David's Current Situation and Prayer Needs

October 2010

So all of that history mentioned in the previous post of the summary of David's life brings us to now where David is a thriving 4.5 year old despite the recurrent sinus and ear infections he continues to get.  His doctors are beginning to be concerned about his immune deficiency because most kids outgrow it by 4.  He had great test results just before he turned 4 making us all hopeful he was outgrowing it.  Then his most recent immune studies showed a decrease in his numbers shocking and disappointing us all.  In light of the last few months of sinus infections back to back as soon as David finishes an antibiotic treatment and the last test results, his one specialist wants to run more tests to determine the underlying cause since it seems that an immature immune system can no longer be blamed.

On Wednesday, David will be having a Milk Scan done at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  He had one of these done as an infant which revealed that his GERD was the cause of his blue spells.  He has since been discharged by his GI doctor who said her GERD is resolved.  His allergist and ENT both wonder if there's residual GERD going on causing the sinus infections.  David is also going to be tested for Cystic Fibrosis, which could also be a culprit.  David is going to also have a comprehensive immune work-up done, which will give a better picture of how his immune system is functioning to see if there are any other defects contributing to the IgG Immune Deficiency.  These last 2 tests will be done at CHOP on June 14.

On August 26th, David will be having his 5 year echocardiogram done to check to see his the hole in his heart has closed.  We are praying that the hole has closed on its own with God's help.  If it hasn't, David will need heart surgery to close it by the time he becomes a teenager.

Today marks day 5 of really high fevers for David.  He hasn't really been acting sick except for an unpredictable appetite, momentary complaints of an upset stomach, and a cough that went right to an asthma flare (it's not been fun waking up at night to his complaints of not being able to breathe, hearing him wheeze, and having to do nebulizer treatments while half asleep).  He only gets lethargic when his fever gets over 103.  It has gotten as high as 104 (under the arm).  I took him to the doctor today, and he is being treated for strep throat.  We will know for sure if that's what he has when we get the culture results in 2-3 days.  This marked a full 3 week of no antibiotics for David, which sadly is a record for him since last year!  He just came off of a 30 day treatment on Augmentin (a very strong antibiotic that's horrible on the belly), which seemed to buy him a little time, but definitely not enough.
So that pretty much sums up David's life, medically speaking.  As you think about our family and our precious children, please lift little David up in your prayers!  We praise the Lord for this unexpected child who brings us much joy with his big heart for God and people!

March 2011