From the Hill

In Portland the major hospitals sit on this huge hill.  Tonight I write from The Hill, specifically in a room in Shriner's Hospital.  I'm watching my little man watch his beloved Duggars as he begins to doze a little bit, but fights the urge to sleep, because seriously, what 7 year old boy ever wants to sleep, even after surgery. 

(I apologize ahead of time to my grammar-loving friends for that sentence.  Although I guess since the apology came after the sentence, it's not "ahead of time".  I'm a little tired.)

Today wasn't as stressful for us as some surgical days have been in the past.  We had a later check in, so we didn't have to get up at "o dark thirty".  I just realized that I've never written that and I don't know how to write that phrase.  Ok.  So we had a relatively easy morning, a long wait in pre-op, and we prepared for a potentially long surgery.  

An odd thing happened.  I was mentally prepared for a 3+ hour wait for the surgeon to come tell us all was well.  After barely an hour the nurse came to tell us the surgeon was closing Isaiah up.  Now keep in mind that I'm the positive thinking one in our family.  I panicked.  I thought that surely the surgeon had looked in Isaiah's back, realized he couldn't repair the connectors that he had been hoping to prepare.  I "knew" that he would come out disappointed and start talking about the necessity of having to fuse Isaiah's spine a lot earlier than we hoped.

I'm really not familiar with this feeling.  I didn't like it.  I'm thankful that it didn't last long.  The surgeon came out looking quite pleased and showed us on his phone pictures of the x-rays showing his beautiful work.

Why am I even writing this story?  Well, maybe because I never cease to be amazed at the depths of my own heart.  I need to remember these types of moments when I think that I can handle things on my own.  I need to remember that even had the surgeon been disappointed, God wasn't.  I need to remember that no matter what my emotional response to things, I can turn to my great God Who loves me and does all things well.

And I am tired, so I don't know if this will even make any sense to anyone else, but I wanted to record it somewhere to help me remember in the future.  If it helps someone else, too, all the better.

Big Day

Well, friends, Lord willing this will be my last post from the hospital!  That's right, we are scheduled to go home today; which, naturally means we have no idea when that might happen, but it will happen today!

We were thrilled with Isaiah's quick turn around once he was allowed to turn around!  After being off his belly and on his side or back and then sitting up, we noticed our fun-loving little man was back!

Thank you for your prayers.  Please do continue to pray for us as he continues his at-home recovery over the next 2 weeks.  I'll keep you posted, if the kids don't wear me out. :)

Sunday Morning

Lots of good news to report this morning!

Isaiah went all night on room oxygen, so we can get rid of that nose cannula!

About 8pm last night we finally got to move Isaiah to his side.  His mood has already improved (see post below).

The rounding neurosurgeon came in this morning and gave the ok for Isaiah's foley catheter to be removed so that I can begin our regular cathing again.  Another tube can be removed!  Now he will be much easier to move.  The doctor also said he would write the order for Isaiah to be able to sit up later today.  Having the order written ahead of time will be grand; we had to wait a long time last night to finally get him moved to his side.

Here's how you can pray today:

~Isaiah meets all the criteria to move to the 5th floor.  This floor is a step up from PICU, so we would love to be considered ready to move on up to the regular post-op floor.

~Continued improvement in Isaiah's mood, appetite and drinking.  We would love to get rid of the IV fluids, but Isaiah has to eat and drink more to be able to do that.

But don't forget all the praises above!  Please thank God with us for these improvements!

Thanks, friends!

Saturday Morning

Thomas stayed with Isaiah last night, so I returned to the hospital this morning to find my boy resting very soundly, which is an answer to prayer!  The previous two nights he seemed to struggle to get to sleep without medication, and eventually I had to ask the nurse for morphine to help him doze off.

Last night, however, he had a dose of morphine about 8pm, and he hasn't required any more since then!  He has continued his regular tylenol throughout the night.  We would love to see him be able to be comfortable with just the tylenol as the morphine seems to "dope him up".

Yesterday the neurosurgeon told us that Isaiah will be able to lay on his side this evening when we hit the 72 hour mark post-op.  We are hoping that the change of position will lift our little man's spirits a bit.

So here are some praises!

~Isaiah has started to eat a little bit more.  Thomas got him to eat some jell-o.  Until yesterday he hasn't been interested in eating or drinking anything.

~Only tylenol through the night.

~Some special visitors gave us a glimpse of "our" Isaiah; thank you friends!

