As the nurses and doctors monitored both of us throughout the next few days, Tom and I settled on his name, Ezekiel John. We decided to call him "Zeke" in tribute to Tom's grandpa and John in honor of my aunt who passed away right before we got pregnant; her husband's name is John.
Ezekiel -- strength of G-d, John -- G-d is compassionate.
My doctor was hesitant to send me home since my temperature was up and down a bit but released us with strict instructions to call if I was having trouble. Zeke left the hospital with a clean bill of health. Unfortunately my virus was passed onto him and his temperature went up again several days later. Zeke's temperature was borderline worrisome and our pediatrician told us our options. We could go to the hospital and it might possibly be meningitis or it might be nothing at all. We decided to take Zeke home and relax. His temperature went back down and he continued to eat and sleep normally.
Shortly before our Sunday night service he started to act a little strange, not eating the way he had the last week. Once the worship started he got very fussy and wouldn't calm down. Tom and I went home with him and took his temperature again. It was extremely low and when we called the nurses they told us to come in. The next 12 hours were unbearable and after reviving him and transporting him from Shawnee Mission Medical Center to Children's Mercy Downtown it was determined that his heart was not working right and the rest of his body wasn't handling the stress well. We said good-bye to our beautiful son on Monday August 24th, my aunt's birthday.
We went home that Monday morning with our lives broken.
The physician from Children's Mercy was helpful and the whole staff worked very hard to try and help Zeke make it. We found out several weeks later that our son had myocarditis, an inflammation of the middle layer of the heart wall. The doctor had never had a patient so young with this issue. Aside from trying a risky procedure to give Zeke's heart a break and hoping the (undiagnosed) virus would leave his heart or doing an (impossible) heart transplant our son would not make it. Even if the doctor had known this at the time his chances of surviving were not good.
While we were in the E.R. I told the L-rd I didn't want a cause to fight for, I wanted my son. Myocarditis is something that can be detected, although it is difficult in younger children, and we do support the research being done. At this time we're simply trying to make it through every day without our boys. Your covering of prayers has helped us make it through this last year and we are grateful for all of your time and support. Our prayer is that you will encounter the Creator in a powerful way as you ask for His peace upon us.
