Ups and Downs

Good morning, Friends,

Each day is a new adventure!

On Thursday Jayden had his biopsy. The procedure went very well; however, that same day he had began breathing really hard and his oxygen saturation went down. The doctor took a lung X-ray, but that revealed no problems. The doctor also did some blood work on Jayden and those tests showed that his platlette (not sure how that is spelled) level was low and that he was still anemic. They took more samples from him to study the cultures to see if he had some sort of infection. In the meantime, they gave him another blood transfusion.

As of yesterday, the cultures showed nothing. We'll see today if anything has grown over the last 24 hours. His platlette level increased, but not as much as the doctor wanted, so Jayden received another blood transfusion yesterday. The blood transfusions are causing him to retain a lot of fluid in his little body, which may be the cause of his breathing difficulties. They are giving him diaretics to help him pass that liquid, and as of yesterday evening he had lost 3 ounces of fluids. He was breathing MUCH better after that.

He now weighs about 3 pounds and 5 ounces. Of course, it all depends on how much fluid he's retaining!! However, he is growing consistently. He is also now keeping down the milk. He's getting 6 cc's of milk every 3 hours!!! That's his personal best! He is having trouble having bowel movements, which is of some concern. At this point he's having some help moving things along! :) However, he needs to start doing that on his own!

Yesterday the nurse also informed me that he is maintaining his body temperature on his own! The incubator was set to the lowest temperature and he was still able to keep his temperature regulated!! That means he will soon be moving out of the incubator into what the nurses call a "big boy bed." I'm sooooo excited about that! Once he moves to that bed, I'll be able to hold him as much as I want because we won't have to worry about him getting cold. I'm looking foward to that a lot.

Thanks for your continued prayers. I'm learning that one day may be rough, but the next day may be smooth sailing. It's rough on the emotions, but the good days are like a breath of fresh air after the bad days.

Please pray for Gerson. This morning (at the time I'm typing this) he is in his pre-defense in Bolivia. As of last night, he was still trying to tie up loose ends concerning the equipment he needed for his power point presentation. He took our laptop, but he was missing a cable to make it work with the projector he has at his disposal. I don't know how it has all turned out, but am trusting that the Lord provided for him. Gerson sounded very tired last night and had spent HOURS walking around Santa Cruz looking for that missing cable, only to be unable to find it. He was pretty discouraged. So, do continue to pray for him. He has his final defense on Monday morning.

Thanks, again, for your prayers, emails, phone calls, words of encouragement, Scripture verses, and overall love and support. We can feel it! We love and appreciate all of you!

Biospsy Scheduled

As you've probably noticed, I don't write a new post every day. If you don't see a new post, it's usually because there's nothing new to report. When I get new information, I usually write to update you and tell you what I know.

Yesterday I was told that the surgeons weren't going to do the rectal biopsy on Jayden until he grew some more. The doctor decided to have have the nurses give Jayden my milk again and see what would happen. They started his feedings again yesterday afternoon and when I left, all was well.

This morning when I went in, the nurse informed me that the surgeons had decided to go ahead and schedule the biospy for tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Jayden had done a great job of keeping the milk down, but he wasn't having bowel movements.

Please pray for Jayden, Mommy, Daddy, and the doctors tomorrow morning as he has the rectal biopsy done. Basically, they will take tissue from his intestine to see if he has the nerves and muscles necessary to digest and push food through his digestive system. We won't get the results back for several days (possibly a week!).

I'm having a hard time knowing HOW to ask you to pray. If the biopsy shows he is missing nerves/muscles, he will likely have to have surgery but at least we will know what the problem is and the doctors should be able to fix it. However, having surgery always has risks and the recovery may take awhile. If the biopsy doesn't show any abnormalities, that would be good in that he wouldn't have to undergo surgery (at least at this point), but we would be back to square one as far as figuring out what the problem is with his digestive system. So, I'm a little befuddled as far as how I want all of this to turn out. I guess pray for widsom for the doctors, peace for Gerson and me as we wait, and that God will continue to heal Jayden's body -- either supernaturally or through the doctors.

Once again, thank you for praying. We sense the Lord's hand upholding us in these days.

The Journey Continues

Dear Friends,

The road sometimes feels so long. I guess that's where I'm at right now --- with what appears to be a long road stretched out before me. I know the end is out there, but it's so hard to see!

All my company is gone now. Today is the first day since Jayden's birth that I've been all by myself. Jamie left early this morning, and even Trent and Liz traveled this weekend. So, it's been weird to have no one around.

I went to the hospital around mid-morning. I took a book to read and stayed there until 4:00 PM. The nurse allowed me to hold Jayden for a whole hour today! He held my hand for that entire hour. He has quite the vice-like grip! I sang to him and prayed for him as I sat there with him in my arms. I also cried. It was so hard to see him hooked up to so many tubes and wires.

The doctor told me today that they will be doing a biopsy on his intestine (I think the large intestine) sometime this week. They are looking for the reason why he's having such a hard time digesting my milk. It will take 4-5 days to get the results of the biopsy, so we'll just have to wait in the meantime. He's currently not feeding on my milk; rather, he's back to the IV for his nutrients. Even though he's been on mostly IV nutrients, he contines to grow. He's up to 3 pounds 3 ounces!

On another good note, his chest X-ray this morning came back clearer than yesterday's X-ray. This means he's responding to the antibiotic. He was also the fiesty Jayden we are used to. He was pulling on his tubes, crying when he was mad, and not wanting to cooperate at all when the nurse was doing something to him!! It was good to see his fighting spirit was back.

Tomorrow he may get his tubes off for the air that he is on. Today he was bloated and retaining a lot of fluid, probably due to the humid, hot air that he is breathing through the tubes. His breathing was better today, and his loud cries assured us that his lungs are back on their way to being VERY healthy, so the doc is hopeful that tomorrow at some point he'll be breathing on his own again without all those bulky tubes.

The doctor also told me we could have a longer road ahead of us than what was expected due to these setbacks --- mostly this problem with his digestive system. I was not encouraged by that, but I also know that he's in a place where he is getting excellent care.

Pray for strength for me as I make decisions without Gerson beside me. Pray for Gerson as he is far away and wishes he could be here with us (also be praying for his thesis defense on the 8th). Pray for Jayden as continues to fight off infection. And pray for the doctors as they look for what is causing the digestive problem and decide on treatment. Thanks.