Clowing around again....

We are back home, and Eli is ready to "clown around" again...Isn't he the cutest baby you've ever seen?????

Hey everyone, good news! Praise God, Eli is home!Thank God, the tide turned quickly this morning as test results came in, and the pediatric infectious disease specialist got a good look at Eli's records and Eli himself. Except for one test that we don't yet have results for, Eli's bloodwork showed no signs of concern. Bottom line, the infectious disease doc felt that he could send us home with a powerful oral antibiotic that would fight the infection in Eli's foot, which at this time appears to be staph (not MRSA, but some type of staph). He saw no advantage to keeping us in the hospital for observation, and the IV antibiotics did not contribute very well to Eli's rest and/or recovery. (or ours! He had 5 things hooked up to him...)


When the docs examined Eli, they were confounded by the number of health issues he has faced in his 4.5 months; they place their greatest confidence in kids who exude health & energy by outward signs in addition to test results which show no real reason for concern. Thus, even with his history, they really don't feel he has a problem with his immune system or any problem with his blood / bloodstream. Praise God!


We have two follow-up appointments and we will of course be watching Eli closely. For now, he and Faith are resting comfortably here at home with us. God is good, and He is the Great Physician and Healer. We have Him to thank most of all. We also thank you for lifting us up to the Father. We owe a debt of gratitude to the incredible hospital staff (nurses & docs) and the infectious disease guy who "spoke with authority" and let us come home today instead of Thursday.



Thanks for your concern & your prayers. We still need your prayers that Eli will heal from this staph infection, and that he will experience many months / years of good health. As we move forward, we'll keep you posted about Eli's progress, and hopefully it will be a long, long time before he experiences another infection.

We were, of course, SO EXCITED to have Eli home. I'm not sure we could top Faith's excitement though, she L-O-V-E-S her baby brother!!

A BIG Thank You to all for your phone calls, emails, comments, visits, meals, etc. We feel TOTALLY BLESSED to have such wonderful friends and family!!

We have some other REALLY GOOD NEWS to share......

We are also SO EXCITED to report that our sweet buddy, Bennett, has gone home with his Mommy and Daddy. After 70 days in the NICU, precious Bennett, was released to the wonderful care of his parents. We are THRILLED beyond words and appreciate you all praying for him!!!

Prayers for Baby Eli

Prayers for Baby Eli


Please pray for our infant son, Eli. We don’t want to alarm you, and we’re trying not to be alarmed, so here are the facts.

He was admitted to the “Peyton Manning Hospital for Children at St. Vincent’s” in Indianapolis today for a skin infection in addition to ear infection. The docs are giving him a strong combination of antibiotics intravenously, and they’ve told us Eli will be there at least 48 hours after the first dose, which wasn’t given until late tonight. So we’re thinking he’ll come home on Thursday, but there’s no guarantee.

Here are our specific prayer requests:
Pray that God will heal Eli of this skin infection, and his ear infections.
Pray that that today’s extensive blood tests will reveal that Eli has no other underlying issues with his blood or immune system.
Ask God to keep Faith safe & healthy during this trying time for our little family. (What a blessing to be near Jaime’s family at times like these…and my mom was already headed here for a visit and arrives Wednesday…)
Thank God for the great medical care we have in this country!
For more background, go to our blog www.murraysanderson.blogspot.com


BACKGROUND

Eli had a mild case of pneumonia in August, then a stomach virus earlier this month, followed by a significant ear infection that has lasted 2 weeks. This ear infection wasn’t phased at all by the low grade antibiotic, Amoxicillin. As an aside, I think doctors will soon be giving out Amoxicillin to trick or treaters, as it seems to compare only to candy in its impact on bacteria. After our 2nd trip to the ER this month for a fever spike a week ago, the docs upgraded him to Omnicef, the antibiotic a level up from Amoxicillin.

