Back Again

This is going to be a very short post, because I'm exhausted and my little man is crying for me to lay down with him. We came in yesterday for Holden's appointment with the transplant team, and they decided to keep him for a few days. None of his issues are huge deals, and he's not facing anything he can't handle, but it still just sucks to be back here. He has a few different things going on, and hopefully they can all be dealt with quickly so we can get our boy back home!

His kidney numbers (BUN) were really high, probably due to dehydration. They wanted to see what would happen with the number if we started him on IV fluids, and thankfully it's working so far. (Slowly, but the number is coming down.)

Some of his electrolytes were low as well, so they wanted to keep an eye on those numbers. It's not usually a big deal for a normal person to have low potassium, but for a heart baby it can be a bigger deal. If we can get those numbers stabilized, that will be one less thing to worry about.

When they measured his BNP (the number used to measure the severity of his heart failure), it came back showing a whopping 24,000. That's up from 5,000 last month, so it's a pretty big jump. It's down to 17,000 today, but that's still really high. I think it's confused everyone, since the echo didn't show any major changes in function. With a jump that high, we would expect to see the effects on the echo, but Holden's never played by the rules.

And since he needed one more thing on his plate today, his cultures came back positive for c-diff. It's a bacterial infection in the gut, and people who are on frequent antibiotics are more susceptible to catching it. It's treatable, but it's just another speedbump.

I've known something has been off with Holden for a while now, since he hasn't been acting like himself for at least a couple of weeks. His behaivor has probably been a combination of all of the above factors. I hate that he's back as a guest of CMC, but I'm glad we're getting to the bottom of everything so that he can finally begin to feel better. We'll be here until his labs come back looking a little more normal, and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later! Holden always manages to surprise us, so maybe it will be a pleasant surprise this time around.

I'll update more tomorrow after we've all gotten some sleep, but I've outlined the basics for those who were wondering. Thank you all so much for your kind words... I can't tell you how much they mean to us. Please don't forget to add Keegan and his family to your prayers as well... They are still struggling, and I know they can use the lift! We truly appreciate each one of you who continue to follow Holden's story, and we are so very grateful for your support and prayers.