Isaiah 7.17 : Updates, etc.

Pretty good day all things considered.  We ate some of our first solids, and he's been steadily drinking milk from a hair dye bottle.  He won't do pediasure in the bottles yet so we've still kept the feeding tube in yet to do meds and supplemental feedings of pediasure.   Its getting better but we need him to east more on his own through his mouth. The feeding tube is not something we were prepared for dealing with, but its making the pain meds way easier to do right now since he usually gags and throws up from the sweetness of the children's motrin/tylenols.  That should hopefully make the trip home a little easier tomorrow. He likes to hold the front bar when sleeping He has been sleeping a ton as I'm sure his body is jsut beat down trying to recover, but really doesn't seem to be in much pain at all and his swelling almost seems negligible compared to the Cranial Vault Reconstructions (CVR).  He is having difficulty somewhat getting comfy laying in be...

We got discharged from the hospital a little after 5 pm yesterday. He's doing pretty good. I'll try to get a longer update in when I have a chance but it's a bunch more work on our own!  We're re still tube feeding but we started some soft solids today. Some syrup soaked Belgian waffle some tiny cut up grapes. This is probably going to be the biggest hurdle early on here. He's not acting like he's in much pain and he's getting more used to the halo. He's been a bit more talkative but still mostly one or two answers. Here's a little video of him this morning. Enjoy!

Look at that cherubic face! The rest of yesterday went pretty well.  We moved out of the PICU in early afternoon and have been on the regular floor since then.  He's been up and walking more and healing pretty well.  Pain has been managed well too he just wants the RED off his head already.  All in all he's recovering very well and we'll probably be discharged today. We still have some challenges though.  Feeding is still an issue.  He still has the ng tube in and oral feeding is not going the greatest.  He can do juice and water somewhat but needs to be reclined not to drool.  The feeding tube freaks Rachel out a bit, but we need to keep it in until he can take enough by mouth regularly and not throw up. The other issue we have is that his stools are so loose every time he passes gas he has an accident.  We've gotten better this morning about going to the bathroom, but we've had 4 such accidents the last day and it doesn't bode well ...

Another night in the PICU, hopefully moving to the floor later this morning if all goes well.  He's got a feeding tube in his nose that they've been doing med and feedings through since the IV failed yesterday afternoon.  His hand is still a bit swollen, but not nearly as bad as before.  We've gotten up to use the bathroom a couple times since they removed the foley.  As Olaf says 'All good things, all good things'.  Rachel stayed the night again as I've been close to losing it emotionally the last day or so.  I felt like there was too much movement in his midface when he was scrunching his nose with the nasal trumpets in.  He would scrunch and his whole midface would move like 3/4 of an inch and make this crunching / clicking noise.  I first thought it was the sound of his bones hitting, but realized later it was the dental splint.  It just gave me the shivers and I'd start flapping.  I just don't do well with blood and all this stuff...

Little man is in a ton of pain right now so prayers are still very much  appreciated.   As he's more and more aware of everything around him and on him and his cries of pain and frustration are getting louder and more frequent. It kills me to see him like this and I wish I could take it away. He grunted in anger at Dr Fearon when he saw him before lunch when he showed us how to turn the screws on the RED. Apparently he's done really well since he didn't need a transfusion and around me 75% of kiddos getting this surgery need one. He's already gotten up and walked about a quarter of the PICU and we've started feeds through a feeding tube. Right after they took his arterial line out his other iv started failing and his left arm and hand swelled up and turned purple. They had to remove the iv and his hand is back to its normal color but we're still waiting for the fluid in his arms to dissipate but it's definitely getting better slowly. Everything went so...

