12th Update

I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. Samuel’s pneumonia is improving; his x-rays definitely show he has pneumonia, but the doctor said Samuel doesn’t know it, because he hasn’t shown any negative symptoms (I thank you for your prayers). He finished his 10 days of antibiotics as of yesterday. Samuel has been having some reflux since we took out the vent tube and reinserted. They did an upper GI yesterday and the results show there are no problems. Last week we had an issue with his feeding tube. The tube is inserted through his nose and ends up in his stomach. They tape the tube to his face to keep it from coming out. Well, last Friday we noticed that Samuel’s bed where he lay was soaked. It took a little while to figure out that somehow his feeding tube had worked its way up into his mouth and his entire feeding poured out the side of his mouth. Thank God that it went out his mouth and not into his lungs. The nurses fixed the tube, changed his bed and clothes. During this time Samuel became very chilled and for several days he has been having problems regulating his temperature. He has been doing better the last two days. This week we should be talking with the surgeon about his tracheotomy and G-tube. After Samuel heals from these surgeries, we will again try to remove him from the ventilator. He has been doing well breathing over the vent and our hope is that when the vent tube is removed, his secretions will no longer cause problems and we can take him home without a ventilator. Right now, our time at the hospital will probably be another 8-10 weeks.

On my last update I said Samuel was opening one of his eyes. Since then, he has been opening both eyes. The most he has opened either of them is half-way. When his eyes are open, there are times when you can see his blue eyes and other times you cannot. Evette noticed there are times when his eyes are closed we can see REM (rapid eye movement) which would indicate sleeping patterns. I believe he can hear because he will be laying perfectly still and I will talk to him close to his ear and he will begin moving. We play music for him and he moves a lot more with the music than without. I have a voice recorder that I can download to my computer and we have started recording our voices for Samuel to hear. We are recording Dad, Mom and Siblings reading from the Bible, prayers, short stories or just talking to him. We will then copy this to a CD and play it for him just like the music. If anyone would like to send a voice recording for Samuel to hear, send it as an attachment to my email (yemery2009@hotmail.com) and I will add it to the CD’s. I don’t think you need a voice recorder, I have been told that most computers have this capability with a microphone.

We continue to ask for your prayers. Pray for healing of the brain; they did another ultrasound of his head and there is still major damage. The doctor said that as his body grows, his head will not grow as fast because the damaged areas will not grow and push out on the skull. God created the heavens and the earth and is perfectly capable of healing Samuel’s brain; we will continue to pray to that end. Pray that both eyes would open fully and he would have sight and his ears will hear. Pray we can have both surgeries scheduled at the same time, so that Samuel only has to go under anesthesia once, not twice. For God to guide the surgeon’s hands and Samuel’s protection under the anesthesia. We are still praying for his gag reflex to develop.

I believe that God has great plans for Samuel’s life and I thank Him for you and your prayers,

Yancy