I've decided to set up a blog to help keep everyone updated on Lynn's progress. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and kind thoughts. Since I haven't always been able to answer each of your calls and texts, you can get updates on the blog. Please feel free to comment as I will be sharing this blog with Lynn as he recovers.

Also, posts before March 28 will say they were posted by my daughter because we set up the blog under her email address.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

This morning they stopped the dialysis and some of Lynn's medications that were being used to treat the elevated ammonia levels. He is still being slowly warmed and is presently at 33 Celsius. They expect him to be at normal temp sometime Sunday afternoon or evening. If all goes according to plan, they will begin to decrease the amount of sedation, watching for seizure activity or other signs of neuro problems. Today I was able to talk to Dr. Box a little more. He is the liver specialist who actually got in contact with the pediatric metabolic illness specialist at Primary Childrens. It seems as though they are suspecting that Lynn has had a very rare metabolic illness since he was a baby that causes his body to react adversly when it is put into a highly catabolic state like it was from the high dose steroids. If they are right, then whenever something that could cause his metabolism to go up significantly is introduced into his body whether by medication, high fever, etc, there are not enough carbohydrates and fats being ingested to be used for energy and so he body starts burning protein and muscle causing the high ammonia levels. High ammonia levels cause neurological problems like Lynn experienced which put him into a coma and all the rest he has been dealing with. If this proves to be the problem, which we won't know until next week sometime, it will be important to treat him appropriately whenever we know that he will be having some treatment or illness that can cause the metabolism to raise. This was compounded by the fact that he had been vomiting for 2 days and wasn't taking ANY carbs or fats. Needless to say, we are all thankful that things are heading in the right direction. He isn't out the woods yet, but we are thinking positively. Even though they will most likely be decreasing the sedation starting Sunday, they said it could be a few days before he shows signs of coming out of the coma, so we must be patient. Thanks for all of your prayers. I know they are what's made the difference in the outcome so far. We'll keep you informed.

1 comments:

Matt and Jade said...

I'm so glad. So are you savng that I need to make sure that he eats more during the day? Cause I can do that.