Buckle up...

Hey everyone,

Don't have much time for a lengthy update right now - things are pretty hectic. As you know, we took Levi and Steph down to the hospital yesterday to continue his fifth round of chemo. It was a rough morning - I won't bore you with the details, but one of the mornings where everything you try to do right and all the plans you've made don't amount to anything; you realize pretty quickly on mornings like that it doesn't really matter what you try to do in your own strength.

We got down to the hospital and got Levi checked up and checked in. He kind of acted like he was feeling a little crummy, but we figured that his counts were dropping and he might be feeling some of the effects of the chemo he received last week. Earlier yesterday, while we were in the van, he did throw up his breakast, but we figured it was probably something that didn't agree with him - possibly the bizarre new flavor of Dannon yogurt juice I had picked out. He started to run little fevers, then as the day progressed the fevers intensified. Throughout the night he was in the 102 - 103 range.

As is common practice, they ran blood cultures last night to see if perhaps he caught some sort of bug and was fighting something. Fevers at this point can be caused by just about anything, including the chemo or even the antibiotics he's receiving. We got the results back a little while ago, and it did show that he had picked up something. So, here's the current status...

He hasn't eaten anything today, has no energy, and is not talking (which is not his norm). He is drinking, though, which is good. He started to have issues with his blood pressure a few hours ago, and they are trying to get it to come back up. It also looks like both of his lines in his central line might be infected, as the cultures from each came back positive. The doctors have put him on some pretty tough antibiotics and have hooked him up to all the monitors (respiratory, oxygen sat, heartrate, etc...). They talked about transferring him to the PICU, but the issue there is that the PICU is not set up to give chemo, and he still has two doses left (one at 3pm, one at 3am tomorrow morning). So instead of transferring him, they have the PICU doctor and the PICU nurses keeping an eye on his monitors. It seems that Tylenol is helping a little with his fevers, and the bolus he received might be edging his blood pressure up a little.

He could be having blood pressure issues like this as a side effect from the chemo, or because he is septic and fighting an infection. If it's from chemo, then hopefully tomorrow it will subside. If it is from an infection, and the antibiotics do their thing, then we should see improvement in about 72 hours. Obviously, this is a double-whammy for him right now, with his chemo knocking out his immune system and the infection making him sick. Both his mommy and I are concerned for him; the doctors and nurses seem like they are used to seeing things like this with AML patients, but this is really the first time Levi has been hit this hard.

Thank you for all the prayers that have gone up already for him today, and please keep them coming. Pray for Steph too, she is an amazing woman, an incredible example of how to stand up strong and protect the little one she loves with all her heart. God will see us through this storm too; in a couple short weeks, we hope to have our little buddy back home where he belongs.

1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."

Love you all,
Michael, Stephanie, Caylee, and little Levi