What a mighty God we serve

I cannot even describe how different I feel emotionally writing this post versus the post from last week Sunday. Once again, after all of the setbacks, the trials, the yelling at God to hear our prayers, the screaming at Him to act on those prayers, He has carried us through depths of the valley. Needless to say, Max is doing much better. There have been so many treatments used in the last few weeks it is hard to say what helped. First it was antibiotics (which he is finally done with, so hopefully his stools can firm up a bit!!), then a course of steroids, changes to his oxygen saturation limit, and on and on. I kind of like it when there are so many treatments in motion and not one identifiable solution...because it is easier to give God the glory. So when we last left off, Max was in 100% oxygen. As of this afternoon, he was in 33%. On top of that, his blood gases have been improving each day and they turned his vent settings down this afternoon to 26 over 11 (from 28 over 11). Those settings are not real low, but a change in the right direction is a change in the right direction. He is not out of the woods or even on his way to coming home yet, but it seems like this recent crisis has been averted. Out prayer is that is current oxygen level will be the start of a new baseline and that all of the treatments, particularly God's healing hand, will get Max to a point where home doesn't seem so far away. Kate, Wes and I would really love to have Max home for Christmas so we can celebrate the greatest gift with our amazing gifts. But for the time being, we are happy Max is feeling better!! Praise God.

Here is one of my all time favorite pictures of Max. It was taken two nights ago when Nurse Ashley (one of our night nurses who has been taking care of Max for more than 6-months now) came on shift and was saying "hello."

Wes continues to do well at home. Two weeks without a hospital stay...way to go buddy!!! He has had a LOT of appointments, most of which have been at our house. The in-home nurse cam twice, occupational therapy came twice (they work mostly with improving motor skills and making sure he has good range of motion, etc.), the speech therapist came once (they work on bottle feeding) and he had a follow up appointment with the doctor who did his Nissin G-tube surgery. By in large he is doing well. We do a lot of exercises with him to strengthen his neck and make him aware of his feet, toys, face, etc., and that has been going pretty well. The follow up with the G-tube doc was okay. He thought Wes' site looked pretty good (it doesn't look very good to Kate and I...it has been red and oozy, but he is the doctor), but he was concerned that Wes has been retching a bit following his feedings. Since his G-tube procedure, he has been having some nasty sounding episodes where he gags and sounds like he is going to vomit. He cannot vomit because of the surgery, but there is obviously something awry. We have been keeping close tabs on him and have even backed down on how much we are feeding him, because if this does not resolve itself, we are moving to drip feedings. That is not the end of the world, just a move in the wrong direction and yet another piece of equipment we would need to haul around. Please pray with us that he is just having a little spell right now and soon will be feeling great and handling his feedings like a champ.

Here is a short video of Wes playing around while on his Boppy pillow. He really likes sucking on his hands, which I am told is a good thing.