First off (the whole reason most of you come here), pics of the little guy over the past 2 days:
Now for an update on Bodie. After a rough couple of days, he finally appears to be getting the upper hand on this nasty virus! Praise God! The virus had really moved into his lungs a few days ago and he had to go up to much higher levels on the high-flow oxygen (up to 7L) and they had to add in breathing treatments (involving albuterol treatments to dialate the lung vessels, percussion therapy to loosen up the mucus and suctioning to get out the gunk that got loosened up). Bodie has actually been a pretty good sport about the albuterol and percussion (which is basically like a really hard massage), but drew the line at suctioning (not that I can blame him, since it essentially involves sticking something either up his nose or down his throat). The good news though is that it's all working! He's off the high-flow oxygen and down to 0.5L of the regular nasal canula, so they've restarted his feeds(they can't feed him on high flow oxygen since it increases the risk of aspirations and if he threw up, they wouldn't know whether it's from the feeds or all the air in his belly). Also, his BNP is now down below 3,000! YAY! Praise God!
He's not completely "healed" though, so could really use prayers for the following:
1. They just restarted his feeds today, so they have a protocol to go through to get him up to full feeds. Pray that he tolerates the feeds well so that they can get him up to full feeds soon, allowing us to get him back on the bottle!
2. Pray that his BNP continues to drop.
3. Pray that his heart function looks better on his next echo.
4. He's been a bit of a crankypants (not that I can blame him - I mean, he does have a lot of reasons to be cranky, even without a virus and a bacterial infection at the same time); please pray that he really starts to feel better so that we get to see our smiley guy again soon.
5. Pray that he heals enough that the doctors agree to send him home and let us chunk him up at home for the next surgery.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers for Bodie - they have clearly carried him through his and he continues to amaze the doctors and nurses. Please keep the prayers coming!
I have heard several doctors and nurses (not to mention friends) in the past 2 weeks tell me that they can't believe how positive my attitude is through all of this. The truth is that it's not always easy to remain positive, especially during times like the week before last when Bodie was getting sicker and no one could figure out why. I have moments where the unfairness of it all catches up with me and I can't help but cry.
But then God settles my heart and changes my perspective. The bottom line is that we are so very blessed to still have Bodie with us. The reality is that there are no guarantees with any of our children, and especially not with hypoplasts. There is no guarantee that a single ventricle child will make it to term, or be a good candidate for the 3-stage surgery, or survive until surgery, or make it through surgery, or come off of heart-lung bypass, or come home from the hospital, or make it through a cold or respiratory infection, and on and on. It is a hard road, and there are so many parents who've lost single ventricle kids at each one of those critical points. So, to have Bodie with us, to sit next to him in the hospital, to work so hard to get him to smile, to get to hold him and even be worrying about increasing his feeds or whether we get to take him home or not - these are all privileges and there are so many parents who would give anything to have had the opportunity to have their single ventricle kids with them long enough to even face the kind of struggles we're facing. So, yes, today we are indeed feeling so very, very, very blessed.