At Ease

No progress today, unfortunately. Changing circuits apparently causes the patient to retain fluids and Peter has to get rid of the excess fluid before the doctor dares move any further in weaning him off the ECMO. He had put him back on a constant diuretic rather than the 6-hour dose, with the expected result: he produced more in 8 hours than in the entire preceding 24 hours. X-rays of his lungs revealed that quite a bit of the fluid is trapped in or near his lungs and this needs to improve. The flow of the ECMO remains at 50ml per kilogram.

The nurses assured us that they thought he was doing splendidly. Nothing out of the ordinary and making good progress. Peter is the darling of PICU, certainly of the nurses doing duty with him. Interestingly, we were told that he is not the only patient in the unit at this very moment who is being treated for “total anomalous,” as they call it for short.

Today, we finally managed to remember to bring the "get well scroll" that children from our church made for Peter, and with the kind help of a nurse, it got hung up in his room.

Amidst the emptiness of our lives—the emptiness we feel every time we leave the hospital, the emptiness of Betsy’s womb, and the emptiness of the crib that awaits him in our house—we are strengthened by the assurance of God’s mercy, and His particular mercy on children of His Covenant. There are numerous passages that show the special regard He has for the children of believers, e.g.: “But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments” (Ps. 104:17-18), “Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you” (Ps. 147:12-13), “But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Lk. 18:16), etc. etc. In mercy He deals with us.