Back in the ER in Baton Rouge 9-10-06

Braden has big hopes to follow in "auntie" Victoria's footsteps, and do something significant with his life, as he dons this "Future Agent" Secret Service onesie, he looks ready for business, almost like a bouncer, don't you think?

This update was supposed to explain to everyone about our trip to Houston, but we have a more current scenario to share. This morning we were admitted into the ER at OLOL again, with respiratory distress, extremely high fever, and potential heat stroke. Before you think we are terrible parents or made some bad choices, you should know that a potential side affect of the new seizure medication we are on, includes heat stroke, hypethermia, irritability, anorexia, and others. Braden is normally a profusive sweater, and he has not been sweating much in the past 3 days, and instead seems to be retaining the heat in his skin, as his face, legs, and arms have been a bright red. He has been very hot to touch, and with the respiratory issues, he has been unresponsive.

They are running the gammet of normal tests, x-rays and blood tests to check for a new pneumonia, and cultures to test for a variety of infections. Early tests have all come back negative, but our white cell count is at 18,000. This is high (normal should be about 10 or 11,000), but not extremely out of the park like before. So they are treating him with some general antibiotics for now, until they understand more of what is going on.

We will try once again to keep you updated as we can, but our hopes are high to only be here for a few days to get over this bump in the road.

We will share our information from our trip to Houston in a few parts, as it is an incredible amount of information, but we feel like it has all been worth it, as we are more educated, informed, and confident in our plan of care. We will do that in another posting this week.

We have found a sitter for Braden, Caralyn will be watching him in our home on MWF, and we will announce some other news regarding our work schedules later this week too, once it has all been approved, but it looks like we won't have to hire an additional care provider for Braden. She trained on Friday and Saturday, and only has a half day of training left before she will watch Braden alone, so while we hoped that would happen tomorrow, we will have to postpone that until Wednesday, IF we get to be home by then.

Friends, we thank you for the amazing support and prayers, we know that God has listened to all of your prayers, as we have witnessed His wonderous ways as Braden continues to amaze us with his ability to heal. We ask for continued prayer, as this first year of his life, we hope will be the toughest. We are praying that as Braden's body begins to grow and mature, he will be able to handle these changes in medication and seizure activity. We also continue to pray for a miracle, and that Braden will go on to lead a full and wonderful life, bearing witness to God's abundant blessings and love.

We will share with your our story from Houston later this week. Thanks for walking the path along with us,
Kodi and the Fella's