Miracle!

I apologize for not keeping Jenn's blog up to date lately, but we have been going thru some pretty scary times these past few days. After my last post, Jennifer starting having a much harder time keeping her CO2 levels from getting too high - the vent was good for giving her oxygen, but her lungs were so bad that they couldn't expel the bad gases. This would make her "loopy" and much more concerning was the effect that the high CO2 levels would have on her kidneys. If they started to fail, it would have been a deal breaker for transplant. On Monday morning (11/29), she was literally gasping her last breaths. Her doctor decided to put her on a heart lung bypass machine (ECMO) to buy us time - 72 hours. During the surgery she had cardiac arrest - it took 12 minutes to resuscitate her. There was also complications with her left leg - because she is so slender her artery ruptured when they were securing her to the machine. She not only had a big bleed from this, but it left that leg with no blood flow. We were told that there was a good chance that she would have brain damage - again another deal breaker for transplant. Miracle #1 - no brain damage! They went back in and rerouted the tubes in her left leg to restore the blood flow. Miracle #2 - no nerve damage - perfect left leg! At this point Jennifer was elevated to #1 on the transplant waiting list. Her doctors turned down 2 opportunities because they weren't good lungs and because Jennifer had responded to the ECMO machine better than they had expected. Problem was - she still need lungs and time was running short. I am relieved and happy to announce Miracle #3! Jenn went into surgery last night (12/1) at 10:25PM to receive her new lungs! She came out of surgery this morning at 9:45AM. The surgeon told us it was a very tough surgery. Her lungs were the worst he had ever seen - however her new lungs are beautiful! The next 48 hours are critical - please keep her uplifted in your prayers. Prayers have brought her this far and I have faith that they will carry us through the difficult road ahead. Praise God my beautiful daughter has been given the opportunity of enjoying life - something none of us should take for granted.