A Rough Day

Hello all. Jeramie here. Joye's busy holding Ethan so I thought I'd hijack her blog to give everyone an update.

Today has not been such a great day. This morning Joye and I were being prepped for discharge. They were going to teach us how to manage his feeding tube and had him lined up for a "pre-discharge" echo just to make sure everything is still okay with his heart repair. This evening we've been told that Ethan is being treated for a condition called Necrotizing Enterocolitis or "Nec" for short. This is fairly common among premature babies and babies that have been on bypass as Ethan has. It is potentially life-threatening, but after requesting an honest prognosis from the doctor, he says that it looks good since we caught it as early as we did. We caught it so early, in fact, that they can't say for certain that it's Nec. The signs seem to point to it, though, so they are treating him as if he had it just to be safe.

This has effected Ethan's ability to feed which was the main goal we needed to achieve before discharge. Part of Ethan's treatment for Nec includes being placed on "bowl rest", which basicaly means that he cannot have anything in his stomach for a few days. For anyone familiar with a baby's appetite, you can imagine the kind of trouble this causes. He's very hungry and will be that way for a long time. Tomorrow they will discuss ways to supplement his nuturition. Until then, pray that we make it through the night.

Please pray that this condition does not progress beyond what it already has. We are getting x-rays every 6 hours or so to monitor his progress. We should know the results of the second x-ray sometime tonight.

"Jesus loves him this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong"

Amen.