The Lord is moving in powerful ways in our family!  It is both humbling and exhilarating to be a witness to Hunter's healing.  Though this has been the most difficult battle I've ever experienced, it's also the most that I've ever felt HIS presence here with me.  Our God is mighty and faithful, even more so in the hard times.  When all is well, I find myself too busy or not spending time seeking Him as I should.  I have been forever changed by the past few months.  I don't know why Hunter's transplant journey has been so rocky, but our family has made the decision to trust God's plan for us and believe that He works all things for good.  I am also so happy to report that Sadie is off her oxygen, eating from a bottle, and gaining weight right on track.  We are all in love with this precious little girl!

Hunter is back to trach collar trials.  This is him breathing on his own with humidified oxygen through the opening in his trach.  Last Thursday (12/4) he started with two 1-2 hour trials a day.  He has made steady gains each day in the amount of time spent with the ventilator turned off.  He now has clearance to go for 6 hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon.  Because of the profound weakness from his demyelination, his wean from the ventilator has been slow to not fatigue his diaphragm.  During the day he also participates in occupational therapy, physical therapy, sitting up in the cardiac chair for at least an hour, and has passed his initial swallow evaluations with speech.  He is working so so hard!  It's very exciting to think he's off the ventilator for more than a third of his day.

When you've seen Hunter so weak, every gain is celebrated.  He sat with minimal assistance on the side of the bed for three minutes, and able to practice leaning side to side and forward for 15 more.  He was able to scoot himself over in the cardiac chair by pushing off with his left elbow.  He was able to swallow ice chips without choking and drink from a straw.  These are all things that most of us do without even thinking, but Hunter has to relearn all of it.  His blood counts have all been stable.  These are all baby steps forward, and have been covered in prayer from many on Team Hanner.  Thank you God for progress!

And saving my most exciting news for last....Hunter got to see the kids for the first time in three months.  It was a very happy reunion for all involved.  Benton was happy to tell Hunter all about his deer hunt, sang his school program songs, showed off his wiggly tooth, and just enjoyed seeing his Daddy.  Caleb and Clayton ran around like little monkeys and I know it did Hunter a lot of good to watch all their three year old busyness.  We are more than ready for him to be off the ventilator and out of ICU so that we don't have to move mountains to make a visit happen.  We are very grateful for the doctors, nursing, and respiratory staff at Zale Lipshy who made it possible this weekend.  Our family is so ready to be back together for good.  We are praying hard that Hunter can get off the ventilator and to the rehab floor quickly so the boys can come visit more easily.

After laying in a bed for 3 months, sitting up is hard work.  He is up to two hours of sitting now.

Occupational therapy is trying to get him back to earning his keep at the dealership:)

Blue ice chips--have to make sure his throat muscles are able to swallow around the trach

Meanwhile, I've been trying my hardest to make the best of our holiday season.  None of this feels right with Hunter in the hospital.  The boys and I spent Thanksgiving with my family in Abilene (old news I know)!  Thanksgiving morning we got up and walked the Turkey trot 5K.  Benton ran in the kids 1 mile race.

All Honey and Poppa's little turkeys

 The day after Thanksgiving the boys wanted to get out their nativities.  Benton asked to put up the tree.  I really hadn't planned on getting out Christmas for the few days we spend at home in the month, but I decided to try and keep things as normal as possible.  I attempted the tree on my own, and ended up needing my dad to help.  Benton said "I think Daddy would be better at this job."  Amen brother.

Mom, they're all bowing down to baby Jesus

Thanks Poppa, for coming to my rescue.

Such helpers....they broke zero ornaments!

So thankful for three year old joy!

If not for Amazon prime, I'd have nothing for the boys.  We get them three small gifts each, and when I got into town Thursday night I wrapped them so they'd have presents under the tree.  Ernie also took each of the kids on a date night and they bought for each other.  From what I've heard (they were 0/3 on keeping it to themselves) they put a lot of thought into what they bought.  Thanks Ernie!

Busted trying to peek.  Caleb is a mess!

We went to a Christmas book exchange in our pjs.  His stomach was a little upset after this hot chocolate.

Benton and G-Daddy on their deer hunt.