Last night I went back to the hotel with Aunt Rebecca and Elena while Rachel stayed in the PICU with Isaiah. We're trying to rotate so one of us gets a good nights sleep at least.  He was awake more overnight.  Apparently Rachel said there was one time he woke up long enough to say 'My head hurts' and went promptly back to sleep.  Mostly he was up briefly to moan or whimper since I can't even imagine the pain he's probably in.  There was a steady stream of Minion movies, Wall-E, and other disney flicks on the tv all night long. The orange things in his nose are the nasal trumpet  He also apparently coughed out a pretty big blood clot about the size of a golf ball that required a good amount of clean up.  Not fun sounding, but its good he was able to cough it out since its not something they probably could have suctioned out.  After that his airways were more open and his blood oxygen levels stayed much higher.  He's been on some good pain ...

We're in the PICU with him now.  He's not waking up much and we need to make sure he does more soon.  He's got nasal trumpets, a feeding tube, suction tubes in his mouth and all sorts of other goodness going on right now in addition to the RED device  (the big purple thing on his face) I'm going to try to put all the pics behind the jump, so skip over if you're a little squeamish. If you want to see pics click 'read more'

We'll be updating this post as the day goes on so check back every hr or so.  We're at Medical City Hospital in Dallas, TX. Main Craniofacial / Plastic Surgeon: Dr. Jeffrey Fearon ENT:  Dr. Brian Peters Our last look at this guys little face like this :( 6:00 - at the hospital waiting to be taken to surgery prep 7:00 - most of the doctors have been by to visit quick.  Isaiah got his 'goofy juice' to help him relax and with the separation.  We've got some funny video of him trying to play angry birds go while 'under the influence'  7:40 - They took him back to the surgery room 8:00 - Dr Peters came out to say his ear tube removal went great - He only had  the typical 10% holes in his ear drums.  We'll follow up with ENT in Atlanta and if we need new tubes they'll do it here when he gets the RED taken off.  Basically this was a piggyback procedure since he was already going to be under and its such a quick surgery.  ...

Hanging out by the fountain in the lobby The trip out here was pretty uneventful.  Elena's not as good of traveler yet as Isaiah and Christopher were at this age, but we'll get her there! Isaiah and Dr. Chan Anyways today was the marathon of pre-operative appointments.  We got to eat our Texas shaped waffles for breakfast this morning and had to be at the hospital by 8:45.  Isaiah got to be a supermodel and get his pictures taken by Mr. Max.  I wasn't in there to see if he did the Blue Steel Zoolander look, but it is his go to.  Then we got to see the new Anthropologist Dr. Chan who took all sorts of measurements of Isaiah's face and skull.  He was pretty happy yet in there since there were Minion stickers everywhere. After that it started going a bit downhill.  By this point he was already getting tired of being traipsed around and wanted to go back to the hotel, but we had to do blood draws/labs for the surgery.  He's a notoriously h...

Short update. We're making our way down the road. After a late start on the road yesterday we made it to our hotel in Vicksburg about 9:30 central time. We're just about all packed up again and should be in Dallas by dinner time. A couple people have asked where to send cards. Well try to figure out tonight if the hospital or hotel is better. Update: 3/24 - I forgot to check on this, and at this point it may be best to save anything being mailed and send them to our house.  2326 Milstead Circle NE - Marietta, GA 30066  We should hopefully be home Friday March 31st. Otherwise Isaiah will be at Medical City Hospital in Dallas until at least Tuesday. 7777 Forest Lane Dallas, TX 75230

We're getting down to it now.  A week from today Isaiah will probably be coming out of surgery right around lunch time.  I still don't know that we're ready mentally and he's still kind of clueless about it all despite all our prepping.  He knows he's going to see Dr. Fearon, and he's going to the hospital for surgery and he's seen pictures of the RED, but I'm not sure its all sinking in.  Work has been a mad dash for both Rachel and me the last couple weeks.  While both of us can work from the road somewhat, I don't know how much we'll actually get done, so we've both been trying to get as much tied up and taken care of as we can before leaving and its been taking a toll especially since we both work for very small operations.  Hopefully this weekend we can wrap up what we need to do personally to be ready for the trip and coast on our of here on Tuesday to start the drive to Dallas. Helpwise right now the biggest thing we always need...