Matthew Weicks (age 12)

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June 17, 2008

Here's an update on young Matthew, still fighting for his life due to the complications of a virus. 

Matthew had his best overall day yesterday. As of last evening, Matthew has completed 84 hours of "not getting worse". We were very happy about that. At this point, his liver is about normal and no longer a concern. The doctors are only checking his liver numbers twice a week now. So, that is good. This allows them to continue their focus on his lungs which are still very sick.

Regarding his lungs, several good things happened yesterday. First, the doctor told us that his x-ray seemed to indicate that his lungs may have expanded slightly. This would be an indicator that the lungs are starting to respond. The doctor also told us that they would began taking some very small steps towards lowering the settings on the ventilator. In the morning, the oxygen content of his air was lowered from 60% to 55%. In the afternoon, they slightly lowered the air pressure to his lungs. A couple of other minor adjustments were made. Matthew responded well. After reducing these settings on the ventilator, the oxygen saturation of his blood was very good. They also checked his blood arterial gases twice, and everything looked good. Someone - I can't remember if it was a nurse or resident - told us that Matthew wouldn't have tolerated all of those changes the day before. As of late last night, everything was still stable.

We did get a call early this morning from the nurse explaining that Matthew was going to need a blood transfusion. This was to be expected due to all of the blood that they were extracting. (In fact, we knew that he was on the borderline of needing the transfusion yesterday.) At this point, Matthew is too weak to sufficiently replace his blood. But, we are in good shape because a number of friends  donated blood earlier in the week. And because his blood was low, his oxygen levels dropped. They had to bump the settings on the ventilator back up to where they had been previously. They are hoping to be able to bring them back down after the transfusion. They had warned us, this would be a "two steps forward and one step back" process for a while. They weren't kidding.

We will be leaving for the hospital shortly. Matthew had a good day yesterday, perhaps his best yet. We are very thankful for that. But, as we are realizing, yesterday's wonderful progress were small but vitally important baby steps. He still has a very long way to go. So, while great progress has been made, please continue to pray for him.

Once again, we thank all of you for your concern, support, and prayers.