A New Day

Although Emily has not made any drastic improvements, she is not getting any worse. Thankfully she had no episodes overnight, her vent dependence has been moved back to 45% and they are hoping she will stabilize there. She is not quite back to where she was prior to these episodes and it is still a very serious situation, but it sure feels like some good news for this new day. Keep praying for her to fight and for this infection to be overcome.

Faith slept through the night and although her world has been turned upside down, she seems to be doing ok this morning. Her cousins are keeping her entertained. What a blessing to live near them.

Sickness continues to be an issue for the family so keep praying for it to not spread any further and for everyone to recover quickly. Keep praying for Jason to stay well too and for strength for him.

For the Alabama crew...the plan is to keep Emily in Lubbock if at all possible. The UAB team is overseeing the Lubbock team and there is nothing different that UAB would be doing at this point. If that changes, Dr. Young at UAB will not hesitate to life-flight her to UAB. It sounds like the team that she now has in place in Lubbock is actually doing a very good job. Emily has always struggled with doctors and getting the right care that she needs so if it is going as well as it sounds, this is a big praise. She feels most comfortable at UAB but when given a choice before she was put on the vent, she did not designate a preference. I know it has to be so much easier on those caring for her to be in Lubbock.

Keep Praying

...for Emily to fight and for her body to keep fighting against this infection

...for her continued episodes today to stop as she is now heavily sedated to try and prevent them

...for Faith who misses her Momma, that she sleeps well tonight at her Aunt & Uncle's house and that her cousins do a good job of providing joy and distraction from what's going on

...for extended family who is sick to get well so that they can care for and support each other well and for those that are healthy to remain that way

...for Jason to have strength, patience, courage and hope as he provides continued care for Emily

...for there to be improvements tomorrow and encouraging news

...for God to continue to be glorified in Emily's life

Jason & Updates

I just spoke to Jason and he is extremely grateful for your prayers and asks that everyone continue to cover them in prayer. He was able to go home and get some sleep last night and Stephanie stayed at the hospital. Tim, her dad, will be staying with her tonight so that he can sleep again and be with Faith at home. He is doing well for what he is facing as usual...he always amazes me and am I so grateful that my closest friend has such a loyal companion...but it is always better to sleep and to trust God. He has had to once again lay down his control and trust God's control of the situation and there is amazing peace that comes from that.

Emily has had a couple of episodes (one at 3 AM and one earlier today) where her oxygen saturation went down to the 70s and they have had to increase her dependence on the vent back to 100%. She was able to get down to 40% last night and they are hopeful she will get back to that soon but are allowing her to recover from a couple of tense times earlier today. Jason thinks but is not sure that it is related to the anesthesia/amnesia drugs they are giving her. When those get low, she starts to panic and her heart rate rises which leads to some rapid breathing and thus the low sats. Hopefully the drugs will work so that she doesn't have to remember any of this.

The good news is that she is not on any sort of decline and they are still optimistic that she can reduce her dependence on the vent and continue to make progress. Hopefully this is just a bug that needs to run its course and she can get on to recovery soon.

She did have an ultrasound of her liver, kidneys, and gall bladder today to check for damage to those organs. Jason specifically asked that we pray for there to be no damage to them. It is really good that she was able to get off of the harshest drugs but with the many medicines that she is on and her continual battle with CF, the liver and kidneys especially are vulnerable to damage and deterioration. Let's pray that she can get out of this with a miraculous set of organs that will continue to help her in this fight. Let's also pray that she has an episode free night and that by this time tomorrow she is back to 40% dependence on the vent.

Initial Results

Sorry for the delay in updates today. A little earlier this afternoon the initial results came back from the biopsy that there is no rejection (HUGE praise!), and that there is no fungus present (another HUGE praise!). Because of that, she has been able to get off of some of the stronger meds that are so harsh for her kidneys.

She has continued on the vent/oxygen around 50% capacity which basically means she is doing about the same but no worse. She has slept most of today and emotionally she still seems frustrated at the lack of ability to communicate well and from just being so restrained from the vent but the word anxious has not been used as much to describe her.

So let's keep praying for good test results but for the doctors to identify the true cause of all of this, that she continues to rely on the vent less and less by her body healing, and for emotional strength and endurance for Emily. Also keep the extended family in your prayers as well. Several of them (Faith and Emily's Mom for sure) have been sick. I'll try to get a better update on how Jason is doing as well but I know as Emily's faithful husband, that the physical and emotional toll on him is massive as well. Pray he remains healthy and that he is able to love Emily & Faith well through this when he is giving so much. Thankfully their entire family is in Lubbock to help support them.

