I just spoke with the nurse, and Bennett had a stable night overall.  He came down to .4 on this flow (down from .42) late last night.  His oxygen levels are still in the 60's (as oppposed to the 40's this weekend), the albuterol treatments continue to produce "materials" for suctioning, and he continues to urinate well.  All positives, so we're very thankful for this.

The biggest area of concern right now is the bleeding around his neck.  Evidently the "patch" is not working as well as they would like and blood is creeping out the sides of it.  The surgeons will be taking a look at it this morning to see if stitches are the way to go instead.  Please pray for the bleeding in Bennett's neck to stop as soon as possible. 

Thank you all for your steadfast prayers on behalf of our son.  He's come a long way, and there are many positives to rejoice over this morning.  We will post again after Kelly has talked with the doctors. 

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

Bennett continues to have a good day, so again, we're very thankful for this.  The settings on his bypass machine have come down a little (to .51), but they may be increased as more blood and platelets are given to him later on.  But to be at .51 when just over a day ago he was at .64 is a move in the right direction.  His brain ultrasounds continue to look good (no bleeding), he's still urinating well, the albuterol treatments continue to produce some "beautiful material" for suctioning, and his oxygen levels are a bit higher.

The surgeons came and looked at his neck this afternoon, and they decided not to add any stitches but rather to place a small screen/patch over the oozing area that will hopefully allow the blood to clot up and stick to.  This is their hope, so please pray that this "patching" process is successful.

The other prayers remain as before.  He is taking very small steps, but for the most part they are steps in the right direction.  Our boy is hanging in there, and I know he feels your prayers to the Father on his behalf.  Thank you again for taking time to pray for him and for us. 

We will post more later on tonight if additional updates become available.

 Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett    

Family & friends,

Bennett has had a good day and for that we are so thankful.  The surgeon came up late this afternoon to put on the screen around his two catheters to help absorb some of his bleeding.  The doctors and nurses all said that the bleeding (or "oozing" as they refer to it) is common for babies on ECMO for long periods of time and assured us that it is not something to stress about, so we are trying not to stress....it is definitely not fun to see blood coming from your baby's neck, but we definitely trust their years of experience overseeing ECMO.  Our nurses and doctors at Georgetown really are amazingand we feel like there is no true way to adequately thank them for the amazing care they are showing our angel boy.

Bennett's bypass machine flow number is down to .42, so we are so thankful that his bypass "flow" continues to decrease (down from .58 previously).  The more his flow decreases, the closer we get to coming off ECMO.  His oxygen level in his blood gases test had also increased to .69 today (up from .48 two days ago), so we are incredibly thankful that his oxygen levels are increasing towards 1.0.

Travis and I got to watch John, the wonderful respitory therapist, suction out some major globs of fluid from Bennett'slungs today - we wish that we could hose it all out at once so that his lungs would be completely open and able to breathe air, but we know we must be patient and wait for the breathing treatments to work in their own time.  We are so thankful that the albuteral treatments have had positive results because a doctor shared with me today that they originally tried a different mist breathing treatment that he did NOT respond positively to, so they stopped that immediately.

Travis mentioned earlier that his lung x-rays were improved today - air flow was seen on both the right and left side of his lungs, so the doctors and nurses were happy to see that today (as were Bennett's mommy and daddy).  Bennett continues to urinate well and there is less blood in his urine, so we are thankful for that.

Prayers are being answered, so once again we have to say THANK YOU for all your love, support, encouragement, and prayers.  They are a true witness and support to us 24-7.  Being that I'm Bennett's mommy and I am so anxious to get our baby home, I would like to ask for prayers that Bennett has a strong week with increased positive strides so that we can get him off ECMO by this coming weekend.  There are several reasons why we would like this, mainly because his body has been through so much already and the sweet baby deserves a break.....but his lungs have to be ready for this, so we would like to pray that God would prepare his lungs to do so.

Today is Bennett's 2 week birthday and we are most certainly different people because of his arrival into our life.  We will never be the same after first meeting him, spending time with him at his bed side, looking into those beautiful blue eyes, and feeling his little hand squeeze our finger.  We adore this baby boy and our hearts long to hold him and bring him home.

Love,

Kelly, Travis & Bennett

Good afternoon, all.  Bennett had a good night overall, so we are so thankful for this.  His latest chest x-ray showed definite improvement with more black areas (air flow pockets) in it than before, so that's a very good sign.  His oxygen levels in his blood gas tests are higher than yesterday, so that's also a good sign.  And he continues to urinate very well.  All positives!

His bypass machine setting had come down to .48 this morning, but after a diaper change he became pretty upset and now it's back up to .55 and it may have to be increased after more platelets are given to him in a few minutes.  Another issue of concern is bleeding around where the catheters were inserted in his neck.  The bleeding has increased significantly over the last day, so the nurses are having the surgeons come and look at it within the hour.  The surgeons may decide to add an extra stitch or two, or offer another course of action.  Either way, please pray that this bleeding stop.  It's so hard to look down at him and see the bleeding, but we are confident that it can be stopped. 

Other than that, please continue your prayers for the albuterol treatments, higher oxygen levels, x-rays that show more and more black in them, a reduction in the amount of infection, and for Bennett to continue to urinate well. 

Thank you all for your prayers for our boy.  We'll post more after the surgeons have taken a look at him.

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett 

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." - Galatians 6:2.

