Peace in the Baby Steps

Today was a slightly uneventful day for little Ned. He really needed the rest after yesterday though! I think his body is finally getting acclaimated to the methadone (the oral narcotic) so they started weaning back off the morphine again today around 5:00pm. He began having withdrawal reactions around 8:00, but they weren't as severe as yesterday's. Today, he just spiked a little fever and had increased heart rate. The doctors completely attribute that to the change in the medications, but I believe it was an answer to a very specific prayer. By the time I left aroung 11:00, he was doing much better and had been resting peacefully for a couple hours. They are hoping to turn off his morphine tomorrow morning so tomorrow may be a bit of a rough day for him, but at least it will be behind us....praise God!!! Another praise is that they were fearing that he may be getting an infection with the onset of the fever, but his white blood count was lower than it was this morning, so that pretty much ruled that out!!!!!

Ned went on a field trip today and had a CT scan of his chest. The great news is that everything still looks completely in order from his hernia repair surgery. They were wanting to look at his lungs because his left lung appeared to have some fluid build up. Once they performed the scan, what that actually found was that his left lung was partially collapsed. I know that sounds like a severe incident, but they seemed to prefer it over a fluid problem. The doctors said they would adjust his vent settings to reinflate his lung and give it some extra support for the next couple of days. It is likely that the collapse was caused by his breathing tube being too far down in his lung which was causing some agitation. Because Ned doesn't have a diaphram on that side, if his breathing becomes too labored due to any extra burden, he just doesn't have the muscle support on that side to carry the slack...hence the collapse. I believe a couple days on the new vent settings should correct the left lung, but they'll watch for progress on his daily morning chest x-rays.

The last issue for the day is that Ned is showing some signs of some liver damage. It isn't anything serious, but he's looking a little yellowish. In fact, his nurse tongiht was referring to him as her little oompah loompah (so not sure of the spelling)! The damage is coming from him always receiving all of his nutrition intraveneously from what they call TPN which is basically gatorade in bag. The doctors aren't worried about it, but they woud like to get him switched over to breast milk as soon as possible. Having said that, they are most likely going to trade his feeding tube out tomorrow for an ND tube which will feed past his stomach further into the digestive track, to allieviate stress on stomach function and to reduce spit ups and reflux issues. They don't want him spitting up very often for fear that it will aspirate into his lungs and potentially cause something dangerous for him like pneumonia. It will be such a blessing to have him on normal, digested nutrition because it will help with healing all around.

I have shared so much medical information tonight, I have gotten too sleepy to type what God has been teaching me the past couple days. I'll share first thing in the morning, but I find when I keep typing once I've past the point of holding my eyes open, it makes little sense in the morning when I review it. So, I know God wants me to share everything that He teaches me during this time so that He can be truly glorified, so I'll let you know what I have been learning about pride and being refined in the morning.

Thank you for your continued prayers for my son. The answered prayers are evident daily and I praise God everytime one is answered!! If you get a chance, please review the blog for Baby Seth. His mother, April, recently found out he was diagnosed with CDH. She is heading to CHOP tomorrow for a complete fetal diagnosis. I know what a dark road she is going to travel and she knows it all to well herself. April lost her 2-year-old daughter in 2006 to a diseased that damaged her lungs. Please keep her and her family in your prayers! Thank you all so much! You are so loved for your faithfulness!

Betsy, Travis, Jack & Ned