Update

(Original appeared April 24, 2016)

Jacob needed yet another blood transfusion today. Not desired but necessary. Also his kidneys are not producing urine. They tried to gently push the process by giving him extra fluids, but all that has done is caused retention. His neck is quite swollen now. They’ve cut down on fluids a bit and instead are trying to kick start things with meds. Hopefully he will wet a diaper sometime very soon.
We are concerned that his brain clotting may cause some hyrdroencephalus (water on the brain) and that there are already some indications of that. They will be taking measurements of his head circumference to detect swelling plus take images each Friday. Unfortunately he is too small to do anything surgical to relieve or fix the issue if the issue persists.
His chest xray (lungs) again looked decent. They’ve been able to wean him a bit on the ventilator and he tolerates it well. He did have a few low O2 moments which could be associated with either his fluid retention or feedings. His blood pressure also dropped and so they’ve run an arterial line (a needle into his calf/ankle) that allows easier blood pressure testing. He took it like a champ.
So many issues and so many challenges and so many solutions to manage. I am amazed at the God-given skills of these nurses and doctors and pray for them constantly.
We took time to join our friends at worship service this morning. What an invigorating thing. Today’s message was “Made for just such a time as this”, using the story of Esther as the illustration (Esther 4:14). The message certainly applied to our situation, and hit home. I recommend reading that story and considering how it applies to your situation. What are we going to do with our opportunity?