 At church last Sunday, Benton was sitting beside me coloring.  I wan't sure he was listening, but our preacher invited anyone who needed prayers to come to the back.  I was already battling back tears from hearing his sweet voice sing "Oceans," but then he grabbed my hand and said we should go and pray for Daddy and Sadie.  Pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the prayer room.  I just love the faith of a child.

So cooperative for pictures

holiday tradition--Granny's cut out cookies

I don't think anyone wanted any of their cookies after all the knife licking that went on!

Many prayers have been answered in the last two weeks.  Hunter has been blessed by a peace that could only come from God.  He has been very calm for his breathing trials and is doing great on them.  His days are filled with one exhausting task after another, but he keeps trying his best.  Tomorrow he goes for his formal swallow evaluation with radiology and also has a chest CT to check on the status of his MRSA pneumonia.  I ask for prayers that he is cleared to drink, and that there is no areas of infection left in his lungs.  All the antibiotics he's on to treat the pneumonia are doing a number on his digestive system, so I would love for his lungs to be clear and be able to stop some of his medication.  My prayer is Hunter to be fully healed of the MRSA and off the ventilator so we can focus on his rehab and getting him home.  Hunter's birthday is the 22nd, and with Christmas coming up I am bolding asking God that we be out of ICU, off the ventilator, and able to celebrate his healing with our kids.  I know he is able!  I'm sure Chase and Macey would agree...all I want for Christmas is for us to be together.  Thank you Lord Jesus for all you've done in the life of the Hanners!  May we always honor and give glory to God for all he's done for us.    

I am so glad these last few weeks are behind us.  Hunter completed his fifth and final plasmaphoresis last Sunday (11/23).  He has responded very well to this course of treatment.  It has been very exciting to watch him progress.  When I last blogged, his communication was through blinking his eyes.  The doctors were very positive about his recovery, but in the meantime it was hard to watch him struggle to tell us what he needed.  I've been trying to find time to update, but things keep popping up.  I thought I was going to have a couple hours Saturday night after the kids were in bed, but instead I got to watch Clayton get 6 staples in the back of his head.  He's fine now....life with boys!  If you want the short version--the pulmonary team has taken over Hunter's ventilator weaning and he's headed in the right direction.  He is alternating between the full support of the ventilator to rest and trials of low ventilator support breathing on his own.  His arms are regaining movement ever day and his toes are starting to wiggle:)  He is back able to mouth words clearly.  If you want to read about the most rocky part of Hunter's battle with AIDP--here it goes.

I'd really rather just skip over the last few weeks, but that wouldn't be a true record of Hunter's journey. Three weeks ago, after a great meeting with the neurologist who studied his brain and spine MRIs, Mark and Jana sent me home for the weekend.  He was very encouraging about Hunter making a full recovery.  But I left for home with the image of Hunter only able to blink and completely frozen in his body.  He could not move a muscle.  Benton had his first kindergarten music program, and he really wanted me to be there.  My mom drove me home, and it was gut wrenching to think of all that Hunter was suffering through while I was doing my best to be mom.  The "Three Little Piggy Opera" was adorable, and Benton the "stick peddler" beamed from ear to ear with me in the audience.  

That Friday morning I began to get phone calls from Zale.  I had to give my consent for Hunter to get a central line, and for the plasmaphoresis.  He ended up with a groin line because of his history of clotting off central lines.  That meant his leg would need to stay mostly straight.  They also wanted Hunter to have another Lumbar Puncture just to make sure he didn't have some strange viral or bacterial infection.  His first plasma exchange was  Friday night late.  Hunter was hooked up to a centrifuge that pulled out his blood, separated out the red and white cells from the plasma.  Plasma contains the antibodies that normally would fight infection but instead were attacking Hunter's myelin sheath around his nerves.  This inhibits communication of messages traveling from his brain to his muscles.  The plasma and antibodies were removed, a chemical replacement was put back into him as well as his red and white cells.  Science is amazing.  Plasma regenerates within 24 hours, and antibodies hiding from his tissue were drawn into the blood stream.  Every other day this process was repeated.  Once the antibodies were removed from his body, he should be able to start rebuilding his myelin.  After the first treatment, Hunter was able to focus his eyes on the person talking to him.  He showed more and more signs of being able to interact.  Jana made the comment that it was cold, and he looked over toward the window.  After his second treatment on Sunday, he started to be able to give a definite head turn for no, and a slight dip in his chin for yes.  We were thankful for him to be gaining back interaction.  His facial muscles also started to wake up.  Sunday night I was greeted by a tiny little smile.  I was a happy girl.    

