Little Body, Big Scare...

For being such a small person, Lucas sure can give us quite the scare.

Monday evening we came to see the little man in the hospital. The nurse told us that she had noticed his little belly was a bit bigger, and she thought it was because he was up to 15mL of milk per feeding. However, after three hours his belly didn't appear to get any smaller so she was hesitant to feed him again until a nurse practitioner took a look at him. We had to leave before that happened though. We trusted that all would be well and that Lucas was in good hands.

We spent the evening in Manitou playing at the penny arcade with Warren. He went on a bunch of rides, played some games and did astonishingly well at air hockey. He stood on top of a milk crate and played like a champ!

After we got home we settled down for the night, put Warren to bed and we were getting to bed ourselves. Around 11:00 pm my phone rang. I didn't know what number it was, but I did remember seeing that I had missed a call from that number earlier in the night when we were playing at the arcade. A voicemail was left, but for whatever reason, my phone wasn't letting me access that one particular message. So when the phone was ringing at 11:00, I had a heart sinking realization that it was the hospital. Something was going on with Lucas and they were trying to get a hold of me. I answered the phone and that's exactly what it was. Lucas' doctor was calling me to tell me that he had gotten really sick really fast. He had turned an awful shade of gray and had been put on a ventilator. The doctor told me that we needed to come in right away so she could tell us more.

I realized then what a giant blessing and tender mercy it was that my mom was here. With her being here at this particular time, it gave us the freedom to be able to go to the hospital at a moments notice. I don't know how we would have handled that situation if nobody had been there to watch over Warren. There is no way I could have handled what was coming by myself.

Ray and I got to the hospital and as we turned the corner to Lucas' room, all the lights were on and there were at least six people hovering around him and another three people waiting to get in next. It was obvious something was seriously wrong. They made room for us to come in and began explaining things to us. They said that something was definitely wrong in his belly. It was still distended and and with his sudden change of color and not being able to maintain his oxygen levels, they had to rush to his aid and figure out what was going on. The doctor pulled us aside and gave us
more information. She said that it looked to be either some sort of scary infection or that his bowel had perforated. They did a whole bunch of X-rays to try to rule that out. They also put two IV's in
him, one in his hand and the other in his scalp. They started pumping him full of antibiotics, blood pressure medications and pain medications. Lucas looked awful. His poor little face was so telling of how he felt. He would wince every once and a while and he would try to move but he couldn't because of how many things he was attached to. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable. His heart rate was also sky high. It was up in the 220's from the 140's. The doctor also asked us to sign a consent form to do blood transfusions which would most likely become necessary soon.

Lots of very scary things happening all at once. It was impossible to keep it together. To see my brand new son hooked up to so many things when just hours before, he was just fine, was hard to take in. Also seeing him awake and looking straight at me was absolutely heart wrenching. It was as if he was telling me through his eyes that he was in pain and he needed it to stop. Seriously. Lost it... Thankfully we have good people in our lives though send Ray was able to call someone to help him give a Priesthood blessing to Lucas. The blessing promised that he would heal and overcome this. Thank you Heavenly Father.

There wasn't much more information the doctor could give at that point, but Ray and I weren't going anywhere. The hospital set us up in a family room that had an actual bed, so we at least were able to get a few hours of sleep.

In the morning, we headed straight back to see Lucas. A nurse was constantly working on him, taking blood, giving new medicine, listening to him, trying to get his heart rate down. We asked how he was doing but she said he wasn't any better at that point. He was having trouble producing urine, his body was struggling to supply oxygen everywhere it needed to go, so they had to give him 96% oxygen through the ventilator to compensate. The doctor came to do rounds and he explained that they had done blood cultures and he was expecting those to come back positive for infection. They had ruled out a perforated bowel, so that was good at least. They knew it was an infection, they just needed to find out where, and that would happen soon. The doctor also wanted to try to wean him off such a high concentration of oxygen, so they planned on lowering that throughout the day.

As the day went on, they kept a close watch on him, continued giving him antibiotics and letting those run it's course. His heart rate was still very very high though. It hadn't dropped below 200 yet,
so they were trying to get that under control. Eventually, they found that as they gave him a lot of
fluids that it increased the volume in his veins and that it actually helped calm his heart rate down, so they kept doing that regularly. He slowly started improving and finally dropped below 200 late in the evening. It looked as if the antibiotics were also beginning to do their job. He was finally starting to turn a corner and improve, though he still had a long way to go. Late that night was also when he began producing more urine and had a bowel movement. All very good things showing that his organs were beginning to function again and that they were getting healthy again too.

The blood cultures ultimately did come back positive, so they know that he does have a blood infection, now they're just working on figuring out what kind of blood infection it is specifically. The antibiotics he is on now are general, but powerful so he's already being treated for as much as they can. Once they find out what it is specifically they will adjust his medications accordingly to go after it.

So all that was crazy. Since he started improving last night, we decided to come home to see Warren and give him some attention and also to sleep in our own bed and get a good rest. The worst of it seems to be over now though so we are all breathing a huge sigh of relief. He will get better, but it will take time. I'm much more together today than I was yesterday.

Lucas still looks like he is in rough shape. He's really puffy from all the fluids he's been given, but in the next couple days he should be looking better. The fluid just has to work through him. He is also more alert today than he was yesterday. Yesterday with all the stuff going on in his body he pretty much just shut down and slept all day, which it was grateful for. Sleep is always such a great thing when you're sick so you can escape how you feel for that time. Since he is more alert today that means he really is feeling better. Now he just looks frustrated that his movement is so restricted because of all the tubes. At least he doesn't look like he's in pain like he did when this all began.

It's crazy. This boy is only 9 days old, but I love him so much already. I was ready to do anything for him to help him stop hurting, and so was Ray. I'm so thankful that this boy is so strong. He is pulling through this and his body is fighting. He truly is a little champ.