Samantha in the hospital, Day 8 and 9

This post covers two days because the hospital is becoming a waiting game. Samantha is getting better literally by the minute. Right now as I type this post she's drawing a card for someone. She says she doesn't know who yet. Anyway, she's getting better. If you'll look at the two pictures of lungs below:

You can see that the one on the right shows much more of the right ribcage than the one on the left. That, according to the doctor, is how much of a breath that Sam had taken in when getting the x-ray (she had taken a deeper breath on the left picture). I thought was pretty cool!

Unfortunately, there hasn't been all that much change since before the bronch. The picture on the right (which is the newer one) doesn't show any difference. All they mean is that there is still junk in them, particularly the left lung, and that it's something they are still watching. I'm hoping to get the video for the bronchoscope tomorrow. I'll definitely post it if I do!

The Other Children

I wanted to take a minute to update everyone on how Timothy and Hannah are doing. First of all, they've been troopers. But the fact is they can be left behind in the race to take care of Samantha. Because we value them as well, I wanted to show you a few pictures of them in the hospital helping out and such. Captions are below the pics.

 Hannah and Tim fighting over the 3DS on Day 2. They were really having fun! Thankfully, Tim didn't get upset about the intrusion. Sometimes he can be pretty funny around his games.

 Samantha doesn't really like video games too much, so we let Tim check out a couple throughout the weekend to pass time. We don't have a PS3 at home, so he was getting to enjoy it here.

 Yes, I caught my son scratching like we boys do. 

 Hannah has been the real surprise. She has been completely thrown off her usual schedule with daycare and/or being at the hospital. Here she is playing peek-a-boo with her momma!

 I took Tim and Hannah to AWANA awards Thursday night. Timothy was getting awards, and we wanted to support him through it so he would know it wasn't all about Sam's hospitalization. Next to him is Ethan, his Bible quiz partner. They won first place a few months ago! We are so proud of them!

 Timothy accepted Sam's awards on her behalf. He was much more grateful up on stage than in this photo thankfully!

Here he is with his own awards. He got a silver award, an Excellence trophy, and a $10 gift certificate to Applebees for his Bible quiz competition. He bought Sam her dinner tonight! So sweet he is!

We love all of our kids so much. With Sam in the hospital lately, we've had to focus on her a little more, but we do our best to keep all engaged in the family, and so far we're doing ok. Thanks for reading our updates! 

Sexual Assaults in the Military and the Christian Response

With the news lately focusing on the horrible problem of sexual assault in the military, it may be difficult for church leaders, and Christians in general, to figure out how to reach the military. Sexual assault is not something the church often deals with. Ironically, until a few years ago, the military didn't really deal with it either. It was sort of the elephant in the room. People knew it happened, but the programs hadn't really matured enough to do anything about it. I'm grateful that better programs exist today to combat the problem.

The thing that makes me most angry about the issue is that it's almost always blue on blue, meaning that it’s a Sailor hurting a Sailor, Marine hurting a Marine, etc. That, my good friends, is unsatisfactory!

President Obama's present concern over the level of sexual assaults in the military, and the number of congressional hearings on the matter (which I discuss here), mean that the problem is now really coming to the light. The church can assist, but it must do so carefully.

First, Christians must know that it's not the victim's fault. Really, it doesn't matter what happened up to the point of being assaulted. If an assault occurs, then the attacker committed a crime. It doesn't matter what the victim was wearing. If you are one to assume that the victim somehow deserved what happened to him/her, then you are wrong.

Second, know that it doesn't just happen to women. In fact, more attacks are against men. That makes sense from a purely statistical standpoint. With 80% of the force being men (for the Navy), it only makes sense that the majority, while not an overwhelming one, of attacks would be against men.

Third, since these attacks are criminal in nature, Christians cannot get overly involved in the physical sense. I had a Sailor once who was violently attacked. I still don't know the whole story. She got the help she needed, her attacker was brought up on charges, and she eventually returned to my basic electronics class and graduated. However, my role was just to be there. I couldn't do anything else.

