Marcus update #3

Hello again. I got a little carried away with the pictures this time. He is a cute little guy though, isn't he? These pictures are from Friday the 26th. I got to give Marcus a bath in his bed that day. After his bath he was very alert and awake. Ok... on with the update.



Marcus is doing pretty well right now. Praise God. He is down to about a half a liter of oxygen, and he is up to full feedings (44 ml every 3 hours - as of today). He is about 4 lbs. 13 oz. now.

His platelet count is stable, but still a little on the low side. He hasn't had a transfusion for about 5 days now. This indicates that his spleen has probably shrunk some, and is not absorbing (or whatever it does) as many platelets as it was. They will be checking the platelets again tomorrow morning.

When they do that they will also be checking his direct billirueben (I have no idea how it is spelled - sorry). This is different than the newborn billirueben and does not respond to treatment with lights. It also does not effect their brain like the other type can. It is, if I understand it correctly, hard on the liver if not treated and allowed to remain at a high level. So they have been treating it with a medication (actogal - or something like that). The direct billirueben needs to be down to a certain level before they will let him go home.

What this means is that if his platelet count is good then we are just waiting on his liver to shrink and his direct billirueben to decrease. So, for those of you who are praying for Marcus, pray for his liver to shrink and get healthy. Also, continue to pray that the Lord would close the holes in his heart without surgery. Pray that he would continue to gain weight and get more and more healthy. And pray that he will be able to come home soon. He is minutes away from 4 weeks old right now as I write this and I miss him very much. My husband does too, and so do the kids.

On the home front please pray for the health of our family. We were exposed to a 24 hour flu over Christmas and a couple of the kids got it yesterday. I won't be overly descriptive, but it wasn't fun. So pray that the rest of our family doesn't get sick, and that Mikaila, Stephen, and Aliyah feel better very soon. They seem quite a bit better tonight already. I was planning on going to Phoenix tomorrow but have to wait another day to make sure I am not going to get sick.

We are also trying to fix our car so that I can get to Phoenix and stay down there for a couple of days at a time and spend more time with Marcus. So please pray that we will be able to get that done tomorrow.

One more thing I'd like to ask prayer for is that my husband, Chris, will either get more hours where he is working or find a better job that will be able to meet our family's financial needs.

Thank you, and may God bless you as you seek and serve Him.

Kim