Update

After a full week at the hospital, we were able to come home with David. He spent another 5-6 days carrying around an IV pump in a backpack that delivered a constant dose of penecillin. He has been weak, but improving. The first few days after we got home, his little legs were so weak that he was falling a lot and still has some pretty nasty bruises.

He got his tubes out this past Friday. This was a huge blessing since none of us had slept well the whole week in the hospital or the week at home that he had his IV in. The good sleep has been doing wonders for David. He has also been eating very well, and gaining strength just from the nutrition. He is still far from 100%, but the improvement is very encouraging.

My biggest struggle with him at the moment is that he is fighting his naps. I feel that it could help him to improve at a faster rate if he could get a good nap each day, but he just doesn't want to miss out on anything.

I also am still not sleeping well. It's like my body is used to getting up every 2-3 hours and I can't get it to just sleep through. I would appreciate your prayers in this area as I am finding simple daily tasks to be difficult since I'm so tired all the time.

The big kids seem to be dealing with things fairly well. They continue to do well in school and love their little brother a lot. They were very concerned about his stay at the hospital, and are glad that he's home again.

We go back next weekend for more chemo as long as David's counts are good. Both Rob and I are feeling a little nervous about it as 3 of 4 rounds of chemo have come with some scary issues for David. We appreciate your prayers and the care that you all have shown to us!

-Kim

We are here at the hospital. David is sleeping fairly well right now, and has been mostly sleeping or staring blankly all day long. His fever has continued to fluctuate from about 99 degrees to nearly 103 degrees. He isn't eating or drinking much, so we are thankful that he is getting fluids through the IV.

The nurse came in a few minutes ago to let us know that there was growth found in his blood cultures. This means that he has gotten an infection in his blood. They have been giving him some pretty strong broad spectrum antibiotics since we got here last night, but they are going to have to test the cultures to see if these are the best antibiotics to treat whatever infection that he has. They hope to have some answers about that by tomorrow. Either way, we will be here for at least a week for them to give him antibiotics through his IV.

So, I guess our good news right now is that at least we know, in general, what is making him sick. The bad news is that he is so very very pitiful and his fever is still present. He is hardly talking or playing. He has seemed to enjoy music, so I have been trying to play his favorites on my computer. He spent about 15 minutes tonight trying to sing, but he finally just went off to sleep. He really hasn't eaten anything since Friday morning before we went over for chemo, so he is visibly thinner. He is at least keeping down the few things that he has eaten, so that is good, but there isn't much that makes it into him.

We are at Brenner's Childrens' Hospital which is part of the Wake Forest University Hospital. We are very happy that the docs at Duke allowed us to be treated here instead of going all the way to Durham. This way we are close enough to home that one of us can go to the house to be with the big kids if need be. The staff here has been wonderful, and the room is immeasurably more comfortable than the rooms at Duke, so that is great since we are going to have an extended stay.

Please pray that they are able to figure out which antibiotic to use so that we can get that into him quickly. Pray that the bacteria responds well and that he begins to improve. Pray that the antibiotic works completely so that this doesn't become a regular thing that he has to deal with after chemo. Pray that we are all able to get some good rest.

I'm off to try to get a few hours of sleep.

-Kim

We got back home last night from the hospital. Chemo was pretty uneventful, but David did start to run a low grade fever yesterday around 10am. The fever slowly started to climb until around 2pm when it mysteriously broke. This at least allowed us to be discharged. We were thankful to come home since David (and thus Daddy and Mommy) rests much better at home in our own beds.

Even though the fever was gone, it was still easily apparent that he wasn't feeling his normal self. He was very tired and clingy even when we got home, so after a late night bath, he spent some time in the bed with us while Rob read us a story. He did finally go back into his own crib, but woke up around 4am and spent a little more time in the big bed. I think he knew that he wasn't feeling right, and he was also just a little scared of all the big changes and needed the reassurance that Rob and I weren't going to be leaving him by himself.

This morning, he was ok for some time and he was enjoying playing with his kids. But then again around 9:30/10am, he started to run another low grade fever. He was also throwing up and then extremely sleepy. He is sleeping peacefully right now, and his fever seems to have leveled out at aroun 99.6 degrees. If it increases, we will have to take him back to the hospital and likely they will have to give him some really strong antibiotics to make sure that he's not fighting a bacterial infection.

I'm hoping that he will be able to eat a little when he wakes up. He only ate a few bites of oatmeal this morning. We are also going to have to find something that he can keep down in the fluid department.

I'll keep you all updated on his progress. Thank you again for all your prayers!

-Kim