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