I apologize that we haven't been able to update our blog this week. We were able to get online in the hospital, but weren't able to access sites like our blog or facebook. So thanks to those of you that were faithfully praying and hearing no news from us.
As you can tell by the title of this post, we are indeed back home from the hospital. Sam's surgery took place on Monday morning and lasted about four hours. The surgeon said all went as expected, and it looked good. All day and night on Monday, Sam was pretty out of it. He just laid in his crib and slept. He was in obvious pain, so that was hard to watch as a parent. But the doctors and nurses took great care of him.
Yesterday he was finally able to drink and eat, which was nice. He didn't have much of an appetite, but was happy to be able to drink apple juice again. And by yesterday afternoon, he was sitting up in bed, laughing, smiling, and playing with us. We both got a much better night's sleep in the hospital last night.
His catheter was removed this morning, and once he kept his breakfast down and had two wet diapers, we were able to check out! We got home at lunch, and Sam was able to take his afternoon nap in his own crib. (Ben and I napped on the couches at the same time!)
We still haven't scheduled the follow-up surgery to have his stent removed, but that should happen in early October. Right now Sam is having a little trouble bending over to pick things up from the ground. I'm sure that's a combination of the stent and the incision hurting. But he seems pretty back to normal in every other way. Praise God for His faithfulness in caring for our son during this major surgery!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Brief pre-surgery update
I am writing this from our hotel room in Jacksonville. We are praising God that Sam has been feeling better, and it looks like surgery will happen tomorrow. On Thursday, we finally discovered that his fevers and illness were not from his vaccinations, but from a bad UTI he had! So, we got him started on antibiotics, and that has made a world of difference.
The surgeon said that as long as his fevers went down and stayed down through the weekend the surgery should be able to proceed as planned. Praise God for making that happen! There is still a chance that once they open him up tomorrow they will see too much irritation and inflammation and have to close him up and postpone the surgery anyway. But we are praying that that won't happen, of course.
Tomorrow morning, we'll check in at the hospital at 6:15, and his surgery is scheduled to start at 7:30. It should last for four hours, and he'll have two amazing surgeons working on him. If we can get internet at the hospital, we will do our best to update the blog when we get updates from the nurses. If not, Ben hopes to update tomorrow night when he gets back to the home where he's staying in Jacksonville. We look forward to sharing the good news with you.
For those who read this on Sunday, we'd appreciate your prayers for all three of us to sleep well tonight. It's always harder to sleep in a strange place, and I know my mind will be racing and imagining what may or may not happen tomorrow. Ben and I said at dinner tonight that we are glad Sam doesn't know what's happening tomorrow, so he'll still get a good night's sleep!
We are continuing to trust in God's perfect timing for this surgery, and for Him to heal our precious Sam. We know that even as he is in the surgeons' hands tomorrow, he is ultimately in his Heavenly Father's hands, and that is the best possible place for him to be. We know the Great Physician, and He is worthy of our trust and praise. Thank you all for upholding us in prayer during the days ahead.
The surgeon said that as long as his fevers went down and stayed down through the weekend the surgery should be able to proceed as planned. Praise God for making that happen! There is still a chance that once they open him up tomorrow they will see too much irritation and inflammation and have to close him up and postpone the surgery anyway. But we are praying that that won't happen, of course.
Tomorrow morning, we'll check in at the hospital at 6:15, and his surgery is scheduled to start at 7:30. It should last for four hours, and he'll have two amazing surgeons working on him. If we can get internet at the hospital, we will do our best to update the blog when we get updates from the nurses. If not, Ben hopes to update tomorrow night when he gets back to the home where he's staying in Jacksonville. We look forward to sharing the good news with you.
For those who read this on Sunday, we'd appreciate your prayers for all three of us to sleep well tonight. It's always harder to sleep in a strange place, and I know my mind will be racing and imagining what may or may not happen tomorrow. Ben and I said at dinner tonight that we are glad Sam doesn't know what's happening tomorrow, so he'll still get a good night's sleep!
We are continuing to trust in God's perfect timing for this surgery, and for Him to heal our precious Sam. We know that even as he is in the surgeons' hands tomorrow, he is ultimately in his Heavenly Father's hands, and that is the best possible place for him to be. We know the Great Physician, and He is worthy of our trust and praise. Thank you all for upholding us in prayer during the days ahead.
Monday, September 8, 2008
If I keep waiting for pictures, I'll never post...
***Update*** It's now Wednesday the 10th. Just wanted to give you all another brief update. At the pediatrician's visit I mentioned below, Sam got two immunization shots. He didn't get any in Russia, so he is behind, and we are working to catch up. Well, it appears that he is having a reaction to them. On Tuesday morning during music class, all of a sudden he got really still and quiet (after having fun and playing just moments before). I started comforting him, and noticed he had goosebumps. And then he started totally shaking. Scary. So I got up and left class (Shannon and Asher came with me). We went straight to the doctor. He had a 103 fever and threw up in the office. Wow. Since then, he's continued to have a high fever, which we're trying to control with medicine. In between the spikes he seems to feel pretty good and is smiling and laughing. But when the fever returns, he just wants to rest on my shoulder. Thankfully he hasn't thrown up again today (after 4 times yesterday), but his fever was 104 at noon today. If it's still high tomorrow, we'll go back to the doctor. Our biggest concern (other than Sam getting well!) is surgery. It's possible we'll have to postpone it if the fever doesn't get better very quickly. We'd appreciate your prayers for God to heal Sam from this fever now, and that we'd still be able to proceed with surgery as planned on Monday.
