"Do the Next Thing"
- kathrynsubas
- Apr 28, 2025
- 4 min read
My devotion this week had this beautiful poem in it, that's about taking the next step and following God's direction in obedience, whatever that may look like. This poem really spoke to me and I hope it will encourage you in your own walk!
Do the Next Thing
By Elisabeth Elliot
"Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt, hath it's quieting here.
Moment by moment let down from Heaven,
Time, opportunity, guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,
Trust them with Jesus. Do the next thing.
Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliably, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,
Leave all resultings, Do the next thing."
Grace has had 113 mls of Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) removed from her head since she received the Ommaya on Monday afternoon. This was a step of faith to go forward with this surgery, and God has provided Himself faithful through it! Grace has remained stable, with none of the side effects coming to fruition (seizures, deep and extended bratties or desats, heart failure, blood loss, low blood pressure, etc). She received an ultrasound on Friday after 4 days of taps to determine if another one was necessary. The ultrasound showed that her ventricles were still quite full, and her Neuro Team decided to tap that day, and the next before getting another ultrasound. Because her fontanelles are much softer and no longer bulging Grace is at risk of over tapping, so she had another ultrasound yesterday morning to confirm whether or not she needed another tap. It was again determined that she did, as well as today too. She handles the taps quite well and is usually quite sleepy afterwards, however, we have noticed she opens her eyes more now and is much more active! This is so great to see after weeks of her becoming less responsive and barely engaging with us due to the pressure in her brain. She will get another ultrasound tomorrow.
On Thursday she came off the ventilator, and was extubated back to non invasive oxygen support. They attempted to do it on Wednesday as she passed the test in the morning, but it failed. They think she may have just gotten a bit lazy with her breathing as the ventilator was doing the hard work for her 😂 Grace started first with CMV settings, which gives her a set amount of strong puffs of air per minute. This setting helps her lungs expand with air better and remind her to breath. After doing well with this Grace went back to her previous CPAP settings on Friday night. This setting is just a constant flow of air, and offers less assistance, although her pressures were high to start, and were slowly weaned down.
This week Grace has also been having an increase in eye excretions (eye gunk gluing her eyes shut) and her eyes appear puffy. They are keeping tabs on it to make sure it doesn't get worse, and massaging around her eyes to unclog any potential blocked ducts. If it doesn't improve they will swab it and send it for testing to make sure she hasn't gotten bacteria/infection in there some how. Sometimes the air from CPAP can cause eye irritation, but its important to make sure its nothing more, as preemie eyes are already at risk of developmental issues, and an infection could cause damage to already sensitive and immature eyes.
Grace got her first manicure this week, done by her favourite aunt! Her nails had gotten insanely long and she kept scratching herself. The hospital didn't have any baby nail gear so we got a nail file which allowed Nat to give Grace some special spa treatment 😊
Grace's stoma output has remained high so she has been stuck at 6ml of fresh breast milk every 2 hours. They have now started using Imodium to try and bring her output down. The reason for such large volumes in comparison to her feeds is that her stoma is right before her large intestine which normally removes all the liquid from stool. The goal is to get her back up to full feeds, as her weight has remained stagnant the last few days. Although she now weighs just over 3 pounds and is 33 weeks, which is crazy! 9 weeks ago I never would have imagined we'd make it to this point 🙏🏼
Sam and I both got to hold Grace again this week! We did skin to skin on two of the days and then we also held her swaddled. I told Sam that I am going to just start taking her out to hold regardless if it's an inconvenience or not. There is always so much going on in the room (with other babies) and if I wait for a good time when nothing is going on and it's perfect for the staff then I will never get to hold my daughter! Today it took me waiting by her bedside, for over 6 hrs, to hold Grace. Eventually I started to just organize her wires, unhook things, open her incubator, and wrap her up on my own before the nurse got the hint that I was done waiting. I will say that I was quite proud of myself in that moment though! I remained polite and kind, while also being assertive and a momma to Grace.
Prayer Requests:
Grace remains stable and that her brain does well with all the taps.
That the cyst (pocket if fluid) on her Left Parietal Lobe (found a few ultrasounds ago, likely caused by the PVL) does not get worse or cause damage. Praying that it goes away!
That Grace continues to become more alert, and responsive to us!
Prayers that her breathing requirements would continue to go down.
For Sam and I as we officially move the last of our things out of our apartment this weekend.
That EI payments would happen faster! I am still waiting from my application that I did mid March (it's been approved, but just taking a long time to be processed).
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