Back Home....

Well, we are home...and I must admit, I am a little bummed about that. Not because I love living in the hospital with Emmy, but because she was suppose to have a port put in this morning and it was cancelled, so we were free to go yesterday afternoon!

For those of you who do not know what a port is......it is a device that is placed under her skin on her chest, that gives direct access into a vein...so, you still have to puncture the skin to get into it, but it's already in the vein there are no multiple punctures looking for a good vein, there is no digging in search of the perfect vein, etc. You see Emmy has sickle cell, this is a blood disease.....when she is sick, well, even the majority of the time she isn't....her veins are really bad....as soon as they stick a needle into my child, her veins just collapse. There are very few people that are able to stick Emmy and get an IV in on the first shot....okay, let me change that....ONE person. Our favorite nurse on the IV team is the only person that can get her IV cath in on the first try. This nurse works during daytime, weekday hours only!!!

Anyway, back to the port issue. Her team had decided on Friday that they would put in the port TODAY, Tuesday March 1. Then her team undecided....they decided that she was a great risk of sepsis in her blood if we went the port route. SO, no port. Emory and I don't want to do anything that puts Emmy at risk for sepsis, that would kill her, but we do want to find a new protocol so that Emmy does not have to be subjected to the torture that she has endured for the last 14 months. She is poked at every ER visit on average, 7 times. That is an average.....that tells you that somedays she is poked many, many more than that. THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Can you imagine holding your child down to be poked that many times? It isn't fun, and it is breaking my heart.

Please pray that our team will develop a new protocol for Emmy in their team meeting today, pray that they would receive answers for all the lab tests that they are running, pray that the Lord would give them wisdom as they decide what is wrong with Emmy's brain, pray that the Lord would give me peace as I hold her down through this difficult time on her little body, pray for a miraculous healing for Emmy, pray that the Lord would wrap His arms around her each and every time we are in the hospital, and that HE would numb her sweet little body to the poke of these needles!!

Thanks for being so faithful to pray alongside Emory and I. We know that He hears our prayers, and we are believing that He will provide the answers as we have asked!