~ Update on Jake ~

Thank you all so much for praying for Jake!!!! God is healing him more day by day. The Valium Jake was taking didn't seem to be helping at all. If anything, it was making things much worse. Jake was miserable and in an incredible amount of pain with his neck and the Valium made him completely loopy and unable to sleep for more than just a couple of hours at a time. We had a few very bad days at our house.

By Wednesday, I realized that the swelling on the left side of his neck was getting much worse. At some point it finally occurred to me that the swelling was on the same side as his ear infection and I gradually started to put two and two together. The doctor put him on antibiotics Wednesday for the ear infection and Thursday he seemed a bit better pain wise, but was still unable to move his head to the right. We went back to the doctor on Thursday for more bloodwork and x-rays on his neck to check for an absess. The x-rays were clear and his white blood cell count had gone down a bit which meant that the infection was getting a little better. This was all very good news! The doctor determined that what started out as an ear infection had moved into the lymph nodes which was causing the extreme swelling. She gave him an antibiotic shot to help speed healing of the infection and we were sent home to wait. If the swelling and fever hadn't gone down by the next morning, we were going to do a CAT scan to figure out what the swelling was all about. Friday morning he was still miserable but the swelling seemed to have subsided a bit. We went back to the doctor and she was very happy to report that the lymph nodes were definitely shrinking! She could feel a dramatic difference despite the fact that I couldn't tell it by looking at him. No CAT scan was needed! Praise God!!

Jake hasn't had fever since Thursday and his neck is getting better and better! He has much more mobility now and is in much better spirits. He was laughing and playing today for the first time in a long time. It's wonderful to hear his sweet laugh again!

I can't tell you how worried I've been about him this week. It's a horrible thing to watch your baby in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it. Thankfully all of our prayers worked and God is healing him! Thanks so much to each of you who prayed for Jake and sent words of encouragement. Please continue to pray for him as he continues to heal!! God bless you for being prayer warriors for us!!