All Good News

Hi, it's Billy's mom again. I am pretty sure you can tell by now.
You will be happy to know that Sam is doing well, a permanent place to live is looking up and, drum roll please, Teesa has ordered Internet service.
I spoke with Teesa this morning as she was dressing a moving target. Sam is back to his bouncy normal self. As with most times that I speak with him Teesa tells him to tell Nana, that's me, hi. I don't recall ever hearing him say this until this morning. I got a big hi Nana, music to my ears. Yesterday Sam was at the doctor for a checkup. He got a good report, all seems normal.
As for the house, things are moving forward for them to purchase their new home. Won't we all be excited when they do? Teesa will have to tell you more later.
Speaking of Teesa telling you more later, it should be Thursday. I know you all are anxious to hear directly from Billy and Teesa. I also know they will be happy to have the opportunity to enter blog messages and to email you.
So with all of that good news I must tell you I will miss helping them by posting their blogs. It's been fun and nice but hope I won't have to do this again. I look forward to them getting settled and personally being able to keep you all informed.
Thanks again from Nana for all of you precious prayers and the opportunity to see God's mighty hand at work.

Update on the Klears

Billy's mom again. I know you should be able to tell the difference if it's me or Teesa or Billy.
First bit of information is that Sam has made it with no fever so far. Our prayers are still working. Sam has been waking up crying or crying in his sleep. Teesa and Billy think that he is having nightmares about his hospital visit. Wouldn't you?? I would. When you pray for Sam please pray that his memory of his hospital visit diminishes.
Good news on the house issue. I was told this morning that they have been told they will be compensated for the earnest money they put down. This is very good. They are now starting the house purchasing process again. They do have another house in mind. There are still a few issues to work out with all of this so they still need your prayers.
A personal note from mom. I spoke with both Teesa and Billy this morning. Although you can still hear a little fatigue and stress in their voices they did sound so much better. Sam was talking, that's great, in the hospital he had pretty much stopped talking. Hearing them this morning lifted my spirits and I know to hear that they are recovering will lift yours also.
Hopefully Teesa will be able to post sometime in the near future. She and Billy are so much better at this with so much more detail so I know you are looking forward to that.
Thanks for all of your prayers, thoughts and comments. Teesa is so happy to see all of the hits on the blog and the comments she gets back. Just shows how many people care and are praying.
Hope the next blog has even better news that this one.

HOME!

Yes they are home. This is Bill's mom again. Sam's temp is normal, he's eating better also. Please continue to pray his temp stays normal. Also please continue to pray for Billy and Teesa as they recover from the last week and for the housing situation. God has worked such a miracle with Sam over the past week. It is fantastic to watch His hand at work. The Klear's continue to need God's moving concerning Sam's temp and to show them the house He has chosen for them.
Thanks

Going Home

We should be leaving this evening to go home. Sam has ripped off his leads and was impossible to contain in his hospital bed. He is now sitting next to me on the couch. I tried to let him walk a little, but his legs are too wobbly and he can't stand up. I imagine that almost six days of laying in bed will do that to little legs.

His cardiologist here in Charlotte came in a spoke to us and we have a new game plan for treatment. Also, his pediatrician here called and spoke to me about what we can expect for the weekend (pending any unusual fever related to an ear infection or something else). We will continue to monitor his temps over the next few weeks and if he has low-grade fevers continually, we will come back and see the ID doctor here in Charlotte.

The cardiologist can't understand why Sam had such a high fever and plenty of them over the last few days but didn't go into VTAC. We absolutely attribute this miracle to the Lord answering your prayers. How do you feel to be a part of this? You helped spare Sam's little heart a trauma that would have been very painful. Thank you.

Blessings.

Adenovirus

We have an answer, finally. I think I said yesterday that one of Sam's nose cultures came back positive. It was the one called "adenovirus."

The infectious disease doctor came in today and said that adenovirus is the cause of Sam's high fevers. Of course, we know that any normal child could get high fevers and be okay, but Sam's heart is what landed him here. When he gets a high fever, his heart goes into an abnormal, very fast rhythm. Apparently, adenovirus causes children to get high fevers and have respiratory problems, just like he has. The quick swab of his nose came back negative, but the culture, that they have been looking at for four days, came back positive. He also might be developing an ear infection. Last night it was buldging, but today it is fine.

The ID doctor said she will be in touch with our pediatrician here alert him that Sam might have another high fever over the weekend due to his ear. But, he might not. It just depends on how his body heals.

They are probably releasing us this evening. We have weaned Sam's meds (Tylenol and Motrin) and are keeping a close eye on his temperature. If there is any rise or any fever, we will re-assess before this evening.

