03.02 Penny Update

Hello all,

     This is Jonathan writing for Bethany because she's currently at LeBonheur with Penelope.  There has been another set back for us today with her so I thought I'd write for Bethany so you can start praying for her.  Last night, our nurse found a small pimple looking spot on her forearm near the elbow where an IV might go in.  She's never had an IV there so it's not something happening because of that so the nurse covered it and informed the doctor what was going on.  This morning/afternoon she started desat-ing more and looking more pale, presenting signs of a possible infection/sepsis so they decided to start IV antibiotics.  This is obviously a step in the wrong direction.  They aren't sure what is going on so they're culturing the site and beginning the process of figuring out what it is that's happening.  It's hard to see/hear that she's yet again going through another infection, especially so much later in the game since she's had no open ports into her body for almost two weeks. 

There was a concern two nights ago that she might be presenting signs of colstridium difficile (c-diff) which is an infection of the intestines but there weren't enough markers yet to completely confirm it.  C-Diff occurs when the normal bacteria that helps the body digest is killed off because of prolonged exposure to antibiotics.  Ironic, yes that the thing that she needs to help rid her of an infection also can cause her to have another infection.  If she were to have this then she would half to be put in an isolate again and anytime we would visit we would have to don the yellow space suits to visit her.  I'm sure that this will be addressed and looked at as she's getting a full lab run today as well as whatever new tests might be added on. 

Our hopes are that this has been caught early, whatever it might be and that this new round of antibiotics won't cause any more issues and that she will fight off yet again another infection.

Intercession Requests

• Penny to rest, reserve her strength and to fight off this infection, if it is that.
• For the antibiotics to not cause more issues than help. (C-Diff.)
• The docs to find out what might be going on and a plan to be developed to help her overcome the current situation

Thank you all for your continued prayers for our little ones. 

Jonathan