update for today

I just received the update for the day from Liz and it sounds like your prayers are really being answered.

Carson is doing well since the ECMO machine was removed. His blood gases look good. His ventilator is set at 65% with decreased pressure and decreased breaths per minute. Currently he is set at 38 breaths per minute and sometimes it registers 50-60 breaths per minute which means he is initiating some breaths on his own. He is also peeing well and Liz said she can actually see a visual improvement to his swelling. The doctors took the drain out of his face and plan to take the line out of his belly today. There is talk of giving him one milliliter of food just to get his digestive system to start working but they haven’t given Liz a timeline on that yet. She mentioned that his color does look slightly better but she does not have stats on his Jaundice condition.

An oncologist has been assigned to Carson’s case to go over the pathology report on the cervical teratoma. Liz said it is common to find some malignant parts in the teratoma and Carson’s did in fact have some. The prayer request on this is that they got all of it during the excision so that there is no reoccurrence.

Kellen continues to improve and weighed in today at 4lbs. 2oz. They would like to see him take more from the bottle. He has been taking 10-15 ml from the bottle at each feeding and they give him the rest via the feeding tube. Liz and Preston were able to give him his first bath yesterday! She said he wasn’t all too happy about it, but she knows he will get used to it.

I asked Liz how she was doing and she said fine. She said she has more energy each day and isn’t experiencing any pain at her incision site, so that is good.

So here are the prayer requests:

1. That both boys continue on the path of better health and growth.
2. That Carson continues to pee all his extra fluid away
3. That Carson’s ventilation and blood issues continue to improve as his body takes over the job that the machines have done for him.
4. That Carson can begin to take in Liz’s milk to get his digestive system working and get his jaundice under control
5. That the excision of the teratoma was complete and he will not have any reoccurrences.
6. That Kellen will become the hearty eater that his Grandpa Doug is and drink his bottles. : )
7. For God’s wisdom and guidance for the medical staff caring for Carson and Kellen
8. Continued strength and peace for Liz, Preston and the rest of the family.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayers. They continue to see God responding to them daily.

PS. As a side note Liz and Preston have the good fortune of benefiting from the Ronald McDonald house charity (RMHC) by having a place to sleep, eat and shower close to their boys. Thousands of families each year with similar situations benefit from RMHC. If you would like to do something small as a token appreciation for this charity start pulling your pop tabs off your soda cans and save them to donate to your local RMHC. It may not seem like much but the Upper Midwest RMHC raises approximately $30,000 each year to go toward their operating cost just from pop tabs, so pull your tabs for the Clark family and all the other families out there who are blessed to use the RMHC, thanks.

Posted by Carolyn