Elijah Update (April 29)

Dear Friends,

Two steps forward, one step back. We have just been moved again. Not home but back to our home away from home. PICU.

Elijah began having some struggles today with his breathing, very rapid breathing with low oxygen saturation. An x-ray was taken and it was found out that he had a large amount of fluid in his left cavity. This is the cavity that the doctors were hoping would "communicate" with the right and would drain over to the right to be pumped out into his abdominal cavity. The doctor, known here as "the fixer", had to draw out over 100 cc's of fluid tonight. Right now Elijah is resting, his respirations are getting lower and in the normal range, his color is back and he is breathing much better. He is on some morphine right now to help him with his pain, oxygen to help keep his "sats" up and an iv of fluid to keep him hydrated.

We look at Elijah and we are amazed with his fight to live this life. What God must have planned for this little guy we can only imagine. Tonight his dad looked at him and said, "Oh little buddy, we can learn so much from you! You fight SO HARD!"

We do NOT feel helpless. We just feel tired. We were so excited to be heading home soon but are grateful that this occurred while still in the hospital and not at home. We now have to figure out what is going on with the left cavity. The doctor has stopped his feedings again to clear out his system and decided that the mom's milk was too much for his system right now.

Please lift Elijah up to the throne of Grace. We know HE controls it all! We so desire for our little boy to be home with us.
Pray for Joel as he struggles with where to be... here with his son or home working. There is such a conflict in his heart.
Pray for Judy's mom, "Mimi", who is having a hard time watching her grandson go through all of this. We are grateful that she is here with us during the ups and downs.

JJ and THE FIGHTER (maybe the next Rocky)