Isabelle - Health Update & Prayer Request

Last night was a night of little sleep. Isabelle's oxygen levels dropped to the low-50's (she "lives" in the low-60's usually), and her pulse went to the 140's (normal for her is the 120's). Despite her low #'s, she was still playing and eating normally although she was a little fussy. Several weeks ago our pediatric cardiologists advised us that her behavior is more important in diagnosing distress than her numbers, so we went to sleep hoping that rest would help her. Thankfully I put her to sleep next to me in our bed. In the middle of the night she started having apnea episodes. She'd stop breathing; I'd move her gently; She'd start breathing again. Needless to say, from that point on I didn't sleep.

This morning we called the cardiologist, and they told us to bring her to the office. When we arrived her oxygen levels had fallen to the high 40's, and she was definitely getting blue. They immediately started her on oxygen. Thankfully her SAT's went right back up to the low-60's...her "normal."

After an echo, to assure that she wasn't going into congestive heart failure, and a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, the cardiologist confirmed that she has RSV. Our options were to hospitalize her and put her on oxygen. The downside...the hospital here has the Rotovirus circulating and exposing her to that is NOT we need to do. So instead our cardiologist arranged for us to have oxygen in our home until we go to MUSC on Tuesday.

I'm praising God for Isabelle's fighting spirit. You can't even tell she's sick other than the fact she wants to be held more. And I'm also SO thankful for godly pediatric cardiologists and their office staff who treat each of their patients as if they were family! I can't say enough about Dr. Craig Greene, Dr. Bill Hammill and Dr. Ohmstead at Pediatric Cardiologists!! You guys are the BEST!!

Now we're home and Isabelle is sporting her new apparatus. She's completely unfazed by the oxygen except when she tries to walk more than 4 feet from the unit at which point she realizes she is tethered.



Please pray that Isabelle will not get worse. RSV peaks on day 5 and we are on probably only on Day 2. Also pray that she'll be symptom-free by Tuesday, so they will be able to do the cath at MUSC. Following the cath, the Dr.'s anticipate being able to lay-out a game-plan for her upcoming open-heart surgeries. We'd really love to get the first one behind us!

We continue to be at peace with the whole situation which is only the Lord! We are SO thankful to serve an awesome God who holds our hand every step of the way.