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I feel really bad that I haven't been keeping up with these. I haven't had time to blog at all lately, but I should have taken the time to get these done the day I get emailed about the updates, given the situation, so I'm sorry to those who read the updates on little Miss Nevaya ... Fortunately, she is a trooper and has a LOT of people praying for her!

DECEMBER 29, 2011 UPDATE:

Katie just got a call from Nevaya's doctor, and they are on their way to the hospital for another surgical procedure. So everyone knows the background on what's happening now, we have to go back almost a month.

Right before Thanksgiving, Nevaya had a fever, so they gave her antibiotics and drew blood for a culture. Something grew in her culture, so Nevaya had to go back in for another blood draw so they could do a 2nd blood culture because they wanted to rule out contamination as a source of the bacteria that was growing. This morning Katie got a call from the doctor to tell her Nevaya's 2nd culture was also growing a bacteria. The bacteria that is growing is in the tuberculosis family, and the doctor is concerned that Nevaya's port may be harboring the bacteria. From her port, bacteria can enter Nevaya's bloodstream and cause a severe infection. They are planning to remove her port either tonight or tomorrow, and the infectious disease doctors will also be consulting with Nevaya's regular doctor while she's in the hospital.

Nevaya knows what's going on and she isn't too worried about it. In fact, she's ready to get her port taken out. She's had a few weeks off and on where her the port causes her alot of pain, so she will be happy to see it go! If she needs treatment in the future that will require port access, they can always go back in and put a new port in, but until then she will probably have to endure needle sticks and IV's at her Clinic and hospital visits.

Katie is asking for prayer that the surgery goes okay, that Nevaya doesn't have any bad reactions to anesthesia, that there is no lingering infection, and that the bacteria will not be allowed to enter Nevaya's bloodstream.

"Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." Jeremiah 17:14

DECEMBER 31, 2011 UPDATE:

I wanted to let everyone know the latest on Nevaya. Everything has gone very well so far, thank you so much for the continuous stream of prayers! She had surgery yesterday morning around 8am to remove her port. The doctors decided to go ahead and do a bone marrow biopsy since she was already going to be under anesthesia. They also placed an IV in her hand while she was under anesthesia to make it a less traumatic. Since waking up from surgery, she is a little sore from the biopsy, but the stitches from her port removal aren't bothering her much. She really hates the IV in her hand, it stings sometimes and she bumps it when she's playing, but it's not too bad.

Nevaya's daddy came to stay with her the night before her surgery and brought her lots of Christmas gifts to open. She spent yesterday and today playing with her new makeup and Easy Bake Oven. Today, Nevaya made TEENY TINY cupcakes with her Easy Bake Oven and passed them out to all the nurses.

The infectious disease team has been in to talk to Katie about what they found in her culture. The bacteria that grew in her culture is very rare, so the doctors are being cautious with her. This is a mycobacteria that is a "cousin" of tuberculosis, but it does not produce the same type of damage that tuberculosis does. What can happen with this type of mycobacteria is it will invade the blood stream and colonize somewhere in the body. Usually it will colonize on the heart valves, essentially creating a sheet of bacteria over the body tissue. Once it colonizes in this way, it is almost impossible to eradicate with any kind of antibiotics. They did an EKG on Nevaya yesterday and her heart function is normal, so they don't believe the bacteria made it past her port and in to Nevaya's blood stream. The next step the doctors will take is to culture the tip of the port they removed yesterday. That will at least tell them if the bacteria made it from the entrance of her port all the way to where the tip of the port enters Nevaya's vein. If that is the case, they will be much more aggressive in their antibiotic treatment. If they don't find the bacteria in the tip of the port, she should be able to go home sometime around Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I'll keep everyone posted as soon as we hear anything from the doctors.

"By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea; Who establishes the mountains by His strength, being girded with might; Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples. They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs; You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy." Psalm 65:5-8

JANUARY 3, 2012 UPDATE:

Great news! Nevaya was released from the hospital last night and slept in her own bed. She was so tired that she slept until 11:30 this morning. Katie said Nevaya was having a hard time settling down at night while they were in the hospital, and would stay up playing and wandering around the halls visiting with the nurses until about 1 am every night. She was so happy to be home. Her puppy Pixie spent all morning trying to wake up Nevaya. Every time Nevaya would move in her sleep, Pixie would run over and roll around on top of the bed trying to wake Nevaya up. Pixie really missed her kid.

The doctors have released Nevaya with a prescription for antibiotics that she has to take for one whole year. Pretty unbelievable. Katie has a really hard time getting Nevaya to take medication, so this is a steep uphill challenge for both of them. The antibiotics are a preventive measure. Even with the doctors doing a culture of the tip of her port, they still cannot be certain whether or not the bacteria made its way into her bloodstream. The one year worth of antibiotics is to prevent any bacteria that MAY have gotten in from colonizing. The doctors explained that IF it is given a chance to colonize, this type of mycobacteria cannot be killed with any amount or type of antibiotic.

Thank you to everyone for praying for Nevaya. She was released much earlier than we expected, so it has been a very happy day. Please pray for wisdom for Katie to help Nevaya cooperate in taking her medicine, and please pray for Nevaya to have a spirit of cooperation. And we're still praying that the Lord would not allow the bacteria to multiply or colonize in her little body.

"God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: 'The Lord knows those who are his...' " 2 Timothy 2:19

Please keep Nevaya, Katie and the whole Kliewer family in your prayers.