Elijah's Condition

For those of you who are interested, I've decided to write a note to fill everyone in on the situation with Elijah. So here goes...

Saturday night we noticed that Elijah was looking sick and starting to wheeze. Since he was hospitalized in March with pneumonia and influenza we didn't want to take any chances so we brought him in to the emergency room about 9:00 Saturday night. They ran some tests, his level of oxygen in the blood was good at about 98%. They did an x-ray and saw a little fluid in his right lung. They also looked in his ears and determined that both of them were infected. They said he had a little pneumonia and sent us home with antibiotics and a nebulizer for regular albuterol treatments. He made it through that night ok, coughing and wheezing and a little fever, but nothing too concerning. The next day he seemed a little better, still wheezing and coughing and sounding congested, but eating fine and playing a little bit. Later in the evening we put him down for bed and heard him waking up occasionally and crying and going back to sleep. Finally around 10pm he woke up again and we picked him up and noticed that his chest was heaving, his nostrils were flaring, and he was turning slightly blue. We immediately left and took him back to the hospital in Cedar Rapids. They did tests right away, his oxygen level was barely 50% so they immediately started a constant albuterol treatment. They took an x-ray and realized that his right lung was completely collapsed, a hugely significant change from the night before. They decided to transport us by ambulance a half hour away to the University of Iowa hospital in Iowa City.

When we got to UIHC they brought him directly to the pediatric ICU and spent the night mostly trying to keep his oxygen level up. We were allowed in early in the morning after they had him mostly stabilized. They continued doing tests to determine why his lungs were failing, including putting a camera into his lungs and asophagus and looking for foreign objects that may have clogged his airway. They found nothing. All they could see was that his lungs were very red and swollen and there was a lot of pus, which they also discovered had no bacteria in it. So they were ruling out a lot of scenarios, but not necessarily getting any closer to determining what the problem was. They were still assisting his breathing by manually pumping air into him, but since his right lung was completely collapsed, his left lung was working too hard and they were afraid it could burst or fail or a number of things could go wrong if they continued to force air into his lungs.

They finally reached a point where they told us they were going to have to put him on an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) which is basically a machine that takes over his lung function. They insert a tube into his jugular vein and his blood is pumped through the tube into the machine which puts oxygen into it, then it is pumped back into his body. They went ahead with this surgery Monday afternoon, the surgery went well but he still wasn't getting enough oxygen through it, so they put him on a ventilator as well. The ventilator is not working as hard as it would without the ECMO machine, but together they are both working enough to keep the right amount of oxygen in his blood. This means his lungs are still doing some work, but not near as much pressure is on them as it was when they were pumping air in. Their original goal was to slowly turn the ventilator off until he is getting enough oxygen on the ECMO alone so that his lungs can be completely shut off, but they were talking this morning and the two working together are doing the job just fine without making his lungs worse so they may keep him like this for a while and see what happens. Initially after the surgery they did some x-rays of his lungs and they had already improved, there is some function in both of them, but they are not near healed, just a small improvement. However since that initial improvement, they have been at a stand-still. So now we are at a point where we are just waiting to see what is going to happen. They are constantly monitoring him, someone has to be in the room at all times. They are doing frequent x-rays of his lungs to see if there are any changes. They are also still completely stumped as to what has caused this and are waiting for some more test results to come back. We will be in a waiting period now for several weeks before we know anything.
He is out of immediate danger because he has enough oxygen and his body is not fighting anymore. However, in order to use the ECMO his blood has been thinned and that means extra risk of internal bleeding, so we have to be on the lookout for that. Also, he is completely dependent on this machine for life right now. If he doesn't heal on his own there will be a point where they have to turn the machine off. The doctor told us to be prepared for this situation. He also told us that it is only a 50/50 chance whether Elijah will be able to survive again without this machine.

I know that because he is currently "critically stable" people have a tendency to forget he is in danger, but I cannot stress enough that he is in extreme danger and we need you to keep praying, please don't forget!

Chris and I are desperate for your prayers and we appreciate so much all the support we have gotten from everyone. We cannot tell you how much it means to us. We are extremely scared but we can tell that people have been praying for our peace because we are at peace and we are believing and having faith that Elijah will make it through this. We know that God is greater than this illness and we know He can defeat it. We are trying not to be afraid, because fear is not of God. Elijah is in His hands and that is enough for us.

Thank you again for everything, we will continue to update if anything changes. I will either update on here or on my facebook or both, so if you are interested or if you are praying please read them so you can stay informed.

Again, this is going to take several weeks, so please don't forget us or give up on us. Please keep Elijah in your prayers.