"What does that mean?"

“What does that mean?”

That is a popular question today…

My mom and us girls have had a real education about medicines, ventilators, blood pressure, feeding tubes and everything hooked up to Whit. Sometimes when we reply to a message or you see something on facebook you don’t always understand fully what we are talking about. I thought maybe a few descriptions and visual aides would help you all to understand what is happening with Whitney.

Whitney is stable right now, which means her numbers---blood pressure, sedation, blood gas, fluids, etc. are where the doctors and nurses feel it is best right now. She is still maintaining a ventilator number of about 70%, which means she is breathing 30% on her own and the vent is doing the rest. It doesn’t sound like a great number, but when you pair it with all the other things hooked up to her and they are stable, it means she is doing well. Whitney’s numbers last week were about the same, but as they moved her in her bed, did her breathing treatments and gave her meds, she would crash (where her numbers would go down and she is back up to 100% on the vent) every time… we had too many doctor conversations that ended with “we have done all we can”…those words are very daunting and hopeless and mixed with ups and downs from stable to unstable…it was feeling very very troublesome.

Whitney has been moved in her bed, had meds changed up and had her sheets/bed changed in the last two days and she hasn’t had a crash yet. She bounces back and or doesn’t even change when they do move her, change meds and change her sheets. Those are the baby steps she has taken, and I only mean it metaphorically…she is not able to walk or talk. Whitney is still on the ventilator, which means she isn’t able to speak, she is paralyzed and is heavily sedated. They need her to be in that state so she doesn’t remove her feeding and ventilator tubes.

There are lots of tubes, medicines, blinking lights and procedures happening to her daily, hourly and nearly every minute…however with all the medical “stuff” happening to her, we know one thing is clear. Our God is the one healing her and sustaining her life right now. We know that God has a clear design for what is happening with Whitney and we are faithful to see Him through. We have complete trust in Him and therefore we have complete trust in Whitney’s doctors and nurses. We are overwhelmed with the response to pray for Whitney and are overjoyed with how many loyal Christ followers have lifted our family up in prayer. We so appreciate the diligence and continued prayers for Whitney’s healing.

With eager hearts,

Whit’s Sisters