**Original post*** OK, so the last time I posted was over a month ago. And I promised to try to post more often in that post. Hmmm. Guess that didn't really happen. I realized that the main problem is that I always want to include pictures. But they are on the camera. And the idea of downloading pictures, organizing them in the correct files on the computer, and then adding them to a post just seems overwhelming most days. So I don't post at all. Tonight I finally realized that an update with no pictures would be better than nothing at all!
Sam has been asleep for a couple hours now, and Ben and I have been working frantically to catch up on the things we can't do when he's awake--anything related to paperwork, email, or the computer in general. He wants to be a part of whatever we're doing, so I just have to leave the office door closed all day. I guess our nights of relaxing and watching a movie are going to have to wait a few more years. But it's worth it for sure.
Sam turned 15 months old on Saturday. It's hard to believe. We just went to the pediatrician today and she is really encouraged about his growth and his progress in general. He is eating pretty well and is growing and staying consistent with his growth chart, so that's great news. He doesn't really like to eat any veggies, but that's not stopping his growth so far, so I'm glad about that.
I'm trying to remember what else has happened in the last month...it's kind of a blur! Classes have started again at UF, so we are still getting used to our new schedule as a family. Ben is doing a fantastic job at scheduling a block of time each day to be home with Sam. I know it's hard when he takes the bus back and forth to campus, but I'm sure it's worth it when he sees his little boy run to the door with a huge smile on his face to welcome him home.
I only spend one morning on campus each week, which is a big change for me. I take Sam to a music class on Tuesday mornings, and he really loves it. "Music" was one of the first signs he learned, and he asks for music to be playing in the house most of the day. The class is a little longer than his attention span, but he does enjoy the dancing, rhythm sticks, and other things we do. I'm sure the older he gets, the more he'll get into it. We go to class with my friend Shannon and her son Asher, so that's a fun part of class time as well.
Sam is continuing to add more signs to his vocabulary. He just added "please" this week, so now we are finally able to work on his manners! He also "barks" like a dog whenever he sees a dog in a book, in person, or hears one outside. It's pretty comical, actually. Lately, when I'm in the store with him, he'll start barking and I have to look all around to find the small picture of a dog that he spotted from across the store. It makes me smile, and I always wonder what the other shoppers are thinking!
Mostly, we are just head-over-heels in love with our son and grateful to God for bringing him into our family. Next Monday is his big surgery in Jacksonville. We'll be there for a few days as he recovers. I'm hoping to have Ben post on the blog (he's staying with some friends in Jax) to let you all know how it goes. Thanks for your prayers.
Here's hoping my next post (with or without pictures--but hopefully with) will be in less than a month!
**Original post*** OK, so the last time I posted was over a month ago. And I promised to try to post more often in that post. Hmmm. Guess that didn't really happen. I realized that the main problem is that I always want to include pictures. But they are on the camera. And the idea of downloading pictures, organizing them in the correct files on the computer, and then adding them to a post just seems overwhelming most days. So I don't post at all. Tonight I finally realized that an update with no pictures would be better than nothing at all!
Sam has been asleep for a couple hours now, and Ben and I have been working frantically to catch up on the things we can't do when he's awake--anything related to paperwork, email, or the computer in general. He wants to be a part of whatever we're doing, so I just have to leave the office door closed all day. I guess our nights of relaxing and watching a movie are going to have to wait a few more years. But it's worth it for sure.
Sam turned 15 months old on Saturday. It's hard to believe. We just went to the pediatrician today and she is really encouraged about his growth and his progress in general. He is eating pretty well and is growing and staying consistent with his growth chart, so that's great news. He doesn't really like to eat any veggies, but that's not stopping his growth so far, so I'm glad about that.
I'm trying to remember what else has happened in the last month...it's kind of a blur! Classes have started again at UF, so we are still getting used to our new schedule as a family. Ben is doing a fantastic job at scheduling a block of time each day to be home with Sam. I know it's hard when he takes the bus back and forth to campus, but I'm sure it's worth it when he sees his little boy run to the door with a huge smile on his face to welcome him home.
I only spend one morning on campus each week, which is a big change for me. I take Sam to a music class on Tuesday mornings, and he really loves it. "Music" was one of the first signs he learned, and he asks for music to be playing in the house most of the day. The class is a little longer than his attention span, but he does enjoy the dancing, rhythm sticks, and other things we do. I'm sure the older he gets, the more he'll get into it. We go to class with my friend Shannon and her son Asher, so that's a fun part of class time as well.
Sam is continuing to add more signs to his vocabulary. He just added "please" this week, so now we are finally able to work on his manners! He also "barks" like a dog whenever he sees a dog in a book, in person, or hears one outside. It's pretty comical, actually. Lately, when I'm in the store with him, he'll start barking and I have to look all around to find the small picture of a dog that he spotted from across the store. It makes me smile, and I always wonder what the other shoppers are thinking!
Mostly, we are just head-over-heels in love with our son and grateful to God for bringing him into our family. Next Monday is his big surgery in Jacksonville. We'll be there for a few days as he recovers. I'm hoping to have Ben post on the blog (he's staying with some friends in Jax) to let you all know how it goes. Thanks for your prayers.
Here's hoping my next post (with or without pictures--but hopefully with) will be in less than a month!
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