An actual miracle

I haven't posted since Monday because Brian and I were not sure how to share what was "really" going on in our lives with Olivia. It turns out, her breathing problems weren't from pneumonia. I will spare you all the medical details, but her brain wasn't telling her body how to breath very well. There was a possibility this was from the medications she has been taking for withdrawal, her seizure medications, or that it was something called central apnea. Central apnea means the problem is in her brain and we can't fix it. All we could do was surgically put a port in her windpipe (tracheostomy) and use that to have her on a ventilator at home. We honestly believed this is what the Lord had for us and Olivia. Brian and I would have to make a choice about how much we wanted Olivia to be dependent on machines for her survival-- we would have to choose.

It seemed for a few days that this outcome was inevitable, but all of a sudden-- and I believe this with my whole heart--God intervened again and saved Olivia. It turns out her breathing trouble is probably from her withdrawal medications that have been depressing her system which means it makes the information from the brain to the body a little disheveled and slower. Also, her seizure medications were not at a high enough dose to be effective, so on on top of that she was having more debilitating seizures causing more confusion in the brain and therefore the body. Once those doses began to change Olivia came off bipap and we began to see our little girl come back to us.

We think she is getting out of ICU today, which is great, but she still has a ways to go. We now have to wean BACK off the breathing treatment to start her regular feeding regimen while still evening out some medications for her, but it seems we are on the right track. Tuesday we thought we wouldn't ever bring Olivia home again. The Lord has done a mighty work for sure. Your and our prayers have been answered again seemingly and hopefully to bring out little family back together again soon.

Brian plans to write a few posts about scriptures we relied on this week and how the Lord has changed both him and I in good ways through this crisis. Be patient, but excited. My husband is pretty awesome.