Daley Ponderings

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with
hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
    Romans 15:13

Not much changed last night, although Isaac's heartbeat did return to a normal pace. The doctors have said that in general, all other organs besides the brain can recover reasonably well from a period of lack of oxygen, and that seems to be true for Isaac.

Had a sort of hard conversation with the neurologist and organ donation person today. I guess I just switch into a "medical mode" when I am talking with them, which makes it easier to think and cope with the information I receive.

The doctors have said that basically Isaac has been dead since Thursday, although the jerking movements he makes regularly, which are based just on nerves, and not brain activity, are all that keep him from being clinically brain dead.
We asked to have him taken off the ventilator early this afternoon. Prior to that, we requested that they remove the EEG wires from his head, and remove the various monitors and IV lines.
He was also weighed and measured, since that hadn't been done before. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 13 ounces. (Heather sometimes affectionately refers to him as "The Chunk")
The three of us (mom, Heather and I) were able to wash him, which was quite nice, although it wasn't a whole lot of fun to have to pull the glue (from the EEG wires) and various other sticky things left over from birth off of him.

The doctor said that after they turned off the air, and we had gone into a small, private room, that he would have to come in every half hour and check his heart rate. I tried to get them to not do that, and told them that I was able to check his heartbeat, but they didn't believe me. So, the doctor did come in once, and after taking forever to calculate the heartrate, started explaining it was low (I was listening periodically, so I knew it was slowing down), and I encouraged him to not bother explaining and leave, but he didn't seem to hear. Eventually, the nurse dragged him out and closed the door. Yay for Cathy (that was one of Isaac's nurses).

Isaac did cry once while we were in the private room. It was really great to hear him cry, as he hadn't cried prior to that at all. He died after about an hour (3:32PM).

John and Alissa Kuhns had been reading in scripture, the various times where people, particularly children had been raised from the dead, and so had asked us last night if John could come in to pray for Isaac after he died. We figured that we would be faithful in following God's word, and believing in Him, that He can work miracles if He so chooses, so we accepted John's offer. As John was praying, I looked at Heather and saw her the most beautiful I have ever seen her. She was thinking of the second verse of "I Offer My Isaac" and raising her arms as high as she could, saying, "My hands are free to praise You now."

However, God, in His sovereignty, chose to not raise Him from the dead. Nevertheless, I pray that God would be glorified in and through Isaac's life with us.

Prayer requests:
  That all the official stuff that needs to be done, autopsy (required -- tried to get out of it, but I am told it is the law), funeral home, paperwork, etc. would not be a hard process, but would go quickly
  That we and the rest of our family, would be able to grieve, but also through God's mercy, rejoice always, giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for us in Christ Jesus.