Gavin in PICU- asking for fasting & prayers

Gavin was moved to the PICU late Sunday night. He was having trouble breathing and coughing up blood. Since then its been a nightmare. He crashed so suddenly, its so scary...right now he is completely sedated and paralyzed and hooked up to a bazillion machines. I feel like its a house of cards right now, at any moment everything could just fall.

They had to switch him from a normal ventilator to an ocsillator yesterday, which is pretty much a "last resort" option. His body just couldn't keep his oxygen levels up on his own. They had to increase the rate from 25 to 28 during the night (they want it at 20 or lower before they can switch him back to the normal vent). He is bleeding in his lungs, his urine, and his stools. The ct scans are showing something in his lungs, but they don't know what yet (fluid, blood, or fungus) we have to wait for the cultures to come back. He also has fluid build-up in his abdomen. He is on so many meds I can't even explain them.

He had a rough night last night...his heart rate and blood pressure kept dropping. He starting running a fever early this morning, but it went down a bit with ice packs, and went under 100 later today. They've taken cultures from his lungs, throat, nose, stools, and urine but nothing has grown out of them yet.

They think he may have breathed in a certain fungus called Zygomycosis that eats away at the blood vessels, which would explain the bleeding in his lungs. It would have started in the lungs, and spread to his skin where that big scabby thing was through the bloodstream. Its a really rare one, of course. The ID doc here consulted one of the top pediatric fungal specialist in the US to get a second opinion on it, and they both seem to agree that, thats what it probably is. But they won't know anything for sure until the lung culture grows something. They are also going to keep an eye on the incision where the scab was to make sure they got it all out and it doesnt become re-infected.

His docs say he is doing better this morning than he was yesterday morning though. His chest scans from last night were improved from yesterday morning. They looked about the same today, but at least not worst. The bleeding in his lungs has lessened. But the bleeding in his urine has been increasing (but they are not as concerned with that right now). For now they are concentrating on figuring out what is in his lungs, what caused him to crash, and trying to lessen the amount of liquid in him. He is on two diuretics for the liquid, but they don't want to try and put a needle in to drain any more of it since he having problems with bleeding.

He is on two "super" antifungal antibiotics that are broad spectrum, meaning they cover a lot of different kinds of it. Usually it takes about 48 hours on them before they really start kicking in. So hopefully he will improve more by tomorrow morning. His doctors are sayin that right now he is stable, and they are seeing positive improvements. Its just going to be a "tight rope walk" the next few days as they try to adjust things...lowering the oscillator, while adjusting the meds, etc, since everything interacts and affects something else. Its going to be baby steps, but the doc is hopeful that he will be off the oscillator in 2-3 days. I'm guessing he won't be back on the transplant list for a couple of weeks at least, they have to figure out what this is first and clear it completely from his system first.

This is just all so terrifying. Last night I was so overwhelmed by fear I would forget to even breathe. The doctors and nurses were either in his room or sitting right outside the door all night. This is so much worse than the feeling of despair when the offers fell through.

We are asking our friends and family to join with us in a fast for him, starting tonight and ending tomorrow. Anyone who wants to join in is welcome...please send your prayers and/or positive, healing thoughts to him!