Baby Shane & Baby Kara News

I will provide a separate update on Noelle soon but wanted to give some praise and prayer information on both Shane and Kara (If you are new to this blog, you can read about these babies here).

~Baby Shane meeting his big brother & sister~

Baby Shane is now home!!  After a tedious recovery period from his surgery, he is finally doing well enough to be at home with his family.  Please continue to pray for Shane's continued health as well as his family as they go through many adjustments in the coming weeks during their move and transition to a new church, as well as life at home with a new baby who has just come through a difficult journey.  Thank you so much for your many prayers thus far, and we hope to continue to report great progress with little Shane!!

~Sweet Baby Kara~

Baby Kara is being readmitted to Baptist today in preparation for eye surgery tomorrow for her ROP (the same surgery which Noelle had done back in February).  They tried an injection treatment several weeks ago which seemed to work for some time, but her exam this week showed that things are worsening once again, and so action must be taken quickly.  Please pray for the procedure itself as well as the ventilation issues that will be involved.  Kara also suffers from chronic lung disease, so the ventilation is a concern, and the hope is that she will be able to wean off of it quickly after the procedure.  We will continue to update on her progress, or you can also follow her on the caring bridge page which her mother, Kim, updates: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/karahuggins.

Update After Update...

This post will include updates on Baby Shane, Baby Kara, and our own Baby Noelle...


Baby Shane

~Baby Shane with no ventilator tubes!~

~Bright Eyed~

If you missed the original post, you can read about Shane here.  Scott shared this updated today: "Holding steady for now.  Extubated the other day, but failed w/o a cannula. Had trouble over the weekend detoxing, experiencing withdrawal from the pain meds {which we were told were 10x stronger than morphine}. Still can't hold him until the chest tube is out...may try clamping it tomorrow or the next day. Removal is contingent on him being able to sustain normal breathing for an extended period of time."  Please continue to pray for the Logan family as Scott started his new job this week a couple hours away from Philadelphia {where Shane is currently located}, and I am sure they have a lot of details to sort through, not only with Shane's situation but also with a new move across the state from their home in Reading.  If you would still like to help this family, donations can still be made through the website Standing with Shane to aid them with the daily expenses they are currently facing in this situation.  Most of all, thank you for your continued prayers!!


Baby Kara

~Kara & her nurse Sonya, as Kara leaves the hospital~

~Kara taking a bottle~

This sweet little miracle continues to amaze people with the strides she is taking each day.  If you missed the original post about her, you can read it here, and you can also catch up on her daily progress at her own Caring Bridge site, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/karahuggins.  Kara now weighs just over 5lbs., is on only 25cc of oxygen, and was able to go home yesterday after 114 days in the NICU!!  

Please continue to pray for her and her parents {Kevin and Kim} as they adjust to life at home with Kara {and yet, without precious Kahlan} and still are uncertain what they will face down the road with Kara due to her original brain bleed.  So far, she is doing far better than anyone ever expected, and we thank God for this amazing miracle that continues to display His power and might to all that see and know of her. 

Baby Noelle

~This rice cereal is not bad...~

~...but I still like my fingers better!~

This little girl continues to keep me on my toes as we persist through multiple appointments and an overload of information!  I am constantly made more aware of the host of issues that so many children face and am ever grateful that God never gives us more than we can handle {or should I say, what HE can handle through us!}.  Noelle had a wonderful report after an echocardiogram and an appointment with her cardiologist on Monday.  The pulmonary hypertension is greatly reduced, and the function of her heart is much improved, to the point that her cardiologist does not have to repeat the echocardiogram or see her for three more months!!  This news was very encouraging to us since we take a lot of our cues from her medical team, and their urgency for her to be seen often tells us their level of concern {for there is never a lack, if it is necessary}.  She will still be on oxygen for quite some time since we will not even discuss weaning it until November {depending on how she is doing at that point}; but it has become a part of life for us, and I would truly rather she be on the oxygen than more medications to help her heart and lung issues.  Yesterday, she had a full check-up with her pediatrician, since we have created our own well-check schedule for Noelle on top of the constant monitoring she is already receiving, and she weighed 7lbs. 12.5oz. {and yes, we count every gram and half ounce!}.  I had expected her to pass 8lbs. by now, but because she is getting older  {even by her adjusted age of 5 1/2 months} we are uncertain as to how her growth rate will now happen.  Thankfully, everyone is looking at things over a long period, and she is doing pretty well by those standards.  We will just have a tiny girl on our hands for a very long time, and I am going to continue enjoying this very long baby stage and the small, newborn clothes.  Someday, I know I will wish she is this small again!!  In the meantime, Noelle is being allowed to try some "big girl" things such as sleeping through the night and eating rice cereal, both of which are going quite well.  I was actually a little disappointed at her lack of response to the rice cereal but should have expected it since she has had a variety of medications put into her mouth for months.  Hopefully, we will get some more animated reactions when she graduates to fruit and vegetables!  We are looking forward to getting through next week which includes appointments with her neonatologists and child developmental services {CDSA} along with a sleep study which will require an overnight stay in the hospital.  Our hope is that the results of this study will complete a picture for proper diagnosis of her many oxygen de-saturation episodes that happen while she is sleeping.  After all of that, it appears that we finally have a week free of appointments before they start again in September; and while the schedule truly does not bother us considering all we have been through, we are looking forward to the short break.  As always, thank you for sharing in our many joys and for continuing to pray for our little girl; and we look forward to sharing again how God continues to work in our lives.

