He's coming home! (scroll down to bottom for updates)

Dearest Friends and Family,

Please forgive us for taking so long in letting everyone know how the move and transition time is going. Even now, I only have enough time to write and ask for your prayers. Lord willing, I will write about the Lord's faithfulness through the move, soon. Thank you to those who have been praying and those that would have been praying had we had time to let you know.

Isaiah (our 8 year old) hasn't been feeling like himself for about 3 weeks now. He had been really tired, spiking a fever only in the evenings and then by morning and through the late afternoon, his temperature would be normal. Two week ago, he came to me, a little scared, showing me a couple knots in his groin area, right where lymph nodes are at the bend in the top of the right leg. He showed them to me on a Thursday evening. Chris and I decided we would just watch them through the weekend and make an appointment for Monday.

He did not seem to get any better, and the lymph nodes actually got more soar and a little bigger. We scheduled an appointment for Monday, but then I came down with the flu…so, we had to schedule it for Wednesday. The doctor at that point wasn't sure what it was, so they put him on a high powered antibiotic, he was on it for 7 days….with no improvement, still continued to have the really high fevers in the evening and the lymph nodes became really hard, with more pain. We went back into the doctor this Wednesday, and she gave us two options. She told me she was making an educated guess, but thought it could be something called Tularemia (rabbit fever) or some sort of resistant staph infection, which both, can only be treated with IV antibiotics. She said we could put him into the hospital in Siloam Springs, AR (which is only 25 minutes away) and start on IV antibiotics and have some more blood work done to see what it was or we could go to see an Infectious Disease Specialist in Tulsa, OK (which is an hour away) with the likelihood of him being put in the hospital over there.

We chose to just stay in Siloam Springs. They immediately started treatment with two different antibiotics, one specifically for Tularemia and one for resistant strands of staph, strep, etc. His doctor called Tulsa and got counsel from the Infectious Disease Specialist, and he recommended they get some samples and cultures of fluid and tissue from the lymph nodes, because sometimes, Tularemia doesn't show up in blood work. And at this point we were already going to be waiting on the blood work results until next Monday or Tuesday, because of the turnaround time of the test, etc.

So yesterday morning, Isaiah had a small surgery to take out some samples to send off. Surgery went well, and Isaiah did excellent. He has been scared, but we he has been brave through all the needles, etc. He is in quite of bit of pain today, but seems to be doing better. The antibiotics seem to be helping, because his fever has not spiked since they got them in his system.

For now, we are waiting and they are continuing to treat him for the Tularemia while we are waiting for the results of everything to come back. We should know something more by Tuesday, Lord willing.

It has been a sweet time of trusting in the Lord, keeping our hearts and minds focused on His Sovereignty, depending on Him and His strength through Jesus Christ. We have had wonderful times of prayer, especially when Isaiah seemed especially worried or scared. We remind Isaiah and ourselves of His faithful care and provision, knowing that ALL that God does is good, even when we do not quite understand. This is His best for Isaiah and us. And we can trust Him. It is so wonderful to see Isaiah's heart be calmed through being reminded of truths from God's word.

Update 10/10/2008 5:00 PM

Isaiah was getting a little down about having to stay in the hospital. He is ready to come home. I asked the nurse if we could talk him outside to have his walk, and they reluctantly let us. It is really nice outside today, he really enjoyed the crisp air and seeing the leaves changing colors and watching them fall off the trees. When we got back, you could tell he was having a better attitude about things. Then he asked: "Can we go again?" with his sweet little grin! They don't want him to over do it, but on his next walk about, we're gonna try and talk him outside again!

Update 10/12/2008 10:30 PM

He is still making improvements. His appetite is coming back, and fevers are staying down. He did well today, we were able to take him out two times to get some fresh air. He really enjoyed that.

He may have to have his IV changed again tomorrow to a different spot, he's a bit concerned about having that done.

Thank you to all for praying and for emailing your encouragements.

Update 10/13/2008

He was a little more tired today with a small low grade fever, for some reason. We are still waiting for results, which, Lord willing be here tomorrow, sometime.

The children and I were not able to go up there today...so everyone was a bit bummed.

Thank you again to all who are praying and sending the encouraging emails.

Update 10/14/2008

He's coming home today! We are thankful to the Lord that Isaiah is able to come home today. The doctor came in this morning and shared that not all the tests were back yet, but that all the ones that they do have back or that they are still culturing, have not grown anything. So, they are stumped to what kind of infection his body was fighting. They know he was fighting something, but as to what they are not sure.

Today after lunch, he will have finished the full treatment for the Tularemia. And they will send him home with an oral antibiotic to finish out the other treatment they were doing.

They sent more of the tissue they collected through surgery to a tissue expert at AR Children's Hospital for further testing, to see if he can figure out what he was fighting. We will now just keep an eye on him from home and see how he does.

As soon as the doctor told him he could go home today, he gathered all his things and then said: "OK, I'm ready to go home!" He thought he could leave as soon as he got his things together. LOL He' s so ready to be out of there.

I wish we knew something more at this point, but we are thankful to the Lord, that he is doing better and he gets to come home.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We will conitinue to keep you updated through this blog as we find out more.

For from Him and through Him and to Him are ALL things,
Hayley