We just returned from a night of watching our baby boy snoozing away on his belly- it was a great sight to see......he was sleeping so good we did not want to interrupt him! 

The respitory therapists worked hard today to loosen up the gunk in his right lung, so he spent most of his day lying on his left side staring at the back of his crib (with me patting his back for a solid 2 hours while he laid there wide eyed, listening to me chat, sing, and pray....the boy would not go to sleep!). 

There is not too much new to report for Bennett tonight- we continue to ask for prayers for complete healing for his lungs, for the pocket of infection between his lungs and rib-cage to be absorbed by his body and GO AWAY, for no further infection to surface, and for him to have no seizure activity. 

It was a week ago tonight that we were clinging to every minute and there was no guarantee that he was going to be able to sustain breathing on the jet ventilator after the bypass machine clotted....... God answered all the many prayers that were lifted up for Bennett that night and saved our precious boy- we have continuously reflected upon that and are so incredibly thankful for how far God has brought Bennett in just one week.  At times it is hard for us to be patient and wait for his body to fully heal before we can take him home, but we know this is best and must happen in God's timing; so we are doing our best to take one day at a time and count the MANY blessings God has showered over us these past 3+ weeks.

The prayers, encouragement, acts of kindness, and love you have shown us is so humbling- thank you so very much.

Love,

Kelly, Travis & Bennett

PS:  We learned tonight that the new ECMO baby is a BOY, not a GIRL (sorry for the mix-up), so please be praying for this sweet little guy.  We have yet to meet his parents, but hope to talk to them this weekend as they begin the ECMO journey.

Good morning, all.  I just spoke with Bennett's nurse, and he had another good night last night!  Evidently he is very sensitive to sound (and it can be very loud in his corner sometimes), so sometimes this causes him to be pretty irritated and his blood gases will be off, but overall the gases have been good. 

We're still on cloud 9 after last night, so please see that post for the latest because it hasn't really changed much since then.  Even though he has taken huge strides in the last few days, he still has a long road ahead of him and always carries the risk of taking a few steps back.  So please continue in prayer with us for our son's complete healing, for the steady improvement of his lungs, for the continued decrease (and no return) of infection, for protection from seizures, and for wisdom and guidance for the wonderful medical staff at Georgetown as they continue to provide him amazing care. 

As we were holding him last night, I told him that "you will never believe what you've been through when we tell you about it someday."  But I can assure you that we will read him every comment, email, card, and show him every picture so that he WILL remember his experience. 

Thank you all for your love, your prayers, and your faith.  We'll post another update as soon as we know more.

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

I just called the NICU, and instead of the nurse I got Kelly on the other end of the line.  What a nice surprise.  They have now moved Bennett to another section of the NICU (actually back next to his ole buddy Peter!) because he continues to do better, and Kelly was even holding him again with "Grana" right beside them both "eating up" their moments together before she heads back home to Nashville later tonight. 

Bennett has had a good day overall.  Every now and then his lungs will become clogged again, and so they have to turn the ventilator oxygen settings pretty high while they suction him out.  But after a little while they're able to come down on the setting, so we pray that after these now regular spells that they continue to be able to lower the O2 settings.  Also, even though he's been moved to another section of the room he remains critically ill with our prayer requests remaining as before.  We can't wait until the day when he is just "ill" instead of "critically ill."     

Another reason he was moved is because a new NICU baby was brought over from Bethesda Naval Medical Center up the road.  I believe it is a baby girl who was just placed on ECMO herself.  I wish Bennett could be close to her to tell her that he's an ECMO graduate himself and that everything is going to be ok.  Please join us in prayer for this precious baby girl and for her family as they begin this ECMO journey that we have just experienced ourselves.

As always, thank you all for your love, pages, calls, cards, emails, posts, hugs, and encouragement.  We would not be where we are today without them.  Thank you for walking this tightrope with us.

Love,

Trav, Kell, and Bennett

Well, about an hour ago we were both around Bennett cuddling and kissing him and he was doing so well, when all of a sudden he had another one of his "going ballistic" moments and his heart rate and sats just tanked.  As they have done so many times before, the wonderful medical staff surrounded him immediately to help Bennett calm down.  Kell and I were escorted out of the NICU and held our breath for a few short minutes (it seemed much longer than that) until a couple of nurses and doctors came out to explain what had happened and to tell us that everything was ok.  Evidently the tube down his throat came out of place at some point (therefore no oxygen was going in) and so obviously he was a little agitated.  They adjusted his vent settings and replaced the tubing down his throat and were about to order an x-ray to make sure the tube was in the correct position.

Anyway, I just called again and Bennett is doing fine right now.  Whew.  It's just scary how fast things can change around the NICU.  He can be doing so well for several hours, and then all of sudden something goes wrong and his monitors just start beeping like crazy.  But all is well now and it helps knowing he is in such great hands.

Please continue your prayers for Bennett's complete healing, for his "moments" to be significantly reduced, for his lungs to heal, and for the protection from seizures.  Overall he's doing well and has taken huge strides since this time last week - HUGE strides.  But, as he showed tonight, his little lungs are still too tired and weak and are just not able to function on their own yet. 