I feel good about all of this. I think the ID doctor knows what she is talking about and I feel confident that Watauga Medical Center will be able to handle us from now on (unless there's an even higher temp). The cardiologist said, "it is what it is," when he was talking about Sam's fever and his VTAC. He said it doesn't make a difference what the temperature is - a VTAC is a VTAC and Sam is going to have one with almost ever fever. We just have to sit by and watch - monitoring him closely to make sure nothing else happens (this means, go straight to the hospital).

Sam has been a different child today. He's still not eating like he normally does, nor is he drinking normally, but he's jumping on the bed and screaming "Mama" a lot. I think it's time for us to move on from here and go back to the rental at home.

Bill will be here after work, around 7:30 or 8 tonight and we'll likely leave after that. I will let you know what I hear. My phone is still not working properly, since Sam threw it down on Saturday (I can only use speakerphone on it). But, I should get my old new phone back tomorrow. Also, I won't have internet anymore once we are home. So, I'm not sure how you'll keep up with us anymore. Maybe I'll have some time on Saturday to break away and write. I'll post once more before we leave tonight though.

As always, keep praying. Sam is going to have a long road ahead of him whenever he goes new places or meets new people. The doctor said today that I STILL can't put him in a bubble, no matter what. She said he can play on the playground, in museums and even go to school when the time comes. But, no one is allowed to kiss him on the lips (save us) hands. And we need to wash them after every time someone touches his hands. So, if you see me bring out my hand sanitizer, it's not because I think you're disgusting. It's for his safety.

Blessings.

What's Today?

I don't even know what day today is. So, I'll just give a "Today" update.

Bill left for work about thirty minutes ago. Sam had an ok night - no fever, which is fantastic. But, his alarms kept going off all night. His pulse ox sticker kept falling off his toe and he couldn't breathe through his nose.

Something happened to me - I guess the week caught up with me - because I fell asleep and couldn't wake up. The alarms kept bothering me, but my eyes were so heavy, I finally told Bill that I couldn't keep up with everything and collapsed on the couch. I would wake up groggy and couldn't keep my eyes open. Bill had to take over. At some point I heard a commotion and saw that they were vacuuming out Sam's nose. He wasn't very thrilled about it. At that point, I crawled into bed with him and we slept fitfully the rest of the night. I would put saline in his nose every hour or so and that seemed to do the trick. At 6:40am, I realized Bill hadn't gotten up yet and yelled his name about 40 times before he woke up. I guess we're exhausted.

I haven't seen the doctor yet, but I'm curious to ask him about all of the strange rhythms we've seen in the last two days. Sam's been skipping beats and his pacemaker has begun working a lot.

So, keep praying if you will. Pray for healing of his little body from this cold that he's got. Pray for his heart to beat as a normal heart would.

I'll know about the CT scan later today. Also, just to let you know, his nose swab came back positive for a cold (viral). But, the particular cold he has doesn't cause high fevers like he's been getting.

Contrast

In preparation for his CT scan Sam had to drink about 6oz of a clear liquid refered to simply as 'contrast.' What that might actually consist of, I do not know. What I do know is that he did not like it. He has really not wanted to put anything in his mouth for a day now. He was, however, a real trooper and let Teesa give him little squirts from a syringe until it was all down. We all went to the imaging wing and once again he did very well in a hard situation. He didn't fuss too much as he layed in the scanner, Teesa held his hands and he shuttled in and out.

After the scan his face was pretty flushed and Teesa noticed that he was quite warm. We were concerned and wanted to get back to his room quickly. When we arrived the nurse took his temperature and it was up to 102.5 and we all sprang into action getting the cooling blanket, cool rags and Motrin. Only a few minutes passed and the head nurse was in to tell us that this was a normal reaction to the 'contrast.' His fever is coming down, but the cooling blanket is still on. On the other hand he is quite congested. Thank you all, for your continued prayers.

An Hour Later

I know I just posted, but the doctor just came in and I wanted to give a quick update.

Dr. Smith, his new cardiologist, was very encouraged to see Sam's temps low overnight. While we were talking, Sam's heartrate was dipping so low, his pacemaker was pacing him. We're not sure why it's doing that - Dr. Smith said it could be that his upbeat wasn't fast enough or that he is missing a few beats, but it just means the defib/pacemaker is working.

He also said that one of Sam's tests came back high - showing that he has inflammation. All that means is that he could have a bacterial or viral infection. So, we still don't know anything more than we did before.