At this point, with Eli having pneumonia, stomach virus and ear infection all by 3 months of age, our pediatrician set an appointment for us to see an Infectious Disease specialist in mid-November. This caused us alarm, but hey, whatever it takes…

Then just before his bath last Saturday night, we found a quarter-sized red bump on his left ankle…I immediately thought it was a spider bite, but on further investigation, our docs now believe it is a skin infection caused by bacteria of some type, a type that is not eradicated by Omnicef.

Ok, we’re talking about a 4 ½ month old here…what a medical history he has! So our pediatrician advised us this morning that the best course was to admit him to the hospital, and then we would better be able to get an MRI and bloodwork completed, and get evaluation from pediatric specialists and an infectious disease specialist.

The MRI took 60 to 70 minutes, our boy is strong and he kept waking up from the mild sedation and moving around before they could finish the test. It took them awhile, but they finally got what they needed. (They had to administer the maximum amount of sedation, which weren’t crazy about…but you do what you have to do.) Thankfully, the MRI revealed that the infection is not in his bone, and appears to be only in the skin and the underlying tissue.

After the MRI, they took significant amounts of blood from him (don’t get me started on the pain of this process) and we’ll hopefully get those results tomorrow.

All of the docs who examine him just say how adorable he is, and how strong he is. He is very healthy if you’re just looking at him…he’s “chunky” in the words of the supervising pediatrician, and he has great color, a great appetite, smiles a lot, and sings quite loudly in notes just under those which shatter glass. He has lots of wet & dirty diapers (that’s my boy!) and he has a sparkle in his beautiful blue eyes. Because of how he looks and acts, they really don’t feel there’s anything wrong with his immune system, they just think we’ve been really unlucky, and that he’ll improve with this round of treatment and be just fine.

We thank you in advance for your prayers, and we look forward to updating you as soon as possible. Lord willing, the next email you get from us will be on Wednesday or Thursday, saying that we’re headed home and they didn’t find anything more serious.

Tired

Sorry for the delay in posting. To be honest, I am SOOOOO tired and haven't had much free time to get anything new posted. Eli has gotten sick again so please pray for our sweet little one. He is on the mend but it's taken a lot of sleepless nights (and another trip to the ER) to get us there!

We had a BLAST with the McClures the week before last and will post pictures of our time with them soon. (I only have about 215 to choose from).

Hope all of you are enjoying your fall. It's my FAVORITE season!!!! We will miss our annual drive up the Shenandoah Valley to take in all the fall foliage. Thankfully, Indiana also has a beautiful array of color for us to enjoy!

God bless!!

Nelson is Coming!!

My buddy Nelson is coming to visit me TOMORROW!! I can hardly stand it! In fact, as soon as I wake up, I get to go to the airport and pick him up. We are going to have SO MUCH FUN!

Can you tell we really like each other????

His Mommy and Daddy are coming too. My Mommy and Daddy are super excited to see them. Here they are with Eli when he was a teeney tiny baby. Mrs. Katherine is going to have a baby in the spring. I can't wait to tell Nelson all about being a big sibling. It's so much fun!

Stay tuned for new pics of me and Nelson and our adventures together!

P.S. My brother will be 4 months old tomorrow. Isn't he getting so big???? I love you, Eli!!

Going South

Well, we had big plans and headed south this past weekend. We arrived in Nashville, TN to attend the Zoe worship conference Thursday morning. Not long after our arrival our plans for a wonderful time of praise, renewal, fellowship with old friends (and a special trip to visit my college roomie who is newly pregnant with baby #4) "went south" as a nasty stomach virus infected most of our family. Eli was the first to get it, then Faith took her turn and finally it came to me. Fortunately, it didn't stick around long with the kids but man did it ever have a hold on me. We made 2 trips to the ER this past weekend.

We are back home recovering well and are mostly over this nasty bug. YUCK!! I always forget how much I HATE to be sick until I get REALLY sick.

Murray was the BIGGEST CHAMPION of our family as he cared for all three of us in a cramped hotel room (it was actually a really nice room but Faith likes to have a bit more space to run around in). It was definitely not a fun experience but I couldn't have asked for better care. He didn't complain at all.

Thank you God for good medical care and for healing our bodies! And thank you, especially for a wonderful husband!!!