We are so happy to report that tonight at 8:30 (a 24 hour test will be done then) Aaron will be discharged and allowed to go home! So many have asked what we found out, so here is the story: (buckle up, as Aaron would say!)
Aaron had been to physical therapy for some adjustments to his back and torso due to misalignment (possible growth spurt?) and his back was tense that night. The next day he wanted to run the time trials for cross country and thought his back would be OK. At the second mile, his back started to spasm. He chose to keep running and the spasms spread into his chest/torso making it very, very hard to breathe. He felt like his chest was paralyzed. At this point he collapsed and an ambulance was called. When he arrived at the emergency room, his attempts and struggle to breathe looked to the ER doctor like a seizure so he gave him medicine to stop a seizure. He would eventually pass out from not breathing and they thought the medicine had worked. When he came to, he looked like he was having another seizure, so they gave him more seizure medicine. Then he would eventually pass out, come to, look like he was seizuring, more medicine, etc. Finally they called a neurologist who felt they needed more advanced help, Mayo was consulted, they ordered a final dose of powerful seizure medicine and sent their pediatric critical care team to pick him up, thinking he may need to be on a ventilator (life support). By this time he was totally unresponsive.
He arrived at Mayo around 11PM Thursday night and was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. Aaron didn't start to wake up until sometime Friday morning after lots of stimulation - his sternum is still very sore from all the rubbing they do to wake you up. When he woke up he was very amnesiac. The tests started then and have run non-stop since we've been here and we have seen around 10 specialties and scores of doctors. They determined fairly quickly that he did NOT have any seizures. He slowly got more awake into Saturday afternoon when they decided he was stable enough to go to a regular hospital room while they continued testing. We were planning to come home the next day.
At midnight, he was found by the nurse to be unresponsive and not breathing. A "code" was called and they worked for an hour to stablize him before transfering him back to ICU. For about 10 hours after that he didn't remember anything, didn't recognize me (Deb) or remember that he had siblings, played the piano, etc. Around 10:30 Sunday morning he "came out of it" and when the ICU doctor came to check on him, he preached a little sermon to her (a bit disjointed but not bad!) While we were alarmed at what had happened, we didn't anticipate anything but progress to recovery at that time. That evening around 4 PM he had another "episode" - found unresponsive and not breathing. When they called the code this time, they decided not to medicate him at all and just watch him and see what happened. When he reached 45 seconds without breathing they would breathe for him and he would gasp, breathe a little and then stop again. He was more awake this time due to no meds and would struggle to reach his head for the oxygen - like a fish out of water. It was awful to watch. The good thing was that afterwards he didn't have much amnesia and came out of it much quicker. They immediately tested his vocal cords wondering if they were in a spasm but they looked good. He stayed in ICU until last night (Tues) while they watched, tested, etc.
Aaron has had more tests, x-rays, MRIs, scans, ultrasounds, echocardiograms, EKGs, blood work, etc. than you can imagine and everything has come back normal! So, they are thinking that the initial episode was triggered by the severe back spasms and the second 2 episodes as well since his back was so extremely stiff - like a board is how he has described it. The spasms triggered the inability to take a breath, he passed out, etc. This is really, really good news - it could have been so many scary things.
Some of you have heard this, but it bears repeating - We were reminded of the blind man in Scripture about whom the disciples asked, "Who sinned? This man or his parents?" Jesus replied that he was blind so that God could be glorified. If that was the reason for our trial, that God can be glorified, we humbly submit to His will with thanksgiving that He spared Aaron and the realization that He has a plan for this that we may or may not fully realize. Through this, one of Aaron's friends from school has come to know Jesus as his Savior. We are excited to see how He can continue to use this in Aaron's life to bring glory to Him.
This is where you attempt to thank people and words fail. We wish there was a way to fully express our gratitude to our family and friends as we have been completely overwhelmed by your prayers and kindness. We have had many, many opportunites to speak of the power of prayer to the staff here as they have been witness to the "peace that passes understanding". It's not that we were never weak or tired or worried, but God always lifted us up.
Aaron is ready to jump back into school, cross country, band, etc. If you wouldn't mind praying just a bit longer, we need wisdom to know how much he should do as he gets back in the swing of things. Sitting on him is going to be hard! :)
To God be the glory, great things He has done!
Dave and Debbie