All during this time of being "locked in" his breathing continued to improve.  All through the week he was on "pressure control" setting of the ventilator.  They were just giving him a little puff of air to help compensate for the fact that he was having to breathe through long tubes to get air into his lungs.  He was taking nice big breaths, and by the time Monday rolled around the doctors were talking about trach collar trials again.  His left thumb started getting a tiny bit of motion.  That was exciting.  

When I got there early Tuesday morning, I could tell something was off.  I kept asking yes or no questions, but never really got an answer.  He said his breathing was ok, but he definitely was struggling much more than the night before.  His support on the ventilator was increased, but that didn't really seem to help.  I was beating myself up not being able to figure out the problem.  One of his eyes was a little red, and he nodded emphatically that it was itchy when I asked about it a couple hours later.  Just imagine if you had an itch, couldn't reach up and scratch it, and no one could asked about it specifically so he could nod or blink for yes.  Awful.  An eye doctor came and looked at his eyes.  He said they were dry because Hunter couldn't close them all the way when he was sleeping.  Also, he wanted Hunter to sleep with a mask over his eyes.  It made me so sad because that was his only means of communicating.

Wednesday morning he was still not breathing comfortably on full assist of the ventilator.   A chest CT revealed that his left lung had collapsed.  The respiratory therapists began treatments to help re-inflate the lung.  He probably had coughed up a bit of junk but didn't get it completely out of his lung.  The secretion most likely plugged air from getting to the lung, and it collapsed.  It's a fairly easy fix, but frustrating as he was getting close to trying to get off the ventilator.  He spent the afternoon turned way on his side with his "good lung down" in order to give the deflated lung a chance to expand.  His heart rate has been running pretty high his entire hospital stay because the nerve controlling his heart rate was demyelinated, but Wednesday it kept creeping up even higher.  He just didn't look right.  When he woke up from a nap Wednesday afternoon, it was in the 150's.  I couldn't get him to blink or nod to me.  I thought he was agitated from being turned way on his side and having to sleep with his eyes covered, but he didn't snap out of it.    

Around 5:00 he was give a tiny dose of a beta blocker to lower his heart rate.  He had had a couple doses previously in his stay and he hadn't had any problems.  This time, his heart rate came down, but his blood pressure continued to plummet.  He was given four separate doses of epinephrin, but his blood pressure kept dropping.  I couldn't really get him to interact or wake up.  His room was suddenly swarming with people.  A second IV was started in his foot to push fluids, and a constant drip of "pressers" were going to keep his blood pressure stable.  The doctor told me I might should get his parents headed this way.  He was acting septic.  That's never what you want to hear.  They took blood cultures hoping to catch what bug might be growing in his bloodstream early and he had a head CT just to make sure nothing was going on neuro-wise (thankfully nothing ever grew from these cultures).  He got an arterial line to have a constant blood pressure.  It was a long night.  About 12:30 a.m. I heard that his head CT was fine.  I slept for a couple hours.  He spiked a fever in the night.  He was started on additional antibiotics for his lungs.  The pulmonary team was consulted to take a better look as his lungs. 

Mark and Jana got there early Thursday morning.  Hunter looked 100% better than the night before.  He was awake and acting like nothing had happened the night before.  The lung team wanted to do a bronchoscopy to look with a camera inside Hunter's lungs.  They also took some samples to test what was growing in order to best tailor his antibiotics.  Cultures showed that he still had heavy growth of the MRSA growing in his lungs.  The Infectious Disease team added in another antibiotic to try and knock out the staff.  

We love his Pulmonary doctor.  He took one look at his fast breathing and totally changed around his ventilator settings.  His fellow told us they call him the "vent whisperer."  Hunter wasn't using his diaphragm because it is demyelinated.  His accessory muscles (stomach, chest) were doing all the work and were worn out.  He needed to completely rest those exhausted muscles for several days before he would take on any more of the breathing workload.  

Some sweet prayer warriors came Thursday afternoon and prayed over Hunter and our family.  They really encouraged us and challenged me especially to let go of my fear and anxiety.  She looked me right in the eyes and asked where fearful thoughts come from.  They are certainly not from God, so therefore I need to get them out of my mind.  I have had much more peace since then.  The boys and I had a fun weekend while Hunter started to regain left arm movement and began to mouth words.  The pulmonary team continued to have Hunter on total rest on the ventilator.

