This is Mike's posting to our church on Tuesday.  I will post the update at the bottom of this post:

Endurance is struggling right now.  He was confirmed for a blood
 infection this morning.  He is allergic to the best antibiotic for
 this infection, but they have decided to give it to him anyway with
 doses of Benadryl to counteract the side effects, and then they give
 the antibiotic slowly

He also is being checked for a virus.  We won't know about that until tomorrow.

His oxygen saturation levels are at the lowest levels that I have ever
 seen on a consistent basis, even though we have increased his
 ventilator to the maximum support.  We are beginning, as I write this,
 a second heart medication to force his heart to beat harder in order
 to help force out the CO2.  Praise God that we have a good nurse
 tonight, and Endurance is her only patient.

Thank you for bringing Endurance before the Throne of Grace.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Mike (for Mike & Heather)

P.S.  The Ethics Committee situation was blessed by God.  I won't
 waste your time with the details, but our Lord is good.  Romans 8:28
 definitely applies in this situation.


Update....


So much has happened to Endurance that I will probably forget things, but I'll do my best.  Endurance has a blood infection.  In fact, the Cardiac ICU's record for no infections was 163 days until little Endurance.  Sorry CICU, back to zero!  They don't know for sure yet what exact infection he has, but are giving him 3 antibiotics to fight it.  The pharmacist was quite concerned about his kidneys, so they are watching this as well.

This infection has been testing all of Endurance's caregivers, as they are having to come up with ideas on what to do to control his numbers and keep him alive.  As one doctor said, "we have a few things in our back pocket."  Today I told her that her back pocket must be pretty big as they keep coming up with stuff.

The doctors want Endurance's "sats" to be between 75-85%.  A normal person with no problems would most likely have 100%.  Yesterday his sats at best were in the low 60's and that wasn't for long...mostly in the 40's.  At one time while we were talking to the doctor, his sats starting dropping to 0!  Oh boy did that make our hearts leap.  Due to his poor sats, Endurance is now getting nitric oxide.

The doctors were also very concerned about Endurance's body trying to fight his infection and not being able to.  High concerns of him passing away.  (One of our favorite doctors said that Monday night she would go home and not worry about Endurance, yet tonight (Tues) she would be.)  So, since his sats were too low, fighting a fever, and lots of body movement, they are now giving him an IV drip of something called vecuronium (vec), which paralyzes him.  If you were to just walk in the room, you'd think he was dead.  Even his eyes don't move, yet his heart is not disturbed from this.  He is also in an upright/reclined position.

Endurance was on a "vec holiday" as they put it, today.  A small trial to see what he does when he "wakes up."  It took a bit over an hour for him to come off the meds.  He seemed to do fine for about 30 minutes.  Then his sats dropped and the nurse turned the IV back on.

Endurance is also in isolation for upper respiratory virus indications.  For this, they can give him nothing.  He just has to ride this one out.

Also, Endurance's heart has gotten bigger since yesterday.  He's has two echocaridograms.  It's rather floppy and slow.

Endurance has been given so many medications these past two days as well. 

He's not out of the woods, but we praise God that Endurance is still with us and everything that his nurses and doctors are doing seem to be for his best interest.  We see God's handiwork in all of this and clinging to Him even more.

Thank you for your prayers!  Sorry for any grammatical errors, fellow homeschooler!  My brain is quite fogged!  :)