Month: December 2012

Hey friends,

Today was much like yesterday, not really any new developments. We are still waiting for his body, mainly his lungs, to be ready for extubation (removing the breathing tube).

They have thought he would be ready for the tube to be removed several times in the past week or so, only to be proven wrong. It seems like he’s just having a hard time getting over this hump. So, I’m asking those of you that are willing, to, over the next 48 hours or so, pray and believe for Judah to make a significant steps towards being ready for extubation. I’m not asking you to fast and pray all day, I’m just asking that over the next 2 days you would take a few minutets each day and ask God to touch Judah’s body. It would mean so much to us.

I know for many of you this would be nothing new for you and for some it would be a stretch. But we feel like we’ve been at a standstill for a while and we believe prayer can change things. We believe that God hears us when we pray and we believe God responds to prayer.

Here are some specifics:

– That the acid levels in Judah’s blood would drop to a “normal” level

– That Judah’s lungs would continue to grow and gain strength and be strong enough to support his breathing without help

– That the level of secretions (or mucus) in his lungs would drop significantly and what he does have he would be able to cough up

We are so grateful for so many of you following our story and praying for our Judah. Thank you so, so much! Let’s believe for significant steps over the next few days!

Much love,
Nick & Liz

Hey everyone,

Judah had a steady day. Pretty much everything is the same as yesterday. It looks like we will just continue to let Judah grow and get stronger. Our big hurdle right now is getting him to the point where his lungs are strong enough to allow him breathe on his own. Please keep Judah’s lungs in your prayers!

Much love,
Nick & Liz

Hey Friends,

On Monday we were hoping that Judah would be ready to have the breathing tube removed. However, after yesterday’s set back, he just wasn’t ready. Because of this, the doctors decided this morning to try and look for anything else that might be causing issues. This led them to check his heart function, his lung function and to make sure his diaphragm is still tacked down. Thankfully, everything is functioning well so it seems like it’s just going to take more time.

Judah spit up a few times tonight, but we aren’t really sure what the cause behind it is. A few of our nurses have told us that because the cuff around the bottom of his breathing tube isn’t perfectly fitted, it tends to leak oxygen. He also sucks oxygen down when he cries, and because Judah can’t burp, the air becomes trapped in his stomach, making him feel too full and results in him spitting up. We’re hoping that is the only reason. Thankfully though, he isn’t spitting formula up like he was last week. It’s mostly mucus, which is encouraging.

Things we would love people to be praying for:

–That Judah would continue to strengthen his lungs and be able to breathe on his own soon!

–That the doctors would be able to uncover any other issues that Judah might have, and to come up with a solid game plan.

On a lighter note, today we saw Judah really smile at us for the first time! It was so exciting to see his little grin. We tried to capture it but even Nick isn’t quick enough all the time… ;)

Thank you all so much for your love and support. We’re still constantly amazed by how loved and cared for we feel from not only our friends and family, but complete strangers, too!

Much love,
Liz and Nick

Liz and I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for following our story and praying for us and for our Judah!

Judah had a bit of a tough time today. They lowered the rate on his ventilator as low as they would without taking the breathing tube out. He did okay at first but then was visibly having a hard time breathing, so they decided to turned it back up. He’s much happier now but we did take a step back. Also, this morning his left lung was “down”, meaning instead of being full of air it had some fluid or mucus in it. This afternoon they did another X-Ray and it was “up,” or, full of air. So there are some things that aren’t quite right yet. He’ll probably need a few more days with the breathing tube in.

Please pray that his lungs gain strength so we can get him breathing on his own and get him over this hurdle.

Even though Judah didn’t have the greatest day, he was good up until the late afternoon. This allowed Liz and I to have the Christmas morning that we were hoping for. We hung out in Judah’s room, exchanged presents, ate monkey bread, and watched “A Christmas Story”. It was really nice. Once Judah was settled we visited with our families and went out to eat all together. All in all we had a good day. We truly hope you and your family had a great day as well. We thank God for the grace to be able to enjoy life in the midst of this hard season. Thank you all for caring and supporting us during this time. Let’s get Judah off this ventilator!!

Much love,
Nick & Liz

Hey friends,

Just a quick update tonight:

Judah had a good day today. No real news other than it looks like we’ll be waiting until Wednesday to take out the breathing tube. (Which we are totally fine with.) We’re hoping for very calm and steady day tomorrow.

Please continue to pray for rest, growth, strength and healing in Judah’s body.

We hope you all have a great Christmas!

Love,
Nick & Liz

Hey Everybody,

Judah had a good day. He was very calm and comfortable almost the whole day. There’s no exact plan as to when they will take out the breathing tube. Possibly tomorrow but it may be a few days. We don’t really have a preference, we just want to make sure he is 100% ready.