Please Pray for Shane Curtis Logan...

***UPDATE 11:00PM EST:  This update was provided this afternoon by Lindsay Logan's sister, Jessica: baby Shane update(my brother Scott Logan & sister Lindsay Gray Logan): He's out of surgery! Went well!! Sending the lobe out to lab to check it out. Re-inflated his lung & it's holding! They are saying he should recover just fine & it's really good news! Thank you God! Surgeon reported: minimal blood loss, able to remove by scope, hoping to extubate tomorrow and start feeds again, and be released before the dr. returns from vacation in 10 days. Praising God for good report- anxious to see him!***  Thank you so much for praying!!!

***UPDATE 2:45PM EST: Shane is out of surgery, and the doctors determined it was successful!  He is currently recovering, so please continue to pray as he heals from the surgery and continues to work through this situation.  Another praise is that Scott received a call this morning, offering him a job as an associate pastor at a church in PA (a job for which he has been in the process of applying for quite some time).  Thank you for your continued prayers for Shane and for his family.***

~Shane getting ready to transfer~

~Shane on his birthday~

***Original Post: Shane Curtis Logan was born on July 18th, weighing 5lbs. 11oz. and reaching 19" long.  He is the third child of Scott Logan (a friend of mine from college) and his wife, Lindsay and has a sister and brother who are anxious to meet him.  Shane was born a few weeks early and quickly began demonstrating breathing issues and was admitted to the NICU at a hospital in Reading, PA.  Over the course of the next couple of days, he continued to decline, requiring more drastic measures to be taken in order to help his lungs, and he was placed on a ventilator and then later a chest tube was inserted.  Through the last few weeks, Scott and Lindsay have battled differences of opinion among their medical staff and have watched Shane be pushed in areas, only to have him fail and have chest tubes taken out and reinserted at various times along with other issues.  Last week, they discovered cysts on his lungs through a CT scan; and due to the nature of the issue and the dissatisfaction with the medical care Shane was receiving, he was transferred to St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia.  There are many more details~so much happens in just one hour in the NICU sometimes, let alone a full day or night or a few weeks; but the critical point is that Shane has entered surgery this morning to remove a portion of his lung that has the cysts.  The doctors are hopeful that this will help solve his issues; but only time will tell how he will respond to this form of treatment.

Please pray earnestly for this sweet little baby who is fighting so hard for life.  Scott and Lindsay are full of tremendous faith and trust in God, but this does not make their days shorter or their nights easier as they ride the NICU roller coaster with their precious baby.  Please also pray for Shane's siblings, David and Piper, who are very young themselves and probably struggling in their own ways to understand the situation in which their family currently stands.

~Scott, Lindsay, David, and Piper Logan (a few months before Shane's arrival)~

If you would also like to help in another way, a website (Standing with Shane) has been set up for donations to help the Logan family during this time.  Thankfully, Shane's medical care is covered; but Scott has been out of work for several months, and multiple expenses arise during a situation like this, especially since they have had to travel away from home.  I will update with details as they become available, but thank you for your faithful prayers for this family who is endeavoring to be a shining light for Christ as they fight for life with their son.