Home Sweet Home

Fun times in the hospital bed!

A week a go today I was anticipating what Wednesday would hold for us. I felt a little anxious, but good about what we were doing for Evan. No matter how you feel about it, it is still stressful. I have been so tired, even though I feel caught up on sleep, I have aches and pains in my shoulder, neck and arms and I have a cold. I guess stress has a way of releasing when the time is right. It is nothing I can't live through, I just don't really want to deal with "me" right now.

Evan is home! We got home on Friday. Evan stayed an extra night, because he was not quite perking up yet, and needed to be able to take medication, drink and eat well before leaving. He was eating enough, but drinking and taking medication was not fun at all for him. His first night was rough, as to be expected. He at one point pulled out his IV accidentally (when we were getting Pjs on), and it took 2X to get it back in. He also couldn't handle one of the meds on his empty stomach, so he threw up all over his fresh clothes. It was a bit of a disaster, along with being in quite a bit of pain. I ended up sleeping in his hospital bed with him because he would just lay on top of me and not want to move. His favorite position is his tummy so he was most comfortable this way.

We were happy with the care we had at Doernbecher. All of the nurses and Dr's were very knowledgeable and kind, especially when Evan was being a grump. He was pretty scared, and asked to go home several times. I am thankful he is 3 1/2 so I could reason with him a little. Not a whole lot, but a little, when it came to drinking enough to go home on Friday. Once we got home though, he really started perking up. I gave him a bath immediately, so we could wash the hospital off of him and gently brush his teeth.

So here we are, recuperating. He will be on pain meds and antibiotics every 6 hours until Friday. He now has a cold that we all have but at least he didn't get it while he was still in the hospital. We will keep you updated on his progress. He has a post operation appointment next week.

Thanks again to all of you who prayed and continue to pray for our family.

Evan's surgery

I just wanted to send out an update and prayer request about Evan. Tomorrow on 1/14/2009, Evan will be having surgery. He will be at Doernbecher. Check in is at Noon. The surgery is expected to last about 2 hours, with one overnight stay. If excessive bleeding occurs, he may have to stay an additional night. Recovery is expected to be about one week. Here is a glimpse of what they will be doing:

Pharynx plasty: In some cases, despite intensive speech therapy, too much air leaks into the nasal cavity via the soft palate. This leads to difficulty pronouncing the letter K (all pressure sounds in Evan’s case) . In such cases, a mucous membrane flap can be made from the rear wall of the throat and stitched to the back of the soft palate (pharynx plasty). This operation often leads to improved speech. Preferably, this procedure is undertaken when the patient is between 2 and 4 years of age. After this surgery, air often times stops leaking through the nose. Additional surgeries are needed for some children.

For those of you who would like to pray for our family, I have some specific prayer requests:
Pray for quick healing for Evan. The 1st night is expected to be very painful for him.
Pray that this is the only surgery Evan will need to help correct his speech.
Pray for Grace to feel loved and secure during this time and to not worry about Evan.
Pray for Daddy and Mommy to have strength, patience and know how to ask for help if needed.

Where do I begin

Yes, happy New year to us. Some gangster decided to "tag" our fence for the New Year. It may be time to think about planting some tall shrubs on that side of our property.
Grace and her new doll house that her Great Grandpa and Grandma Nancy put together.
Our very snowy backyard. Evan playing with his new car.

Evan and Grace on Christmas day.

David and Dorothy

What a slacker I have been with my blogging. Well, everyone is busy in December, so there is my excuse. Things are great here. We had an eventful December with the crazy winter storms. We also were unable to make it to my parents house, along with my brother and sister in law in Alaska. So change one, change 2, change 3, we stayed home and had Christmas with David's family. Obviously God had other plans for many people, and I am thankful that we stayed put instead of risking our lives. My parents still came the following week and so did my sister and her family, so we saw 1/2 of my family over the holidays still. I am still hoping to get to see my new niece in a few weeks. Living 5 hours away (and a brother in Alaska) in every direction from my family members makes it harder for all of us to get together.

I did enjoy the downtime that we got as a family. David had a few days off, and we enjoyed Daddy being home since he is burning the candle at both ends until June, when he graduates with his MBA. Grace had strep throat, but got over it once we realized it was not a virus and she needed an antibiotic. Evan was spared, thank goodness and so were the rest of us for that matter.

Now we are back to what I call "real life". No more holidays for awhile, and the every day grind is back. Grace is back in preschool. Her Christmas preschool program was rescheduled for tomorrow. We are glad we will still see the kiddos sing their heart out. This week has been hard for me making a lot of decisions for next year (2010) already. We have decided to petition for Grace to get into another school in our district. They offer 1/2 day kindergarten instead of full day where we would go. I had a hard time with this, since full day would be way easier on me with Evan's schedule, but I think for Grace 1/2 days 5 days a week is plenty. It will be a natural transition from 3 days a week of preschool this year. We have decided to hold Evan back a year in school since he has a summer birthday. We would normally send him to preschool next year, but with everything he has going on, we will wait and have him go one year in a Pre-K program. I am hoping to get Grace in afternoon Kindergarten and then that will free up the morning for the majority of Evans appointments.

The biggest thing going on this week, is Evan's surgery. He will he getting his soft palate lengthened on Wednesday. He will be in the hospital for two or three days, depending on how quickly his little body heals. He has been recently growing like a weed and grew one inch and gained a pound in December alone. He also will be undergoing more Botox in February to see if he is a good candidate for it for continued future use. His body didn't respond to it the way we had hoped, but that could have happened for many reasons.....we will see if the 2nd time will be the charm, or if we will just not do future injections.

For those of you who pray and know and love Evan, please pray for quick healing this week, and that the surgery really does for him what we need it to to help correct his speech. Every day we are making great stride and I am feeling less and less defeated. I am thankful for a happy little boy, and only want the best for both of our children. Isn't that what all of us want for our kids?