Courtney Update - Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Once again we are asking our "Prayer Warriors" to lift us up in prayer.

After MUCH consultation and debate, the team of doctors that are caring for Courtney feel that Courtney's best chance for a full recovery is to replace the infected heart valve while she is at a somewhat stable state.

Courtney will be having open heart surgery tomorrow morning (Wednesday, Feb. 19th) around 8:00 AM CST to replace the valve.  While in the Operating Room, they will remove the ECMO tubes in her neck. Other decisions will be made once in the OR (like whether to put her back on ECMO, the placement of new ECMO tubes, etc.).

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

We continue to be amazed by the number of people who are praying for our "little fighter".  My last count was 30 states and Australia, Brazil, China, England, Guam, Mexico, Persian Gulf, and Puerto Rico.  Feel free to share with your church or small group prayer lists.

Here are the states we are missing if you know of anyone in these states that would care to join our prayer chain:

Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming.

9:00 PM

I forgot to mention earlier that our associate pastor is in Israel right now and he told us that he was going to place Courtney's name on the "Wailing Wall" so that she could be prayed for.

We now have a little more detail about the current plan for tomorrow and thought we would share since there are many people who will be wanting updates.

Courtney will leave her PICU room between 7:00-7:30 am CST; surgery will begin somewhere around 8:00-8:30 AM.

First they will hook her up to a by-pass machine and remove her from ECMO (including taking out the ECMO tubing from her neck and cautiously repairing any issues with the jugulars); then they will begin the process of replacing the valve – this will be a much slower process than her previous valve replacements; the next steps will have to be determined upon completing the valve replacement…things like putting her back on ECMO [and putting new ECMO tubing closer to her chest, if not ECMO then where to put a Vas Cath for dialysis, other iv issues, and several other options].

The total time for the above may take 8 or more hours [late afternoon is what we are to expect]. Truth is it could take less or a lot more.

Gonna be a long day….but hopefully the next necessary step in her recovery….