Friday update - May 17th

Theo spent the day resting comfortably, and we started to see some signs of progress (again), but we're not out of the woods yet.

The upside: His fever is gone (hooray!) and his blood pressure remained in a great place all day. His potassium level normalized, and his urine output was pretty good. Also, his hemoglobin didn't plunge, so we're hopeful that most of the internal bleeding is done. Although, he might still need another blood transfusion at some point, maybe as soon as tonight.

Also, the infectious disease team has decided that they are comfortable stopping his antibiotic, so the plan is to stop it tomorrow.

But, there's still progress to be made.


His creatinine is still high (over 2.0), and his belly is still massive. The team seems to think that Dubya is taking her sweet time to wake up, but they are confident that she will. Theo might have to start hemodialysis tomorrow to clear some fluid off of him and clean up his blood, and he could continue on dialysis until the kidney revs up again. There was discussion of starting him on dialysis today, but the decision was made to postpone and reevaluate tomorrow.

Our BIG prayer is that Dubya springs back to life overnight, and there is no need for dialysis.

Natalie and I remain hopeful and optimistic, and we are both well rested and feeling pretty good. Some of her family members are making trips out to Charlotte starting tomorrow, so we'll be well taken care of.

The hospital is such an interesting environment. We are fortunate to have fantastic facilities and a great team of Drs. and nurses, but it's easy to lose track of the real world when you spend so much time here.

We spent some time this evening with a good friend who has a young child battling cancer. We talked about how life rarely turns out anywhere near what we plan, and yet the richness of our experience is something that will forever have a significant impact on us. Our prayer is that God is writing an amazing story in and through Theo, that he may be used in powerful ways as he shares what he has been though, and how so many were praying for his recovery.

In many ways, we are on borrowed time with this sweet boy. His lungs weren't working from birth, and his kidneys didn't do much either. I often think that, were this any other time in human history, Theo wouldn't have survived. Knowing that makes every moment we spend together even more special, and our hope is that we have may more moments to spend together.

We also know that we serve a giant God who is able to do infinitely more than we could ever ask or imagine, and we trust that He has a perfect plan for Theo.