             

Last Monday (11/24) his left arm was able to lift off the pillow a few inches.  He hasn't been able to do that in a couple months.  He also began to mouth words clearly, open and close his left hand, and lift his head off the pillow.  This told the lung team that his diaphragm should also be getting stronger.  The nerve controlling your breathing muscle is about the same distance away from the spine as the muscles enabling you to lift your head.  Your nerves only heal so fast, so that's something the doctors are watching to help them assess the strength of his breathing.  He started Hunter on 15 minute trials every 2 hours of pressure support trials.  These only give Hunter enough pressure to overcome the ventilator tubing--kinda like compensating for his breathing through a straw feeling.  He was able to stay calm, control his breathing rate, and all his vital signs stayed stable.  He continued to lengthen these times throughout the week.  After the trials, he would rest on full support of the ventilator.  By the time I left Wednesday night for Abilene to spend Thanksgiving with the boys, Hunter was going for an hour then resting for three.  Chase, Mark, and Jana all switched off spending time with Hunter.

Sometimes, no news is good news.  And in our case, no updates on the blog are the result of me being completely and totally overwhelmed.  Sunday of this week Hunter became less responsive, much more sleepy, and it became harder to read his lips.  We thought it was a medication problem, but his neuro team wanted rule out the possibility of changes in his brain with an MRI.  It showed two small lesions in the brain stem consistent with demyelination in the area that controls breathing and communication.  Hunter has spent the last few days "locked in" his body.  He can hear and comprehend what's going on, but for some reason can't communicate with his mouth.  He blinks once for yes, and twice for no.  I just burst into tears when I think of what he's going through right now.  Not only can he not control his muscles, but now he can't mouth the words to say what he needs.  

When I last blogged two weeks ago, Hunter was doing trach collar trials.  He wasn't very excited about them, but we pushed him to get a few hours each day.  He was also sitting up in the cardio chair out of bed and participating in therapy sitting on the side of the bed working to get his core muscles stronger.  Mark and I got fairly tough on him to try and increase his drive to get off the vent.  We wanted him off the vent, so he could get out of ICU, so the boys could come see him.  He felt anxious that he would not be able to get enough air without the ventilator.  I went home on Thursday afternoon after he worked to spend four hours on trach collar in the morning.  I expected to have an exciting Halloween weekend with the boys and Hunter could hopefully get back to the 9 hours he went on the trach collar the Saturday before.

  Early Friday morning I got a text that Hunter had spiked a fever in the night of 101.7.  Fever means infection, so Jana and I came right back to Dallas.  The boys were very sad to see me go after just being home overnight.  Mom ended up bringing them to Ft. Worth to the Wessel house and we had an enjoyable weekend.  He hasn't run fever since then, but also hasn't progressed on his trach collar trials.  Hunter spend several days on the full assist mode where the machine did all the work.  Then we felt guilty for pushing him when his lungs weren't healthy.  Name any extreme emotion, and we've probably felt it.

Ft. Worth Zoo selfie

baby elephants

no fear here

the nastiest animal on earth

visit from Chase:)

Hunter's MRSA pneumonia had come back.  He will need a much longer treatment course than the 14 days he had already gotten.  The infected part of his lower lungs (where he also has a clot) accumulated some fluid.  When you don't get vertical, take big breaths, and spend a lot of time laying in bed, you accumulate fluid at the bottom of your lungs.  This prevented him from having the ability to spend time off the ventilator.  A chest tube was placed to drain off the fluid, and that helped his breathing a lot.  He did a lot of resting.  When we are in a hurry for him to get better, it's hard to again hear "rest day."  Saturday his doctor felt his lungs were in good enough shape for him to try trach collar again.  He only made it 45 minutes before his oxygen level dropped into the 80's and he got anxious.  Sunday he said he didn't even want to try.  I hate to admit this knowing what I know now, but at church I asked for prayers for Hunter to fight and want to get off the ventilator.  Sunday afternoon he asked to get to try again with the collar and was told no.  He was upset and confused as to why he wasn't allowed to try.  I was on my way to Dallas to switch with Mark, and pretty excited to hear he was ready to give the trach collar trials a go.  This was going to be our week to make progress.

