Growing Pains

We are eagerly awaiting Krista's immune system to mature and begin to heal the sores in her throat and mouth. Fortunately, the counts are going up; her white blood count was 1.22 this morning, and her neutrophil count was 450. Oh so close! If only she could feel the relief. Her condition remains much the same: difficulty swallowing, strenuous coughing up mucus, and stinging pain with eating or drinking, and constant pain and swelling in her cheeks, under her tongue, and in her throat. She gets morphine for the pain every two hours which helps, but we have to ask for it -- and when we let it go too long, the pain is excruciating.

The lab results were a bit strange today. Her bilirubin and ammonia had been going down, but now they are both up. There is some natural fluctuation and that may be what they measured. The ammonia at least is still within the normal range. It is still a bit confusing to see the bilirubin value going up.

Her kidney numbers were higher today, and that was somewhat to be expected. Even though her urine output has been good, it hasn't kept up completely and she has had some swelling in her feet and ankles recently. They had scheduled her for the single-pass dialysis machine today, and took 2 liters of fluid off in addition to filtering out excess toxins. They are starting her on a new medicine tonight that should help flush out toxins, which I think they are hoping will help both the liver and kidneys.

So we keep on waiting, and while we wait we try to remember God's faithfulness. One recent incident is a good illustration. Krista was completely unable to swallow a half-Tylenol pill no matter how hard she tried. It was very frustrating. We stopped trying and prayed together, and then tried again. This time Krista discovered that putting the pill at the very back of her tongue made it possible to swallow with some struggle. Now she is able to take small pills regularly, following the technique that God showed her immediately after praying. Isn't God good?

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Turn to me and have mercy on me;
grant Your strength to Your servant
and save the son of Your maidservant.
Give me a sign of Your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
for You, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
(Psalm 86:15-17)