Another Hard Day

Well- it’s been another frustrating stressful day. This morning Jimmie’s Doctor decided to do something a little more aggressive and put Afrin -a drug that is supposed to constrict blood vessels- in his nasal passage . 15 minutes later Jimmie started having some serious bradys. His heart rate overall was low and it kept dropping into the 70’s. To put this in perspective- Rod said his training as an EMT has them doing chest compressions and CPR on a baby whose pulse is under 80. The positive thing was Jimmie’s oxygen saturation was staying in healthy ranges even during his bradys. The Doctor came in and said this was an apparent bad reaction to the drug. She rinsed and flushed the drug out of his nasal passages and his heart rate improved immediately. He is still struggling with bradys some though and it’s been 6 hours. So pray that side effect wears off and his heart recovers quickly. The drug didn’t stay that long in Jimmie’s nose. I don’t know the time frame, but we are hoping maybe it was in there long enough to help his bleeding issue. That drug is obviously now out of the question.

Rachael is cautiously encouraged that this afternoon and early evening when they have suctioned Jimmie there seems to be much less blood. Lets pray really hard that this is the beginning of the end of this bleed. Rachael said Jimmie was acting really lethargic this evening. He’s had another hard day. Besides the bad reaction to the drug. His I.V. keeps going bad. He is back on full feeds so they are only using his I.V. for his daily dose of antibiotics. The nurse said he had a traumatic time while they were trying to get his I.V. in a new vein this afternoon. Rachael says please pray this one stays good for a long time. I think he has at least a few more days of antibiotics. Jimmie has been stuck so many times since Monday Rachael can’t even count. The poor guy is starting to desat when you touch his feet because he expects pain. It really breaks my heart. He is struggling and uncomfortable with the ventilator. He was only on it initially for 5 days so Rachael can tell he really does not like it. The Doctor has literally said she is too chicken to extubate him right now. Rachael agrees with her. They have to be as sure as possible that the bleed has completely stopped before they can even think about it because they want to avoid what happened Monday afternoon at all costs.

The other upsetting thing is Rachael was told she needed to be out of the NICU from 2 to 6pm today. A baby on Jimmie’s row has to have surgery. They are turning that portion of the NICU into a sterile operating area. The surgery just started at 8:30pm. So Rachael will just go home and try to sleep. Please say a prayer for this baby who has to have surgery that it would be successful and safe. It’s been tough for Rachael to not be by Jimmie’s side when he’s having such a difficult time.

I am really REALLY hoping the bleeding is slowing down. Please pray for this bleed to completely stop and for Jimmie to heal. Before he can make any headway or recovery this has to happen. Pray for him that he would be held by God and comforted during this time. He hasn’t been in his Mommy or Daddy’s arms since Monday morning.

I know there are many many people praying from around the world. I’ve been told some pretty awesome things about who all knows about Jimmie, is reading the blog and praying for him. The words “thank you” are not adequate. It is so comforting to know all of your faithful prayers are covering Jimmie!

Love,
Amber