Houston We Have a Problem - YEAH!

Marcus and I have never been so happy to hear that they found  something wrong with Eden than we were last night.  They do blood work on her at least once a day and they always check her thyroid levels.  Children with Down Syndrome are prone to having low thyroid levels.  This was not a surprise for me.  Every test has come back with normal levels, but low and behold last night's blood results showed that her thyroid was VERY low.  The nurse and then the Intensivist both called us to say how happy they were to find something wrong that could be causing her to stagnate.  They immediately did one more test to check only her thyroid and then started her on medicine to bring her levels up.  Since the thyroid controls so much in our bodies, they really believe that this is making her very weak and unable to heal and get better.  Boy do we hope that this is the problem and she will start getting better once her thyroid is regulated.

When we arrived this morning they said that she was doing a little better, but it would take a couple of days to see much change.  They have increased her ventilator settings and they are going to let her rest as much as possible the next couple of days.  I told them that my mother's intuition was telling me that she needed to be left alone so she could rest and to give her a little time.  I am happy that they are planning that course of action at this point.  They started her on her special formula through her feeding tube again, a whole whopping 1 cc per hour.  For reference, there are 30 cc's in one ounce so she is getting about a drop every hour.  She did well with that and they increased it to 2 cc's at noon.  If her gut can tolerate the food, which we really pray it will, they will go up by 1 cc every 12 hours.  Not much, but I guess they take it VERY slow to be cautious.

A sweet family we've met in the PICU has a daughter, Cora who is having her third open heart surgery tomorrow morning.  She is 4 months old.  She has only one working ventricle and her only usable valve is deformed and very leaky.  Please remember Cora in your prayers as well because if this surgery does not work, she will be on the transplant list.

We are truly grateful for all of you and your love and prayers for us.  Eden needs every prayer se can have and we know that they are making miracles, no matter how small they are, possible.  Thank you and we love you all!