36 hours up and down

Sunday morning Ben had a positive breakthrough. While Kim, Jon, Lydia and Noah were at church, Ben was home with gma & gpa L. At @ 10:00, about the time the Highland Avenue CoB congregation was praying for Ben, apparently he got hungry and ate a nice, early lunch.

We returned home to a brighter-eyed, more bubbly Ben.

Ben entertained a couple brief visits on Sunday afternoon, and then was very tired in the evening, something that seemed quite natural since he had been up virtually all day.

At about 7:15 Ben was in bed in his room when we heard vomiting. The short story is that it was blood and a clot, and it was coming out both ends. We immediately called the doctors at Children's who told us to take him immediately to our local emergency room. As we prepared to put Ben in the van, he got faint and had a very strange look on his face. We called the ambulance.

After initial treatment at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Ben was transported by ambulance back to Children's, arriving at about 11:30 p.m., and taken right to the picu, which we have become quite familiar with.

Overnight he continued to pass blood and had a good amount of blood given to him, along with other medical tests and interventions. Around noon today they performed an endoscopy which resulted in the discovery of a very sizable ulcer in the duodenum. Clamps were applied to lessen its size, control the bleeding, and a regiment of medications has begun.

Tonight Ben is resting at the hospital. Kim and Jon returned home for a few hours to rest and gather items for what will likely be another multiple-day stay at the hospital.

We are grateful that this episode was not related to his heart. In fact the staples were removed from his incision while he was sedated for the endoscopy. We are concerned, however, for the toll such a loss of blood will have on Ben, and for the healing that needs to take place now in his lower belly. He also was under anesthesia and intubated again, and so until a day or two has passed we are concerned that his lungs and oxygen levels are sustained and do not regress like the first time he was intubated for heart surgery.

I will continue to give updates tomorrow. Thank you for surrounding us with your prayers and support.