Prayer is needed yet again

October 20, 2007
Hello everyone. This morning I got a call from the doctors at the NICU about Aiden. At 8:30 am his stool was bloody. Being a big concern they took an x-ray of his belly and chest. Good news is his lungs have cleared tremendously! But it looks like his bowels are sick. It is called Necrotizing Enterocolitis ( NEC for short).

I am unable to explain it, so here is what the medical journal has to say about it, and it is the same thing that the doc's have told us. "Necrotizing" means the death of tissue, "entero" refers to the small intestine, "colo" to the large intestine, and "itis" means inflammation. NEC typically occurs within the first 2 weeks of life, usually after milk feeding has begun (at first, feedings are usually given through a tube that goes directly to the baby's stomach). About 10% of babies weighing less than 1,500 grams (3 lbs., 5 oz.) experience NEC. These premature infants have immature bowels, which are sensitive to changes in blood flow and prone to infection. They may have difficulty with blood and oxygen circulation and digestion, which increases their chances of developing NEC.

They had to put Aiden back onto the ventilator because he was having difficulty breathing. This poor little guy is stressed with the 9 needle sticks trying to get the IV line in place so they could do a blood transfusion because his hemoglobin is down and he would need blood because his levels were down due to the bloody stool he had earlier this morning. They did a simple ultra sound to find out that he had a few spots near his liver in his intestines that had small pockets of air. They have stopped his feeds for 5-7 days and they started him on two antibiotics. They have not found any perforations, and his liver looks normal. He had another ultra sound at 4pm and it looked like nothing had changed. They are doing another ultra sound around 12-12:30 tonight and will call me with the results. If the antibiotics do not work, they might have to do surgery.

These last few hours have been very tiring and upsetting. I keep trying to remind myself that he is in good hands, but there have been moments where it has been hard.

Nate is doing very well. He is up to 14cc's every 2 hours on his feeds and has dropped in pressure on his nasal canula which is amazing. They are very optimistic on him being home in about 6 weeks.

Prayer is needed. I am not one to ask for prayer on myself very often, but strength is something I am laking right now and I am almost to the point of a break down. Kyle is not too sure on how to deal with things, but he is putting me and other things in front of himself, and not worrying about himself the way he should.