Avery's Story Part III

Here are the emails that went out from the 17th. Avery went into surgery on the 14th of July.

>>> Meghan Hall 07/17/09 11:17 AM >>>
Dear Friends and Family,

First I want to stress that we do not want any visitors at this time. He is still very much on life support. Things change every hour and half hour and it is hard enough for the two of us to stay positive. To us, the strides that he has made in the past few days are amazing, but he is still very sick which has made him extremely swollen, beyond recognition, and he is still hooked up to many different machines. He has two nurses designated to his care at all times. Now is not the time for visiting although we recognize that everyones heart is in the right place.

Please also be patient with us being able to update you all. Assume that if there is nothing for hours that nothing has changed. We will let you know when things are getting better, hopefully not worse.

Here is what's been happening: on Tuesday he went into surgery at 9am and got out at 12pm. We had arrived at the hospital at 5:45am and held a happy bouncy Avery who was giggling and surprised to see his parents so early in the morning. When he got out of surgery our surgeon who has been with us since the very beginning was very happy with what he had seen in the bowel. The miracle that we had prayed for, a stricture, was there. He had removed the stricture and put in the GI tube, the central line and the ostomy. He had high hopes that Avery would make a quick recovery and be sent out of the ICU unit and onto the floor where we would have our own room quickly. This would have sped up the time to when he could come home.

At 12:30pm Avery was up from surgery. Immediately Jared and I recognized something was off. The site was bleeding badly, he was paper white, and his movements were erratic. Around 2pm when the team couldn't get him stable everyone went into high alert. The bleeding was increasingly worse, he wasn't responding to clotting agents and he was beginning to swell. He was given a paralytic to stop his movements and began infusion after infusion of blood. (For those who donate blood our boy is B+ and we can't thank you enough.) His blood pressure dropped, his breathing became more and more labored because his bowel was pushing his lungs up. He continued to decline all through the day and into the night. His kidney's failed early in the morning on Weds.

At 6am on Weds morning they began the process of getting him ready for and emergency surgery to open him up to allow some room and decompress the pressure on his kidneys and lungs. The whole POD was shut down for an hour and they preformed the surgery at the bedside. Our doctors were still not very optimistic about his recovery. He was loosing so much blood, had to be put on an oscillator (a very intense respirator/breathing machine) and not responding very well to any treatments they were giving him. The surgeon told us to not expect any results from the emergency surgery until 24-48 hours later. Weds night we began to see very small improvements, his blood pressure began to fluctuate where they needed it to be but the swelling was still going up. Things were better but the doctors were still not positive about his recovery.

Thursday things began to turn around very slowly. His blood pressure stayed well, they were able to get some fluids out by him finally peeing and they didn't have to give him many clotting agents or blood. I cannot stress enough, he is still very sick. But the doctors were much encouraged by his progress. He was responding to treatments and the surgery was beginning to help his recovery.

He is making small improvements, but he is still very very sick. They will have to close up the incisions site but will not be able to do that until he is much more stable. To us, he has made worlds of improvement. And he has. He IS getting better.

LET ME TELL YOU, that the recovery that we have seen the doctors, nurses and caretakers are giving to GOD. It is by HIS GRACE and HIS GRACE ONLY that our son is still here. I cannot tell you how many nurses and doctors have come to me and said with tears in their eyes "We love you all so much and your little boy has touched so many. We get sick babies in here all the time but your little boy is something special. I have been praying for him." GOD IS ALIVE! PRAYERS ARE HIS LIFE SUPPORT. Jared and I have been keeping each other up by staying in constant prayers and we cannot emphasize enough that our son's recovery and this ordeal is TO GOD'S GLORY. We are THANKFUL to represent our Savior in this way. To be His light in this dark place. DO NOT GIVE UP ON AVERY, please continue to pray, we have EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE he WILL make it through this. But it will not be from the Hospital itself but by the POWER and TESTIMONY of GOD.

We ask only that everyone pray in earnest, petition God for Avery's life. Yes you may place him on prayer requests, chains and groups. Yes you may share our story with whom ever you feel the need to, because it isn't our story, it's GOD'S story.

Jared and I have decided that we are going to pick a local charity to donate and work with once we get through this. We will let you all know which one it is. We figure that everyone has been asking if they could do anything and that is where we would like to see the effort go.

The only thing anyone can do for us, which is essentially doing things for Avery is to PRAY. We know that there have been so many who have and I cannot thank you all enough. Your prayers have been his life support. And the Doctors will tell you that too. They now come to Jared and I with prayer requests like "Pray for his sodium levels to come down" or "Pray for his urine out put to go up" BECAUSE THEY ARE SEEING THAT IT IS WORKING!

Remain positive for us. If you can't find the right words to say then don't say anything at all. YES we want to do more, YES it hurts us to see him like this but.....we can't do anything about it. Are we scared? Of course. BUT WE HAVE THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AND HIS PROMISE OF HEALING AND WE ARE CLINGING TO HIM AND HIS PROMISE.

Remember, the strongest steel goes through the hottest fire. We love you all. Thank you for all the kind words and prayers.

Love Meg, Jared and AMAZING AVERY