The events so far (short version)

Tuesday at school, Aaron was too tired to stay more than an hour. The rest of the day, he laid around very tired. At bedtime, he had a fever. Arnold Palmer did a chest X-ray and CT-scan to reveal pneumonia. He had already been started in antibiotics.

Thursday, he was medically flighted back to Cincinnati where his condition worsened dramatically. By Thursday night, he was intubated and we were told "his lungs couldn't get much worse." They went to max settings on the standard ventilator with little success. They changed to a stronger ventilator and that worked.

Friday, cultures were taken from his lungs. Usually, within 24-48 hours, the cultures suggest what type of infection we are dealing with. No such luck for us. Since antibiotics were started Tuesday, it is possible a bacterial infection was already undetectable. Fungus isn't ruled out since it can take up to two weeks (but they would still likely have some evidence at this time). Every virus that can be tested has been tested and is negative. Based on Aaron's presentation and culture results, the doctors believe he has a respiratory virus. There are hundreds to thousands (or more) viruses that we cannot test for. These unnamed viruses also have no treatment. The treatment is letting the IMMUNE SYSTEM fight it over time.

I don't have a choice but to believe Aaron can fight this. I lost all hope Thursday and told Michael to come back from work for Aaron's final days. Aaron has proven me wrong and we will continue to fight for our beautiful family! His vent settings have decreased from 100% oxygen to 50% the past few days. He is on dialysis to help his failing kidneys.

Aaron is sedated but only mildly. He can move his eyes and nod his head "yes" or shake it "no" to communicate. This is helpful. I offered to practice skip counting with him, but he quickly shook his head. He was more interested in cooking shows on the iPad. I will give in to him for awhile, but he won't get out if school for too long. :). My mother went to the bookstore yesterday to get some wonderful entertainment for him. We are looking forward to that. He enjoys reading his books about food and trains.

Your prayers and support, as always, have brought us through another storm. I wish I had the time and energy to thank each of you personally. Please don't stop the prayers! God is good and merciful. When people come together in prayer, He listens. I am proud of my son who has reached out to people across the world to come together to praise God!


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Location:Cincinnati