Call to Prayer

As always, we are so grateful for the prayers you continually send up to the Father for Luke, David, and myself. Several weeks ago, before Luke's first surgery, we asked you to pray specifically for a miracle to happen. At that time we knew that Luke had the tissue of two lungs, but only 2/3 of one lung was working. We didn't know if he had the capability of using both lungs. We asked you to pray. You delivered. And God answered. Only a week after we asked you to pray, we got a positive answer to those prayers. Luke's second lung started inflating. He started moving air through that second lung.
Today we're in a similar place. As most of you know, we've been struggling to bring Luke's heart rate down to a normal rhythm. His heart has beat around 200 beats per minute for about 3 weeks now, when it should be around the 140s. The doctors have tried different combinations of the drugs Amioderone and Esmolol since this problem first started. It still hasn't worked. The doctors are telling us that we may be approaching the time in which Luke's heart will start to give out because it has been beating so incredibly fast for so long. It could be tomorrow, it could be next weeks, it could be longer, but we're running out time to get a handle on the problem.
After debating for about two days, Luke's team of doctors have decided upon a three step plan: (1) We max out the doses of Amioderone and Esmolol. Amioderone has been maxed out for quite some time, we're now slowly increasing the dose of Esmolol. By tonight he should be maxed out. Massive doses of the Esmolol has in the past caused Luke's heart to drop beats and have an adverse effect on his blood pressure. We're praying that it won't this time, but if it does, they can back off the dose rather quickly and get him out of trouble. Since we've tried variations of this option for three weeks, we don't have high hopes for this one being very effective in bringing his heart rate down.
(2) If the maxed out combo of Amiode and Esmolol doesn't work, we move to step two. This is a drug called Flecanide (sp?). This drug can only be administered orally and can not be administered on an empty stomach, and so we face quite a substantial obstacle. Luke hasn't been able to digest breast milk for about two weeks. They started up his feeds at 1 mL per hour night before last, but he threw it all up again. Today, they are attempting to feed him 1 mL per hour of Pedialite, which is basically water with vitamins and electrolytes. The goal is not yet to give him nutrition through this method, it's only to put something in his digestive system so that he might absorb the Flecanide. If Luke can keep the pedialite down until tomorrow afternoon, they plan to start the Flecanide. This medication also places Luke at risk for a different kind of arrhythmia, so they will be doing an EKG every day to monitor that. We are praying earnestly that Luke can keep the Pedialite down. If he can't, we can't give him Flecanide, then we must go to plan C.
(3) Plan C is where it is on the totem pole because it's very risky. It is called an oblation study. They would take Luke down to the cath lab and again run a catheter through one of his blood vessels to his heart. They would then use the catheter to poke around his heart at different nodes to try and find the one node that is causing his heart to go into the super-fast rhythm. Once they found it, they would then cauterize it or freeze it and render it inoperable. The idea being that it would no longer be able to throw his heart into the rhythm, and we could manage it better. It was explained to us this procedure is quite risky when performed on adults. When performed on a baby as small as Luke, the risk increases exponentially.
That's it. If one of these options doesn't work, that's it. Game over.
So we're calling you to pray for yet another miracle. We asked you to pray, and Luke was born even though he wasn't supposed to make it to 26 weeks. We asked you to pray, and an ambiguous lump of lung tissue started moving air. We asked you to pray, and Luke survived a risky surgery, even after arresting in the elevator. We asked you to pray and Luke was able to get off the heart lung machine. So we're asking you to call out to God to slow Luke's heart rate down in some way. As his parents, we really don't want to get to the point where the oblation study is our only option. I believe God can and will intervene before that. Please pray, like you've never prayed before, that Luke will go into a healthy, steady, normal heart rate using whatever method God would like to use. That's the key to everything. Once we get that, his kidneys and bowls will heal, and we'll get him of the ventilator, and on the way to bringing him HOME. We're almost out of options guys, and I have to fight to keep myself from going frantic. But we know that God is in control. We know that God is merciful and loving and powerful. He has the power to heal Luke completely. I believe he wants to hear from us and from you that we want him to intervene in Luke's situation again. I believe he will answer.
I am reminded of a passage out of Daniel 3: " Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Dan. 3:15-18)
The God we serve is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or even hope. He can heal Luke and make him whole. But we want the world to know that even if he does not, even if we lose our precious son, God is still worthy of worship and praise and honor. We acknowledge his love and power over all other gods.
We desire to join in faithful prayer with you for Luke's healing. Thank you for your love, friendship, and earnest prayer.
Blessings,
Rachael & David