An update from Lori

1/30/07
FINALLY!!
I have had some trouble getting online, but finally figured it out from the McD house..still not wireless.. whatever.

We got here Sunday evening without any problems. It was actually quite a nice drive.

Please continue to pray for us. This has been a hard day.

Sarah completed her second day of physical therapy at the clinic. She is EXTREMELY tired and just plain worn out. It hurts to see her like this, but we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel. She did well yesterday with therapy and was tired, but didn't sleep much last night. In fact, she only slept about 2 or 3 hours. We think her muscles are very sore (like when you don't exercise for a long time and then start). The poor thing probably aches from head to toe. But the therapist (Amy) says she is doing well, and pleased with the responses she gets from Sarah. She feel that Sarah should at least sit on her own by the end of the 3 weeks.

The 'Thera Suit" is a cool little thing. It gives her so much support. Today she was all but sitting by herself with the suit on. It's hard to tell how she is after therapy now because she's so tired and miserable.

She started the hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) this morning. She FINALLY fell asleep at 5 am and then we had to wake her up at 6. She was NOT a happy camper. It was a real experience. I was just so anxious to get the therapy started that I never really thought about being in there with her. The chamber looks so HUGE in all the pictures. Well, it's about 1/3 the size I imagined. So here is me (no makeup, hair products, lotion, deoderant, etc..because it turn's out we'll explode or something like that) and my screaming baby and they roll us into this teeny little chamber on a bed that is about 2 ft. wide and we have about 8" of clearance above us. Let me tell you... NOT an ideal situation for a tall chubby girl!! I looked over at her and when I realized I woudldn't be able to comfort her, don't I just get the panic attack of all panic attacks. I could NOT BREATHE to save my life. They roll us out and I finally composed myself and decided I would just pray my way through it. It was the absolute LONGEST hour ever in the history of man! Turns out, while we were in there, they realized I don't have a chest x-ray and so I am no longer allowed to go in with Sarah. Answered prayer? I think so. The technician thinks she will be fine going in by herself. After all, there's pretty much nowhere she can go in there! He says it will be better for her because she'll get all the oxygen and I won't "hog" it all. He could have found a nicer way to put it, but whatever. So tomorrow she starts the HBOT by herself. They can stop the machine if it gets to that point. For now, we are just going to do it once a day. Amy thinks that is okay.

So she didn't sleep at all in the chamber, but the BEST thing happened in there. I was hovering over Sarah trying to move into a more comfortable position (which there isin't one) and I was talking to her. She MADE EYE CONTACT with me for what seemed like FOREVER and she SMILED AND GIGGLED AT ME like she actually "got it"! I almost died! She was reaching out and touching my face and pulling my hair... It was VERY VERY cool! I wish I could have had a video tape of her face at that moment. Thank God for small miracles.

So anyway... here we are. Things are going as expected, Amy said the first few days are the toughest, so we are toughing it out.

Please pray HARD for us. This is much harder than i thought it would be. We were so excited to get her help, that I didn't think about getting to it.

IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME TO KNOW ALL OF YOU ARE PRAYING FOR US. YOUR FAITH IN SARAH AND PRAYERS FOR ALL OF US ARE WHAT GET ME FROM HOUR TO HOUR. I THINK OF ALL OF YOU OFTEN THROUGHOUT THE DAY BECAUSE I KNOW YOU ARE ALL ANXIOUSLY AWAITING MY E-MAIL UPDATES, AND I AM SORRY I COULDN'T DO IT UNTIL NOW. PLEASE KNOW I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND APPRECIATE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! I TRULY TRULY MEAN THAT!!!

I will be e-mailing next when something exciting happens. Until then, we are all going to try and sleep a little. Pee pee steps. That's okay. We'll get there.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

Lori

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Please continue those prayers, as they do help!