A good report

We're back and we come bearing good news! We arrived home from our vacation and took the girls to the doctor Thursday. They had the results from the Oregon culture and Madeline does not have MRSA or anything else; her culture grew absolutely nothing! Praise God!

The doctors in Oregon told us Madeline would have MRSA for life. I learned a little more about antibiotic resistant staph (MRSA) at this appointment. Apparently that only happens once it gets in your bloodstream, and then it is potentially fatal. Madeline's infection was superficial, so she will not have it for the rest of her life. There was a risk of it getting in her blood because she had open, bleeding sores. Thank God, this did not happen. And there would have been a greater risk if this medication didn't work and she had to have IV drugs in the hospital, because she would have had a direct opening in her skin to her bloodstream. Again, thanking God for His protection.

Olivia needed a second culture to be certain her infection was gone. There was nothing on the skin to culture, so they just cultured in her nose even though her last nose culture came back negative. We will continue to keep the girls away from the public until we get her results back, but we believe there is a good chance we will get a call saying she is good to go sometime this week.

Troy is the last to finish his antibiotics and then he will need a new culture. It's still important for him to not spread it, because we also learned the type of staph he has can mutate when it's spread to someone else. So it could be minimal for him, but mutate into MRSA for Madeline.

The doctor said there is no more risk for future infection for us than anyone else. Some of her suggestions for not getting infected again were clean shopping carts off before using, continue using special soap and remove our shoes before walking in our house.

It wasn't all good news for Madeline. The other rash that had appeared on her leg, calf and cheeks is apparently eczema - and a bad case of it. After a few days of treatments, the eczema rash has stopped spreading and seems to be starting to go away. The eczema is a good indication that she has developed an allergy to some food she wasn't previously allergic to -- and is a new allergic symptom for Madeline. We were told to have her tested again for all food allergies. Madeline has a short list of about only 25 foods that she can eat, so it's discouraging to hear that she night have to lose one of those few foods.

Although this might seem like another set back, we are praising God for the first miracle and praying for another. We will be going in Monday night to have allergy testing, for those of you who will continue to pray for her. We are so grateful for the kind words of encouragement you've sent our way. We are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I realized as I wrote tonight that many of you have never even met Madeline and might enjoy a recent picture. Here is one from our vacation in Oregon.

A couple weeks ago, I found this verse and have daily prayed it over Madeline.

"The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

~ Zephaniah 3:17

At the same time, I was visiting LauraLee's blog and she had posted this song with the same verse. It has been resonating in my heart ever since. I knew exactly when I would share it with you - it was when we got the good report. So here it is - enjoy!

For more songs that inspire, visit Amy.