This morning, one of the cardiologists let us know that Judah had some rapid heart beats over night. This is the first time there has been any concern regarding his heart. It’s possible that it was just because at the moment they saw the rapid beats, he was being “cupped.” (Hard patting on the back to loosen the mucus in his lungs.) That could have interfered with the leads on his chest. The rapid beats only happened once and only for five beats. They will continue to watch it. They did say that it could be treated with meds but we would like there to be no problem at all.

Please continue to pray that his body and lungs continue to get stronger and that God would give the doctors wisdom and good judgement as to when to take the breathing tube out. Also, please pray that there would be no problems at all with his heart and this would be the last we hear of this issue.

We give God the glory for bringing Judah so far and for keeping us the way He has. He truly is good.

Much love,
Nick & Liz

Hey friends,

Judah had a good morning, but a not-so-great afternoon. He was agitated for much of the evening and his “sats” (oxygen saturation) dropped a few times. He seems to have settled for now and we’re hoping he remains calm throughout the night. They have gradually been weaning his oxygen down, getting him ready for the tube to be removed. But since he didn’t have a great evening, they’re going to keep his levels where they’re at through tonight, and re-evaluate in the morning. They were aiming for tomorrow to extubate him but we’re not sure what they’ll do now. We are a little concerned because as they’ve been weaning him, we’ve started to notice him doing a little head bobbing. Since Judah was born, head bobbing has always been a sign of him working to breathe. In the morning, we and the doctors will decide if he should be extubated. The last thing we want is for him not to be ready and have to be re-intubated for the fourth time.

Please pray:

• that Judah will remain steady through the night, without any sat drops
• that he will continue to grow and get stronger, especially in his lungs
• that God would give wisdom to us and to the doctors tomorrow when we make the decision about whether or not to extubate him
• the God would heal Judah’s body completely

We believe that the name of Jesus is above every name, including sickness and desease. Please join your hearts with ours as we cry out for God to touch Judah’s body.

Much love,
Nick & Liz

Ok, it’s possible I might be trying a little too hard to come up with clever post titles, but I’ll let you be the judge. On to Judah news…

Today was okay. Judah threw up multiple times during the night and morning. This lead the doctors to decide to try an ND-tube (nasoduodenal). This is very similure to the NG-tube (nasogastric) he has had in for a while now. The difference is that the NG-tube goes through the nose and into the stomach and ND-tube goes through the nose, past the stomach and into the first part of the small intestine. Yesterday, they thought the reason for his throwing up was strictly because of morphine withdrawal. He had the rest of the symptoms (constantly upset, diarrhea, sweating) that led the doctors to this conclusion. However, last night and today he did not show those same symptoms. Around the time he starting throwing up they increased how much food he was getting and also the amount of calories in his “formula”. Now, they believe that the cause of his vomiting is a combination of withdrawal and his stomach not being able to handle the amount and content of what they were giving him. With bypassing the stomach, this should help him get the amount of calories and nutrients he needs to grow. They have also adjusted his meds to help him with any withdrawal he’s going through. He still has the NG-tube (that goes to his stomach) through his other nostril because one of the medicines he’s getting is best absorbed by the stomach. He’ll be done with the course of medication in a few days and be able to just have the ND-tube in.

They have also started to (very slowly) wean him off the breathing tube. This will be a day-by-day thing they will monitor. There’s no word on when they would remove the tube altogether. It really depends on him.

Prayer requests:

• that Judah would be able to get through any withdrawal and the ND-tube would keep him from any more vomiting
• that he would be able to rest and grow (he is visibly exhausted and has actually lost a little weight)
• that his lungs would continue to gain strength and he would be able to breathe on his own, and that the doctors would have wisdom in deciding when he should be extubated

We continue to pray and believe for healing to flow through Judah’s body and for the grace to walk through life until that day comes. Thank you all so much for believing with us!

UPDATE:
Just as I finished writing this blog Judah threw up again. The hope was that with the ND-tube this wouldn’t be happening. One of the possible reasons is that he cries a lot, and when he does that he swallows a lot of air. The air fills his stomach and pushes up on his diaphragm, which makes the body react in vomiting. One of the solutions is putting in a larger NG-tube and using it to suck out the air that’s in his stomach. Nothing will really change until the morning when the doctors make their rounds. Please pray for a calm night with no more vomiting and that God would give the doctors wisdom as to what to do next. Please keep us in prayer as well, it’s been very difficult to watch him have to go through so much over the past few weeks and days.

Much love,
Nick & Liz