"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present." -Bill Keane

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a very busy week, and I lacked the mental capacity to write things in a discernable manner. I could barely walk and chew gum at the same time, so writing complete sentences were out of the question. 

THE GOOD (Yaaayyy!!!)

Lana was recently removed from sedation and her course of antibiotics were completed. What does this mean? Well to start, it means that she doesn't require a crowd of IV pumps to give her medications. At one point she had so many medications running at once that they couldn't fit it all on her table.

Lana had so many IV medications that it filled up the whole table and still needed a pole to carry one more.

Now she has her book, a couple of rosaries that were given to her a presents, and also her first bible.

It also means that they can remove her PICC line (it's essentially a line that is placed on her harm to give several medications at the same time). This is a good thing because ultimately, intravenous lines could be another possible route of infection. She was initially put under sedation because being intubated made her agitated. She kept "rasslin" with her tube. I can't blame her. Anyone would be irritable if they had a breathing tube down their throat. However, it seems like she's tolerating it better now.

So the next goal is to slowly wean her off her ventilator (or at least a different one). This is going to be a long and slow process, and it could take several months. But as another NICU parent comforted us, "She'll be ready when she's ready". She's on her schedule - not ours. We will remain patient and give her all the time she needs. 

THE BAD (Boo!!!!)

Her medical staff have tried to slowly wean her down, but some days she needs a lot of help. (Puts on smart hat) When you or I breathe in, we inhale in a mixture of gasses (Nitrogen, Methane, Oxygen, etc…). Typically, about 21% of this air we breathe in is Oxygen, and the rest are composed of the other types of gasses. However, Lana requires way more than that. At one point, Lana needed 100% Oxygen (FiO2) in order to breathe and thus keep her brain and other organs functioning. She once got down to 90%, but then later that day they had to go back up. On top of that, her “breathing machine” also pushes air into her lungs since she isn’t able to keep it inflated by herself. The plan is to slowly wean her off the percentage of Oxygen she needs so that she can learn to do this on her own. Not to mention, breathing in 100% oxygen all the time can actually be toxic. Once she can get to a lower percentage, then she can finally switch to a machine that allows her to do most of the work. We pray that her lungs continue to mature so that she may start breathing on her own, and also that the PDA (hole in her heart) will close on it's own without surgery.

God’s blessings has empowered her to keep going on her difficult journey. She has withstood many things that most of us have never experienced. She was able to do this with the support of the everyone that has prayed for her. Thank you ALL for your support and prayers. Special thanks to Cynthia Bryant who continues to update Lana's prayer warriors, and also to Narse for sharing her story in the NICU with us. It helped ease our anxiety and gave us hope. Thank you!