6-5-2006

Things are going well, but it has been a little crazy. Once Aliyah started coming to, Dana or I spent the night in her room in the recovery unit with her. Not much sleep. She is now doing well and was just moved to a regular room to finish her recovery from the X-plant and new VAD surgeries, so she can go home for awhile.

Just to give you a sense of the past week. Things had been progressing slowly since the last update I had sent, then... Last Wednesday Aliyah had a fever from infection, was detoxing from the narcotic anesthetics she was on for the surgery and post surgery, had unknowingly pulled out her feeding tube for the second time, had to have a new line put in her arm for IV's, was experiencing trembling from her breathing treatments, etc. In the end, by Wednesday afternoon her heart rate hit 200 at one point. I had only previously seen it hit 162, and that was in between the two surgeries 3 weeks ago. They fixed the problem quickly and got her heart rate down, but it was a scary hour or so. Then Thursday night Dana dozed for only a few minutes and Aliyah, in a dream state, pulled her small bowel feeding tube out for the third time. Dana and I then employed a system of spelling each other so we could keep a constant eye on her at night. Thankfully, mission accomplished and she passed most aspects of her swallow test today and started eating some real food.

Dana and I are quite tired, but otherwise doing well.

Aliyah is in the main hospital building at St. Vincent's off of 86th Street, the main parking lot is on 86th Street, but you get to it by turning onto Naab or Harcourt roads. She is in room ... Good times to stop by and see her would be from about 11am to 9pm or so. Calling her room directly ...during these same times is also good.

We know God is continually walking alongside us through this, and many times in the guise of one of you. Thanks.