Emily UPDATE: 6-25-02 It was Friday, June 21st and Joe and I were sitting in an airplane on the tarmack at D. F. W. airport in Dallas , waiting in a long line to take off for New York City and a short vacation with our daughter. I had not been able to reach my sister by phone to check on Emily, so I decided to make one last effort. There was no answer. I called my mother who also lives in Oklahoma. "Where ARE you?" she asked, "We've been trying to reach you!" "We're on an airplane about to take off for New York City...this is the weekend that we pick up Deborah for a short getaway. What's wrong?" I asked. "I think Emily's dying " Mother said. "What happened? I thought she was stable!" "Obviously not. Her body is shutting down and I don't think that this time they're going to be able to bring her out of it." My heart sank into an empty void and tears began to flow. The stewardess came over the intercom to tell us to turn off all cell phones so I had to wait until I reached New York City to call again. When the call was made, there were only more tears to shed. God had reached down from heaven and had in his most loving of ways had said, "Come home my child, it's the last mile you must trod. She fell asleep and woke in God's new heaven, sheltered safe within the arms of God. " Emily's Aunt Mary UPDATE: 6-13-02 EMILY'S THURSDAY Did we hear the doctor say, "...it just means that when she's down and playing, that she'll get winded...". He was responding to a question presented because we had just been told that Emily would be on THIS ventilator at least a couple of months and that she would then be returned to the original ventilator . But these few little words meant so much to Aaron and Becky because this meant that the medical stafff sees Emily coming home, being well and playing like other children! The doctor and nurses explained that while this is going to be a VERY long recovery, Emily IS expected to recovery now. They admitted that upon admission and many times since, that they had serious doubts about her survival. But today, Thursday June 13, 2002, Emily's GETTING WELL! So this is going to be my last "Emily update". We're going to DAILY send up praises and thanksgiving for God's miracles of healing and Emily's family will ever thank Him for the family of Christ that has loved us and prayed for us as well as Emily during this crisis. "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord shine His countenance upon you and be gracious to you...." Aunt Mary UPDATE: 6-11-02 EMILY'S TUESDAY: We continue to praise God....Emily remains stable. She has been having problems with her lungs in that during the crisis, She apparently bled into the chest cavity .This has caused pressure on her lungs and reduces the oxygen level in her blood. The doctors are afraid to increase the oxygen through the ventilator because they could "blow the lung" which means the lungs could develop a hole and then the lungs would collapse. They say that they may have to put her on a different form of ventilator but they're trying to wait this problem out. Emily receives chemotherapy again today and because of our experiences in the past, we are ofcourse a little nervous about this. We are however told that this must be done so we're just asking God to make this time easy on Emily. Emily's now resting on a gel bed...sounds wonderful doesn't it! She breathes better and her blood gases remain more stable if she's on her stomach so I like to think that my little angel's resting on a cloud of jello! We have SOOOO much to be thankful for today and we DO offer the praise and thanksgiving to our heavenly Father for all He has done! "What a Mighty God We Serve !" Aunt Mary UPDATE: 6-10-02 EMILY’S MONDAY "OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING!" God continues to keep his angels of healing around Emily . Her condition continues to be stable. She’s receiving antibiotic,Lasix (that’s a medicine for swelling) and blood. They put her back on the ventilator during the time of crisis and they want to keep her on it for a little longer...just to give her body a chance to rest. Her heart rate is good. Today, we’re asking for prayers of agreement for the following: 1) That the swelling will go down 2) That this experimental drug they have her on for her kidneys will continue to protect her kidneys and prevent kidney failure. 