James to the Emergency Room

Please be praying for James. Last night we had to take him to the emergency room around 11 pm and are still at the hospital.

Here's what happened: We hook James up to a machine that detects his heart rate and the percentage of oxygen in his blood. This machine has an alarm that goes off if his heart beat gets too low. Well, the alarm kept going off last night. This happened a few months back and we brought him to the emergency room--they told us that babies have low heart rates so to not worry abou it. Well, his heart rate continued to plummet last night and at one moment it hit 55 beats per minute, which is 25 beats lower than the alarm settings. We tried to wake him up, but he wouldn't wake up. It took a good 40 seconds of rubbing and talking to him to get his heart beat back to the safe zone. I called 911 during this time. By the time the ambulence got to our house he was fully awake and crying his head off.

They took him to the emergency room. They put an iv in him because he was dehydrated, took some blood, and analyzed the data. Right now they are concerned that James is having what is called "Silent Seizures." Silent Seizures are seizures that cannot be detected. They are going to send him up to a different, more-specialized hospital (Darthmouth Hitchcock--the same place he went after being born) in order to do an EEG to see if he is having seizures.

We are going to be leaving from this hospital (Concord Hospital) in a few hours and will be up at Dartmouth until, Lord willing, Tuesday. As you already know, James' surgery to put in his g-tube is scheduled for Monday. They are still planning on doing the surgery.

We thank the Lord that Kristal went against the advice of the Doctors and continued to hook him up to the machine that detects his heart rate. If she did not continue to do this, we would not have been able to tell that his heart rate went so low.

We are also thankful that they put an iv in him, because we have been concerned about him going into surgery dehydrated. In regard to James' iv: He has already been stuck 6 times with the needle to get an iv into him. He is going to be on an iv until Tuesday and so will possibly have to have the iv moved a time or two more. They are having a hard time finding and hitting his viens (as Kristal was concerned). Pray that his veins hold out so that he can continue to be hydrated throughout his surgery.

Also, be praying that the doctors would get to the bottom of what is happening with James. Pray that they come to a solution. Pray that if he is have seizures that they are not harmful to him.

The Lord has been so good to us to give us hospitals. He has especially been good to us to give Kristal such a sensitive motherly instinct. I am so very proud of her and her boldness--she knew that the doctors would see her as an overly protective mother if she called 911, but did it anyway knowing that James' issues were bigger than they were made out to be.

Praise the Lord! James' primary care doctor just came in and said that Dr. Morse, James' neurologist, is on call this weekend! This is a blessing because this means that they will be able to look into this suspected seizure activity once we get up there, Lord willing.

Pray that James gets rest. Pray that the Lord provide him comfort--he is pretty uncomfortable right now. Pray for me, I got about 1 hour of sleep last night. Pray for Kristal, she got about 10 minutes of sleep last night.

Thank the Lord that I am finished with school for the semester. I have no obligations and so am able to devote all my time to Kristal and James at this point.

I will be keeping everyone updated via this blog. As soon as we find out anything more, if I am able to grab a computer, I will update.

Last night, Kristal rode with James in the ambulence and so I drove myself to the hospital. In the car on the way to the hospital the Lord put it on my heart to belt the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." I think I added a verse: "He's Got James' Health in His Hands." Why on earth would anyone find any comfort in the thought that God is not absolutely in control of all things.