Back to Iowa City

This weekend, Parker was taken from the local hospital to the University of Iowa Hospitals on Friday night. This was done as a precaution, as he does not seem to be responding to the treatments and it is better for him to be in Iowa City, in case it gets serious quickly and he needs ICU interventions. It was quite a scary night for Mat & Sarah, as it is not an easy thing to hear that your little baby is getting rushed off by ambulance to Iowa City. It was a long weekend for all involved.

Mat & Sarah arrived in Iowa City with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Thankfully, they were able to get away to Wal-mart to pick up a few essentials. Sarah and I had been planning to attend the Junior League Wine Tasting Event being held as a fundraiser for their family, along with a few of our other friends. We were just leaving my house & had just commented about how we could clean up nicely when Sarah got the phone call from Mat @ the hospital.....to which we madly drove across town to get Sarah there. Sarah was probably the best dressed patient mother at the hosptial that night! :)

Parker's diagnosis is an infection in his gut, which is causing him to not eat & inflamation in his bowels, which is causing him a lot of pain (understandably!). This week's intensive chemo session has been postponed until Parker is in better health. There was some talk of doing a CT scan of his abdomen to get a better idea of what is happening inside - which would also give a glimpse of his ribs and how well they are responding to the treatment (as they were initially pretty full of the disease). I have yet to hear more on this. Parker will continue to be hospitalized until he is eating more regularly on his own and better able to manage his own pain - but they have not been given an immediate timeline. He is currently being fed through his IV port, along with receiving IV fluids and morphine as needed.

Sarah also reported that Parker's beautiful red hair is thinning around the sides, currently leaving him with a tres stylish mohawk. Probably the most scary is that Parker is not even willing to smile, which definatly indicates something is wrong. :( Sarah also reported that they received the first of many bills for Parker's care this weekend as well, which I can only imagine was a rude reality in the midst of all of this. Please continue to pray for them and send encouraging thoughts their direction.