What’s Keeping Mercy in the Hospital

Many things have gone right with Mercy since arriving at Lurie Children’s at the end of November: successful surgery to fix her intestines, successful surgery to remove her sickeningly painful hemangioma, eating by bottle, getting off of respiratory support, gaining weight, no longer in pain, becoming a mostly normal little baby girl, and so many more things that I’m sure I’m forgetting.

She’s doing so well that we often find ourselves asking, “Why is she still in the hospital and not home with her family?”

We’re ready to have her home. What’s keeping her here is primarily the fact that she still gets the majority of her nutrition through her central line rather than by mouth. Nutrition and intestinal recovery are the things that are right now preventing her from coming home. And the doctors have said that it could be a couple more months before she’s at full feeds and no longer requires a central line.

A couple more months without our little, mostly better baby girl is pretty depressing.

So for those who are praying for Mercy, praise God that she’s out of pain and doing so well! And please pray with us that she eats enough to be able to come home quickly. We miss her.