Update Six

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, today was better than the last two days, that much is certain. This morning, when my mom took our first “family shift” at the hospital, Si was still breathing hard and fast. By the time my brother-in-law arrived home from his shift, he told me I needed to call the hospital and discuss consent to drain the lungs.

We had tried so many less invasive options already, but the body just wouldn’t dump the fluid on its own. So, I consented to draining the right lung and seeing how he did. It was just beautiful! He did really well, and they took a LITER of fluid out of there. He is already oxygenating better, but I consented to draining the left lung tomorrow. Please pray for the steady hands of the doctor, as there is some risk to this procedure.

For those of you who are interested in these details, not counting the fluid they took directly from the lungs, they have drained over 20 pounds off using dialysis the past three days. It is amazing, to say the least.

As Si’s brain is waking back up, he is becoming more and more aware of his basic needs. Today, he was so, so anxious about the fact that the hospital was denying him food, water, and warmth. The water and warmth were understandable, but I could not get an answer about why they were not giving him IV nutrition. He has the correct line in, but every doctor I met said that “not me” was in charge of this decision. In the meantime, my husband asked every 20 minutes for applesauce.

My prayers for tomorrow are that Josiah {1} kicks the fever, {2} stays warm, {3} has a successful drain of the left lung, {4} is given adequate nutrition, {5} is patient about his thirst {caused by the meds}, {6} he quits worrying about his inability to fulfill his responsibilities right now, and {7} he remains sturdy in his faith and relies on the Lord to get him through.

In addition to this, I think our son needs extra prayer. They children seem to be taking turns missing Daddy, and my oldest (age seven) told me today that he hates this. He plans to “quit” on Thursday. He’s a planner, that one.

Good news today is that Si’s labs look better. He will NOT be doing dialysis tomorrow, which is nice since it is so hard for him. He WILL be doing plasmapheresis, which is even harder, but at least he won’t have two procedures back to back like he has the past few days.

I cannot leave off without thanking you all so much for what I have started calling the kindnesses of the day. Thank you for dropping off diapers. Thank you for offering to mow my lawn and fix my sprinkler problem. Thank you for encouraging emails. Thank you for sending us drawings by your children. And thank you most of all for your prayers. They are sustaining the five of us while we wait for Daddy to get better and come home.

Much love,
Brandy