Out of ICU!

Hi there! I wanted to post an update on Justin's situation as I don't know if all of you have been receiving the news I've been sending my family and home. First of all, we want to thank everyone for their prayers, notes of encouragement and the P&Ps you've received for us. They are a huge support to us!

To sum things up, the surgery went well, PTL, and the incision is healing very nicely. The Infectious Disease department has run a bunch of tests to determine what could have caused the lump on Justin's neck and so far all we know is that the infection itself was one of the most common in children (very encouraging as there was a possibility of it being Chagas or other more rare diseases) and they are presently treating it with both IV and oral antibiotics.

The morning after the surgery (Friday) Justin's breathing was very shallow and he had a fever, so they ran some tests and the Xray of his chest showed that his heart was very large and that he had fluid in his lungs. We were sent down to the ICU and spent the next 24 hours there while they ran a host of tests. Poor Justin had to be sedated as there was so much that needed to be done and Drs. from 4 different departments were working on him but thankfully we were told that he needed twice as much sedation as other toddlers which is a good sign as it means his body is strong and he was fighting off the sedatives. The Drs. are looking for the cause of the enlarged heart and trying to see if there is a conection between the lump on the neck and the large heart.

So far there doesn't seem to be a connection but we may never know the exact cause. We now have been transferred from the ICU to the Pediatric Ward which is a huge improvement, PTL. They are treating his heart with some medication and he is responding well to it. Justin has been very happy and active throughout this whole time so that's also a very good sign. We have a minimum of a week to 10 days here while they monitor his progress, run more tests to rule out other causes and wait for the results. Tomorrow (Tuesday) they may do a procedure on him to get pictures of his heart valves internally so please pray specifically that all goes well with that. It will be the 3rd time he's had to be put to sleep in less than a week.

Chris and I are very encouraged by all the Lord is doing for us. Of course being here isn't easy but we feel very supported by your prayers. We've been meeting some very nice people and have had a chance to talk to them about our faith. The Lord did a miracle and assigned the only Christian social worker in the Hospital to our case and he has really been going above and beyond to help us solve the bill which will come to a pretty overwhelming number. Please keep this in your prayers as the social workers here have succeeded in eliminating hospital bills in situations like ours. A very sweet Christian nurse is also on the day shift and we've spent quite a bit of time with her discussing Divine healing, the power of prayer and praise and reading a bit of the book Megashift with her.

Of course we do have bouts of discouragement, but we do believe that the Lord is working this whole situation for good. It's really a miracle that this happened when it did and we were able to catch the problem with Justin's heart before it became too severe. We were told that if you catch a heart problem before you actually see symptoms of it, the chances of it healing are much higher.

We still have a ways to go, but we're seeing improvement every day so we're very thankful for that. We probably will have several more tests to do so please pray that Justin takes well to them. He has very small veins so every time they have to test him it's a bit of a stressful procedure and just getting an IV in takes 4 to 5 tries.

We love you so much and can't tell you just how thankful we are for your prayers and encouragement.