A sick little girl in the ward…

There’s a very sick little girl in our ward.  It’s actually the Bishop’s daughter and she (and her family) can use all the prayers and good thoughts you can give her.  Her name’s Clarine, she’s 3 1/2 and in the hospital for pneumonia.  The whole family’s been sick (there are five in the immediate family) but Clarine ended up in the hospital either Wednesday or Thursday with pneumonia.  At this point, they think the family had swine flu but by the time any of them went to the doctor, it was too late to test them.  However, as it’s the only thing really going around right now, it probably was swine flu.  The bishop ended up with pneumonia as well, while his wife and one of his sons both had bronchitis out of it.  Anyway, there’s been one miracle already.  On Thursday morning it looked like they were going to have to do surgery to insert a drainage tube as Clarine had a large mass of fluid between her lungs and chest wall.  At some point through this she had a Priesthood blessing and when they did a CT scan at 2 PM so the surgeon could see where the put the tube, the fluid was gone.  However, she’s still very sick.  Her body was having problems fighting off the pneumonia (which they believe is viral in nature) and breathing at the same time, so they’ve put her on a ventilator to give her body a rest.  So she’s got a feeding tube and is sedated.  Best case scenario is that she’s on the ventilator 5-7 days before coming off it and being moved out of ICU and into a regular room for probably 2 weeks before going home.  So even in the best case scenario, it’s going to be a long few weeks for Clarine and her parents.  We had a short prayer service after church today.  It was the first time there’d ever been one in any of the wards I’ve attended over the years.  A member of the stake presidency is from our ward (he actually was our Bishop, then while still our Bishop was called to the Stake Presidency and then a year ago he was released and our current Bishop was Called) and he and his wife were in our ward today.  He gave the prayer in the special meeting right after church.  Considering the number of families with small children, the prayer meeting was well attended by the ward.  All we can do is pray for her recovery and leave the rest in the Lord’s hands.  At least she’s in the right place, as there’s a good Children’s Hospital right here so that’s where she is.  My mom went over to the hospital right afterwards (I’d already left and my mom didn’t bother telling me she was going . . . ) so she and I’ll go later in the week after work.  I won’t be able to see Clarine, but I need to go for her mother as well. Her mother is one of my friends – she’s always the one who plays for me when I sing in Sacrament meeting.  My mom said that for now, Clarine’s holding her own and that’s important.  So please, keep Clarine and her family in your prayers today and in the coming days.

"Life is measured not by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."