Two Weeks Old and In God's Hands

Friday January 10, 2014

Manuel Gabriel

Manuel Gabriel

When we arrived to the NICU, Dr. Akinola (the Neonatologist), the Nurse Practitioner and the Nurse were at Manuel’s bedside. They had done a chest x-ray last night and found that his right lung was extremely hyper-inflated and that it was entering into his left lung’s cavity and putting additional pressure on his heart. They also saw what appeared to be air cysts in his right lung. They told us that there was nothing medically that could be done to his lung if indeed the air pockets were cysts. They moved him to his right side and took an additional x-ray before we had arrived and found that this did help bring down the lung a little but that it was still hyper-inflated and still a concern to them.   

They started Manuel on another blood transfusion and started him on dopamine again. This seemed to help his heart and his kidneys. This afternoon, the nurses were having a difficult time getting blood for his lab test as he was poked several times. We said a little prayer with Pastor Lepley and left the NICU so that they can work on Manuel. 

When we returned to the NICU we were greeted by Dr. Akinola and she was singing praises of Hallelujah. Manuel’s lung had remarkably come down in size and had actually moved back into the right lung cavity alleviating pressure from his heart and his left lung.  Dr. Akinola took mommy and daddy back into the Physician's Lounge and showed us the chest xray of before and after. It was amazing to see the visible change that has occurred over the past few hours.

Marcello holding Mommy's Finger's

The nurses continue to monitor Marcello's stoma for improvement. The wound ostomy nurse came by today and cleaned his incision and placed a new ostomy bag on him.  Dr. Kokoska also stopped by and was pleased at how well Marcello has been healing. He also validated that his stoma has been functioning as he has seen what appears to be meconium poop in the ostomy bag. Marcello continues to remain stable and his body has accepted the PDA ligation and improvement of blood flow remarkably well.

Today we witnessed the miracle of God’s touch on Manuel and God continues to heal Marcello from his surgeries. Marcello and Manuel are a living testament that God does indeed hear our prayers and even watches over the littlest ones. We praise God that he has allowed both Marcello and Manuel to remain with us and pray for many more day's with them.