Sunday, August 30, 2009

Please Pray for Hos

So, I know my blog is extremely behind and hopefully I will get time to update you all soon as we have had some good times. But right now things are a little crazy! Hos came down with what I thought was a stomach flu just as we were leaving Utah to come back home to Japan. I figured it would just take a couple days to recover but unfortunately a couple days home it got worse. After not eating much, and what he did eat came back up, we took him to his pediatrician. We had noticed some little red spots all over his feet and ankles, but I thought they were freaky japanese bug bites. Zack was wise enough to mention it to the Dr. and it was the clue that put the puzzle together. He was diagnosed with Henoch-Scholein Purpura or HSP. They don't really know that much about the illness like what causes it or why some people get it. They do know it is an inflammation of the small blood vessels in the body which leads to bleeding, hence the red dots. Really all they can do is try to treat they symptoms and keep the patient comfortable. The first couple days we did IV fluids and Hos seemed to get a lot better. But then the beginning of last week things got bad again. Aparently the sickness is cyclical and usually occurs in phases so here was the second phase. This time around was a lot worse, so the Dr. decided to admit Hos to the Children's Hospital this last Friday.

Here is Hos on Saturday night after the fluids had kicked in and the medication was working. He is in a funky large crib-like bed, which is a necessity for children who have always slept on the floor on a futon! Ha! Ha! Ha! Luckily, the rails do drop down : )


This photo didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to, but the darker parts on Hos' ear are the "spots" I was talking about. His ears by far look the worst that we can see on his body.


This is a photo of the "spots" on his knees and feet. Usually they get a lot larger, so he is lucky that way. Unfortunately, I think his abdominal cavity is taking the brunt of it.


But he is feeling a lot better and he is finely eating and keeping things down. There are some complications that they are keeping their eye on and we are hoping that he does not have any other more occurances. If you can, please keep him in your prayers! I will keep you updated as often as I can! Love you all!