3) That her uric acid levels will go down. 4) That the temperature will stay down. Thank you prayer warriors for your continued strength in battle for Emily. Mary UPDATE: 6-09-02 PRAISE THE LORD!!!! Last night was incredible! About 6:15, the doctors told Aaron and Becky to call the grandparents back to the hospital. When the family arrived, the medical staff had prepared the room next to Emily's as a "family room". They had all the drapes pulled in it except for the one that allowed viewing of Emily's room. Aaron and Becky were in masks, caps, gowns standing by Emily's bed. The doctors told the parents and family that it was just a matter of minutes before Emily would code(that means die) and they needed to know if we wanted them to use the paddles or what we wanted them to do. The told Aaron and Becky that they could remove their masks, caps etc...they weren't needed now. They let down the sides of the bedrails and told Becky to climb up in the bed and hold her baby. Beck did, then she and Aaron began telling Emily how much they loved her...they were saying their good byes. Our hearts were breaking and praying all at the same time! The doctos and nurses were watching the monitors at the nurses station , when one of the doctors hurriedly came into Emily's room and said, "Whatever you're doing, keep it up.... don't stop, don't stop!" They brought equipment in and drew blood and hurried out again. The family stood wondering "what's happening?" They then moved the family to a room outside the ICU where waiting seemed like and eternity! Then the woman doctor appeared in the door. Her beautiful smile spoke before she did. "Well..." she said, "it looks like someone else is in charge here!" Emily's bleeding had stopped, her heart monitor had without reason became stable, her blood gases (the blood drawn in the room) revealed numbers better than they had been since admission! Emily's breathing had smoothed out! The doctor said, "If her little heart gives way now, we're going for it because NOW we have something to work with!" To quote one of our internet prayer warriors, "God snatched Emily AGAIN from death's door!" The doctor cried, the nurses cried and WE cried! Was this a MIRACLE, what do YOU think? Mary UPDATE: 6-08-02 Forgive me for not giving an update on Friday. I was traveling back to Dallas. Things are NOT going well for Emily. As you know her white count is zero so she has no immunity of her own. Our worst nightmare came true yesterday. Soon after she was awakened and taken off the ventilator, she began running a temperature. We didn't know if this was coincidental or if the temperature was due to the chemotherapy she had been given or what was happening. As it turns out, Emily has an infection . She's being given very strong antibiotics and blood platlets and absolutely no one ( not even her parents) are allowed in the room now. The closest they can get to her are the glass doors to her ICU room. So PLEASE pray fervantly this weekend for Emily. She's going to need all the prayers we can offer up for her! Mary UPDATE: 6-06-02 Grandmother Sonja got the update today. Emily had chemotherapy last night and she was told the "stats are good this morning". She's getting platelets and if everything continues to be good today, they'll wake her up and take her off the ventilator either this evening or tomorrow. A room finally opened up in "Parent's Hotel" in the hospital, so the parents got a good nights sleep last night . They were able to rest knowing that they were right there in the hospital and the ICU nurses would call them if anything happened. Becky (Emily's mom) is feeling much better this morning! So the dawn of this day has truly brought joy! "LORD, WE ENTER YOUR GATES WITH THANKSGIVING IN OUR HEARTS WE ENTER YOUR COURTS WITH PRAISE!" Mary UPDATE: 6-05-02 Today, we're praying that God will manifest Emily's healing by keeping her germ free during this period of time that she has no immunity of her own. She's resting well in the "twilight sleep" they have her in and her gospel music tape just keeps playing, keeping her blood pressure down! Becky, Emily's Mother is not feeling well. Please keep the family in your prayers also. This is just an AWFUL time for this to happen! AND Aaron's parents, Sue and Rodney, are forced to go back to work so they're having to keep in touch by cell phone now. This is SOOO hard for them! The battles keep coming but praise God , so does our Lord! Mary UPDATE: 6-04-02 6:10 PM The doctor came out with smiles. He says the whole medical staff is amazed at the ability of this baby to respond to their efforts. She should have died so many times and yet she's here with us and ever so slightly improving again. The doctor has put a feeding tube down her nose and she received formula this afternoon. He says that if she continues to progress like she has in the past 24 hours, he'll allow her to wake up in two days. He's amazed...but we're not are we? "Oh Lord our God, how GREAT thou art." Mary UPDATE: 6-04-02 1:27 PM This is the latest on Emily: 1) Her white count is now zero. This means that she has no immunity of her own. She is therefore been put in "isolation" mode within the ICU. Evey one who comes near her must wear cap, gown and booties. 