7/24/09 10:30pm Jenna's Climb Towards the Summit

In the slow moments in the ICU I have been reading about the adventures of John Muir. John Muir was one of America's first conservationists. He was an experienced mountaineer that spent most of his life exploring and recording data in and around Yosemite. It strikes me that Jenna's climb to health resembles many of Muir's mountain climbs. In climbing, you start in a valley and look up at the distant summitt. You develop a rough plan that you think will get you from here to there, but the plan can't be so tightly coordinated that it doesn't allow for unexpected things to happen along the way. Mountain climbing involves a lot of walking up steep slopes. At times, sheer walls are encountered that require higher dangers and intensity. There are also things known as "false summits". These are areas that if seen from a point below appear to be the summit. As the false summit is scaled, the climber now has a different perspective and realizes that there is a another valley and yet another steep climb before actually conquering the "true summit".

"OK. Enough with the mountain climber stuff" you might say I logged on to see how my favorite little red headed 4 year old is doing. I hear you. Just hang with me.

Today was a GREAT day! At 11:07 this morning the docs pulled Jenna's breathing tube and took her off the ventilator! That is a real milestone for this little climber. She has tolerated real air quite well and is being assisted only with some oxygen through her nose. To get to see Jenna awake and without a tube and all that tape on her face was great. She breathes with a heavy wheeze due to the inflammation the tube has caused within her throat, but from technical breathing perspective (blood gas counts are good) she is doing great!

OK, back to the mountain climbing comparison. While the successful removal of Jenna's ventilation equipment is a BIG TIME milestone it was a bit of a "false summit". Don't get me wrong, we knew that this wasn't a true summit, butwe may have underestimated how big the next challenge will be before continuing towards the true summit. What is the next challenge? NARCOTIC DEPENDENCY. In order to save little Jenna's life, it was necessary to provide Jenna with enough drugs to keep her sedated for almost 2 weeks. Those drugs include morphine and fentanyl which are great sedatives but highly addictive.

The excitement of Jenna achieving the milestone of "extubation" was quickly offset (at least partly) with the realization that our little baby was nearly immediately experiencing drug withdrawal. The docs do their best to deal with withdrawal via the introduction of other drugs like Methadone (ever heard of a methadone clinic in NY City for heroin addicts?), but it is still really hard for little Jenna. She has had a fever, sweats, diarrhea and tremors in her hands and feet. She has shed a few tears as she tries to understand what is happening to her. She moves her mouth like she wants to say something, but nothing comes out. This is yet another climb that Jenna has to make on her own with the parents left on the sidelines to only whisper words of encouragement. They tell us that she will fight the majority of the drug withdrawal battle over the next 2-4 days. It will take about 2 weeks for all the sedatives to clear her system.

As we look over our "false summit" into the next valley of drug withdrawals and the fight toward the resumption of kidney function, we can see the true summit in the distance. While this was a false summit in some respects, it is no less of an accomplishment for her. She has fought long and hard to get to this point. She has and continues to be supported in her climb by our prayers and yours. At this moment her little blue eyes look right through mommy and daddy. The narcotic haze is present and we realize she is partly with us and not with us. We are hopeful that she has her eyes on the path before her with Jesus, her Guardian Angel and Mary holding her hand through this very difficult part of her journey.

Please continue to pray for Jenna's full recovery. Please also include in your prayers , Sarah Bessler, Baby Gunner (7 mo.) and William B. a 9 year old who recently arrived with meningitis. Thank you for your continuing support for Jenna and our family. We continue to EXPECT GREAT THINGS!