Joey's Rally, Update

Now that Sunday/Monday are a few days past, I've really had a chance to reflect on the experience from earlier this week.  Joey has miraculously pulled through this week.  We have been shocked time and time again by his resilience.  I think that the power of prayer and a mothers touch are the reasons why he is still with us today.

Joey was stable day on Sunday.  On Sunday night, the hospital called and said that we should come in.  When they call and tell you this, you know things are not good.  Joey is in ICU and things can change from hour to hour.  We had just checked on Joey two hours before and he was fine.  Quickly a good day became a bad one. 

I am not trying sound dramatic, but the situation was very serious.  I know that the past month has been post after post of intense events, but this is what we deal with on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.  This situation was a bit different then the rest.  While the other procedures were risky, and we had to have difficult discussions, it was still something that was happening that was going to help Joey.  This time, we were speaking to the doctors and they were telling us that we had no other options.  Joeys numbers had not been improving and his heart rate had dropped to a dangerously low place. These were signs that the sepsis, infection, was not under control.  The impression that we got from the team was that nothing could be done to help him.  Anything that could, would only extend his life for a short amount of time.  Based on this, we made the decision to not escalate care.  This means, that no other life saving measures would be taken.  We were not going to pull the rug out from under him completely, and stop all care.  We were going to leave things in Gods hands and let Joey figure it out.  This was different than before because we were expecting death as a reality, and not just something that may happen.

Sunday night was filled with tears and lots of snuggles with Joey.  It's really hard to describe the feeling of holding your baby and knowing that any minute, he may be breathing his last breath.  It was truly the most heartbreaking experience.  We didn't think he would live to see Monday morning.  We put a lot of faith in Joey, prayed really hard, and our prayers were heard.

Joey is doing better than Sunday, but he is still very sick.  He is still septic, he still is puffy from fluid, his kidney are hurt, his skin is discolored, he is very weak, and his bowel is injured.  The doctors are trying to balance all that is going on with Joey to make him better.  This is a huge balancing act.  As one thing is done to help him, it hurts somthing else, and it just seems like a big vicious cycle.

The most recent example of this is Joey had to have more bowel removed yesterday.  When you are very sick, the body tries to protect the most vital organs like the heart and brain.  Due to this other areas that are not as significant importance, receive less blood flow, like the kidneys and stomach. Yesterday, more sick bowel was seen in Joeys belly and the surgeon went and removed it.  That makes GI surgery number three for Joey.

 A reason why the bowel may have gotten sick again was due to poor profusion to the gut.  To increase profusion to the gut and other areas Joey needs fluid.  All of the fluid puts stress on the body and increases pressure on the lungs and decreases profusion to the gut.  Joey is having trouble losing fluid because his kidneys are damaged.  The kidneys help remove waste from his body and fight the infection.  He is having trouble fighting the infection due the kidney disease.  The infection puts more stress on the kidneys as well.  To get rid of the infection, Joey needs antibiotics, but that damages the kidneys.  Its is a difficult task to manage all the is going on with Joey and he has not ever been able to recover from one event until the next one happens.

Joey has had so many complications and they keep happening closer and closer together.  It is a miracle that he is still with us today.  It is day-to-day and hour-by-hour with Joey.  It is encouraging that we have seen some improvements, but he is still in a very bad place.  Please say prayers that Joey's kidneys recover quickly, he is able to get fluid off his body, and that he can overcome the sepsis.