come quickly to my rescue

"Turn your ear to me; come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me." Psalm 35:2

I'll come out with the hard stuff first today, and get it over with, so that we can praise God for the good things He is doing. We met today with our PICU floor doctor, Dr. Barton. He is the one who first recognized there was fluid in Jack's abdominal cavity and drained it out. We're pretty fond of this doctor, and he has been forthright with us. Today he was very level with us: he let us know that there's not many more safe steps, and we are about to require more aggressive action, and he thus has an idea for the next step. This step is still just a possibility, and not a definite procedure. Dr. Barton has to confer with our surgeons (Dr. Nokaidoh and Dr. Barth) before he can even be sure we can do it. There is a medicine that is commonly used in heart attack victims called TNP. TNP attacks and destroys blood clots, and it does it quite well, with a nearly 100% success rate. The procedure would entail entering the body with a catheter and shooting TNP directly onto the clot, allowing blood flow to be restored to the heart and the lymphatic ducts to drain. Now the risk and it's a huge one... The risk is that the medicine has a chance to cause hemorrhage in the brain, which would be immediately fatal.

Dr. Barton did let us know that if it were his child in the same situation, he would do it. He also allowed that in the last 15 years, it has happened once that the brain hemorrhaged. So it definitely can happen, but it is rare. He came in today at noon and shared this with us on his rounds, and he said that he'll be back before the day is up (most likely.) So far - at 3:10 p.m. - we haven't seen him yet.

Please pray for us today. Please pray that God would bless us with His wisdom, and that He would bless us with a peace about whichever way we should take this road. We believe that Jack will be healed, and we trust that God's Will will be done in either scenario. Please pray that if it's His will, another option would present itself that would allow Jack to be healed without this decision. They are still treating him today as though this option is not being discussed; they put him back on the nitric gas, and we're hoping that his fluid levels will diminish and perhaps the blood clot will dissolve on its own. Please, please pray for this. It would be absolutely terrific if the means to his healing would show up before we have to take this route.

We do praise God right, though, because Jack has done really well on the ventilator. His breathing and his gas numbers have been better even before he was put on the oscillator, and that's praiseworthy indeed! We praise God because we have now been in the hospital for 7 weeks, and our family and friends have made it possible for us to stay here and not worry about gas money or food money or even bills. God bless you all for that. And we praise God because Jack has such a wonderful extended family in everyone who is in continual prayer for him. Again, God bless you all for that. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! I leave you with two more verses (and Angi's signature as well.):

"Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." -Joshua 1:9

"Then your light shall break forth, like the morning; your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard." -Isaiah 58:8 (Thanks Amanda!)

Tony and Angi