Butterfly Update: Day 4

Today Butterfly sat up in bed on her own several times and even got out of bed to sit on my lap for about an hour. She made a few short attempts at a craft which was really a huge gain from yesterday. She has been completely off Motrin for about 12 hours and has been managing on just Tylenol. She met Miss Hanover and Daisy the therapy dog. Butterfly has been moved to the regular pediatric unit. Tomorrow's goal is for her to get in her wheelchair and take a trip around the floor. Activity is key to her progress. She would love to have the NG tube removed, but we're still waiting for her tummy to fully wake up from the general anesthesia. We'd appreciate specific prayers for that as well as her continued improvement related to pain, stamina and overall healing.

Butterfly's Guess What It Is Game

In the children's classic book, Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeline is rushed to the hospital for an appendectomy. Lying in her bed, she has plenty of time to contemplate the ceiling, as you will read in a line from the book, "On her bed there was a crank, and a crack on the ceiling had the habit of sometimes looking like a rabbit." This morning, Butterfly, also contemplating the ceiling, exclaimed that she had discovered a creature there. Can you guess what it is? Perhaps we will have a prize for the first correct guess. :)

Butterfly's Surgery: Day 3

Butterfly went into surgery yesterday at 7:30 a.m. We didn't get to reunite with her until about 9:30 p.m. in the Pediatric ICU. The pain of the 14 hours away from Butterfly was eased greatly by your prayers, messages, phone calls and  visits. We continually felt God's hand of comfort throughout the day.

The surgery went very well. Everything looks very neat and clean. Butterfly slept on and off through the night. She has squeezed our hands, cracked smiles and is talking softly. She has a good size NG tube going down her throat which, in addition to her "stomach pain" is her greatest complaint. She is getting Tylenol through an IV and is occasionally needing morphine for her "stomach pain."

Right now, she is watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. They have a nice play room here (which we won't be able to visit quite yet) and DVD library. A therapy dog (a Jack Russell Terrier named Emma) will be visiting our room soon and we are looking forward to that.

Steady Man and I both were able to sleep in Butterfly's ICU room (a technical no-no) and the PICU nurses are top-notch. Butterfly will not be able to eat or drink for the next few days, so we need to take turns leaving the room to eat ourselves. We have WiFi in this room, but we cannot use our cell phones.

She will probably go to the Pediatric Step Down unit for tonight and then the regular Pediatric Unit (where we were the first night) tomorrow night.

For Butterfly to go home, we need her intestines to wake up and her lung function to regain strength (it is stressed by the general anesthesia). She will also need several days of healing, manageable pain levels and parents trained to care for her at home.

As of now, she is requesting no visitors, but we'll let you know if that changes.

Please continue to pray for Butterfly. We have felt your prayers and God's grace to us throughout this time.

Blessings,
Amy and Steady Man