Day 12 - Michael is home!

Last night (Friday),
would have been the 12th night at the hospital. But thankfully, he's home! Here is Michael's first order of the day: Halo 3!

We're still putting ointments in his eyes to ensure complete healing. His lips still bleed. The blood dries up and covers them, but when they crack open, they bleed. They are still slow in healing. He's still putting on soft gel just to keep them from cracking.

He's weakened from the hospital stay. There are a couple of blisters under his feet that make him tip-toe when he walks. His arms still hurt from all the needles and the IV. But other than those things, he's in a lot better shape! We hope and pray that he will get back to full strength and healing soon. He has to stay out of school for at least one more week. And, boy, I'm sure he has a lot of school work to catch up on! His teachers are aware of his situation and they are all very supportive.

The worst is over, I hope. And again we want to thank everyone of you who have been very supportive in many ways, especially in praying for Michael and for us. Everything has been a lot easier because of all your support. I wish I can mention all your names in this blog, but I'm afraid I'd miss a lot of names. But we are very grateful.

The hospital staff, the doctors and nurses were so helpful and really took care of Michael. We're glad we went to Children's hospital.

AND, we thank our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for his sovereign, loving care. It is wonderful that we have a Friend like Him. Not only did He suffer excruciating pain and died for our sins, He rose again to freely also gives us all things! What a Savior!

This is probably the last blog regarding Michael. Please keep praying for complete healing. We hope those who suffer a similar or worse trial will take comfort in the Lord, too!

His Grace and Peace to all!
Bob & Liz

(Rom. 8:32 "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?")

Day 12 - No Visitors, Please!

Why? Because Michael is coming home! So, you can't visit him in the hospital anymore! He won't be there. But sure, you can visit him at home.

Praise the Lord! The doctors cleared him for take off. He's probably going to be there until 5PM today.

Complete story in the 11:00 o'clock news. Or sometime later tonight! Praise the Lord!




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Day 11 - Petrolatum is not good for raw skin

I'd been concerned about Michael's lips being still raw while the rest of his body has been drying up and healing. I suspected that maybe the Petroleum Jelly he applies a few times a day to cover his raw lips are preventing them from healing faster. First of all, I know it is derived from oil. According to one web entry, it is commonly used to treat the skin to prevent moisture loss. I thought that perhaps the Jelly was not allowing his lips to breathe and heal naturally. I finally decided to ask the nurse or doctor if there's a different kind of lip ointment he can use that's not oil based. (That's oil from the earth - the same kind you put in your cars to lubricate the engine.) The nurse subsequently produced a surgical lubricant (Surgilube) that was water based.

Michael started to apply them on his lips this morning. And I'm pleased to say that I think it is a lot better ointment. His lips actually started to dry up. I think, and the nurses think, that his lips do look better They have not bled as much as these past 10 days. Hopefully they will heal much quicker now. He was able to eat more without bleeding lips. Praise the Lord!

The doctors think he may be able to come home this week-end. But we may have to keep "mummy-fying" him at home. Know anyone who can "wrap?" It will be good to have him home again. It's been 11 days.

Again we thank everyone for praying. We want to give God all the credit and all the glory in this. We hope that this experience in Michael's life will encourage many to trust in the Lord with all their heart.

We are sorry that we haven't responded to some of your emails and/or phone calls. We'll try and do so sometime... Love to all.

Day 10 - Worn Out from Hospital Stay

Michael wants to come home tomorrow. The doctor said maybe this week-end. That's the soonest day estimated yet! That is, if he can eat by himself and drink enough fluid so that he will not be dehydrated and have enough nourishment. His mouth and lips are still raw. It's as if they were scraped on something and the skin peeled off. They still bleed when he eats. But the doctors will remove his I-V tomorrow, at least temporarily. Please pray that he will not need them anymore. Pray that his mouth will heal more quickly so he can eat better.

Everything else seems to be fine. His eyes still hazy, probably from the eye ointments. Much of the blistered skin on his body and his face have dried up and sloughed off. And he hasn't had any pain killers or any other medicine since yesterday morning. Just I-V feeding. The doctors are delighted to see that he has progressed quite quickly. I am delighted because he is almost well enough to come home.

He said he was tired from staying in the hospital. It's been 10 days. I'd be worn out too! He does light up when friends come and visit.

Tonight he asked me to read from the Psalms. He asked for Ps. 139. (verses 17,18 say "How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You." I read the chapter to him. Then I read Ps. 34. (Verse 8 says, " O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!") Very encouraging words!

