Month: April 2013

Hey,

I know you love to get updates about crazy things going on in my life, and after what I pulled off 7 years ago, you probably assumes you heard that last of it. Sadly, this time it is Idan. Last Wednesday, we had to rush him to the ER because he was having a lot of trouble breathing on his own. Right from a doctor’s visit they took us in the ambulance to NYP Cornell. He had been sick for a couple of weeks, and breathing faster and faster. They assumed it was just a virus, but he was not getting enough oxygen on his ond his x-rays showed a lot of fluid in his lungs. In the ICU they stabilized his condition, but he is intubated and on breathing machines. That is when the episode of House began. Trying to figure out the cause of his lower respiratory infection has been tricky. At first, he tested positive only to the RihonoVirus (AKA Cold) but that was then ruled out. They took a lunch fluid sample. and were thinking they would find a rare lung disease that is causing blood in his lungs. But that was not the case. Instead they found Pneumocystis pneumonia which is usually only affects kids with an immunodeficiency disorder. So that is now what we are trying to figure out, what kind of rare immunodeficiency disorder he might have. The good news, is that they can treat his current Pneumocystis pneumonia with Antibiotics and steroids that they started last night. It will probably be at least 10 days of this treatment for his lungs for fully clear. Then the long -term battle will start once they are able to diagnose is immunodeficiency disorder, which may take some time.

Amanda and i have been living in the ICU since Wednesday, and it has been a challenging time. But are surrounded by close family who are making sure we get food and rest. Idanlooks comfortable on the machines and they keeps him sedated and asleep while they treat him. We hope his lungs start clearing soon, and they can extubate him and wake him up in a couple of days. It looks like we will be at Cornell for another 2 weeks at least. But there is really no way of knowing. Once we are out of the ICU and in a normal ward I think it will be easier for visitors to come, but for now we are limiting visitors to close family. If you plan to call, better to email first as I have my phone on loud for family, but don’t want to disturb Idan.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Sat: 11AM

Hi all.

Going to give an update on how things are going in past 24 hours.

On Friday afternoon the doctors advised and we agreed that the best things to do is to run a Bronchoscopy to get a sample of the fluid in his lungs to reach a better diagnosis. To do this, Idan had to be Intubated. The test went well and so did the Intubation. So like his father before him he is now totally out and on a respirator and breathing tube. He is going to stay like this for a few days until they feel he is getting better and he can breath on his own again. Also, as we wait for all the labs to come back to know a better diagnosis, they are doing their best to keep him sedated. Right now they are trying to get a feeding tube down his nose so they can start giving him food into his colon.

As far as treatments: We are still waiting for diagnosis. If they do find red blood cells in the sample they took on Friday, it will probably indicate that he has some bleeding disorder in his lungs, and that might have been the cause (along with the cold virus that might have triggered it). They will then treat with Steroids and hope that it solves the problem in short run, with follow up visits with the Pulmonologist after we get out.

They did also find a bacteria in his lungs, which should not have been there. So last night they started him on antibiotics as well. They are doing many more labs on the samples they took and they are going to know more in the next couple of days, we hope.

As of now, there is not much more we can do for him besides wait by his side and hope he starts getting better soon.

You can call me on my cell if you want to chat more and I can pick up when I am not talking to a doctor/nurse.

Thanks for all,

12:51PM

We just got another update and they feel like that found a diagnosis. It seams that based on the test yesterday where they took a sample of the fluid in his lungs, he has a very rare Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). This is not common in healthy babies, and usually only presents itself with babies with a immune deficiency. Since there is little to no chance that he has HIV (All mothers are tested when they go into labor in NY) and he has not had steroid treatments for cancer. it is a mystery that still needs to be solved. They are going to bring in the infectious disease team now to decide on the course of treatment. It looks like a combo of antibiotics and steroids work very well to get rid of the fungal infection. But they need to also figure out why he got this. Most of us have this fungus in our lungs, but our immune system keeps it in check. So more tests are going to be done in next few days to try to figure this out. Indeed a very crazy episode of House. They are trying hard to keep in sedated and comfortable while he is intubated. So that the treatment can work and get him better. And we will take this one step at a time.