Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Outdoor fun

I can drive, and I'm not even 16 yet!

Backing up.


Hiding in the tree. Next time I'd better wear camo.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Regular room


Hey look at me, I'm in a room on the regular Peds floor on Monday!!!
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Sitting up on Sunday


Hey look at me, I can finally sit up again after three days of laying flat!!!!
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Pediatric ICU

Ethan loved his nurses, but hated all the tubes and things attached to him. We had to keep his arms in those braces so that he wouldn't pull everything out. I was very impressed with University Hospitals Pediatric ICU. We had some wonderful nurses. Ethan would often call out for me and want me to hold his hand and be comforted. After not much sleep on Thursday night, our wonderful nurse on Friday night sat with Ethan holding his hand so that I could sleep. Many times he would want the nurses to sit with him, one would often bring hr charts in and work on them with one hand while she held Ethan's hand with the other.
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Surgery Update

Wednesday the 16th Ethan was scheduled for his surgery at noon, the night before it was pushed back to 1:45, once we got to the hospital and checked in, it was pushed back to 4:00pm, at that point, it was postponed until the next day. That made for a very long day of no eating for Ethan, but he did wonderfully. Thursday morning we got to the hospital bright and early for a 7:00am surgery. Wednesday evening, we were a little frustrated at the delay, but we know that it was all God's plan to have the surgeon to be fresh for Ethan's surgery. It took a full 6 hours. His cord had not only attached to the skin, but it was also starting to curl back upwards. The doctor said that it was the worse surgery that he'd ever seen. His original surgery for the spina bifida was when he was 8 months old in China, and it had not been reconstructed very well. Here in the states, the doctors will reconstruct the muscles and things over the vertebrae, that had not been done for Ethan. His cord was also tethered tighter than the doctor had anticipated, he had definitely been in quite a bit of pain. When he freed it from the skin, it pulled back 3 cm back toward the spinal column, and it was still tethered to other things. There was so much scar tissue that he had to scrape it off of his spinal cord. It also took a little longer for the doctor to reconstruct things and get it closed cleanly. Even with the swelling, it already looks so much better. Ethan was kept under some sedation in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in order to help keep him laying flat for three days in order for the membrane that they used to cover the spinal column and keep it from leaking fluid to heal well. That was not fun for Ethan, mom and dad, or the nurses. Friday they tried to start weaning him off the sedation and they did it too quickly. He was thrashing around and trying to pull out all of the cords and tubes. After bringing him back to the highest level of sedation that they had him on and even adding something different on top of it, they finally got him calmed down. The next time they started weaning him off, we made sure they did it much slower. On Sunday he was allowed to start sitting up, once he figured out that there were buttons that made the head of the bed go up and down, mommy had to quickly figure out how to lock those buttons out. Monday was the day we first got out of bed. It started with trying to stand, then take a couple of steps. It took him a little while to get his sea legs back and to stand or take steps without us holding most of his weight and we were moved to a room on the regular peds floor instead of the pediatric ICU. On Tuesday morning, he was walking all by himself!!!! By noon on Tuesday we were home!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Weekend fun


Mmmmmm, hotdogs and ketchup at the school carnival. It doesn't get much better than that.

Maybe watching big brother jumping in the bounce house, that was fun too.

Hey kitty, wanna play trucks?


Legos with the big kids


How do you mow when both boys love mowing with Daddy? Attach a bike trailer of course.

Zonked out together in the trailer.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Ethan's surgery

The MRI that Ethan had last week shows that his spinal cord is tethered. This is what is causing his walking and balance issues. http://neurosurgery4kids.net/tetheredspinalcord.htm We have an appointment with the neurosurgeon on Monday May 14th and he will have surgery to detether on Wednesday May 16th and will be in the hospital approximately 5-7 days.

Please pray:
1. That the detethering surgery will be successful.
2. That the recovery will be quick and complete.
3. That Ethan will be comfortable and able to handle the stresses and challenges of his hospital stay, especially with the language barrier.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Working with Daddy

Helping Daddy fix the grill
Nap time. Helping Daddy is hard work.

Working hard


Putting everything in the right place


Worn out from all that building