One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Monday evening Liam and I arrived home from the hospital. His nausea seemed to be better than it had been previously and with chemo having finished, we thought it would keep improving. Yesterday, Liam woke up and, though some nausea persisted, he was able to keep some fluids and food down, that is, until last night.

Once the evening came, Liam had multiple episodes of vomiting followed by a high fever. As of a few days ago, Liam became what they call “neutropenic,” meaning his ANC and immune system are down. He is at high risk for infection. So at 2am, after speaking with Liam’s on-call oncology doctor, Liam and I were in the car and headed to the ER.

Once at the ER, Liam was still vomiting, though it was only bile at that point. We were shipped to different parts of the hospital for various tests and scans before finally falling asleep around 7am this morning.

Liam’s blood tests showed that he may have a bacterial infection and sepsis. An initial Xray made doctors suspicious that he might also have “bowel pnuematosis.” While I don’t know what this is exactly, what I do know is that it can be serious. Thankfully, a CT scan ruled this out, at least I think. Right now now there are more questions than answers.

As I write this I’m sitting beside Liam’s bed as he sleeps, waiting for his oncology team to round and hopefully provide more answers. My heart aches to watch Liam continue to suffer to the extent that he has. My mind is filled with questions, fears, discouragement as it seems as though we’re headed into bleak territory again. Honestly, thought it may sound strange, I can’t find the exact words to pray. But, I know many of you have been and are continuing to intercede on our behalf. We have seen God help Liam pull through before. So as we wait, would you pray?

Once we have more answers, I’ll post another update.