Each of you embody this verse to Kelly and I more than you will ever know.  We thank you for teaching us what this passage really means.  Your emails, pages, calls, cards, blogs, posts, and other incredible acts of kindness have truly humbled and amazed us.  There is simply no way to adequately thank you.  Please know that through all of this we remain terribly human - there are good days and bad days, good hours and bad hours, good moments and bad moments.  At times it seems that the burden is too heavy to carry, and our doubts and worries seem to take over.  But through it all we are strengthened and encouraged in the knowledge that you are carrying the burden with us.  Thank you for continuing to remind us how great, awesome, powerful, and wonderful our Lord is.  

Bennett's status is essentially unchanged as of right now.  His flow on the bypass machine is still very high, there's a little blood in his urine, a little light bleeding around where the catheters were inserted into his neck (but the surgeons are thankfully not very worried about this right now), and his chest x-rays are still completely white (full of fluid/infection).

But there are also positives.  His oxygen levels are a little higher than yesterday, he's much more alert (and actually becoming QUITE agitated because of all of the tubes), and because of recent albuterol treatments the fluid in his lungs is beginning to break up.  They were even able to suction some of the fluid out late this morning, and we were told that this is a really good sign.  According to the staff, his lungs are still just jammed full, but they think the albuterol is beginning to help some.  They will be giving him albuterol every 4 hours for the next day or two and then re-evaluate things after that.

So, the prayers remain as before - only now we can add the albuterol treatments to the list.  This morning his blue eyes were wide open and looking right at both of us.  We were just loving every minute of this.  I think he wanted to say something like this - "mom, dad, seriously, enough is enough.  When can I go home with you guys?  I hear your place is a little small, but come on, it can't be any worse than this!  Whenever you're ready, just give me the word and I'm outa here!"  

Our boy continues to fight and we continue to hope for the day when we can take him home.  If more updates become available later this evening then we'll post again.  Thank you for you prayers, and please continue them for our boy and for the amazing medical staff here at Georgetown.

Also, it appears Bennett's roomate, Peter, is doing better and better.  He hasn't gone on ECMO, and his ventilator settings continue to decrease.  Thanks so much for your prayers for he and his family, and please continue those as well. 

Have a blessed Lord's Day.

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett     

Overall, Bennett has had a good day, and so we are very thankful for this.  When we left the NICU a few minutes ago his flow settings had come down to .57 (from .64 - very high), so this is a slight improvement and move in the right direction.  There was the potential for the flow setting to increase a little later on, so we hope and pray that it stays where it is, or at least does not increase much.  Again, what we want is a low flow setting on the bypass machine - to around .1 or .2.  This means he is getting more oxygen into his system and his own lungs are able to do more of the work.  But as long as the fluid and infection in his lungs remain as stout as they are, then the settings have to remain high.

The albuteral treatments every four hours (which I was told is pretty unusual for ECMO patients) continue to produce some fluid that is suctioned out.  This is also a good sign.  The more we can get out of his lungs, and the sooner we can get it out, the better.  Please continue to pray that these treatments are effective.

His oxygen levels remain ok, but they'd like them to be a little higher.  He is urinating well and as of right now the urine isn't bloody, so that's a check in the positive column.  Overall, he continues to have both positives and negatives that kind of battle each other throughout they day.  What we need, obviously, is more and more in the positive column.  Today was a small step towards having the positives win out.

Again, thank you all for your love and prayers.  We hope you have a wonderful Labor Day Holiday, and we'll plan to post an update tomorrow morning after the morning rounds are completed at the NICU.

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett   

We just spoke with the Attending Physician about Bennett's condition.  She had seen his website, and was so thankful that so many prayers are being sent up on his behalf.  On that note, she asked me to ask you to pray for a few specific things.  She is a big fan of specific prayers! 

Please pray for Bennett's lungs to open up and begin the process of working on their own. 

Please pray for the infection and fluid in his lungs to be reduced significantly.

Please pray that his oxygen levels increase.

Please pray that his bleeding is held at bay.

There are a few others, but these are the main ones right now.  He continues to urinate a lot, so that's a very good sign.  We're kind of in a "wait and see how he reacts to the new system mode," so what we have to do now is what is so hard to do - wait.  And wait.  And wait. 

But because of your prayers, we know we can continue to wait, and we are confident that our son can be healed.  If more updates become available, we will post them asap.  Thank you for your prayers to the Father for our precious boy. 

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

Friends and family,

Travis talked to the nurse this morning and Bennett had a stable night after his very eventful day yesterday.  His flows on the bypass machine are still pretty high, so we pray that as his body continues to get used to the new blood coming from the new machine, that his flows will be able to come down and the machine will have to do less work.  His blood oxygen levels are also not as high as they would like them to be, so please join us in prayer that his oxygen levels will get higher today.

The doctors are making their rounds this morning, so we should know more once we get to the hospital.  They have also done a lung x-ray this morning, so we will let you know how that is looking today as well.

Thank you so much for all your prayers for our baby boy.  Yesterday was a very exhausting day for both Bennett and his parents, but the Lord was with us every second and carried us through.  Today is a new day and we are so thankful that we get to go spend it with our precious baby boy. 

Blessings,

Trav, Kell & Bennett

PS:  Please pray for safe travel today for Trav's mom (Grana) as she heads back to Nashville.  We will miss her and appreciate her so much for being with us these past 13 days.