update thursday morn-noon

from davey:

FYI - I will be doing another update with Mac this Friday the 1st @ 1:20.

I got to see Katie for a few minutes Wednesday night in ICU. She was placed in ICU, "just in case", but should be moved to the floor (maybe even the same floor as the last week or so) later today. We had a visitor on Wednesday night that I wanted to mention. Dr. Hlavin (anb that is speled corekctly Errynee) came by after being on vacation. She was the neurosurgeon that did the initial emergency surgery on Katie on the 18th. She told us that she was really looking forward to getting back to work so that she could come and see the "miracle girl". Dr. Hlavin was all smiles and spent a few minutes with us and then left. Pretty cool.

So, today we rest from the surgery and prepare to go back to the floor. They are deciding right now which floor, which is dependant on what meds she will be on for her blood pressure (don't ask, I'm not a Dr.). Hopefully we will get to be on the same floor as before as we built some really good relationships with the staff there (lots of hugs as we left the floor yesterday). However, I am also excited about the possibly of having some new nurses to influence, you know, a whole new captive audience. Kind of like the poor Roman soldiers chained to Paul.

Another decision we are faced with is how to get Katie her nutrition. The IV nutrition is a short term solution. The next option is a peg line inserted into her stomach from her belly, this is a pretty basic "operation" and only requires a slight sedative and a local. This is a good option and would allow them to give her her meds by crushed up pill as opposed to IV. The best solution of course is normal eating, were just not sure if she will be alert enough in the next few days to consistently eat and swallow pills. If we get the peg line, it appears that it will have to be in for at least a month, which is fine, but there is always the risk of infection. So, I will have to make that decision here in the next few hours.

My plan for the girls as of right now is to let them see Katie on Saturday or Sunday. This will of course depend on how Katie is doing, but as of now I believe keeping them away is starting to do more harm than seeing Katie. As I've been bringing them along they are handling it surprisingly well, so I've been encouraged to up my timetable.

Spirits continue to be high as we revel in the goodness of the Lord. I continue to pray over Katie every time I'm with her, and together we remind God of his promises to be good to his people. So we rest in the assurance that He alone as the words of truth and there is no where/one else we can go for life (no offense Dr. Carlstrom, by the way he was super nice yesterday post-op and even asked about the kids).