Aiden Update - February 1st

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We wanted to update everyone via web as we have so many people calling and asking about Aiden. As time permits, we will try to post an update on line every couple of days.

For the last two nights, Aiden has held steady. This morning's x-ray shows marginal improvement and he has a very long road ahead.

On Tuesday evening, Aiden was intubated because he was pulling too hard while breathing. Typically, this helps reduce the work his lungs have to do and gives him time to rest and heal. However, one of the risks is that the procedure can cause a pneumothorax (hole in the lung) and cause a medical emergency from accumulation of air or gas in the chest cavity. This air then causes the lung to collapse from the outside. Unfortunately, it happened during the procedure and the hole was large enough to where a chest tube had to be placed to remove the air outside the lung.

With his chronic lung diseased and already weakened body, this is a serious thing and could cause deterioration beyond repair. In order to prevent him from moving or pulling out tubes, they sedated and paralyzed him with drugs. There was serious concern throughout Wednesday and we contacted many of our friends and family to pray for him.

God worked and Aiden held his own on Wednesday and Thursday. Thus far, they have been able to slowly reduce his oxygen needs. But he is still so fragile that anything can happen. It's a very helpless feeling. Either one of use would trade places with him if we could.

There is a very fine line when balancing the tradeoffs in trying to prevent his lungs from failing. Pray for wisdom for the doctors, nurses and technicians.

Aiden has had many battles... this will be his greatest. Please continue to pray that his lungs would strengthen and that his body would heel.

Below are some images of Aiden (from Wednesday evening)

He is sedated and paralyzed for now

The medical equipment which keeps him alive

Update on Aiden

After getting some horrible medical care all last week at Children's Hospital, they finally moved Aiden to the Pediatric ICU and he is getting much better care (finally)! Despite the fact that we requested ICU service on Saturday, they chose to wait and things deteriorated to the point that he HAD to be placed in the ICU on Monday at 3AM.

His lungs are not in very good shape and he relies very heavily on machines to help him breathe. Hopefully, he will strong soon and get rid of the infection he has and start breathing better.

This morning he looked somewhat pale and his body is retaining Carbon Dioxide. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. While everything seems to indicate a viral infection, the doctors simply do not know for sure what the issue is.

We have a great Physician who can heal anything and please pray that He would do so in accordance with His will.

Thanks

Update - January 22, 2008

Last Monday Aiden came home to join his brothers. As you can imagine, with three babies being home, we are a little overwhelmed! We will post a lengthier update and some pictures in a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, yesterday morning, we had to take Aiden to Children's Hospital in Dallas, TX. He was running a fever, breathing heavy, was spitting up, coughing quite a bit and there were a host of other concerns. Our pediatrician recommended we take him to the hospital and he was admitted yesterday.

He is currently there and Hannah is with him. Last night was very rough as Aiden was coughing all night and hasn’t eaten much in the last 24 hours. Hannah has had very little sleep herself and I plan on going down there to relieve her so she can come home and rest.

They are not sure what is wrong with Aiden. While it appears to be a viral infection of some kind, it could be a number of things.

Please keep Aiden and Hannah in your prayers and that he has a very speed recovery. We know the Lord will not give us more than we can handle but there is alot to handle right now and we would appreciate your prayers.

Ethan and Evan are doing wonderful! They are both growing so fast it is getting harder and harder to tell them apart.

We will update in the next few days (as time permits).