PROGRESS AND SETBACKS

The blood cultures came back positive for a blood infection which meant that the doctor's had to work very hard on getting all of Sam's central lines removed. They were the cause of the infection.....the problem is that Sam was on so much medication that it was imposible to remove them. The solution was to remove the central lines and put in pic lines.....the infectious disease doctor's were not satisfied with this, but it was the best solution for now. Sam's lungs had collasped because fluid was forming around his lungs. It is a condition known as Cholothorax www.emedicine.com/med/topic381.htm). When you metabolize food, your body sends triglycerides (fatty acids) to your lymphatic system by way of a thoracic duct. Sometimes during surgery that duct becomes torn or damaged and leaks the fluid into the thoracic cavity. Sam's duct was knicked during surgery and so this is why he was struggling to breath....fluid was building up around his lungs because of his intolerance to fat(milk). This was not life threatening and treatable, but a very huge setback. Sam no longer could be fed milk of any kind. He was put on a special formula and was being fed through a feeding tube in his nose. He had a chest tube put it and I remember showing up in the morning to see him with new tubes hanging out of his body. The doctors's told us that it would be weeks before the fluid around his lungs was gone and then it would be weeks before he could be weened back onto milk products and learn how to suck out of a bottle. The medication for Sam's infection was so strong that it could only be given by intravenous. He would have to be on it for at least 3-4 weeks.....another setback. I was thankful that Sam was alive and he was getting better.....this was good news. However with all of the complications that Sam experienced it was looking like Sam was going to be in the hospital for another 12 weeks.....this was devastating news to me. I will never forget the night they informed me of all of this. I lost it. I really needed a miracle....I know there had been so many already, but I really felt lost and broken at this point. I was struggling to keep it altogether...each day that passed was harder then the one before. The infectious disease doctor's kept insisting on removing Sam's pic lines and central lines and his chest tube was filling up bags with fluid from his lungs. This all seemed too much to tolerate, but somewhere inside of me was a strength that God could only provide. Sam's heart function was doing fabulous and his breathing was coming along great. He was still on the breathing machines, but everyday they were lowering the amount of oxygen that was coming from the machine.
We were thankful for the positive things....good heart function and Sam was begining to breath on his own....the setbacks....well we were going to get through this....Sam was getting stronger and for now that was enough.