Sunday, October 26, 2008

Ever heard of gingival hyperplasia? Its awful

Hudson has made tremendous progress since his surgery three months ago. He has come alive in so many ways, but the last few weeks have been very miserable for him with a horrible disease in his gums. For most of his life we were unable to brush his teeth because his gag reflex was so strong that he would throw up every time we tried. So poor dental care combined with intense antibiotics (from his transplant) and inflamed gums (from finishing some teething) led to super-inflamed gum tissues and gingival hyperplasia. His gums swelled so much and so quickly that they began to cover some of his teeth completely and made it dificult to swallow as the lining all the way down into his esophogas became inflamed. It never obstructed his airways at all, but he has been in incredible pain virtually all day (and many nights) everyday for weeks now. At best, he plays on the ground for a few hours in the morning but most of the time he just sits and is miserable, crying unless one of us is holding him. It's been awful.

What's been worse is that we have to hold him down three times a day to brush his swollen gums and he just screams his brains out the whole time. They would bleed and he would choke and gag and its been awful. This was completely unexpected and has essentially stopped any progress he had been making in regards to walking and being more mobile. He doesn't eat anything anymore and we only feed him through the g-tube.

I'm sorry to not have written earlier - I have just been out of the habit of writing when things are so tough because life had been going great for awhile. And to be honest, after 2.5 years, I'm over writing about all of our problems. But this is significant and we do need prayer for our boy once again. It seems that his gums have receeded quite a bit in the last few days but he still needs to be held almost all of the time and feels awfully all day. Please pray for energy and healing for Hudson and patience for us as we feel pretty much drained out.

Thanks,
Donny

3 comments:

The Abazis said...

Oh, D. I didn't realize it was so bad! I will definitely be praying for you all.

Erika said...

Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear about this! Poor little Hudson, he's had such a rough go his whole life, hasn't he?

Take heart, though, that God's glory shines out through your whole family. Hudson's love and you and Kristi's inspiring care for your whole family is powerful and meaningful and it shines out like a light.

We'll be praying for your whole family. I hope Hudson's body is restored 100% soon and that this will all be behind you soon.

Anonymous said...

We saw this, I believe the first day it was posted, but have troubles with the site shutting down for some reason:-( Just want you to know we are praying and want to again encourage you by telling you that your family is such a "witness" for our Lord. Our hearts break for Hudson. How is he now? Any change?