Again, we are deeply grateful for all your encouraging words and prayers. And we want to thank the Lord for hearing our prayers. Everyone of you have rallied to the Lord for Michael and He heard you. Please continue to pray for Michael. For the Lord's name's sake.

Thank you!

Day 9 - A Testimony to God's Faithfulness

I have to say that these blog updates have been a wonderful way to testify to God's loving kindness and faithfulness. He truly hears His people's cries. Although Michael is not yet home, it has been an amazing journey for him, for this family and yes, for all of you, our praying friends. God has been hearing all your prayers. We have all been witnesses of God's compassion and power. We know He is sovereign and does what He pleases, yet "the prayers of righteous men and women (and children) are effective and powerful!" (James 5:16). Somehow He works His sovereign will through our prayers. It's hard to comprehend.

But we praise God that Michael is truly much better. His eyes are still a little blurry, though the doctors are confident he will regain his sight fully in time. His lips and mouth are still raw and bloody, but not as bad as in the past few days. He is able to eat a little. He ate Chicken Teriyaki tonight. He still has lesions in his body but they are all drying up! They don't even open up as blisters tend to do. They just dry up and get crusty and fall off. Well, he peels them off carefully...

Today, he did not have morphine or any pain killer. That's a great sign of healing. He did not have fever, nor did he have Benadryl for his skin irritations. All his organs are fine. There are no blisters in his eyes, and no more ulcers in his esophagus. When he swallows his food, it does not hurt anymore. He sits up, stands, walks around, and has a great attitude. He has not complained or become bitter about his sickness. He has taken it all quietly. I know he just threw himself at the Lord's mercy, trusting that He will take care of His son.

He may be getting tired of staying in the hospital but they can't let him go yet. They want to make sure he has healed enough before letting him go. He treasures the visits of friends and family, and of course, the church family. He is thankful to the many of you who have been praying for him.

Maybe a few more days and he can go home. Praise the Lord and pray some more! Thank you! We deeply appreciate your thoughts, prayers, emails, encouragements, comments, and love.

Day 8 - Bean Burrito and Vaseline

Praise the Lord! Michael is definitely getting better.

Right now he's eating a bean burrito. But his lips are still covered with Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly because they are still raw and bleeding. His mouth must be still be raw inside because his mucous membranes were affected. He still looks about the same. However, he is not in as much pain as before. They still give him morphine occasionally for the pain, but for the most part he takes Percocet tablets orally. It has Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and Oxycodone (similar to Codeine). And he hasn't had fever all day today. The doctor also confirmed that no new rashes or lesions have surfaced and the ones he has are actually drying up instead of bursting open, exposing raw skin.

He said he wants to go home tomorrow. I relayed that to the doctor and he just laughed. He said Michael is strong but they can't let him go home until he no longer bleeds, and his blisters are mostly healed. The doctors are afraid his lesions could still be subject to infection if not taken care of. They still cover him with antiseptic gauze three times a day for about 30 minutes.

His organs are fine. His eyes are blurry still but it's probably due to the eye ointments applied. There are no blisters in his eyes. Overall, he seems much better. He's been walking, standing, sitting up.

This ordeal may be over soon. Maybe just a few more days rather than weeks. We thank you all again for praying. I look at the other cases of SJS online and Michael is definitely spared the worst possible case! We just want to thank the Lord for his compassion. We recognize that He is completely sovereign over all. For what reason this came to Michael, we may never know. Just like Job, who never figured out why God allowed all those tragedies and pains to come to him. (He knows now!) He knew that it all came from God ultimately, but he had faith that God would not do it for no reason. He just never found out why. But he knew his Redeemer lived. He knew God was righteous.

God is sovereign. This thing is from Him. For a good reason. Some have said Satan is attacking Michael. That may be, but all with God's sovereign permission AND protection!

Please continue to pray that he can come home soon.

Job 19:25,26 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;"

Day 7 - Grilled cheese sandwich!

Sometimes my tendency is to be disappointed that the drama does not build up to a high cresciendo. Often times I pray hard because something is really wrong and God needs to come to my rescue. Or Michael is very sick and God needs to heal him. Then when the healing comes early, I feel like, perhaps I didn't need to pray that much. He was going to get well after all. It was the natural course that his body is taking anyway. I didn't have to be so concerned and bother everyone about praying for him. He'd get well anyway.