Some Good News

The biopsy went well. The doctor was very pleased with how it went (minimal bleeding, good lung tissue, etc). She now has 1 chest tube below the incision area to help with healing and to drain off any fluid, etc from the procedure. They told her there was a possibility for 3 so one seems like the better end of the deal. Some results will be available fairly quickly while others they will have to wait several days for.

One specific prayer request...pray that the infection is not a fungus as the medicine they have to give her for that is very taxing on the kidneys and she is having some back pain that the doctors believe is related to stress on them.

Another praise is that she is staying fairly alert which means she is adapting well to the tube/vent (not as anxious...a praise!) so they are not having to keep her as sedated. She is communicating via a message board and able to interact. They also lessened her dependence on the vent this afternoon.

So all in all, still a serious situation but one that is celebrating some good news right now.

Biopsy

This is just a quick post (I don't have a lot of info) but Emily is currently being prepped for a biopsy of her lungs and should go into surgery in the next hour. I believe they are going in from her side so it seems a little more invasive than a scope but I am not sure. Please pray for her to not be anxious and for the doctors to have wisdom and skill in order for this to be a success. Also pray that this does not cause any further complications.

She was stable overnight but was very anxious even after the intubation. It sounds like they have brought her awake to prep her so Jason is getting to spend some time with her while she's alert and hopefully we will get some more info after that.

Intubated

Stephanie just called me to say that they intubated Emily about 5:00PM. Her heart rate began to increase and her breathing decreased so they knew they were about to come. Steph & Jason were able to prepare her as much as they could be Emily still had a lot of fear. She asked that they read scripture to her while she is intubated so please feel free to type out a scripture for them to read to her in the comments. Emily will be sedated the entire time she in on the vent. This is scary to think about on the front end but the hope is that she will be able to rest and relax more and her body will have a chance to fight off the infection. Please pray for this and be sure to read the post below too.

Moved to ICU

Hey everyone...it's Emily Tardy. Don't you just hate it when I'm posting on Em's blog? I sure do. :-( I didn't get to ask Em specifically if she wanted me to update this but I know that she desires your prayers so I ask that you take this info and do just that...PRAY!

Emily was moved to ICU today at UMC in Lubbock. Her O2 saturation levels have been low and it has become increasingly more difficult for her to breathe. She is currently on a forced air oxygen mask that is giving her 100% oxygen and her levels are now fluctuating between 94-97 which is better, but still concerning. Her heart is having to work very hard as well and there is talk about intubating because she will probably get extremely tired from the effort to breathe on her own and they would rather intubate prior to any emergency type situation, if one should arise.

As you well know from her post earlier this week, it has been very difficult and even more so now on every level. Please lift her up and comment so she knows that you are praying. Faith has been sick and her time with her has been limited but they brought her up to see her Momma this afternoon. I know how much Em hates to be away from Faith and combining ICU with a sick child and the possibility of intubation is A LOT to deal with.

Right now, she is to remain at UMC in Lubbock and her Transplant team at UAB is overseeing everything via phone. If this changes, I'll let you know. Please pray for wisdom for everyone involved as there are lots of decisions to make to manage her care. Pray for fear to be defeated and for hope to prevail. Pray for courage, strength, patience and healing from whatever infection is causing this. Pray that Emily can be restful when she is awake and that she can get good sleep as well.

Rough day

Well I don't have a lot of energy to write but I wanted to give ya'll an update. Today has been a very difficult day as I have been nauseous, in a lot of pain and trying to keep my fever down as it has been pretty high all day. I do have a praise though and that is that so far the most of the test that have come back show no rejection. They believe we are dealing with some kind of infection but they haven't been able to pinpoint which one. We are hoping that they will be able to find which infection it is so I can go home on meds. Thank you for your prayers. I really could use them as I feel emotionally and physically drained.


Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
Isaiah 58:8-9

Bronch went well

I had my bronchoscopy this morning and the procedure went well but we don't know the results yet. My fever, stats and pain continue to go up and down but I believe it is getting better with the antibiotics. (Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.) Not much else has been going on today as I've been pretty wiped out with the bronch but I'll try to work on getting some lake pictures up today.

Faith is so sweet, she comes up to see me every day and yesterday day she said, "Poor mama....you are sick......do you need a band aide?" Dora band aides are always the cure for everything to a 2 year old. =)