~Getting to turn to his side this evening.

~Much needed sleep for Mama.  I feel refreshed and better able to take care of Isaiah today.  Thank you, Thomas!

Please continue to pray:

~Pain control.  With the move this evening to his side, we don't want his pain to increase or get ahead of us.

~Increased appetite.

~Happy spirits.  Anyone who knows Isaiah, knows that he is one of the happiest little people you will ever meet.  One of the hardest things about this whole process has been seeing him so different from his normal self.

Thank you all again for your prayers and love for our little man!  I'll try to post pictures tonight of him in his new position!

You Can See It For A Quarter

One of the surgeons who worked on Isaiah came by doing rounds about 5:30am.  Was he up early, or what?!

He removed Isaiah's bandage, so I was able to see his scar for the first time.  It looks pretty good.  I bet if you give Isaiah a quarter, he might even let you take a peek.  ;)

Seriously though, he did fairly well last night even with the regular vitals checks and the flashlight in his eyes from time to time.  He did have pain, of course, but he was able to go longer than the 4 hour minimum this morning before getting more pain medicine.  The two things that helped him?  Listening to Daddy and watching a Duggar.

His throat is still quite irritated, and he's having trouble coughing, probably a combo of the pain in his back and his throat, so the doctor mentioned ordering a breathing treatment for him to ease this situation.  The doctor also said that in the next day or two we should have our boy back, though he will still have to be on his tummy.

I'll be happy when I hear his normal voice again and see him playing in his bed!

Here's some specific things for prayer:

~Isaiah needs to be able to get to as normal a diet as possible, so please pray that he will be able to at least start drinking this morning.  I'm going to see if I can get some popsicles or something fun like that to tempt him.

~Keep praying for pain control.

~Please pray that his throat will feel better so that he can cough normally and there won't be any build up of "gunk" (nice technical term, huh?) anywhere.

~I'm always amazed at the way that Isaiah stays so sweet in these situations.  He always thanks the nurses and doctors for whatever it is they're doing, no matter how unpleasant it might be for him.  Please pray that we'll follow Isaiah's lead and be a good testimony to the people we meet during this experience.

~I'm praying boldly that God will bring feeling to Isaiah that he's never had before.  This could take months after the surgery to manifest itself, but I know that God can do it.  Please pray with me that Isaiah will have an increase in sensation and function in his legs.

Thanks, friends.

Oh, and I haven't posted pictures yet because Isaiah isn't looking his best.  Try lying on your face in a donut pillow for 4 hours and see what happens!  His face is still a little puffy, but it's getting much better already.  When he's a little more himself, I'll let you see the amazing trooper God has given us!

Update on Isaiah

Isaiah was in the surgical process for about 4 hours.  It took them a while to get everything "precisely right" once they took him to the OR, according to the nurse.  The neurosurgeon said that the removal of the scar tissue didn't take very long because the original surgery to close his myelomeningocele had been done so well.  The spinal cord fell back into place nicely once the scar tissue was removed.  I think the longest part of the actual surgery was closing.

So now Isaiah and I are hanging out in his hospital room.  Well, actually he's over there in his bed sacked out, snoring away.  Thankfully sleeping on his tummy is nothing new!

I'm about to lay down before the next interruption vitals check.

Here's what to pray about:

~Isaiah is in pain.  He said so himself, which is a big deal.  Please pray for the pain to subside quickly.

~Isaiah's throat is sore from the intubation, which makes it difficult for him to take his medications by mouth.  However, everything is ordered by mouth, and I had to get a little pushy with a nurse to at least get his seizure meds to be given by IV.  Please pray that his throat will feel better tomorrow.

~He is currently on a nose cannula for oxygen.  The theory is that his pain is causing him to kind of hold his breath, and whenever we have to try to give him meds or check his eyes, he gets agitated and his sats drop a little bit.  This is a very common thing after such a surgery as Isaiah has had, but the fewer tubes the better, in my opinion!  Please pray for easier breathing during the night and tomorrow morning.

~As he starts to feel better, please pray that he will stay on his tummy patiently.  The point of this position is allow fluid to build up between the spinal cord and the rest of his back in order to help prevent the cord from tethering again to scar tissue.  If he lays on his back or even sits upright, the cord could quickly attach itself to scar tissue again and this surgery would have been for nothing; and nobody wants that!

Thank you again for your prayers, and please keep them coming!