Nic update

This morning we got the results from most of yesterday's tests, including his late night, wake-up-the-pediatric-cardiologist-to-read-it-echocardigram. It never feels good when they don't think they can wait until morning. Everything looks OK. His heart has a loud murmur and is enlarged, probably because Nic's anemia is severe compared to his norm. For an SS patient it still isn't terrible(7.7), but it is a steep enough drop from his typical 10.6-11 that his heart is really working overtime and therefore having trouble. This is reversible, so once he stabilizes his heart should return to normal, although long term damage can occur if this happens too often. They are watching him very closely to monitor how his heart is withstanding all the extra pressure. He is hooked up to more monitors than usual and is completely bed-bound.

The suspicion is that he has parvovirus aka Fifth's disease and that this is causing his body to stop making new blood cells. Thus since Saturday his HB has dropped from a low ten(his typical sick count), down to 9.2 yesterday and 7.7 today. In addition his retic is well below one and dropping, so while we are waiting on the blood test to confirm parvovirus, it seems the most likely culprit at this point. This means that Nic will need a blood transfusion, so they are doing his secondary typing right now and hopefully his HB will stay above six long enough for them to get that done (please pray), because when out drops he will require blood and they will have to do a poorly matched emergency transfusion if the information isn't available.

Nic is in mostly good spirits and has watched Monsters University at least five times. He isn't allowed to go to the play room, so there isn't much for him to do. We've read a ton of books and are hoping for a visit from the therapy dog this afternoon, because he really enjoyed yesterday's visit.

While I would much rather be at home, we have a great hospital and they and the staff of the Ronald McDonald family room are taking great care of us.

Please continue to pray for Nic's recovery and treatment. Also, pray for Kenny and Tommy as this really throws them off as well. The little boys and I had planned to travel to CA very soon.. Please pray that Nic would either recover in time for us to make our flight or that we would be able to find alternate arrangements easily.