I asked again why Sam has not gone into VTAC even though he's had a high fever. This is still perplexing him (though we know why - because of your prayers). Dr. Smith thinks it is likely that there have to be certain factors involved with his body in order for the fever to cause VTAC.

That's all I know for now.

Wednesday Morning

We made it through the night with no events. Bill and I took turns sleeping and the nurses came in every hour to check his temp. He has maintained a normal temp all night long. Can you believe it? I can. We had such faithful prayer warriors praying for him, his fever, his heart and for us. We greatly appreciate your prayers.

Today they will do a CT scan and the blood work is still out. I will let you know as I do. Keep praying for no more fever, to discover the illness and for his heart.

Since I finally have a minute to sit down, I will tell you something else that is going on in our lives. We were going to close on a house here on Friday (two days from now), but got word on Saturday (on the way to the doctor) that the loan won't come through because the sellers aren't cooperating. We will most likely lose our retainer as well, due to a poorly written contract.

We've learned a lot through this process. I have been laying in Sam's bed praying about the housing situation since 3:30am. I don't know what is going on, but I believe God is telling me that we should not pursue this house anymore. Bill had already come to this conclusion a few days ago, but I am just now getting on board. It will be difficult to lose the retainer, but I believe we are supposed to put a bid on another house. We had been praying about this other house from the beginning and chose the second one because we believed that is what we were supposed to do. I almost woke Bill up during the night to talk to him about all of this, but I decided it would be best to let him sleep. I'm curious to know what he thinks.

Please pray about the housing situation too, as you remember it. It's obviously not the most important thing going on in our lives right now, but it's still important nonetheless.

I can see the sun rising behind the mountains outside our window now. The hospital is bustling with more noise as nurses change shifts. Sam and Bill are breathing deeply in their respective beds. Sam's heart rate is 85 beats per minute. I know he doesn't have a fever because of his heart rate.

Thanks for praying. And thanks for posting - we read your posts all day long, when we're not in the middle of a harried crisis. We are reading them over and over again. We love the encouragement and to see God unify His family around the world. How awesome is that?

From Sam Himself

This is from Sam:

h ,mj nx / fffffffffffffffvh vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv v b

We're at another good point of the day. The fever that came this afternoon was the highest Sam has ever had. We're lucky he didn't have a seizure.

He was so dehydrated that it took three times of sticking him before they actually got it into a vein. It was devastating for everyone. I cried almost as much as Sam did. But the hospital staff is great and the nurse from the cardiology clinic was absolutely awesome. When I ran down the hallway to alert her to his high fever, she immediately put her arm around me while walking me back to the room and asked me if I was ok. Once I responded, she started barking out orders to get the fever under control. It took one hour of wet, cold rags on his head and on his body before his temp came down to 103.5.

My cousin Valerie was here for it, so I immediately asked her to post something. Thanks for your quick-acting prayers.

We are now looking for Typhoid, Malaria and anything else the ID doctor could think of. They're doing a CT scan tomorrow to see if it actually IS the defibrillator that is causing the problem. We have to wait until tomorrow because he'll need some sort of meds intravenously and his veins are too weak to support them right now.

After he broke his fever, he sat up in bed and asked to eat. He played with toys and is now watching TV in my lap. The ID doctor came in and we introduced her to Sam. She's seen him three or four times, but he has always been laying flat very sick. He's still sick, but is on one of the mountains right now.

Keep praying. We expect another high fever tonight. Hopefully it won't continue to trend of getting higher and higher as it has been doing. That's one of the reasons the doc is looking at Malaria. We're just grasping at straws, but who knows.

Thanks be to God for answering our prayers again. We are exhausted and are taking shifts tonight. I hope I can get two hours of consecutive sleep, since I have only actually had two hours in the last three days, I'm looking forward to it. I just hope we don't have another fever.

Blessings!

Sam update 4-15-08

I am Valerie Phillips Teesa's cousin, writing for Teesa. Sam's fever was 104.4 at 2:15 this afternoon. The doctors are scheduling a CAT scan and doing more blood work. They still don't know what is causing his fever to spike, and are looking for anything/everything. We give God praise that his heart did not go into V-Tac when his fever was so high. Please continue to keep Sam and us in your prayers.

Wow

Last night was by far one of the roughest nights we've ever had. I know it was hard for many of you too, as you have been on your knees for Sam.

But, our God is good. He is merciful. He is loving. And, we felt His love for us last night.

