Unexpected Events

First off we would like to ask that everyone please add Joshua Lytle & his family to your prayers. He is 4 years old with FA. He has had 3 bone marrow transplants along with many complications and struggles. He is currently in the PICU and has been on an oscillator for about a week. His lungs have taken quite a toll & a miracle is needed right now. We have had the honor of meeting this family & are very heart broken over this development. There are many other families as well with struggles and challenges too and we ask that you please remember them as you pray for Elias!

Thinks with Elias today have been quite worrisome. He has developed a very high fever that is still rising. His heart rate has been between 165-200 bpm and in the past hour hit Oxygen Saturations have dropped to the upper 80's & low 90's prompting us to put him on O2 assistance. We fear he may have an infection in his Central Line. There have been blood, urine, stool, & trach cultures sent. Without going into details BMT has been brought on to help with this. We are thankful and relieved for that.

After the BMT team was up the surgeons came in to look at Elias stomach. They started pedialyte again today at 5mL per hour. It has been going since roughly 10 am. The mass on his stomach which we have been told for the past 2 weeks is just fluid, it is a typical abnormatily and would just absorb into the body has expanded expedintally the past 24 hours. His stomach still is distended as well, but it is difficult to tell how bad with the mass. Apparently this mass we have been concerned with that we have been told is alright all this time requires a CT scan. It appears we will have this done tonight, which means it must be a serious need since it is Friday at 7pm. They are now telling us this is necessary to determine if it is indeed fluid or if it is possibly a hernia. If it is fluid it would be cultured for infection and drained either by a tube or just opening the wound to drain and then packing it. If it is a hernia, well then another surgery will be required. The interesting challenge here is first a periphrial IV is needed -Elias access sucks- secondly, he needs to have 180 mL of contrast pushed into his stomach over an hour. We can barely do 120 in an hour without him throwing up. The boy hasn't had anything in his stomach for a few weeks now. Will he tolerate this or vomit. We are starting that now so I guess we will see!

This day has been a whirlwind and completely unexpected. It of course comes on the damn weekend so answers will be scarce until Monday more than likely. We will post an update when there is anything to report. Thank you all so much for all the prayers.

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