Elijah Update (April 15)

Good morning Elijah Warriors,

Elijah had a rough night after his surgery so Judy and I have been taking turns staying with him during the night. This is something Judy wanted to do last week, but I didn't see the need. But he seems to have so many problems at night that we decided to stay with him.

Last night was no exception. Yesterday evening we had trouble keeping his central line open, a special long IV in his groin that extends up to veins in his abdomen. Late last night or early this morning the surgeon came in to "re-wire" his central line. This isn't easy on Elijah and for some reason they had to do it without any anesthetic. So with every stitch to hold the line in place Elijah let out a scream. Poor Judy had to hear it all.

Now it is mid-morning and Judy is sleeping and I am watching over Elijah. Again he had a rough time as we had to change the taping on his chest tube. It was leaking. So again several people were crowding around him and he was feeling tugged on and pulled on. He took quite a while to settle down. He didn't even want to listen to Seabiscuit or The Cat In The Hat. But eventually Bach settled him down and I think he is sleeping now. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

As we wrote earlier the surgery went well, the recovery was rough but eventually he settled down, and the evening was very good. Friday morning was when our concern was raised to "Elevated" status. His left lung had collapsed some and he was having trouble breathing. This trouble seemed to resolve itself by noon, but it was frustrating to us that the doctors didn't know what the trouble was until late afternoon. Also that morning the new shunt pump was not pumping and no fluid was moving through it. The pump is just a "bulb" that is hand squeezed to move the fluid. Elijah was draining out of the chest tube, but not through the shunt. The doc decided it was because his abdomen was so full that the pressure was greater in his abdomen then in his chest.

Saturday morning after a x-ray the doctors said the left lung was ok, but the right lung was collapsed some. Uggh. How frustrating to us. Off and on throughout the day Elijah would labor a bit with his breathing. But most of the time he didn't have a speck of trouble. I was able to hold him for about an hour yesterday evening and give him some food from a bottle. He still isn't wanting to eat much which is sad to us because now he can have 20 cc every 3 hours. Last night Elijah was in a good mood and willing to "play". He is just so much happier when he is not being poked and prodded. My prayer now is that Elijah can rest the remainder of the day without nurse and doctor interference and that God will continue to heal him. Hopefully mom and dad will be able to keep themselves from calling in drs. and nurses to ask questions that encourage them to handle Elijah.

Judy and I had planned on going to church this morning, but with the brouhaha we were too late for the early service and Judy is now sleeping through the late service. Can't blame her, she was up all night.

What to pray for? Please pray that Elijah can sleep and have a peaceful night. I am so thankful that God has given us prayer warriors who are awake when it is 2-6 am "Elijah" time so they can easily pray during this time. Please pray that the shunting process works and Elijah's lymphatic system will slow down the production of chyle. And please continue to pray that the lymphatic ducts open up and allow the chyle to flow where it is intended to flow thus stopping all drainage which will allow all of his tubes to be removed. Pray that Elijah will be healed soon and we all can go home.

Our niece, 6 year old Evann - Heather's daughter, prayed this the other night, "Please help Elijah to get better because when he gets bigger I want him to know that when he was little he had lots of troubles and You did amazing things and grew him up." What a great prayer. It is so simple and yet says so much.

Please also pray for Joel's parents' health. They are running the businesses virtually by themselves plus looking after Joel's and Judy's personal affairs. This is a concern to Joel that they will wear themselves out. They have even had to vacuum water out of our basement two or three times after the last rains. Thankfully the funeral home (family business) hasn't been busy these past 3 months.

Thank you all for praying. Your prayers are supporting us more than you know and more than we will ever know. We do know that God is doing great things in our lives and God has blessed us in so many ways through Elijah. God has blessed us with a wonderful little boy and we are so glad we have him.

We serve a great God. We are so thankful that He did what we could never do -- He gave His son to be sacrificed for worthless sinners so that those who believe in Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Savior can have eternal life in Heaven. We are so thankful that we can pray directly to God and ask Him to forgive our sins and ask Him directly to heal our little boy and provide comfort and strength for us. Only God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Only God is always present to hear our prayer, only God know exactly what we need and how we feel. We serve an awesome God.

If God is speaking to you through Elijah's circumstances please respond quickly to God's calling so Elijah can be healed and we can go home.

Servants of the Living God,

Joel, Judy, and Elijah