Elijah Update (May 2)

Dear Family and Friends,

Joel is still in Wichita with Judy and Elijah. Joel was hoping to head home Monday night after Elijah recovered from surgery. However he didn't recover quite as well as we had expected. We have been waiting to write in hopes that we would have something better to share with you.

Elijah is still on the ventilator. Our hope to take him off Monday night turned to hopes to take him off Tuesday morning. Then we hoped to take him off the ventilator Wednesday morning. Now Wednesday afternoon we hope to take him off of the vent sometime Thursday. The problem? No one really knows. Some fluid has accumulated in his chest, but not great quantities. Despite this we decided to re-insert a chest tube to help pull of the fluid. We didn't see much improvement in his breathing.

The good thing about this is he is now resting and letting the vent do his breathing for him. Elijah had been breathing terribly fast, too fast to get a good supply of oxygen and release the carbon dioxide. Now he is breathing slowly and deeply.

Our surgeon is very upbeat and positive about Elijah's predicament. She is certain beyond any doubt that his condition will resolve and that she will be coming to his first birthday. She just isn't sure how long it will take. So here we sit waiting for Elijah's blood gases to improve, waiting for him to use the oxygen in the air better and waiting for him to stop dumping his chyle into his pleural cavity. On a positive note, his abdominal cavity is doing a great job absorbing the chyle that is being pumping into it.

Thank you all for your prayers,

Joel, Judy, and Elijah