Sam's fever broke some time around 4am. His defib never fired. His heart never went into sustained VTAC. At about 4:30am, he sat up did a sign for cheerios and asked for some whole milk. He also asked to watch TV. Him sitting up was a big deal, because he hasn't had the strength to sit up on his own since Saturday. He watched TV until about 6am, when he laid back down and nursed for a while, then fell asleep. He slept until about 8am when his new cardiologist came in.

Here's the scoop on Sam's general health - his right side is still sounding "diminished." The doctors are looking at bronchitis or pneumonia. His nose is very congested. His temp has been running between 98F and 99.6 (right now) since about 4am.

We feel relieved and are wondering if that was the climax at the end. We have asked the nurse about finding a quiet room somewhere where we can take turns sleeping. It's been difficult not to sleep since Friday night for me.

Thanks for your prayers. Keep on praying!

Teesa and Bill

ANSWER TO PRAYERS

Bill was just reminding me how the book of James says that we must pray expectantly, asking in faith and not doubting. We have called upon our prayer warriors tonight and God has answered your faith. Sam's heartrate has dropped 25 bpm in the last ten minutes. He is now consistently beating at 125bpm. It's still high, but it's WAY lower than it was and his rhythm is returning to normal.

It just hit 119. Bill is asking for 115. Thank you for praying. Please pray that this fever would NOT come back. Pray that God would protect his heart and send His angels to keep gaurd over this boy.

We thank God for each one of you.

Teesa, Bill and Sam

103.4F VERY BAD

We are sitting by Sam's bedside watching his heart beat very rapidly. The nurses want to call it VTAC because the rhythm looks like a true VTAC, but it's not actually beating quickly enough to be considered VTAC. As he is asleep, his heartrate is varying between 139bpm and 196bpm.

Please pray for him. The cooling blanket is on. Cool rags are on his body. We are in tears.

Please pray that God would relieve him of this fever. Praise God that he has not suffered a true VTAC as of yet during this particular fever spike.

Pray.

Update - Monday Evening

Bill stayed with us at the hospital today instead of going to work in Hickory, where there is a conference he was supposed to attend.

Sam has had four high fevers today, each lasting one to two hours. The infectious disease doctor said it's normal to have fever, but for them to last so long is unusual. She also said his right lung sounds diminished and has ordered a chest x-ray. When she sat with him this evening, she said his breathing was labored and was concerned. She is also testing his blood to see if the defibrillator itself has caused some sort of infection.

At one point today, Sam's hands and feet turned a "dusky" color (basically, blue). I was very upset. He started holding his breath during that time too. They called the cardiologist, who came immediately. At the time, Sam was having a fever spike and had about 102.9F. We were using the cooling blanket, but he was shivering too much and we had to stop. The doctor said it is very typical in normal babies to have those symptoms when there is a fever spike. Also, Sam's heart was doing some very strange things and even got up to 193 beats per minute.

After all the fevers he has had today, even with the very worst one, where his fever was 103.1 at the highest recorded time, he never went into a sustained ventricular tachycardia. That means, his heart never beat so quickly that it couldn't be rectified without a shock.

That's good news. No, that's great news.

This evening my Uncle Jack and Aunt Joyce came by right in the middle of a cardiac event. Sam's heartrate got up to 197bpm. He was terribly upset, as were we, and the nurse stayed in the room the entire time. Once his heart slowed down a little, he actually smiled at Aunt Joyce. It was the sweetest thing. I left her with him and Bill and Uncle Jack took me down to the cafeteria to find some food. It was the first time I had been in the cafeteria or away from Sam's bed since we got here. I even had to go down to the first floor and get a badge, because I didn't get one when we came in via ambulance.

So, more ups and downs. I expect we'll have another night tonight like we did last night. Everyone is still thinking all of this through. The cardiologist, the ID doctor, us.
I feel bad for Bill - he's only on his third week of work and he's already missing days. But, I'm grateful to have him. I need his support.

Thank you for all of your support too. We appreciate reading all the posts and talk about them throughout our darkest times during the day. You are precious to us and we appreciate it.

Also, for those of you who are into homeopathic meds, we are all for them but unable to use them on Sam. With his heart condition, we cannot tell what any normal medicine will do to him, but especially one that has not been tested on this condition - which is all of them. It's frustrating, but that's life. Thanks for the advice, Hollie.

Fever

Sam has sustained a HIGH fever since 2:30am. It is going up. It is now 103.1F.

We have a cooling blanket on him. We're a bit surprised he hasn't had a VTAC yet, but we're not bothering him and not moving him, so his heartrate might not be bothered. In the past, he has had a shock when we have picked him up to take him to the hospital or agitated him in some way. However, he HAS had a shock before while just sleeping.