But then I remember when this sickness first started. We knew right away there was no medicine to counter the sickness and researching several cases of this syndrome made us (Liz and me) feel really worried and helpless. We realized right away that we had to pray. And we had to call on everyone to pray, to seek our Father's healing touch. There is power in the prayer of His children. And there is comfort in the knowledge that our brothers and sisters are praying for our son. I reminded myself that the healing comes from God, either naturally or supernaturally, in the normal healing time or a surprisingly short time.

It is with gladness that we report that, although Michael is still not out of the woods yet, he seems to be better. It looks like there are no new blisters, his eyes seem fine (this was a huge worry!), he hasn't had fever today, and he's been awake all afternoon. He was able to sit up for a long time and stand and walk a bit. And at 6:00PM, he had grilled cheese sandwich and Jello. These are good signs. He had a few visitors today, and he was able to talk with them a little. His heart was encouraged by the visitors, even as they prayed for him. He was kind of miserable this morning but tonight he seems to be doing well.

They took him off morphine and replaced it with another painkiller, taken orally. Another good sign. He still has pains and I'm afraid he might still get fever. He still looks the same as yesterday. His mouth and lips are still blistered and bloodied. They keep checking his blood to ensure his vital organs are not affected. So far so good.

We thank you all again for your love and support. Please continue to pray until we know for sure he's completely out of harm's way. By the way, Children's Hospital seems to be a great hospital. All the doctors and nurses are nice and helpful.

Ps. 34:18-19 "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all."

Day 6 - Good Signs!

Again we praise our Lord and God, our Savior Jesus Christ, for His grace and love for us. It is evident that your prayers are heard by Him. There are signs that Michael may be on the healing phase. He may still have to stay in the hospital for a couple of weeks but it sounds like the worst may be over! Praise the Lord!

He still looks a little worse than yesterday. His skin is still blistering in his mouth, lips and throughout his body. He still has pains, esp. in his mouth, throat and chest (maybe the esophagus), so he's still connected to the morphine machine. He still lies in bed practically all the time. His skin gets very itchy due to the blisters and he's given Benadryl to control the itch but that medicine makes him sleep.

The good signs are that the blisters seem to have stopped spreading. They seem to be drying up and on their way out. But they make take up to a couple of weeks to be worry free! But at least the consensus of the doctors is that the worst is probably over. AND his organs are in good shape! Praise the Lord!

Yet the doctors want to be sure he does not get any infections thru his raw skin. So, three times a day, the nurses cover his skin with gauze, soaked in antiseptic, for a few minutes. I took some pictures because he looked like a zombie.

I thought about posting more pictures here but decided to just link it to the photo site. But be warned - some pictures are hard to look at. Click here to see the pictures.

By the way, they will not insert the PICC line anymore since he is able to eat a little. But please keep praying that Michael will truly be on the healing phase. We truly appreciate your friendship, love and prayers. He is receiving visitors, though the hospital allows only 4 people at a time (none under the age of 11).

Thank you again for your prayers. The Lord is good. Ps 73:28 "But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works."

Day 5 at Children's hospital

I had read a few things about this Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. I didn't want to read any more about cases like this and look at pictures. My heart was set on the hope that Michael will be out of here in a couple of days. My own prayer has been for the Lord to visibly begin recovery any time now. There are some good signs. However, the doctors are not giving me any glimpse of hope that he's actually beginning to get out of it.

This morning I followed a link sent by a great friend and started to read about one particular case. I was in tears while reading about it. And started to pray for Michael again. Could it be that God will allow him to get worse? It seems unthinkable that though the original medicine that caused all these is gone from his body, somehow the effect is still going through a potentially damaging course. And there is no medicine for this! My heart sank as I read the article.

O, but I must rely not on statistics but on God's compassion and mercy. Not only is He compassionate and merciful, He is the definition of mercy! (Eph. 2:4 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...") I will implore Him to spare Michael the full extent of the syndrome's effects.

This is noon, Friday, and he's sleeping. His mouth is swollen inside and his lips are raw and completely chapped. Otherwise, he seems as stable as yesterday. I was encouraging him to stand and walk around to avoid bedsores (or at least sit up) but he said his soles are painful. And he gets dizzy when he stands.

Thank you for continuing to pray for him.
Bob

Day 4 at Children's Hospital

First, we want to thank all of you who have been praying, calling and emailing regarding Michael. We are truly blessed to have friends and families like you! Please keep praying as Michael is not coming home for a while. Maybe days or even weeks. Hopefully, just days.

