Praying

James has a lot of doctors (very good doctors) on board who are all working very hard to help him get well. But we know that James' greatest help will come from the Lord. So I wanted to update and keep everyone praying James through these next few days.

First, there is a new PICU attending doctor on for the weekend and she is very aggressive in trying to move James forward and closer to getting the ventilator removed. I like that....but at the same time I'm afraid. Her name is Dr. Ozment and I'm praying that she will have God's wisdom this weekend.

Dr. Ozment's first job this weekend has been to get James switched from narcotic medications for controlling his storms to other medications that will not suppress his breathing. If they can do this without him storming too much, then he will be one step closer to getting the breathing tube out. Yesterday, they weaned one of the medications to almost nothing and James did well. I walked in on a storm this morning, but evidently it was the first one so far. Today will be another day of weaning the narcotics, with the hope of being switched by sometime tomorrow. Pray for wisdom as they make this switch and subsequently control the storming episodes.

James chest x-ray looked better last night, but then worse again this morning. They are going to be more aggressive in trying to get those lungs cleared up today. Again, praying for wisdom and safety.

Due to the steroids that James is on, he has high blood sugar now. They will start insulin to keep it under control.

Finally, James' shunts are still not working right. It is routine when the shunts are draining outside the head that they change the tubing and catheters weekly, to avoid infection. It is the plan, I believe, to take James back to the operating room tomorrow to change those catheters and hopefully find a better placement. Of course, I worry about every surgery that James will need and I'm not sure how this will affect the efforts to get him off the breathing tube.

As you can see, each problem is so intricately intertwined with the next. In fixing one thing another will go wrong and to fix that one messes up something else. GOD knows what James needs....He knows how to untangle the mess....and He knows what is best for James. We are praying hard for His will to be done and for Him to be near to James. Thank you for praying with us!!!