An Example of the "Roller coaster" of the NICU

Here are Bryan's updates from this week!

3-17-12

Asher update: it's been a rough week. Sorry we haven't posted any updates in the last couple of days. There hasn't been a lot of positive things to share, and we've been emotionally exhausted.

Asher's had a difficult time recovering from his heart surgery. He developed something called P.I.E. which is essentially emphysema. If he were an adult it would be irreparable, but since his lungs are still developing they've allowed his lungs to stay collapsed to have time to heal. It's been hard to watch him struggle all week and to see him on so much oxygen. We really thought his lung issues were behind him so it's been frustrating to see him take such a major step back. However, the plan seems to be working. His right lung is still partially collapsed, but they are going to take out his breathing tube and see how he does on the CPAP again. This is pretty aggressive to go from the jet ventilator back to the CPAP, so we pray he does well! Thanks for all of your prayers!

3-18-12

Asher's doing much better today! He's off the ventilator and back on the CPAP and he's breathing pretty well! Thanks for all of your prayers! We can't explain how much all of your thoughts

and prayers mean to us!!!

Things change SO fast in the NICU. In one day we went from, "it could be 2 weeks before he's back on cpap" to "oh, he's back on!" We have to confess, we struggled a lot with faith and hope in God's plan this week for Asher's life. It was incredibly hard to see Asher struggle so much after surgery. We had been told that ups and downs are normal. We just had NO idea what that really meant. Asher's poor lungs are just so fragile and immature, and he is trying so hard to learn how to breathe long before he was meant to! We are thankful for a good day, and learning to be thankful for the bad ones...because without those, what makes the good ones so good and sweet?