Parker, Parker, Parker

I believe earlier I said there were going to be good days and bad. Today was more of a bad day. Not a horrible one, but a rough one.
Parker isn’t cooperating. She peed, but not enough. This leaves us pretty much in limbo. They are reluctant to proceed with the ibuprofren treatment at this time for fear of hurting her kidneys. But there is an obvious reluctance to sit around and do nothing. They ran some tests today to see how much stress the PDA is providing on her heart. The result showed that it is stressing her, however not so badly that we need to immediately freak out. Mary Jane put it this way. There’s some number, don’t ask me to explain what it stands for…I don’t know and to the vast majority of you it would be meaningless, but what Mary Jane said about it put it into some perspective. Her “number” was 280. A normal person would be around 10. Which makes the number very scary, but upstairs in the cardiac intensive care unit Mary Jane often sees numbers as high as several thousand, which makes Parker’s number significantly less scary. So we’re in limbo. We’re going to watch her urine output, and watch that number. If the urine output picks up on its own then maybe we can give her more ibuprofren. If the other number goes up…well we’ll have to jump that river when we come to the bridge…err…whatever.
Also distressing is an increase in the number of “a’s and b’s.” While, as I explained yesterday, the sudden cessation of breathing which leads to a drop in heart rate is ordinary and to be expected, Parker has had a lot today. Too many. There was one point where there were a large string of them in a row, enough so they began to fear she might have an infection. The good news is that her white blood cell count is excellent so she doesn’t have an infection. This is great news. That would begin a path we really don’t want to go down at this age. The question is, why is she having so many right now, and is it even something worth worrying about?
Adding to the stress of the day for Mary Jane was the fact that her mother left for home. She will be coming back in a week or two, but what every girl wants when the chips are down is her mommy.
Adding to the stress for me- today was a day where…let’s just say I found the words of the Psalmist easy to identify with.
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’
These things I remember as I pour out my soul…
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God…” (Excerpts from Psalm 42)

Your prayers, as always are greatly appreciated.