One step forward and two steps back.
Last night was quite a night. It turns out that Eli has an infection (thus his reoccurring fevers). At first, they thought it was in his port. They didn’t want the risk of something else getting infected, so they went ahead and pulled the temporary central line with Dr. L’s blessing. Then they got clarification on the report and found out that it was the central line that showed an infection after all, so it’s good that they took it out. They also found something growing in his urine culture. The infections basically require two 5 day antibiotics, so now we’re here until at least Thursday.
They suspect that there is a small leak through the stitches in the bowel that caused the infection and it got into his blood stream and his urine. So the best bet is to let the antibiotics do their thing.
In addition, they ordered a chest xray because Eli’s oxygen just isn’t stable enough on it’s own. They wanted to see if his lungs looked ok. They looked great, which is the good news, but they saw the upper part of his intestines were very distended, so they sent him back down an hour later for another xray, this time of the abdomen. Sure enough, his intestines were full of gas, and the best way to get rid of that was the NG tube. Ugh. So they put the NG tube in and it immediately started hissing as it released some air.
Unfortunately, Eli woke up disoriented a few hours later and pulled it out. So they had to put in another NG tube and this time they taped it all over his face so it wouldn’t come out again.
So with two NG insertions and a temp line removal, he had a pretty rough night. I think our neighbors did too. This morning I noticed they were gone and are now in the private room next door. I’m genuinely happy for them, although I have to say that his yelling and crying was pretty minimal considering the things they were doing to him. It just happened to be all going on after midnight.
His belly looks slightly less distended this morning, but definitely still full and tight. The good news is that there is significantly more bowel sounds today and he even had a few stools and passed some gas. Sorry for being graphic, but that’s exciting stuff around here because that’s exactly what we want. If he can pass that gas out on his own, that means his bowels are doing their thing.
So today’s prayer list looks something like this:
* No more fevers.
* That the antibiotics will do their magic and get rid of the infection.
* That the NG will relieve some of that gas and that his bowels will get into motion like they should so the NG can come out.
* That Eli’s oxygen levels will improve so he can stop needing the oxygen tank.
Thanks for all of your prayers as always. After sharing that story of the song from a few days ago, my friend John sent me the lyrics to another song I really like, but had never paid attention to the verses before. It is such an articulate way of expressing how I feel through all of this. Thanks, John!
Bring The Rain by MercyMe
I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that
I’ve gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It’s never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings
You glory And I know there’ll
be days When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to
praise You Jesus, bring the rain
I am yours regardless of the clouds that may
loom above because you are much greater than
my pain you who made a way for me suffering
your destiny so tell me whats a little rain
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