A very good friend of mine who lives far away from me in Texas is going through a life-altering ordeal with her husband and child. Her son, Nikolas, was born prematurely and is not doing that well. I am not there to be with my friend as I wish I could be. All I can off her and her family are my thoughts and prayers. I wish I could do more for them, but that is all I have to offer at this time.
I am asking that any of you out there who have the time and
want to, please send your good thoughts or energy or prayers to my friend and her family and her son Nikolas. Whatever your religion may be, or lack thereof, it doesn't hurt to try.
Thank you very much.
This is a posting from their blog, which details some of the ordeal they are going through:
Nikolas Hospitalized
It has been a while since we did a post. This is due to us being in Austin at the Dell Children's Hospital in Austin. Nikolas had not been eating well for a few days and didn't grow at all for about a week. Our wonderful pediatrician made some calls and got him admitted to Dell Children's Hospital last Friday. He is still there and will most likely remain there for the rest of this week. He only breastfeeds for about 5 minutes and then is exhausted. My wife has been pumping and feeding him a bottle, which he sometimes takes and most of the time is not interested. On Sunday they inserted a feeding tube through his nose. If he doesn't eat well from the bottle, it goes into the tube. We have seen all of the specialist he needs to see, and they are great!! He has seen a Pediatric Neurologist, Endocrinologists, and a Geneticist. What we know at this point in time is limited. He definitely has kidney problems, and most likely he will need dialysis sometime in his life, we don't know how soon. He is severely anemic and trying to get that under control. His red blood cell count are low, and they are trying to get that under control. He has some thyroid issues and will most likely need thyroid supplementation. The Geneticist thinks there may be some chromosonal abnormalities that blood work will reveal in about 2-3 weeks. I am surprise he has blood to give. They have stuck him so many times. He has an IV in his head. He is such a difficult stick that no nurse wants to try. They call in the transport team, nurses from the helicopter flight team, to try to get blood. They even have a hard time. My wife doesn't go in when they draw blood, and I am about done watching them do it also. There is only so much a Dad can take of his son being held down and screaming his lungs out while they stick his head with a needle. Nikolas is being trooper!! He has had 2 MRI's to check for brain abnormalities, they were normal, 2 ultrasounds: one for his kidneys-the other to check his spine and the end of his spine (sacrum). 1 x-ray of his knee to check for calcification of his bones- have not heard results of x-ray. We will keep ya'll posted when we know! Thank you for all the prayers and fasting on our behalf. Our family definitely feels the support of those prayers. Thank You so very much.
