No News Tuesday

When I drafted this post I originally titled it “Bad News Tuesdays.” I’ve noticed that the bad news we get happens to come to us - mostly -on Tuesdays. All our midnight calls, the night when we realized that Erica had severe pre-eclampsia, Mercy’s extreme belly swelling and truly worrisome desats, surgery that didn’t do what we wanted it to do - all happened on a Tuesday.

Yesterday was Tuesday. As doctors reintroduced feeding earlier this week, Mercy’s belly swelled again. Additionally, doctors re-introduced a possible explanation for the swelling and meconium-like stools: cystic fibrosis.

At first, this seemed to fit the bad news Tuesday pattern. Then last night Mercy’s belly started to look a bit better, doctors reassured us that the probability that she has CF remains very low (and that we really won’t be able to test for it with 100% certainty until she gains about 500g), meconium-like stools could just be her digestive system coming back online, and Mercy has required less pressure to maintain her oxygenation.

So overall she’s making gradual progress and is doing slightly better than she did yesterday. Bad news remains in the “Unlikely Possible Future Diagnosis” realm. The longer we’re here, the more difficult it becomes for me to resist giving those potential dangers greater weight than they deserve, but I’m trying. As I sit next to Mercy I realize just how much I want her to be home and healthy, and so I'm trying to give myself grace to get over worries even as I trust God to carry us through whatever tomorrow or Tuesday might bring. Today is going well enough.

And as I think about hoping for good news for Mercy, this verse came to mind today (thank you Marshall Brown):

Luke 1: 78-79

Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.

Thank you all for praying, friends.

She's so cozy without tubes in her mouth!