Viral Junk

So, I know that this is a little out of order- and I promise I will get back around to posting about the rest of Lily's birthday party...but I have a few prayer requests.

We are sick- all four of us. It started on my birthday when Lily woke up with a fever (happy birthday to me) and the next day at her 3 year well child checkup we found out that she also had an ear infection. Everything just sort of spread from there and all of us came down with nasty little colds. Lily has handled it all very well and Joe and I have felt slightly miserable, but are able to function. Eli, unfortunately, has had it the worst. He's been sick for about 6 days now, but it seemed to take a turn for the worse two days ago when the congestion seemed to settle in his chest. The sound of his chest rattling just brings back all those sad memories of when he was sick and in the hospital with RSV a few months back. So we headed to the doctor yesterday morning and when we got there his chest was really tight and congested and his oxygen levels were pretty low. I had a few nervous moments when I thought we might end up back in the hospital again, but they did an albuterol treatment and he responded really well. His breathing sounded so much better and his oxygen levels rebounded significantly. The doctor says that he has bronchiolitis (the small airways in his lungs are inflamed and infected). Apparently having RSV as a baby has made him much more susceptible to a variety of respiratory problems. So what might start out as a regular cold or viral infection in us or him is more likely to progress into a more significant respiratory problem in him (like bronchiolitis, pneumonia, asthma, etc...). I am praising God, however, that he seems to respond so well to the albuterol (not all little ones do). So we are back to doing nebulizer treatments every four hours. Please, please, please pray that he would recover quickly and completely. Our friends who are helping us to lead the summer project arrive today from New York and will be staying with us until Saturday. Saturday we all head to Bar Harbor for a month for our summer assignment. We are all feeling pretty exhausted so prayers for healing and extra energy would be much appreciated. We'll be sure to keep you updated.

P.S. In the midst of this week and sickness Eli cut his first tooth (lower left). Poor little man- it's been a rough week for him (but he is still smiling)!