His name is Blake. He is 17 years old. He is my cousin, the middle son of my cousin and best friend Lisa. And he is in the fight of his life right now.
Blake was recently diagnosed with Lemierre's Syndrome. Never heard of it? Neither had any of us - that is how rare it is. In fact, it's nickname is "the forgotten disease" because it's incidence is about .8 cases per million in the general population. In simple terms, it's a bacterial infection that has landed Blake in the ICU unit at Children's Hospital in Seattle since last Friday where he remains while he battles multiple symptoms associated with the disease.
He has pneumonia. His kidneys and liver were enlarged but are functioning better than they were a week ago. He is on a respirator for a good part of each day (maybe an hour break once a day) because they need to stabilize his breathing in order to continue diagnosis and treatment. He has blood clots for which he is taking Heparin and painful abscesses in his left wrist and (possibly) other places - MRI's are needed to find this out, but can't be done until his breathing is stabilized. He is on antibiotics for the infection but they are working slowly because it is so widespread. He has the strep virus in his blood. He is, in short, a very sick young man.
Lemierre's, as you have surmised, is a nasty infection. The bacteria that causes it (Fusobacterium necrophorum for you "House" fans) exists in all our bodies and is usually "awakened" by some sort of trauma. It typically affects young, healthy adults (unfair!!), develops most often after a sore throat caused by a strep bacteria creates an abscess near the tonsils. The bacteria flourish, penetrate the abscess into the nearby jugular vein in the neck, cause an infected clot (thrombosis) to form, and the bacteria are then off to the races, seeding the body through the bloodstream to metastasize into different organs. Believe it or not, all of this ends up producing initial symptoms that mimic a flu or stomach virus - sore throat, fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, general body weakness. Hence the difficulty sometimes in diagnosing it - thank God the doctors at Children's did it so quickly. It is treatable/cureable with early diagnosis.
That's not to say the path to health will be easy for Blake. We are talking WEEKS of treatment and healing both in the hospital and out of it. He was to start high school as a senior in a few weeks. He skateboards and skis and snowboards and snorkels and plays football. And while we all know that a few years from now this ordeal, this fight will be a distant memory for him - for now it is depressing and sorrowful for him to know that his life as he imagined it would be for the time being is upended. He will be grateful to be alive - but he is 17 and will mourn that which he is missing each day for the rest of the summer and the beginning of the school year. We mourn along with him.
Blake is a fighter, though, and he is surrounded by an amazingly strong contingent of family and friends who love him and fight along with him. Lisa (his mother) and Mark (his father) are exhausted, but determined to see their son back to health along with Bradley and Beau (his brothers). Blake's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and classmates keep him in their prayers and will stick by him on the long road ahead. He will progress daily, he will win, and we will cheer his recovery.
You have all been so generous in your prayers for me but now I need you to save a prayer, save MANY of your prayers for Blake and his family. He is 17, his life is just beginning, he is loved by so many and we need to help him in this fight. Thankfully, I know I can call on all of you to step up to the plate and pray that he heals quickly.
Blessings and Love to All - but mostly to Blake from "Cousin Auntie Donna."
