October 2013

  • Constant vigilance!

    Constant vigilance!

    But seriously, a huuuge thank-you to everybody keeping Namine in your prayers. We’re here in the surgery waiting area, and a nurse just informed us that they’re getting started now. I’ll update as things progress.

  • Namine’s prayer

    Namine’s prayer

    Dear Jesus, please help my chest heal so I can feel better and come home. They’re coming to take Namine back soon. Please keep her in your prayers.

  • The coming storm

    The coming storm

    It is as we feared: the cardiovascular surgical team is concerned for Namine’s chest incision, and they will be taking Namine to the OR in order to open it back up.

  • Calm between storms

    Calm between storms

    Spending the weekend in the hospital is, above all else, boring. We pass the time by playing games, watching TV, playing more games, watching a movie… you get the idea. But as we near Tuesday (the day we were not quite promised, but we were told that we could possibly go home), we fear that…

  • Introducing Captain Bats

  • At last, an end in sight

    At last, an end in sight

    Seeing the doctors take Namine away to the operating room is never easy. I actually think it gets harder as she gets older. Seeing the pain in her eyes just breaks my heart. I thought it might make it easier if I came back with her, so we asked the doctors if that would be…

  • What Namine wants to be for Halloween

    “For Halloween I want to be a Fairy Princess Ninja Batman Pony.”

  • Getting the story straight

    Getting the story straight

    Namine’s operating cardiac surgeon paid us a visit this morning. He told us he believes there is no reason to open her incision back up. She’s healing too well, he said, and her markers of infection are too low. It would be overkill, then, to open the incision all the way back up just to…

  • Risk versus benefit

    Risk versus benefit

    Earlier today I had mentioned that the culture taken from Namine’s chest incision indicated that she has MRSA. Before the culture results had come back, the doctors had put Namine on clindamycin as a precautionary measure, as they suspected infection (pus oozing out of a wound, with barely a touch to provoke it, will do…

  • Conflicting stories

    Conflicting stories

    Mike, our favorite physician’s assistant, just gave us an updated report on all things Namine. The doctor from infectious diseases, as I mentioned, wants to open Namine’s chest and clean it out. But Namine’s operating cardiac surgeon does not.

  • Once more unto the breach

    Once more unto the breach

    The doctor from the infectious diseases just paid us a visit. His recommendation is that Namine’s chest should be opened back up, cleaned out, and closed up again.

  • Straight talk

    Straight talk

    Namine is on contact isolation here in the hospital; that means that nurses and doctors must don their gowns and gloves when entering the room, but we – by we I mean her family, not just Jessica and myself – mustn’t. And as for the reason she’s on isolation at all? The culture taken from…