The Amazing Shrinking Christopher !

Great news for those of you who have been following the saga of Baby Christopher.He is, as you will recall, the newborn (in Nov 2009) son of the Sports Writer.The news for the past several weeks since his Heart Transplant has been rather bleak in that even though his new heart is apparently doing fine and beating merrily away with no signs of rejection, his kidneys weren’t (and still aren’t) working properly. So he has been on peritoneal dialysis. But that began to have problems so was stopped. Then he was started on CCVHD dialysis. Initially that was promising. Then there was a mild setback. But, now things seem to be going better.He is still a long way from being out of the woods but apparently is improved over this time a couple of weeks ago.In fact he is so improved that the above sign has been put outside his door to the CV ICU.During the past week Baby Christopher is at last beginning to be 'shrinking' from the big time edema of his entire body that developed because of the failure of his kidneys to function.

So, to bring you up to speed on the 'shrinking' and other recent happenings, here are 3 updates from his Caring Bridge website:

First, here is an update from his mother on March 21

Sunday, March 21, 2010 1:59 PM, CDT

Hello Everyone. Shannon here.

Christopher is successfully doing CVVHD dialysis. Friday they pulled off 277 cc of fluid. Yesterday they pulled off 324 cc of fluid.

Even with all that fluid pulled off, Christopher remains very swollen. But he looks much better. His was able to open his eyes into tiny slits.

He smiled at me a number of times this morning as I talked and sang to him. That is the first time I have seen him smile in weeks. So I do believe he is feeling better.

The last two cultures for the belly infection have been negative which is another praise. Perhaps now we will make progress.

As I encountered the scare on Friday, I thought "Is this the end Lord? Is Christopher going home to You?" I just bent over my beautiful baby boy and pressed my face against his cheek. I choked back so many tears as I told the Lord that I wanted to be able to love Christopher and care for him...I wanted to nurture him in this life. But his health, his life were out of my control. I couldn't know what was best for Christopher. So I placed myself again in the loving hands of an all-wise Father and I could truly say, "No matter what happens, Christopher is an eternal blessing of praise to the One who created him." In absolute thankfulness, we see that God was merciful and has given Christopher more time with us. Oh that we might share with this baby boy the love of our heavenly Father!

Thank you all for your abundant prayers. It makes my heart so glad to know that God delights in the prayers of His children. He is faithful in all things. He is so good to us.

Psalm 103

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

So great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children,

So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

Next an update from his father on Saturday March 27

George here (in Eugene) with an update:

Christopher is doing well and has had a good week. The cvvhd continues to work very well; they had to replace a filter earlier in the week because of clotting, but that's expected to occur every few days.

The swelling has been greatly reduced; there's a sign outside his door that reads:

"The Amazing Shrinking Christopher."

We're very hopeful the rapid progress will allow him to continue moving toward recovery and discharge.

We continue to pray Christopher's kidneys would resume full function. His urine output continues to be sporadic.

The new heart continues to beat very well. The most recent testing did not show leakage from the Mitral valve (you might recall they weren't concerned about the leakage, but it's interesting that they didn't see any).

Shannon reports that Christopher has been getting angry very easily, wiggling his little arms and legs and making his displeasure known. It's possible he's adjusting, again, to a new normal.

Thanks again for praying for Christopher.

And finally, this update of today, Sunday, March 28, again from the Dad

George here, with another update:

Shannon reports that Christopher weighs 10 pounds, which is significantly lighter than he was with all the edema. She says he's now a skinny little baby, with no more swelling. He's all long arms and legs, and now it's time to try to fatten him up as they increase his feeds.

But here's why I'm posting again: Shannon held Christopher today. For four hours -- which is the longest he has been held, even in those very first few days of life before the original heart went really bad -- she sang to him and talked to him.

She reports he snuggled in, got as close as he could, and was very content. He would open his eyes and look at her, then close them again.

What a blessing for Shannon to be able to hold our little guy -- our much littler guy, that is.

One other thing: Christopher hasn't peed in a couple of days, since a 19-cc output one overnight period. The nurse's theory (everyone's got a theory about everything, you know) is that Christopher doesn't have any fluid to pee because the cvvhd has done such a good job. The hope, then, would be that as he stabilizes in this non-swollen state, and as they increase his feeds, his kidneys would respond.

That remains our prayer, for sure.

We're thankful tonight for God's continuing answer to our continuing prayer for Christopher's recovery.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

.