Point three brings me to my fourth and final point. The main mission of the church is evangelism (in my opinion based on scripture). However, in this case, the battle ground is in prayer. Prayer of course should be peppered onto every facet of life, but it is the primary battleground in terms of sexual assault in the military. I know that I talk about prayer a lot. I am always asking for prayer on behalf of the military. That isn't going to change any time soon. In the case of sexual assaults in the military, it may be the only way the church can respond.

Please do so.

Samantha in the hospital, Day 7

It seemed like time was standing still. We were just waiting on things to happen for what seemed like eternity. Each day would pass and this or that would happen, and we'd just wait...wait until that magical Thursday to get here, when all of our dreams would come true.

Ok, so it wasn't like our dreams coming true, because that would be going home and getting back to normal (ok, our type of normal). But Alicia and I had become convinced that Sam needed a bronchoscope pretty badly, and the doctors wanted to wait until Thursday to do a new round of PFTs to find out if she needed it or not.

All of the sudden, Day 7 comes along and things start clicking. It started with various doctors coming in as usual to get their morning rounds through before the actual rounds start. Then I was called out into the hallway to discuss Sam's progress and discuss the plan of action.

After listening to the various opinions and expert knowledge, I was asked if I had any questions or thoughts.

"I just want to confirm something so I understand exactly what's going on," I said. "Sometimes I think that we aren't doing the bronch and you're just holding onto the scheduled bronchoscope time just in case. Then sometimes I get the feeling that we're doing the bronch and something would have to change in order to cancel it. Can you please tell me very directly which it is?"

"We are doing the bronch," said the attending physician, a woman with a Greek last name and the first name Diva...long "i". She's the bomb honestly. Anyway, she went on to say, "I didn't mean for you to be mislead. We expect to have to do the bronch. If her PFTs blow us away, then we'll cancel it, but we don't expect to be blown away."

I can't tell if everyone is tiptoeing around me because this is our first tune-up or if this is how doctors talk and I have to get used to it, but it really isn't cool to sugar coat things to the point where a father is confused. I'm not only my daughter's advocate, but I'm also their best bet for getting Sam to comply with treatments. Having me fully engaged is the best option.

Pulmonary Function Tests

Sam headed down to do PFTs.

PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests) were conducted around 10:30. She blew a 51, which was 9 points above last time, but not nearly enough to put off the bronchoscope. When I talked to the doctors after returning to her room, they were all on board with the plan and very informative. I think I'm finally starting to bond with some of the doctors.

A Ride on an IV Cart.

After spending some more time in the room, we got Sam ready for the bronch. I explained some things to her while telling her that she couldn't eat or drink for a long time (I did that at breakfast) but after the PFTs, Alicia and I explained it in much more detail. She was concerned, but not scared yet.

Here's the irony of the whole thing. Sam is obviously doing much better. Her oxygen saturation is up, she's got energy, and she's not coughing nearly as much. She's feeling so much better, actually, that she took a ride on her IV cart.

Yet she is also very sick still, as evidenced by the PFTs. So it was with a great deal of confusion that I went with her and Alicia to the OR preparation room.

Bronchoscope

We took Sam down to do the bronch around 4:00pm. She was in good spirits, but getting more concerned as we went. She came out around 5:30 and finished with recovery by 6:30. Here is Alicia's report (I had to leave the hospital to take Tim to an AWANA awards night:

1) 3 lobes were blocked (lower right and both on left)
2) Very sticky-even more than usual CF sticky; they had to work a bit extra to get it out-she said they did 2 CF bronchs today and Sam's was much thicker
3) The extra thickness could be just the way Sam's CF is or it could be from some "bug" in her lungs-results from culture will come back in a few days
4) It's normal for CFers to cough during this procedure, but Sam thankfully coughed less than the dr thought-this allowed the dr to stay in there as long as she needed.
5) Airways were inflamed (can be from the asthma or the CF)

So it was very good for the doctors to go in and clear some stuff out. Clearly the PFTs were a very accurate description of what was going on inside her lungs. 

Sam's Mountain Lion (she received him during the PICC line) has to have an oxygen mask after his bronch too.

So our Day 7 was extremely busy and lots happened. Now we settle back down to wait. We are waiting on results of the culture from her bronch, waiting for the next round of PFTs to see if the bronch worked, and waiting for her to not need any oxygen anymore. Most of all, we're waiting to get out of the hospital.