Then the good news. We are glad that his brain is not affected. His mind is clear. He is also able to help himself in the bathroom. He can walk around and does not have a catheter. Right now he's eating a Jello. And perhaps the biggest good news is that it does not seem to be the worst case of SJ Syndrome. Hopefully. His spirit is great. He's praying and trusting the Savior. He knows that God is in total control. There are a few other good news bits but I can't think of them all right now. Here he is showing his Victory sign.

His syndrome is still going through its cycle. The blisters and lesions on his skin and face are still getting worse. The fever comes and goes. He still gets a lot of pain so they gave him a way to control the morphine that comes in. All he has to do is press the button and an added dose of morphine flows in.

Here are some pictures of his neck and chest. The lesions are still spreading and will eventually dry up and come off. The doctors (and nurses) put a solution on his skin frequently so that his skin will not be infected. He says that his sight is blurry. We have asked for the eye doctor to come and check his eyes again. But fortunately, there are no lesions or blisters on his eyes. His lips are really blistered and swollen. I didn't want to put up the picture... Not a very pretty picture..



The doctors are going to put a deep IV that goes close to the heart. It's called PICC. That is to enable his body to get vitamins and better nourishment. The IV thru his arm is not robust enough to give him the nutrients he needs.

The doctors can't really give him anything to heal him. It's really up to his body to heal itself. But of course we know that God is the one in control. And He can heal this body in His time.

We praise God for all of you. Please keep praying until he's out of the hospital. (Here are some pictures from Halloween/Costume party: Pictures)

And Happy Thanksgiving!

Michael's Status

This is to update everyone about Michael's situation. He has been diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson Sysdrome (SJS) (Right click to open in a different window). He's still at the Children's hospital here in Oakland.

His skin lesions are worse than they were last night. But the Ophthalmologist who saw him said his eyes are fine. Michael said he can't see very clearly yet but his eyes seem to be better than they were last night. There is no medication for this kind of "sickness". All that can be done is to give supportive treatment, that is, pain killers (morphine, tylenol, ibuprofen, ice packs), fever reducers, IV for food and liquid, and Benadryl to help control the itchiness of the skin lesions. He has 7 doctors alternately checking on him. They have treated this kind of sickness before. One doctor said that as far as severity of condition, Michael's is about midpoint. It's not the worst case of SJS.

He's still being monitored. More tests are being done. His other organs seem to be fine. He had an X-ray for the back problem he was complaining about but the Xrays showed no problems.

We want to thank all our families and friends for your prayers and support. Please keep praying. We don't know if he has reached the worst phase of his condition yet. Hopefully he has. But God is sovereign. And I know He loves Michael (even more than anyone can and has loved him.) So we continue to bring him to the Lord in prayer.

We'll keep you all posted of his condition.

Previously... (on Michael)

Last Monday morning, Nov. 19...

Beloved,

Michael was admitted to the Children's hospital last night (Sunday night), upon the urging of his doctor. He seems to have developed a severe reaction to a prescribed medicine. Supposedly, he had high Uric acid and possibly gout. But it sounds like the medicine may have caused this new problem. The doctors are not ruling out other causes but they seem to think the medicine (Allopurinol) may have caused this reaction.

His eyes became puffy and mucousy, his throat, mouth, gums and lips began to swell and blister. He could barely open his mouth without cracking his lips and bleeding. He was in great pain yesterday. Couldn't eat and barely even drink. It was hard for him to swallow his pills. He also had fever and some chicken-pox like blisters appeared on his face, head arms and body. Not too many, but obviously not normal. His mucous glands were affected.

They gave him morphine to alleviate his pain quickly (after 2 hours of waiting in the emergency room - it seemed much longer). And they put IV in so he gets fluid and pain killers via the veins. It was a relief when he started to feel the effect of the pain killer. Not all the pain was gone as of last night, though. They had to to give him some more pain killers last night (midnight). Liz is there with him right now.

Some specialists are supposed to check him out. Even an eye specialist. Supposedly this type of problem can affect the eyes. They are also running some more tests. They are not ruling out other causes, such as strep throat and other allergies. (They asked if we had animals - we have 3 cats and 1 dog but we've had them for over 3 years).

He's the biggest "kid" at the Children's hospital. He's 6'1. But no matter what size he is, he's still not invincible. As of 10am this morning, his condition had not yet improved.

Pray that God will have compassion on him. Please pray that he will start to heal soon. And pray that none of his organs (esp. his eyes) are permanently affected by this.

I will keep you all posted. Thank you for praying.

Bob