2) Her blood pressure is high and they think this may be because she's in pain so they're increasing her Morphine. 3) Inspite of this , we're told that she's "holding her own". 4) Her dad's family is a gospel music family so when the nursing staff ask if Emily liked music, every one lit up, remembering how Emily LOVES to try to sing along when the family practices and records. Now the tape is played continuously because she just seems to relax when she hears it! Mary UPDATE: 6-04-02 12:24 PM Saying "thank you" doesn't seem enough for your commitment to be a prayer warrior for our precious Emily. This demon has been truly Awful! It took 36 hours before the doctors named this demon leukemia. But Sunday we thought we'd finally turned a major corner in Emily's status. Things looked good. They must have looked good to the doctors to because they gave her chemotherapy at noon and things went down hill from there. Yesterday, Monday morning, she became much worse and she then she began to improve. Hours of touch and go went by before she was stablized again. We all took a deep breath and collapsed in prayers of praise. Now it's Tuesday morning and the wait continues. We feel like "watchmen on the wall". Nerves are kept on edge and everybody in the family waiting room is exhausted ! So you see, we need your continued prayers for all the new battle fronts! Mary Update: 6-03-02 3:17 PM Eastern PRAISE THE LORD!!!! KEEP PRAYING!!!! It's 1:40 here and Emily is still with us! The doctor says the bleeding has slowed down. She's still VERY critical ! Please pray that we'll have the peace of the Father in heaven and can walk this day by faith and not by sight! Mary Emily's aunt This just in....Please pray....10:30 am Elizabeth: One of the doctors just came out to tell us that they're loosing Emily. Her little body just couldn't take the chemo on top of the crisis. Mary Update: 6-03-02 Note: Emily is at Children's Hospital, Oklahoma City. Thank you SOOOO much for your prayers. They are MOST needed and MOST appreciated. I don't know if you have received the update so forgive me if I repeat myself. We went almost 36 hours before the doctors gave us a diagnosis. When it came, we were all in shock. I guess the doctors just wanted to make sure before they told a young couple that their first and only child has leukemia. They said that they needed to start chemotherapy as soon as possible but her little body was just to weak and unstable. This morning when her parents went in to the pediatric ICU unit for their visit (they're only allowed in every 2 hours for 15 minutes), they thought Emily looked a little better. There was no bleeding from her mouth, they thought she looked less swollen, her temperature had gone down and she was awake. This was such sweet news to our ears. The doctors then decided to proceed with the chemotherapy and so at noon she had her first chemo session. It's now Sunday evening at 7:57 and Emily is not doing well. The nurses say that her body was not ready for the chemo and so now the temperature's rising, the swelling is back , she's having trouble breathing and she's struggling. My prayer request this eveing is that we pray for rest... rest for Emily and rest for her poor parents. They've had no rest since this ordeal began. They try to sleep in the family waiting room but other families are coming and going, turning the TV off and on(just the usual things you would expect when several families are sharing one waiting room). We have ofcourse tried to get them to go home for at least a couple of hours but they just can't bring themselves to leave. And I do understand. Will you help me pray that this evening will be a quiet one in the family waiting room? Thank you! Mary Poyner Emily's Aunt Added: 6-03-02 Emily is barely one year old. She has light brown hair, dark brown eyes, chubby cheeks and a smile that captures your heart! Emily became ill yesterday and as the day progressed, she grew worse. Her parents, Aaron and Becky Akers took her to Baptist Hospital in Okla. City where she was immediately admitted to pediatric ICU. Normal blood white count is 8-12K, Emily's was over 100K on admission and has risen to 175K. Her little body is fighting for it's life! Emily is being transported by LifeFlight to Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City. EMILY NEEDS YOUR PRAYERS NOW ! WILL YOU PRAY? We thank you in advance and pray that God will grant YOU blessings as you pray for Emily. Mary and Joe Poyner Aunt and Uncle