Noah is having some sort of crisis, apparently caused by the increased concentration of his feedings.  He didn’t feel good yesterday but didn’t seem sick enough to warrant a trip to the doctor.  He woke up about 4 AM today in a lot of discomfort and started vomiting profusely shortly thereafter.  We got him (and ourselves) cleaned up and got him settled back to sleep about 6 AM.  We didn’t hook his pump back up after his bath because we wanted to speak with the dietician first.  

He woke up a couple of hours later in extreme distress.  If we don’t hold him, he sobs.  If we pick him up, he tries to pry our hands off his body and keeps hitting himself in the face.  He alternates this with just curling up in a ball very still with his eyes shut tight.  The dietician said to start him on a very slow drip of Pedialyte, which we did.  We have spent the last several hours playing phone tag with assorted doctors and nurses.  The final decision is that we need to go to Greenville to the children’s hospital and take him to the E.R. there.  The doctors were going to do a direct admission, but they are understaffed with residents right now and said it could be many hours before the resident saw him and wrote orders for an I.V., labs, etc.  If we go to the E.R. he can be stabilized there, then moved into a room.  We did NOT want to go the E.R. route because of the risk of him catching something else there.  We also don’t relish the prospect of “explaining” Noah to an unknown E.R. doctor.  We do have a fairly large regional hospital here in town, but everyone involved feels that Noah is too sick even for that hospital and would end up being transported to Greenville Memorial anyway.  They have a children's hospital and a complete staff of pediatric specialists in every field.  This is where he recently spent 2.5 weeks and had his g-tube surgery.

Please pray:

1.  For wisdom and clear understanding on the part of the doctors

2.  For protection that Noah won’t get sicker as a result of being in the E.R.

3.  That the blood draws, I.V., catheter, etc. will be administered as quickly and effortlessly as possible.  Last time he needed an I.V. he blew 8 veins before they got an I.V. that would stay and work.  It is horrible to see him suffer like that, so please pray that everything goes in fast the first time.

We will be leaving in a few minutes once the babysitter gets here.  Thank you so much to all of you who are praying for him.  We are SO thankful for all of you.  You humble us so much.  We know that there are many, many families in worse situations than ours who don’t have the outpouring of love, prayers, and support that we have.  We stand in awe that God would choose to use so many of you to bless us!

Love,

Kate, Jeff, and the children