On July 17th, our son, Benedict James Jona, decided to be born 6 weeks too early. Life has been quite a roller coaster since. 
About a week after his birth, while still in hospital, he started to show signs of getting sick. He was not interested in eating at all. Then he decided to throw up some bile and pass blood in his stool. He was quickly x-rayed and diagnosed with something called Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC). Yes, it's as serious as it sounds. Some premature infants die from this disease, though most are much younger and smaller than Benedict. Anyway, he was promptly treated with antibiotics and bowel rest (which means no food by mouth) for 10 days. He responded to treatment quickly and started getting better. We were thrilled.
Then.....just days after resuming his feeds, he started to get sick again. Lo and behold, more blood showed up in his diaper.
He was quickly transferred to a children's hospital and is beginning (as of yesterday) to be treated for NEC once again. We can hardly believe he has come down with this again. Doctors are puzzled as well.
We love our son soooooo much. He is sooo beautiful! We desperately want him to get better so we can take him home. We are exhausted and stressed and sick of living at hospitals. Please pray for our boy, that God would heal him and allow him to come home soon. If you can, please ask your priest to pray for him during liturgies. If you have a prayer chain, tell them, too. We are desperate to see our boy get healthy.
Thanks! We will try to keep you posted on his progress. Here are a few pics of our beautiful boy:
About a week after his birth, while still in hospital, he started to show signs of getting sick. He was not interested in eating at all. Then he decided to throw up some bile and pass blood in his stool. He was quickly x-rayed and diagnosed with something called Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC). Yes, it's as serious as it sounds. Some premature infants die from this disease, though most are much younger and smaller than Benedict. Anyway, he was promptly treated with antibiotics and bowel rest (which means no food by mouth) for 10 days. He responded to treatment quickly and started getting better. We were thrilled.
Then.....just days after resuming his feeds, he started to get sick again. Lo and behold, more blood showed up in his diaper.
He was quickly transferred to a children's hospital and is beginning (as of yesterday) to be treated for NEC once again. We can hardly believe he has come down with this again. Doctors are puzzled as well.We love our son soooooo much. He is sooo beautiful! We desperately want him to get better so we can take him home. We are exhausted and stressed and sick of living at hospitals. Please pray for our boy, that God would heal him and allow him to come home soon. If you can, please ask your priest to pray for him during liturgies. If you have a prayer chain, tell them, too. We are desperate to see our boy get healthy.
Thanks! We will try to keep you posted on his progress. Here are a few pics of our beautiful boy:
