"Our Horrible and Wonderfully Miraculous Week"

What a week! I'd have to say it was one of the most difficult weeks of my life. God was so mighty in showing His miraculous power to our family once again, but not before great hardship and stress in our lives. Going back to the PICU was definitely the hardest thing I've had to do since Luke's accident. I can't even begin to describe the memories and pain it brought back to my life and then once again I was crying out to God to spare Luke's life, the only words I can use to describe it was that it was extremely intense and excruciatingly hard. Enough said!

Let me tell you all the miracles that God performed this week. I was very surprised to have to go to the PICU in the first place, I knew Luke was very sick but didn't realize how bad he was until we got there. When that Dr. told me he needed to go on the ventilator, I was in shock, I mean literally shock, I was shaking and crying out to God all at the same time. It was so difficult having Dr.'s that haven't seen Luke since we left the PICU 20 months ago deal with him as if he was the same child as he was then. They did not know that he now has emotions and is so much stronger than he was when we left that place. They begin right away asking why he didn't have a trache anymore, I kept telling them that he has done fine without one for almost a year now, that didn't seem to matter because they thought he should have one for the rest of life as with "kids like him, with brain damage," seem to have to keep them forever.

Luke kept trying to breathe above the machine and I kept thinking and asked once or twice if that meant he was ready to come off the machine. You can imagine my shock when the Dr. on Thursday night told me that he didn't think that he would be ready to come off the ventilator for at least 2 days to a week. The next day I went home for a few hours only to be surprised by a call from Gordy saying that they were going to start giving Luke less drugs to see how he would react, well needless to say he began to wake up and cough, showing his discomfort to having a tube down his throat. The nurse, who I know God put on duty that day for Luke, asked the Dr. to take a look at Luke and it was decided he was ready to go off the Ventilator. The nurse then decided to to be successful Luke would need an empty stomach, which she did empty with a syringe, one of the good things about having a g-tube, I guess. After waiting 40 minutes it was decided to to go ahead with taking it out, Luke did great his heart rate came down and he seemed to be breathing fine without the vent. We did have one time during the night when he had a bit of an episode of his oxygen numbers dipping they tried a few things and decided to do an x-ray and after giving him a breathing treatment his numbers began to go up again, I know they were thinking he might have to go back on the vent, since I happened to see them pushing one down the hall towards him room. That night I did not sleep a wink, I stayed awake vigilantly praying and keeping my eyes on his numbers and God was faithful to answer my prayers, he did not need to go back on the Ventilator.

The next morning Luke was still doing great and I knew that he was no longer in an intensive mode, I was hoping and praying that the Dr. would see it that way and sure enough when she came to check on Luke he was doing great and he sounded great. It was interesting that I heard Luke make more noise that day than any other day since his accident, he seemed to be be in pain each time he swallowed so we kept giving him some Tylenol and Ibruprofen and that seemed to help. He was out on the floor by 5:00 that night. I considered that to be a miracle since we had been told that we could expect him to on the vent at least 2 more days. God is so mighty.

As you know we came home on Easter Sunday. It was an emotional day for me as I was extremely tired and drained from the constant stress of the week. Luke had a great day and once again did great today until around 6:00 tonight. I decided to have Isaiah's Birthday party today since we missed having it last week and toward the end of the party Luke's oxygen numbers seemed to be plummeting. Well after some stressful hours and some more time on my face crying out to God, his numbers are once again looking good. I told Gordy a little bit ago I guess God wants to keep us on our knees a little longer.

Thank you for your prayers, I know without a shadow of a doubt that we would not of made it through this week without the faithful prayers of fellow believers. I continue to ask you to pray that he will come off the oxygen tomorrow and never have a need for it again, I know this is possible, because I serve a mighty God.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue