6.9

Isaac's hemoglobin was 6.9 today. It started out 5.2 (I think) in the hospital over a week ago. He has 2 more infusions to go and then they will decide if he needs a blood transfusion too, to boost it the rest of the way to 12.

Jordan felt much better today. She stayed in the basement until about noon when she had been on the antibiotics 24 hours and then joined us for most of the day.

Coughing at night has eased for the most part. Bekah has sure got the "whoop" part of the whooping cough.

Thanks for the prayers and support. Pray for good, restful, healing sleep for all of us :)

On the twelfth visit to the doctor he prescribed to me...

another dose of antibiotic. This time it is for Jordan who has a raging case of strep throat. We haven't had that before now. Jordan has only left the house (except for Thanksgiving) once in a whole month and she gets strep throat from it!!!! Wow! She first came in my room this morning and said her neck hurt. I was awake fast. She saw the "look" on my face and asked "what"? I'm thinking fast and say "nothing, just thinking" (Just thinking meningitis, sore throat, fever, neck ache). Well, it wasn't thankfully. My mom came and got 4 kids. Em stayed with Rebekah (couldn't think of having her hold down the fort two days in a row). Now what???? Will anyone else get it from her, have they already gotten it???? I don't know what is happening in my house!!!!!

The pharmacist recognized me from the 11 other prescriptions for antibiotics and three for cough syrup and asked "How is it going?" Wrong question, wrong time. I started bawling. I was mortified of course. I asked how catchy is this, like in the same room catchy? Maybe not, if the person washed their hands, no sharing utensils, cups, etc. Jordan thankfully said she had been washing her hands a lot. Please, dear Lord protect the rest of the children from this. This is Jordan's second round of antibiotics. I pray it works well for her. I have her sequestered in the basement watching movies (Jane Eyre).

Positive note: When I said Isaac could go to Grandma's he jumped up and down. He hasn't jumped or ran or even walked fast in a long time :)

Thanks again Aimee. I was checking labels today for some good iron-fortified foods for him. Doctor told him yesterday to eat anything he wants whenever he wants! (wants him to gain some weight) I let him have some high calorie foods (ie. a shake) and he threw it up. After he had a hotdish last night his stomach hurt like it hasn't for awhile. I guess the diet he was on, was working so I'm not going to quite let him eat anything he wants. The doctor says there is no such thing as junk food, all food has some value. Well, when your kid gets physically sick to much of what's out there, I'd say not all food has some value for all people. We'll have to respectfully disagree since he's not here with me cleaning up after him :)

We saw the specialist...

Hi, what a long day. I ended up with a migraine before we got to the specialist's office so that was a downer for me. Good news is the check he did of Isaac's lower part didn't show anything wrong. It was all clear. His bowel movements are normal looking now and mean that his systems are working right. He was most concerned about the low iron (anemia). He really wants to get that up to a higher level faster than it is going. They did double the amount of the iron in the infusion today. His hemoglobin was 6.1. Last time it was 5.6. He wants to do endoscopy and a colonoscopy when his hemoglobin is up higher. He has to be put under for those and needs to be in better health to handle it. Thanks for checking in on us. Pray for these infusions to work on Isaac as it is a more natural way to raise your iron. If these last three don't increase him a lot more he'll go in for a blood transfusion. Our doctor seemed to be trying to avoid that. I need to feed him a more iron-rich diet, which he was with the Maker's diet so at least we have a head start on that. I'll be researching some different iron-rich foods.

Pray for Jordan, who has come down with fever, chills and sore throat.

Sleep..blessed sleep

I woke up at 8 a.m. and realized I may have woke up once or twice in the night but never got out of bed. Wow! I was dead tired and still didn't feel rested but how wonderful to know my body got to sleep about 8 hours. Here at 1 p.m. I feel like going back to bed. I've been wrapping up some school so I may have to nap today.

Tomorrow we go in for infusion #4 of 7. We also have an appointment at noon with the pediatric gastroenterologist!!!! He was able to find room for us so quickly. Please pray for answers to be found. We still pray for healing and if they end up not finding anything wrong in his intestines I'll be glad as long as the bleeding has stopped. Sorry if this is gross to anyone but he had 2 mostly normal BM's yesterday with no visible blood. We remembered to stop and thank the Lord as we keep asking for them to be like this.

He's very tired today but I have gotten him to do about half of his school work.

Infusion #3

I do not know why this picture worked and the one sucking her thumb didn't but here is our little sweetie pie (maybe not so little).

Thanks Aimee for your prayers. Yeah, we are starting to realize it will take time. The bleeding causes us the most concern but we met with the doctor today and she isn't really concerned with that, not as much as getting his hemoglobin up. His oxygen, blood pressure, heart rate and temp were all in normal range so even with a low hemoglobin he is doing fine, not in any real danger. We have an appointment with a gastroenterologist specialist for pediatrics on Friday at 11 a.m. At this point we want to know what is causing the bleeding. If it is nothing serious then we can rest a little easier at night. Some other tests came back, celiac was negative again (unfortunately I thought so and our insurance doesn't cover much of this test :( I'm trying not to think of the cost of everything. His allergy panel showed a slight reaction to corn, barely on the chart. He's eating a good, healthy diet with no preservatives, additives, not much sugar or high carb foods. He is enjoying eating again and isn't so very tired. He wasn't dehydrated, which I wondered if he was going that way again because of the constant coughing. Once when Kevin had bronchitis he lost 10 pounds and the nurse said a persistent cough will deplete you and you need lots of fluids.

There are times when we feel such concern and helplessness and then we wake up in the morning looking at things with a new look and I feel things are looking up. Nighttime is the worst. It gets me thinking all manner of things. We are drawing strength from the Lord. Kevin and I are praying together much more than ever and God is using all that is happening here for His good. Thanks for your prayers and concern. The whooping cough has eased off at night for two kids, thank you Lord. Two others are getting into the "whoop" stage of this cough. Oh, how my chest hurts when they can't catch their breath.

Sweet baby...

I have been trying to upload this picture of Lena for two weeks. She found her thumb one Monday and it is so sweet. It has been a blessing. It keeps her from her 2 am feeding, it will comfort her a little longer. She gets up to eat around 6 a.m. and then back to sleep. She is such a good, good baby. She rarely gives us a fuss. I guess I'll try another day. It has rejected me about 9 times now.

Isaac is much the same. Tired would most describe him. We haven't seen any significant energy changes with the iron infusions but I imagine it will take awhile. The cough keeps him up most of the night too. We still having the bleeding issue. We are considering taking him to Rochester. We hear they won't let him go until they find out the problem.