A few steps back

Over the past couple of days both of our boys have had some major set backs.  Monday night we were told that Miller had some bloody stools, had stopped breathing 6 times that day, and had brachycardia spells.  These are all signs of NEC, which is a serious infection of the gut.  By Tuesday he had gotten the official diagnosis of stage 2 NEC (stage 2 means symptoms + bloody stools).  There are 3 stages of NEC.  We were told that only about 15% of babies with NEC progress from stage 2 to stage 3, so hopefully it will not get worse.  Right now he is being treated with a couple of antibiotics and pain meds.  So far he is responding to the antibiotics.  If it does get worse he will have to have surgery to remove the infected areas of the gut and fix any perforations that could arise.

On Tuesday Luke had some upper GI and skeletal x-rays.  Everything went fine with the skeletal x-rays.  However, with the upper GI x-rays, they had to inject a barium contrast through his G-tube to check his surgery site.  The barium went into his lungs and he started suffocating.  They said he was basically drowning.  
They rushed him back to his room and got him stable.  They had to put him on more oxygen and give him some antibiotics.  Around 8:00 pm, I left his room for just a second to go to the bathroom.  When I came back his room was full of doctors and nurses.  His heart rate and oxygen levels dropped very low.  I looked around the people standing over him and saw that he was blue.  I lost it.  My heart sank and I immediately began praying for my little boy.  I prayed that God would take me instead.  One of the doctors came over to talk to us and told us he was very critical and may not make it.  We called my parents and told them to come
up here ASAP.  Over the next 20 minutes (which felt like forever) they slowly got his heart rate and oxygen levels up after giving him surfactant for his lungs.  Currently he is still in very critical condition.  After talking to the doctors this morning during their rounds, they told us that hopefully we will see improvements over the next 48 hours.  He will need some major recovery time for this.

For anyone who prays, please keep our boys in your prayers.  They are facing a lot and have a long road ahead of them.