Interlude

Hi. Yes, I haven't posted for awhile. I know I have things 2 and 3 to talk about. We have been interrupted by our nephew, Ethan, getting sick. I mean sick-sick, really sick. 

Two weeks ago today, four-year-old Ethan (who's only four days younger than my precious Abby) complained to his mom that he wasn't feeling well. By Saturday he was having seizures, and was diagnosed with meningitis. By Tuesday it had progressed into encephalitis and he was going into status epilepticus. By Wednesday (a week ago yesterday), he was in a medically-induced coma trying to save his brain. He still hasn't woken up. He was on so many strong medications that it was affecting his kidney function. Then they suspected that maybe it was vasculitis, but the sugar-cube piece of brain they removed to do the biopsy says it isn't. Now they suspect it's just a common cold or maybe the flu gone really, really bad.

Don't you feel like I just described an episode of House?  

Anyway, he's still in the PICU at the hospital, and mom (my sister-in-law, a single mom at that) is struggling to cope along with caring for the three other children. Michael's family's been awesome, and everyone has helped including caring for the siblings, and taking turns sitting at Ethan's bedside so Mom can spend time with her other children. 

Ethan is slowly getting better, but we're all waiting for him to wake up and no one knows what his long-term prognosis is. They've cut back some of the medications, so his kidneys are doing better, and he's weaning off the ventilator, which is excellent. 

And we keep waiting for him to wake up...