Thank you all for your love, concern, and prayers for Bennett.  We'll update again in the morning.

Love,

Trav, Kell, and Bennett

Good morning, all.  I just spoke with Bennett's nurse and things are pretty much unchanged from last night.  The doctors will make their rounds later this morning, so as soon as we have more info we'll post another update. 

Bennett's oxygen levels are at 34 (up from 32 last night, but still not too bad).  His blood gases throughout the night were ok - not great, and not bad, but doable.  Even though his ventilator pressure is still high (we want this to be lower), he evidently is not using all of the allowed pressure on the conventional vent (for those with medical backgrounds that are reading this, I apologize in advance for not being able to understand or describe this better!), and this is a good thing.  In other words, his system is trying to do more of the work.  There's still a whole lot more "work" for his system to do before he can come off the vent, but at least he's fighting to make it happen. 

There's an outside chance that his chest tubes will be removed today, but it depends on what the surgeons and doctors decide later this morning.  If the chest tubes are removed then there is a chance that we may be able to hold him tonight.  We don't want to push this, though, so if we have to continue waiting then we'll be fine with this. 

Our prayer requests continue to be for his lungs, his heart, for the protection from seizures, and for good blood gases.  Also, they are beginning to wean Bennett off the antibiotics that he's been on for over three weeks now, so please pray that his system reacts well to this and that the infection doesn't "resurface" in any other shape or form. 

Thank you all for your love, concern, and prayers.  We ask that you please continue your prayers to the Father on behalf of our precious little warrior, Bennett Mitchell. 

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

I wanted to give a quick update - we have some praises to report!  When I arrived at the NICU today the nurses had smiles on their faces and nurse Maureen walked me over to Bennett's "bassinet" and said "well, what is missing?"  Since he was covered up with his blanket, the first thing I noticed was that the swelling in his head and chest had decreased, but then I asked if the chest tubes had been removed and the nurses all nodded YES!  The removals went very smoothly and Bennett got two small stiches in each side since the tubes were so big.  His I.V. line in his right heel was also taken out this morning (this line caused us a lot of headaches when it kept bleeding while on the ECMO blood thinner), so we are so thankful that Bennett now has three less tubes in him!

Bennett's lungs are working well with the conventional ventilator that he is on and the oxygen they are giving him is in the low 30s, which is great for now.  My mom and I watched John, the respitory therapist, suction out some yucky secretions from his lungs, so it is great to see those nasty things leaving his body.  Bennett has been resting peacefully today, but I did get to see those blue eyes for a bit while he and I were talking and singing - it made my day.

Another exciting piece of news is the fact that Bennett has begun to be fed small amounts of breastmilk - this is huge!  We have been bringing it in to place it in a freezer with Bennett's name on it, so this morning after the chest tubes were removed the nurses decided it was a good time to get our baby eating some "real" food. 

Bennett is still all snuggled up under his blankets - he looks SO GOOD and is so much better than he was a week ago.  We cannot stop thanking God for the miracles He has performed with our son - we have witnessed not one, two, or three miracles, but numerous miracles and we pray that they only continue so that God can continue getting all the glory. 

We will update more tonight....thank you so much for your prayers, love, and encouragement.

Love,

Kelly, Travis & Bennett

Tonight was an incredible night for Bennett's mommy and daddy- please see the photos for more detail.

Bennett has made some incredible strides this week and we thank God for that.  We are also well aware that risks still exist for infection to resurface in him, for his lungs to take a step back in their healing, for seizure activity to be found, and/or numerous other things.  We rejoice and thank God for all the good that He has done and pray that He will protect Bennett from any infection, serious set-backs, and/or seizure activity.

Travis and I are currently on cloud 5,000 after holding our sweet baby and staring into his wide-eyed baby blues, so you will hear more from us tomorrow :).

Love,
Kelly, Travis & Bennett 

I just spoke with Bennett's nurse, and overall Bennett had a good night.  Last night they were able to roll him over on his left side for the first time and evidently he "tolerated" it well.  His latest chest x-ray came back similar to the one from yesterday (good overall - a bit cloudy/white in some spots, but still better than a few days ago), and he's still urinating well (another good sign).  He remains on the conventional ventilator for now because most of his blood gases have been good enough to keep him on this vent.  His vent oxygen levels are now in the 30s (down from 100 on Thursday night), and his Co2 levels continue to remain stable as well. 

The doctors will be making their rounds later this morning, so we will try to post more after we know more of the plan for the day.  As good as all of this news is to us and as happy as it makes us, we have to keep reminding ourselves that Bennett remains critically ill with the potential for things to change very quickly (literally every hour or half-hour) for either better or worse.  We ask that your prayers continue for his complete healing, for his lungs, for his heart, for his oxygen and Co2 levels to be where they're supposed to be, and for protection from seizure activity.   

Before the material miraculously "jarred loose" in Bennett's chest yesterday, his Co2 levels were close to 70 (very high).  Thirty minutes later they were at 12.  Later that afternoon one of the staff told us that "in 24 years he had never seen anything like that." 

We pray for more healing "moments" like this as the days move forward.  Thank you all for continuously lifting "our" boy up to the Father. 

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett