readings are generally very good, never dipping close to 90, known as the "desat" range. What a great observation to see those ranges even though Carissa has not had any oxygen assisstance in a while.

On Wednesday we also left the oxygen off for a while after we bathed Carissa. We put the cheek pads on her and taped on the nasal cannula but just left it unhooked to the oxygen and she stayed in a good range until I was too tired to watch the monitor and hooked her back up to the oxygen tank.

We are so thankful for these times that display how far Carissa's lungs and breathing have developed and are humbled to see the results of your and our prayers and the actions of the Great Physician. Next Tuesday is the pulmanologist appointment and the OCRG test to see if Carissa will be able to leave the oxygen support behind her. We kind of feel like you do when you have studied really well for a test, are pretty sure you are ready for the test, but still are a little anxious waiting for the test to see if you really studied the right thing.

Here is a picture I took a few minutes ago as Carissa drifted off for a nap showing her oxygen saturation at 98 and her pulse rate at 133...both very good.

Here is a picture showing the familial resemblance of Colton to Carissa and his regression one night this week. All that talk of recent maturity down the drain. Just kidding, really. He actually gave up the pacifier last summer before he started junior high school.


Can't you just see this picture showing up at Colt's 18th birthday party, his rehearsal dinner, his first child's birth announcement, an ad run in the local paper announcing he turns 40 that day...feel free to find uses on your own.

• Please thank God for all of Carissa's progress and His amazing mercy and grace that He has shown her and us.
• Please pray that Carissa's breathing and lung development continue and that she is able to get off her oxygen support after her test next Tuesday.
• Please pray that Carissa's slowing trend of chewing through her rbc's continue, that the reticulocytes continue to form and go on to develop into mature rbc's, that her platelet count continues to rise and that she is able to produce and maintain all her blood components at healthy levels.
• Please pray that our Almighty God continue to receive the glory for Carissa's healing and please help us in acknowledging that.

Thank y'all so much for your continued prayers and please keep them up. Wayne Watson's song "When God's People Pray" has a couple of lines that says when God's people pray and take the pains of earth to the doors of heaven that hope is reborn. Thanks for taking Carissa's pains to the doors of heaven.

Yours and His

Terry

7/18 update

I will just admit it up front...I am a slacker punk. I am way behind on giving an update after last week's visit to the hematologist which was the first blood count done after the rbc transfusion on June 25.


The blood count showed a hemaglobin and rbc count in good ranges, but at a point where they had no doubt dropped from levels soon after the transfusion. The platelet count was up over 100k on their own for the first time. That is still a little low but they have been trending up for several weeks and the low platelet issue, thrombocytepenia, seems to be resolving. The neutrophil count is also still in a good range and looks like that problem is in the past as well. If you have been reading these from the beginning you may remember Dr. Johnson who was Pamela's doctor starting on the night of 4/8 when she checked into St. Lukes. He checked on us this week just to see how we, and specifically Carissa, are doing. I told him I hope I never have to spell thrombocytopenia or neutropenia again-openia...actually I left the suffix humor off for Dr. Johnson.


Carissa has some really big appointments over the next 10 days and we request your continued prayers for her. We go back to the hematologist Friday and then go to the pulmanologist for the OCRG test (Our Carissa Respirates Good is what I think that stands for) on 7/28. We have been counting the days until the 28th for quite a while and are honestly both hopeful and anxious about that day. The timing is a little tricky because if trends hold Carissa may be getting lower on rbc's by Friday's appointment but maybe not low enough for a transfusion. The OCRG test on the following Tuesday is all about her oxygen saturation so that will be a challenge to do well and get off oxygen if her rbc and hemaglobin counts are not high. We really hope that Carissa will be able to do well and be able to be off oxygen support for the first time except for a few hours while she was in the NICU. Conventional wisdom says that this could be lined up for a perfect storm where Carissa's counts aren't low enough for a transfusion, then her OCRG test does not go well due to low rbc's, and then she needs another transfusion shortly after the OCRG test. We thank God that He is not restrained to operating in the realm of conventional wisdom! Carissa has had great physicians but she is ultimately in the hands of the Great Physician!

• Please thank God for Carissa's progress and for her 6 1/2 weeks home when she was once thought to never leave the delivery room, let alone get to leave the hospital!


• Please thank God for Carissa's steady improvement in platelet and neutrophil counts and pray that she will improve on producing and maintaining her red blood cells.


• Please pray that Carissa's lungs and breathing will continue to develop and mature and that she will do well on the OCRG test on the 28th and get to get off oxygen support for the first time ever other than for a few hours in the NICU.


• Please pray that God will continue to get the credit for Carissa's progress.

Please continue to pray regularly for Carissa. She still has several areas that need your intercession and God's intervention.

Yours and His,

Terry

7/6 update

Little Big Bro joined Big Big Bro in holding Carissa tonight. Colton has been doing amazing at helping out with both younger siblings and has allowed Pamela to take a few minutes to get things done by watching Carissa pretty often. Tonight Luke plopped down beside Pamela and made it clear to her that he was there to hold Carissa. He was quite proud of himself after that.

Last week was the first week Carissa had ever had without any sort of doctor or hospital visit. We pray that is the first of many. We got in a new batch of pulse-ox sensors early last week and promptly went through all 4 of them in no time with the last one going bad just after 5 last Thursday as everyone closed down for the holiday weekend. We have either been living on faith or foolishness for the last few days because Carissa has not been on the monitor since that sensor went bad last Thursday. We ordered more today and will likely get them Wednesday. I don't miss that annoying beeping at any little move by Carissa even one bit.

We certainly hope and pray that the last few days are just a foreshadowing of late this month when we hope Carissa will be found to not need oxygen anymore. We would like for the oxygen need to be behind us.

We do have a hematology appointment Friday which will be the first cbc since her transfusion on 6/25. Depending on what is found we will either have a transfusion or get another appointment set for one or two weeks later.

• Please continue to thank God for His amazing touch on Carissa's life and her odds-defying progress.
• Please pray that Carissa is able to keep making and properly managing all her different blood components and that the cbc shows progress.
• Please pray that Carissa's lungs and breathing continues develop to the point that she will not need to stay on oxygen when she is retested at the end of the month.
• Please pray that Carissa keeps getting stronger and is better able to handle all of her eating via nursing.
• Please pray that our Almighty God keeps getting the glory and praise for Carissa's healing and that we all take advantage of opportunities to help that happen.

Thank all of y'all so much for your prayers and please keep praying for Carissa daily.

Carissa's issues and progress have given us many opportunities to talk about the faithfulness of God and of the power of prayer. It reminds me of a verse we have been focusing on at our church during Bible study on Sunday mornings as we discuss some basics of our faith. 1 Peter 3: 15 says "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." It's a really good idea to know what you believe and why you believe so you can be ready to defend your reasons, and reminding yourself why you believe what you do is a really good exercise in strengthening your faith.

Yours and His,

Terry