The Hunter I left Friday night

When I got there Sunday at 7, he was already asleep.  He didn't really acknowledge my presence or ask about the boys like he normally would.  His day nurse said he had been awake and watched football most of the day and was probably just tired.  Because he hardly woke up and he had an excellent night nurse, I left him at night for the very first time since this all started September 10th in Houston.  The staff at Zale had been encouraging us for a while to take care of ourselves and get some sleep, but it's just so hard to walk away and leave him there.  We told him when he lost his movement that every time he opened his eyes one of us would be there.  So it felt like breaking a promise to leave him alone.  At the same time, I know that I'm exhausted from sleeping in a recliner for only a few hours for many weeks, then running home to pack in as much time with the boys as possible.

In the middle of the night Sunday he was moved to a bigger room with a little more privacy.  I was there first thing Monday morning, and he was very confused as his new surroundings.  It was also very difficult to read his lips, which was unusual.  I normally can figure out just about whatever he needs.  He was telling me something about a pool and it really threw him off that he had a new view out the window.  Then he went back to sleep for the rest of the morning.  We immediately looked at his medications.  The pain team had added in a new nerve pain medication called Nemenda.  Our nurse did some checking with the pharmacy, and it had a 3% chance of being sedating.  It was stopped immediately along with anything else sedating, but he had gotten a dose Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning.  He woke up around lunch and sat up on the side of the bed for therapy.  I noticed that it was much harder for him to hold his head up.  He's been strong with head control for a couple weeks now, so that struck me as strange.  He also was having trouble with the pressure cuff in his trach.  It keeps inflated so his vocal cords don't get strained and vibrate.  Our respiratory therapist was worried that the pressure was getting too high, and that his trach needed to be changed.  He hardly woke up as they changed out his trach bedside.  That normally would have been hard to tolerate for anyone.  He still wasn't mouthing words clearly, but we could wake him up if we tried really hard.  The Chief of the Neuro ICU is his attending for the week.  Hunter could answer and respond by nodding appropriately and follow commands like show your teeth and open your eyes.  He gave a slight should shrug.  The consensus was to let him sleep off the medication.

Tuesday he was a little easier to wake up, but he still wasn't mouthing words.  Dr. A thought it was probably the medication, but scheduled him for a brain MRI just to be sure.  Hunter has had several head MRI's within the last 6 months, so I really wasn't all that worried.  He was going to have a chest CT while he was all hooked up to the travel ventilator and off the ICU floor for testing, and I was more concerned about the shape of his lungs.  Not too much later Dr. A pops his head into Hunter's room and asked if we had the scans from Houston in September.  I told him they were normal.  He said they had seen some abnormalities on his brain stem, and asked me if we could get a hard copy of his previous MRI.  Houston immediately got his scans in the mail.  They weren't sure if the changes were new or old, but they didn't light up with contrast like they were a recent change.  Nevertheless, you have to investigate.  They told me this could be nothing, but they were going to call in a neurologist who specializes in degenerative diseases of the brain.  I tried to remain calm, and just tried to wait until he woke before I panicked.

Then Wednesday he woke up.  And his eyes just stared into space.  Expressionless.  Motionless.  Dr. A pulled me into the hall and said that he believed he was "locked in."  Meaning Hunter was fully aware of what was happening, he just couldn't make his eyes track or focus.  He also made zero attempts to move his lips to respond to anything.  When pinched, he furrowed his brows.  He would look up when asked, look down, and blink once when asked.  We told him blink once for yes, twice for no.  He told us he understood that the demyelination that was taking place in the rest of the body had robbed him of his ability to communicate.  I don't think I have to spell it out any more.  Mark and Jana immediately got in the car and headed our way.  We had a meeting set up at 1:30 with the neurologist who reviewed his scans and case history.  I don't know how, but I made it until Mark and Jana and my mom arrived.  Debbie Wessel cancelled her trip to New York to come sit with us.  It felt like I was getting ready to find out that my life would never be the same.

