8:30 pm, Last Update for the Night

Earlier in the day Isabelle was placed in an isolation room in the PICU instead of behind the curtain where she was. YAY!!! Not only can she sleep a little better with out all the noise but I can bring my stuff into this room so I will now be able to blog from here if I want to instead of waiting for visiting hours to end. Plus we have a little bit more privacy. Isabelle has been sleeping somewhat soundly for the past hour. She has only cried out a few times and goes right back to sleep. I have found that as hard as it is if I just ignore her when she cries out she will fall back asleep rather quickly.

We did get the results of the x-ray for the feeding tube and they were able to get it into her intestines. They have ordered her feedings and should start that shortly. Maybe once she isnt so hungry she will feel a little better.

I will be leaving tonight at 10 to go home and hopefully get some sleep. Thank you all so much for your support and prayers. We have a long road ahead of us and the worst is yet to come so keep them coming. More updates tomorrow.

6:30 Update

Not a whole lot knew to update on. They did end up putting the feeding tube in but they are still not sure if they got it where they wanted it. They goal was to get the tube past her stomach into her intestines which would alleviate they issue of throwing up. If they feed directly into her intestines it can't come back up. If they didn't get it in her intestines they will still be able to feed her directly into her stomach but we would still have to worry about throw up. They took an x-ray to check but we have not heard back on those yet.

Isabelle is feeling a little bit better. At least she is acting like it. She is still very fidgety and cries out a lot but she is starting to talk a little bit more and asked to watch her Elmo movie.

We did have a few visitors today other than our immediate family and we really appreciate it! Thank you for all of the support.

2:30 pm Update

My poor girl has had such a hard time these past few hours. Aside from the obvious discomfort we have not been able to give her any thing to eat or drink for two reasons. First, she has been so hysterical the whole time that she won't quit moving long enough. Second, because she is laying flat both the nurses and I are extremely concerned that she will choke or aspirate whatever we give her. But aside from those things the worse part was that because she is so upset she made herself throw up. Normally this would not be that big of a deal but since she was laying flat it went up her nose and down the top and back of her head right onto her pin sites. This is NOT GOOD. The pins sites have a high risk of infection to begin with which can lead to meningitis. So, having throw up in them is the last thing we need. We are still in the process of trying to figure out how we are going to feed her but it looks like a feeding tube is the most likely choice. The next visiting hours from 4-6. I will updated again shortly after that.

Halo is On

I just spoke with Isabelle's surgeon and he said the Halo is on and everything went well. She had no breathing problems and everything went as well as could be expected. She was still in the operating room when I spoke with him and he was going back to place a weight on her and then she was going to the recovery. I have not seen her yet and I have no other information. I will update again soon.

Savoring the Moments

Because I will be extremely busy the next two days I wanted to give you guys one last post before Isabelle is admitted to the hospital on Wednesday.

Since I found out Isabelle was to have the spinal fusion I have spent every moment with her that I could doing any thing and every thing fun that I could think of. We went to the pond to feed the ducks bread. Although Isabelle doesn't actually feed the ducks she just eats the bread herself. But either way she likes it. We have gone to the beach, we have gone to the pool, we got our pictures taken today and then tonight we (well I) played with fireworks. She loved them!

Tomorrow I will be working 9-530 since my one of my coworkers was so sweet enough to switch with me so I could be at the hospital with Belli on Saturday (thanks Amy!). We have a BIG day planned for Tuesday though. We will be at the zoo from 9-11 then straight to Children's for preadmitting paperwork. After that we will probably come home for lunch then off again for more swimming and swinging at our neighborhood pool and park. I may not even make her take a nap. Wait...did I just say that? The routine Nazi? Noooooo, surely not. I guess it won't hurt just this once. So, because we have such a busy schedule this likely well be my last post until after the Halo attachment Wednesday. I will update you guys as soon as I can.

On a more serious note, as most of you are aware this surgery is going to be very dangerous. While the chances are small it is possible that Isabelle may not make it through this surgery. Any time you are dealing with someones spinal cord there is always that risk. While I do know that God has a plan and He knows exactly what he is doing that does not make it any easier to hand your baby off to a nurse not knowing if you will ever hold her again.

I ask that you guys please keep Isabelle, the doctors and nurses who will be caring for her and me in your prayers over the next few days and particularly on July 8th which will be the Halo attachment and the day of surgery which should be July 15th.

I will be back with updates on Wednesday.

As Promised...Beach Trip Photos

Maybe if I don't look at the camera she won't realize I have stickers all over my face

Quick Post

Just wanted to let everyone know that our beach trip went great! Isabelle loved "ocean swimming" as opposed to pool swimming I guess. She also chased the "ducks" also known as seagulls. I did not bring the hookups for either of my cameras so check back later this week for pictures and videos!