A Mystery

They did a "Gram Stain" test on the secretions and blood they are suctioning out of Jimmie. The test came back negative for any bacteria. In a sense this is positive news, but it just grows the mystery of what is wrong with Jimmie. They are still going forward with the blood cultures, but it could take a week or longer before we know if that has produced any answers.

The negative Gram Stain test points away from any sickness and infection and back towards- what they are calling "an event". This is what Rachael, Mom and Carolyn (the nurse who was there when it happened) have felt- or at least they have had a hard time reconciling the way things went down- with an illness.

If this is the case then Jimmie would not have pneumonia in his lungs, but rather inflamed lungs because of "the event". Not having an infection and pneumonia would be great news, but they are not ruling that out based only on the Gram Stain test. And they are continuing with the antibiotics.

Mom is wondering if something happened in his vocal chords or in his trachea that caused pain and bleeding. That would explain why there is not blood draining into his stomach, but rather into his lungs. This is all conjecture.

Mom said Jimmie is starting to act more like himself again. And they are just not convinced he is acting sick. But they are cautious about these conclusions.

It is starting to seem that we have a real mystery on our hands. The most upsetting thing is the bleeding has not stopped and Jimmie had to receive more blood (transfusion)this afternoon. They are calling it moderate bleeding. Mom is also wondering if the ventilator is irritating what ever happened and that is why the bleeding won't stop. If this is true- Jimmie is really in a hard place. He can't breathe without the ventilator because of the blood dripping into his lungs, but he wont stop bleeding because of the ventilator. Again-- this is all CONJECTURE.

I asked Mom to ask his Doctors if an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist) could be brought in to look at Jimmie. They explained that all of the instruments are way to big and would be too invasive and would cause trauma to Jimmie. He is just too tiny.

NOTHING is really known for sure. This is extremely frustrating to us all- including Jimmie's Doctors. (My husband- trying for a little lightheartedness said, "too bad we don't have Dr. House on Jimmie's case!") (House is a t.v. show with a fictional Sherlock Holmes type genius doctor who figures out medical mysteries.)

Anyway- Jimmie really really needs to stop bleeding! Please pray for this. And pray for his Doctors to be able to figure this out. Pray that they would receive direction and inspiration from God! Continue to pray there would be no bacteria and infection in his body as well.

Contact everyone you know who will pray- direct them to this blog for specifics! We need more prayers than ever going up for Jimmie right now!

Love,
Amber

P.S. I thought I'd add Rachael is such a Supermom. The following is just to illustrate how involved she is with every aspect of his care. The doctor and nurse were discussing his nose today. They examined it a little more and found a scab in one side and a lot of swelling and inflammation on the other side. They basically feel his nose has been damaged/compromised by the nasal cannulas and possibly the feeding tube. They reiterated that most babies his size stay on the ventilator much much longer. They still feel nose issues are better than the issues that come with long term use of a ventilator. Anyway- they were trying to remember which side of his nose they first tried to insert the feeding tube and failed and which side it had ended up in. The nurse was trying to find this info in Jimmie's chart. Rachael has a little book that she keeps in Jimmie's room and records everything in it. She picked that up and told them all of the details related to this. They then found their notes regarding this and said, "yep- you are exactly right. That is is exactly what we have recorded here." Wow-- it's hard to communicate what Rachael and Justin are going through right now with this crisis. Pray for them as well. Pray that they have wisdom from God regarding their son so they can be his best advocates!