Final Score - Nathan:1 The Clot:0
We knew from day 1 that our little guy was a fighter, and he’s proven us right throughout this entire ordeal. Here’s a little more detail on these recent, amazing events (with a little bit of a recap).
As of Wednesday 3/2/2011, Nathan already had the first treatment of TPA (clot-buster), and the doctors took a look at his heart again. Despite the scary, risky drug, the clot remained unchanged. This was not entirely unexpected, because the doctors had decided that a very low dose of the TPA would be safer for Nathan, and it just might give a boost to his natural clot busting enzymes. But this clearly didn’t work, so they bumped his dosage from 0.05 cc to 0.1 cc and let it run its course through the end of Thursday. The heart echo on Thursday night showed a clot that was still the same size, but more mobile. The doctors said that the clot looked like a tether-ball, with the “tether” being attached to the wall of his right atrium. So a “more mobile clot”, simply meant that the “ball” was swinging around more with every beat of Nathan’s heart. This scared the doctors (and us), because they didn’t want the “tether” to break and the “ball” to flow over to the lungs and cause a fatal problem. So they resolved to stop the TPA and try to keep Nathan stable until he reached the ripe old age of 34 weeks. This would give him a much better chance of surviving a thrombectomy (clot removing surgery.) They thought this was a pretty good plan. He’d been stable through everything they’d had to do to him, the TPA hadn’t done any damage (but not too much good either), and his Staph infection (oh yeah, did we mention the Staph infection?) was weakening, so now all we had to do was hope and pray that the “tether” wouldn’t break for two more weeks. I use a hint of sarcasm here, because I think that if Katie and I had had the energy, we would have been a lot less pleased with this outcome than we actually were. As it was, we were just happy to have only one thing left that threatened the life of our child.
So it was on Friday that she and I decided we should stop staying in the sleep suite at Children’s Hospital, and get some rest in our own bed. Feeling uneasy and relieved at the same time, we made our way home and did some much needed chores and napping. At 6:30 we got a call from the hospital. I’ll never forget it. I was sitting up in bed watching Katie’s expression and reading the tone of her voice for any hint of the goodness or the badness of the news.
“Really!?” she said. “That’s great!”
After that I kind of tuned out. There weren’t any tears of joy, so I figured it was moderately good news. Maybe his platelets were up, or they’d finally gotten the heparin to a therapeutic level. Katie finished taking notes and let me know what was up. The clot was 60% smaller, Nathan was perfectly fine and stable, and the doctors had no idea how it happened. Then there were tears of joy.
Over the next couple of days we learned that the “ball” had completely disappeared leaving a much more manageable clot in its place. Several doctors let us know how amazed they were. One even described it as a miracle. Surgery is all but off the table at this point, his infection is completely on the run, and there is no longer any risk of a sudden fatal event. The road to recovery began on Saturday 3/5/2011, for all three of us.
I can’t help but relate this amazing outcome to all of the prayer that’s been surrounding us over the past few weeks. It is kind of funny how astounded we are when God gives us the things we ask for. But I guess that’s a big part of having faith. If we actually knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, then praying would be a lot more like a fast food drive-through. There would be no learning, and no growing through an ordeal like this if we didn’t have to fight to keep sight of the belief that all things are possible with God. I know that not everyone reading this shares my beliefs, but it’s important to me that I make this perfectly clear. I believe that God healed my son and saved his life, and I will add that to the list of things for which I am eternally grateful.
comments
Praise God, I am so happy for you all.
To God be all the Glory for this wonderful miracle he has performed!! You all have a powerful testimony of what prayer can do. If you just have enough faith and believe that God will work it out, HE WILL!! Praise God for the life and strength of baby Nathan! Congrats to you both on your buddle of blessings!
Whatever you do always thank God for what he has done. He will always remain worthy of all our praises, even if he never does anything else! God Bless!
What an awesome miracle. Your faith and the faith and prayers of all your family and friends has sustained Nathan and you both. You would be amazed at how many churches are praying for you all! I can assure you PA, NJ, and FL are all praying!! Can't wait to see you again and meet the little man in person.
Love,
your cousin Anita
I am SO relieved that little Nathan has overcome the obstacles he has experienced! We think of you every day. You have an amazing little boy and we are so happy that he is such a fighter.
Love you all, RoseAnna and Tim
Hi loves. I just started reading the blog, from the beginning. I got chills when I read this post, even though I already knew that Nathan is now home with you.
Congratulations on your little boy, and I am sorry you had to go through so much uncertainty. I would add something about this miracle, but I think Tim has pretty much said it all.