Sunday Night

Luke told me that they had a little bit of excitement today. They had to take Emily off of the sedation some because her blood pressure had dropped. They had dropped her oxygen level from 60% to 35% and the nurses called the pulmonologist because Emily was struggling some. They came in and cleared out her airway of some old mucus. The doctor came back and wanted to use a camera down her airway to make sure she was clear so they would know whether they could lower her oxygen again. They used the camera and she was clear! So that's great news. They then put her oxygen level at 40% the rest of the day. Luke doesn't expect them to take her off of the ventilator tomorrow because he doesn't know how quickly they'll keep lowering the percentage. But they're definitely on track of weaning her from that.
He said it was really hard because Emily was in a lot of pain as they lowered her sedation today. They told her not to talk but just to listen as they talked to her. She did squeeze their hands occassionally.
The hard thing to hear was that her kidneys had no output today. They didn't do dialysis and Luke hadn't gotten a report on her workup---but he expects to talk to the kidney doctor tomorrow. With it being a weekend, it's just hard to hear anything. So...that's the BIGGEST prayer need at this time. Pray that her kidneys start functioning.
Luke said he got lots of support today---lots of friends and family came by. It really ministered to him. And he said some friends took the 3 oldest kids to a church in Greenville tonight to their fall carnival and the kids were so excited. Some of Emily's friends are taking Abigail & Lily to a Bible study that Emily usually attends tomorrow. Luke said Abigail is just hard to live with if she doesn't see Miss Jane each week!!
Luke was telling me about the church alliance in their area. He said he made one call to a pastor in the alliance asking him to let everyone know that he needed prayer for Emily---and that pastor not only made calls, but was the first one on the scene to pray with him. And then today, he heard that Pastor Wally at First Methodist is ministering to his family this week. Emily's Bible study group is also helping out next week. And of course, Luke's own church is ministering to them over and over. He said he was just overwhelmed at the outpouring of love by the body of Christ. I told him that people were giving through the website to help with their needs and he was just astounded. It really is amazing to see the body of Christ at work.
Luke promised to let us know as he works out a schedule for his family if he needs help. So check back---I made him promise to let us know!
Thank you for caring for and loving the Panters in such an extravagant manner.

II Corinthians 1:3-4
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."