Brandon Update

I have not had time to do an update for everyone concerning Brandon. Thursday I came home from a trip out of town to find Brandon not feeing well. He had runny eyes, a cough and some chest congestion. After dinner he went straight to bed. I decided I needed to take his temperature around 7 PM and it was 101. I didnt think too much about it and gave him tylenol, extra fluids and put him to bed. That night there was a news report that a large number of kids with CP and seizure disorder were more affected by the H1N1 flu than others and that was in the back of my mind. At 10 PM I took his temperature again and it was 104.8. I called the afterhours clinic at ARC and they advised me to go ahead and take him to the ER to get checked out.

We went to the ER and they ran several tests including the flu, but all were negative. They told me he had a virus and to take him home home and treat him for the virus. I took Bandon home started him on tylenol and motrin and as many liquids as possible. Friday the fever stayed at 104 and he slowly got worse. Saturday I felt a little out of my league as Branon started to have problems breathing. I again called ARC as it got later in the evening. Brandon has a g-tube placed that he uses when he is sick. I noticed that a black substance was coming out the edges and told the nurse. We both did not think took much about it. However, at midnight the nurse fom ARC calld and said that the doctor was afraid that the black substance was blood and we needed to head to the ER. Brandon and I headed back to the ER at Dell Children's Hospital.

When we got here I found out that Brandon had pneumonia in both lungs and that he did have the flu. They sent the sample to the CDC to cofirm H1N1. However confirmation can take quite a while. Brandon's oxygen rates were very poor so they admitted him to the hospital. We were in a regular room Sunday morning, but Brandon started to struggle to breath and they found blood in his urine and blood coming out of the G-tube. They moved him to the intermediate care in the afternoon for closer monitoring. We stayed last night in intermediate care. It looked like Brandon was getting better but in the afternoon his breathing became more labored and his lungs collapsed. They quickly moved him to ICU where we are now.

They have Brandon connected to a CPAP machine to open the lungs and allow the lungs to heal. They also have him on several different antibotics trying to kill the infection. They have consulted wih an infectious disease physician here and are monitoring him closely. Right now we will just need to wait and hope Brandon can keep fighting this infection.

I want to thank all of you for your support, your prayers and encourgement during this time. I really appreciate your help. I have very limited access to e-mamil and phone, but I am getting all your messages.

I will try to keep this blog updated as we continue with this battle and hope you all keep your prayers up for Brandon at this time.

Thanks so much
Leah