Nothing much new... THANKS!

Nothing much new here.

Jonathan's numbers are back down to zero again, have been for the past few days. He got a blood transfusion this morning. His vitals have been stable. He still doesn't want to eat, but that is okay for now because they are putting nutrition directly into his blood. Isn't that crazy?! With the GI feeding tube they could bypass his mouth, but now who even needs a stomach?! He... still manages to get sick though, and gave back some of his oral meds this evening.

Our stay is feeling a bit long already. Xav and I are taking turns staying the night in hospital with Jonathan. Tonight Patience and I are here, and Xav is at the Ronald McDonald House with Xavi and Moriah. We've only been here a month and a half. We've chatted with some who have been staying at the Ronald McDonald for two years!

I just so want to thank anyone who has contributed to us financially. Xav, our family's provider, had his heart set on looking for work here the moment we settled into our first hospital room. He was praying for work. But I was praying that he'd be able to stay with me. I knew I couldn't manage family life in this setting without him. Well, the Lord is so so kind to me. Our needs have been met and Xav is getting in some really great parent-child relationship time.

I am so THANKFUL!! Thank you friends and family and thank you, Lord! We are so undeserving, but we are so thankful.

Ursula

Thank you, Chad, for filling in! Here is what I just posted on Facebook...

 

Good morning. I am just wanting to update on Jonathan a little bit. He wasn't doing so well yesterday. He has been dealing with diarrhea for a few days, also still vomiting a few times over the past few days and seeming not too comfortable. (Maybe the flu that Xav and I had?) Very early in the day yesterday he spiked a fever of 104, his heart rate was reaching 200 and his blood pressure was too l...ow. Xav called me early and told me to wake Corrie and to start praying for Jonathan. We prayed, in Jesus name. Xav told me there was a possibility of Jonathan going to the ICU.

I made it in time for doctors' rounds at a little after 9am yesterday, leaving the kids sleeping at the RMH, but taking Patience who stayed sleeping in her car seat . The docs were still uncertain of the root of the problem, labs weren't quite complete yet, but they were guessing Jonathan had an intestinal infection. Xav thought it was our flu, but the Attending Doctor shook his head when Xav suggested that. He said there is a common intestinal bacteria that can cause infection, especially after having had antibiotics and especially in the hospital, and with the lab results that had come back so far that morning ruling out other possibilities, that was their expectation. So they started Jonathan on a broad spectrum antibiotic. All his vital signs were needing to improve. They seemed especially concerned about his blood pressure, seemed like that was key, if it didn't improve he'd be going to ICU. They gave him blood transfusions and extra IV fluids.

Corrie brought Xavi and Moriah over to join us an hour or so later. So we were there as a family with Jonathan. He looked terrible. His color was really pale. He was really lethargic. He's been on regular doses of meds to help with nausea and yesterday morning they added meds for fever and for pain, so it was hard to tell what was causing his sleepy lack of response, but he just didn't look good. His vitals were being checked every hour. His fever slowly came down, his heart rate dropped into a more acceptable range and his blood pressure came up enough to keep us out of ICU. He was getting blow by oxygen to keep his O2 levels up. He went from being colorless to being bright red as the antibiotics hit his system and after a while his color looked more normal. They were watching/listening for fluid build up in his lungs which could result after receiving a large amount of IV fluid. His body did get a bit puffy, but his lungs continued to check out okay.

We left him last night after feeding him a little dinner (Yay! He was eating something! Yogurt, applesauce and peas.) and after sitting up for a while to watch some children's sign language videos on YouTube. He wasn't doing great, but he was doing alright. Thank you, Lord.

Xav texted me at 2:18 this morning and told me Jonathan was getting more IV and was being moved to ICU. He texted again at 3:46am saying that Jonathan was doing good, that they were checking on him every two hours, and the nurse thought they wouldn't be there long. I didn't read these texts from him until I woke up a little before 6:00am. I tried texting back, but I'm guessing he's sleeping, he had to move all our stuff out of the room at around 3:00am. So I'm waiting to hear the details and will try to find time to pass them on. Thank you for praying for my tired husband. Thank you for praying for our fighting son. The Lord is our help. He is good.

ICU

Good morning to all those who are following this blog, praying for Jonathan, and supporting the Mercados.

We received some texts around 4am from Xav that Jonathan had been moved into ICU for monitoring.  We are thinking this is due to low blood pressure and weakness following his last Chemo treatment.  Jonathan still did his "strong arms" but only with one arm this time.

Please lift the Mercado's up this morning and bring their son before the throne of the greatest healer, provider, and friend, mankind has ever known.

His richest work in and through you,

Chad Cohoon (Ursula's Brother in Law)

A little more difficult...

Hi blog readers! I haven't been able to sit and type much so I've copied and pasted a couple of my facebook entries.

6/28/14   
     We were getting ready to be released from the hospital yesterday. Jonathan was going to have a weekend out. Xav and I had taken all sorts of teaching and instruction in order to take care of our immunosuppressed son with a line coming out of his heart. Then I did it. I lifted Jonathan out of his high chair and didn't realize his line was stuck in the chair. I nearly yanked that line right out... of his chest... well not really... But I did pull it out a little. I pulled it out far enough to keep us in the hospital for another night and to need another surgery for another Hickman line. Bummer. But the surgeons say it will be an easy surgery because they can use the current line to place a new line. The Lord knows. We again would ask for prayer for another good surgery. We may be released from the hospital yet this afternoon after surgery, which would give Jonathan a night or two with us at the Ronald McDonald House ( and maybe a trip to the zoo ).   

7/1/14
     Xav has the iPad at the hospital, I'm on the laptop at the Ronald McDonald House. This picture that Xav posted an hour ago shows a little bit of how Jonathan is doing with this new round of chemo that started today. The last round of chemo seemed pretty gentle, not much nausea, not too hard to get through. But it also didn't quite have the desired effect the doctors were looking for. The bone marro...w aspirate that they took nearly a week ago showed over 2% leukemia cells remaining in the bone marrow where they were hoping for 0%. So that meant he needed a harder hit of chemo and I guess that is what he is getting now. Our poor little boy has been throwing up and is now dry-heaving, he has a fever and his oxygen level has dropped. So this time around is seeming a lot more difficult. Please pray for Jonathan. And please pray for Xav who will be with him through the night and probably won't be getting much rest. I am so thankful that Xav is such a good daddy.