Samuel's 30th Update

We took Samuel to the Dr. on Monday as planned and had blood work and Ultrasounds taken. The good news is that on the surface Samuel’s kidney’s seem to be working fine (praise God!) and there is no obstruction to Samuel’s bladder. The disturbing news was that the blood work came back with Samuel’s potassium fatally low and that he was being under ventilated causing a rise in his carbon dioxide levels.
The potassium in your body is part of what regulates the heart. The fact that Samuel’s was so low puts him at risk for Cardiac Arrest. In fact, his potassium was low enough that had we given him the Lasix (you may remember that we had filled the prescription and placed it in his medicine drawer) we would have flushed out even more potassium from his body and possibly could have killed him. Our God is amazing, carefully orchestrating every action we make. The Lord saw to it that we did not feel the need to give Samuel the Lasix thus preserving his life. What an amazing Father.
Our family was then given a choice. Our first option was to do nothing. We do not feel that this is an option because of the value of human life. Another option was to try to treat Samuel at home where he could be tended by us and his nurses, people who love and care about him. This would also be much less stressful on Samuel and he would not have to undergo some of the trauma that being in the hospital naturally entails. The final option was to admit Samuel into the hospital.
My mom brought Samuel home from his appointment late Monday evening so that we as a family could discuss our options and prayerfully make the choice that we believed was best for him. The difficulty was how pressed for time we were. We needed to make this decision as soon as possible. As advantageous as staying at home with Samuel sounded there were some downsides. We would not be able to give Samuel potassium directly into his bloodstream. We would have to give it threw his g-tube and wait four days for him to start receiving the amounts of potassium that he needed. Potassium is also a very lethal drug; it’s actually used on Death Row, so just giving Samuel the potassium could send him into Cardiac Arrest. Were we at the hospital they have the equipment to monitor him much more closely in a controlled environment.
Members of our church family gathered together in our home and prayed with us and Samuel as we made our decision which was ultimately to admit Samuel into the hospital. He was admitted to the TCU and began his treatments. His potassium levels dropped down to 2.2 by the time we got there, normal levels are 3.5. Blood tests have been run and sent off, we are still waiting for those results, and the Doctors have been tweaking his vent settings to deal with his under ventilation. No one is sure what the underlying cause of all of this is or why he is having the issues he is. We will just have to see where the tests lead, if anywhere.
We are praising God that the ER nurse was able to get an IV in Samuel. There was some concern that with his Adema, and the fact that he is very hard to stick, we would have to resort to a chest tube which would require a minor surgery. The nurse got the IV in Samuel on her first try. God’s mercies are unending and new every day.
Our nurses have been wonderful through all of this; we thank God for the three women who are his primary care. Our nurses have been discussing taking shifts at the hospital to insure that my mom gets sleep and Samuel is properly cared for (this is something they will not receive pay for). In fact, one of our nurses was up at the hospital last night and stayed with my mom till around 1:30 in the morning. She had told her husband that Samuel was in the hospital and he had said it was going to be okay, she could still visit him. Her response was she was moving into the hospital so he needed to kennel the Dogs. J
We obviously ask for your prayers concerning Samuel, but we would also ask you keep our nurses in your prayers. Samuel is their sole patient, so if he is in the hospital then they are without work and pay. We hope our hospital stay will be short so that they are not without work long or they do not have to search for some other way to pay the bills. Keep little Elianna in your prayers as she has to deal with the confusion of her missing parents again, and the rest of us who are not able to be at the hospital with Samuel as we would like. I will be sure to keep everyone informed.
In the Love of Christ,
Kaitlyn