Please continue praying for his heart. It's obviously working. Please pray for the fever to come down - and whatever is causing it to go away.

Sunday 9:30 PM

It's about 9:30 PM here in Levine Children's Hospital. Sam's temp was taken about half an hour ago and it was 97F. I didn't believe it (this was a rectal temp), so I asked the nurse to do it again. This time she did it under his arm. STILL 97. It sounded strange, so I grabbed the thermometer and stuck it under my arm. I watched her take it out of the box, so I knew it was brand-new. It reached 97.1 on me when I stopped it. I just wanted to make sure it could get above 97.


All that to say, his temp is down. He was very sweaty when she took his temp, so I know his temp was breakng.


So, here we are - up and down, up and down: in emotions, heartbeats and fever. We feel every bit of it.

Bill is heading up to Hickory tomorrow for some meetings. It's only an hour away and I told him I would call him if Sam had any trouble. Samaritan's Purse has been really great about telling him he should stay with us, but we want to make sure he is going to be available at some later time if we should need it. Also, I have some family here in Charlotte and in the outlying areas, so I'm in good hands if I need something.


The cardiologist, who is NOT a rhythm specialist, suggested putting Sam on anti-arrhythmia drugs if this continues. He said it is extremely dangerous and goes against what our rhythm specialist in Raleigh recommended. He said that Sam's body could respond in two ways - positively, thus bringing down his heart rate and keeping things under control, or negatively, causing his heart to go into VTAC and possibly VFIB so badly they would have to paddle him from the outside. It would have to be done in the ICU so they could monitor him closely. This cardiologist suggested this as a last resort, but we are all in agreement that we need to get the rhythm specialist here in Charlotte's opinion before we do anything.


It's difficult to have to make decisions like this, but it's more difficult to have to stand by and just watch him get shocked and watch his heart rate get sloppy and go into VTAC on his heart monitor.

I know we're at a down spot right now and we feel safe, but a bit vulnerable at the same time. Please pray that his temp does not spike during the night, as well as during the afternoon tomorrow, when his temp usually gets to its highest.

Also, the infectious disease doctor said she would like to keep Sam in the hospital for 24 hours PAST his last fever. I asked her if that meant a week or more and she said we would re-evaluate in a week.

Thanks for your prayers.

FEVER

Sam is having a TERRIBLE time with a HIGH fever this afternoon. He struggled with it for about an hour and a half while we watched helplessly his monitor showing his heart having very bad rhythm. Then his defib shocked him.



He now has a cooling blanket under him and we've lowered the temp in the room to 65 degrees F. He has no clothes on, save a diaper.



You guys, we really need your prayers. Our own hearts can't take much more of this. We don't know what to do. The nurses don't know what to do. The doctors are helpless as well.



He probably just has another virus, but it is very common for 18 month-olds to get high fevers. If every single high fever is going to end like this, we're going to have an incredibly long road ahead of us. We have spoken with the infectious disease doctor and she is looking for a few things. She said it's probably just several viruses back-to-back.



Please pray for Sam's fever to go down.



I apologize for not answering the phone. We don't know what to say.

update

We are being moved to intermediary care, since Sam's defibrillator hasn't shocked him again. They are sending an Infectious Disease doctor over to see what could be the cause of such a long-term fever. They said we'll be here at least another 24 hours.

In Charlotte

This is Teesa, finally.

We are in Charlotte at the Levine Children's Hospital (Carolina Medical Center) in the PICU. We were transferred via ambulance late last night from home.

Sam had at least two events with his heart last night where the defib discharge, it is likely that he had even more events than that but his body came out of it on his own. We were admitted straight to ICU and when we got to the room, he got a big shock that actually hurt my arm and body quite a bit. I've never felt a shock before, but I guess I was positioned just right.

They were going to airlift him out, but changed the plan at the last minute. It was better for us, because I was able to ride with him.

Bill followed later in a car. He's currently sprawled out on the couch in Sam's room. Sam's heart is in better shape now than when we arrived. It was skipping beats and doing a few odd things when we got here, but it's steady and constant now.

We don't know what's causing his fever, which got to 103.1 last night. It started creeping up when we got here too, so we've continued to keep him medicated. They put a probe in his rectum to constantly monitor his fever. It's 98.8 right now and has been creeping up from 98 for about an hour.

Please pray hard for his temperature to resolve itself and for them to figure out what is causing the fever.

For those of you who have missed it, Sam's heart cannot take fever. If he has a fever around 102F, his heart will beat too quickly and his defibrillator will need to discharge if it beats too quickly for 60 beats or more.

Blessings. I'll keep you updated now that we have internet.