Thankfully, we heard a lot of positives from this appointment.  The area of concern in his brain was small, and appeared to be consistent with demyelination.  Myelin can and will regenerate.  It will just take time.  He wanted a MRI of the spine to see if damage had also taken place in the spine.  Today we found out this this test was normal.  So, plans are to begin plasmaphoresis tomorrow.  Antibodies in Hunter's blood are attacking his own body, and breaking down the myelin.  He will have five treatments over the next 10 days that will filter out the antibodies and return his blood to him.  This process will take about 90 minutes each time.  They feel like this will speed up his recovery.  There are risks involved in this treatment, and we turn them over for prayers and place Hunter in the Lord's hands.

Mark and Jana report that Hunter is much more alert today.  He is turning his head.  Mark mentioned that it was cold out and Hunter looked toward the window.  Jana asked if he loved his mom and he blinked once.  We don't know how long this healing will take, but no one has lead us to believe that it won't happen.  This is so so very cruel.

 I ask for prayers that his healing comes quickly, and that he regains communication and strength at a rate that could only come from answered prayers.  Thank you to all of you who pray for our family, often times when you don't exactly know what to say.  My prayers get shorter and shorter.  Lately, they've been "Lord, I give Hunter's lungs to you.  Please take care of them."  He is currently breathing very well with very little assistance from the ventilator.  They tell us it's not much different that what trach collar is like.  What a blessing.  His hemoglobin is not high, but it's not terrible either.    

As we continue to walk this path, we are glad for all the people who are carrying us when we fall.  I can think of countless friends that have met our needs in this hard time.  Please pray that this new treatment will bring Hunter to his full health.  Pray that he can get rid of the infection in this lungs, that his blood becomes healthier after the antibodies are filtered out, and that he will feel comfort and peace during this time of great suffering.  Lord, please protect him against all the "what ifs" and help us to be the kind of support that Hunter and our boys need right now.  Our doctors have said that they already know we've run a marathon, but there's still more that we have to travel.  They said to consider this more like an Ironman.  Please continue to pray for Sadie.  She's had a great week of growth after her infection. Much love to team Hanner.     

Hunter has spent anywhere from 5-9 hours a day off the ventilator over the past five days.  Saturday he even got to go outside for a little bit.  Eventually he will progress to stretching all day on the trach collar and resting on the vent at night, then move to totally breathing on his own around the clock.  That will be a happy day.  Once he's totally on the trach collar (which just provides humidified oxygen), he can move out of ICU and to the floor.  We are trying to be patient to not push his body too hard, but still make gains in strength in his breathing muscles.  His antibiotic course for his pneumonia finished yesterday, and hopefully that will help his blood counts improve.  He has a small pocket showing on x-ray in his lower right lobe that isn't exchanging oxygen like it should, and with exercise it should reinflate properly.  We are praying for his white count to come up as right now he's neutropenic, meaning his body does not have many infection fighting cells.  His hemoglobin is trending up, but it's still below where it should be.  

Rehab progress will be a slow.  He won't just step out of bed and walk tomorrow.  The last few days his therapists have been working with him on sitting on the side of the bed.  Once they sit him up, he is able to hold himself up with minimal support.  He is getting better at using his arms to balance as he practices leaning forward, backwards, and sideways.  Today he was able to maintain his legs on the stool.  In the past we've had to hold his ankles or knees to keep them from flopping to the side.  He was able to push off with his legs and do a little to help slide his body backwards in bed, but that was really tough.  This is truly an exercise in patience.  After about 15 minutes sitting up, he's exhausted.  Pray for those nerves to continue to heal and make connections so his normal movement can return.  He will totally have to rebuild the muscles in his body.  Thankfully, we are at just the facility to make that happen.  The doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and physical therapists are all incredibly encouraging and we are so thankful for their dedication and knowledge.  They celebrate every little gain with us.        

As always, I ask for prayers specifically for Hunter's lungs to be fully healthy, nerves to heal, muscles to regrow, and for his marrow to kick out healthy amounts of red and white cells.  We ask for prayers for Hunter to stay infection free while he's neutropenic and still on a ventilator.  Hunter's specific request is for less anxiety.  Every moment of his day is a mental and physical battle weather it's turning in bed on the ventilator, or talking himself into breathing on his own on the trach collar.  Not to even mention how hard therapy is for him.  When he can conquer some of the anxiety with his breathing, life will get much easier for him.  Macey and Chase ask for prayers for Sadie to continue to poop, and to tolerate increased feedings so she can put on weight.  It is a great source of strength for our family to give these prayer requests over to the many on team Hanner who pray for us.