"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11

Friday, February 6, 2009

No Pain

Mookie was noticeably more calm today and tried not to move her head too much. She didn't need any of the tylenol with codeine. We just alternated the ibuprofen and regular tylenol every three hours or so. She got a bath tonight and I was even able to wash her hair. I didn't scrub over the incision, but at least she smells good! I scheduled her post-op follow-up visit for Monday, 2/23.

Connie has not thrown up since the middle of the night on Wednesday, but he's not eating much either. At both lunch and dinner today he chewed and vigorously went after his food only to spit out every single bite. I haven't figured out what the deal with that is yet. Even his favorite food, scrambled eggs!

Thanks for checking in and thanks for the continued prayers. It is still amazing to me that so many people care about and love our little family after all this time.

Erin

Thursday, February 5, 2009

All Tucked In




Mary Kathleen and Conway are both sleeping peacefully. She was complaining about her head hurting a lot before bed so we are going ahead and picking up the prescription. Connie has not thrown up anymore. He ate a decent breakfast but wasn't too hungry at lunch or dinner. I didn't give him any milk today so we'll see tomorrow when we go back to milk if the vomiting comes back.

Here's what the incision looks like. It's hard to see with the flash, but click on the picture and it is the entire distance between my fingers. No wonder it's sore :(

All Done

Dr. Kane just came back and said she did great. He said it was quite large once he got in there. 2cm by 3cm. He said that the skin seemed to close rather easily, not too tight or much pulling so that is a good sign as far as the widening scar goes, but he said all bets are off and it could still pull. He used several layers of dissolving stitches and said to watch her activity level. No roughhousing since a bump to the head could split that open. Watch for bleeding and infection, both rare. He said we'd be able to go back in about 20 minutes to see her. We'll go back to see him in 2 weeks for post-op follow up and he'll show us pictures of it at that time and share biopsy results. He said if we really are dying to hear, we can call his office in about a week and they can look up the results, but not to lose any sleep over it. He said to give her ibuprofen and tylenol and they'll give us a script for some tylenol with codeine, but if she were his daughter, he wouldn't even fill it.

Thanks again for the prayers!

Updates






First, I will update you on Connie and then tell you where we are pertaining to Mook. Connie went to sleep easily once he got his Monkers and got cleaned up from his bath. We didn't hear a peep from him all night. I was crossing my fingers but this morning when he woke up, it was apparent that he had thrown up in the night as his bed and head and neck and pajamas were full of dried vomit. Poor kid either was too tired to realize what happened or something, because he didn't even cry for us. He got another bath this morning and we had to wash Monkers and sheets, etc. Grandma and Grandpa came over to take care of him so Greg and I could get out the door with Mook. He had some grape gatorade. Last I heard, around 9:40, he had kept down some grape gatorade, toast and applesauce. Grandma and Grandpa were going to wait until that stayed down at least 40 minutes before trying his morning meds. I haven't talked to them again since, so hopefully things are still fine. He was getting speech therapy when I called.

Now for Miss MookieRoo. We woke her up at 6:30 so she could have some gatorade and apple juice before 7am (no food after midnight and no clear liquids after 7am). She enjoyed drinking her gatorade out of her bunny cup. Then we got out the door and got here about 20 minutes early. This hospital sure does it right, you know that? They are super organized and very friendly. We got right up to same day surgery on the sixth floor and Dr. Kane was waiting for us. He cut her long black streak of hair and gave us a baggie to save it. He went over the procedure again and really, the only fear and biggest risk is that the incision site will pull apart and widen and she'll have a scar where no hair will grow. The worst thing would be if she wanted a short haircut later in life. They will send the tissue for biopsy and he said it would be highly unlikely that it would be of any concern. She has been so good. They listened to her and again we told them about her sniffles and symptoms and they said if they rescheduled every kid with sniffles they'd never do a surgery! They checked her thoroughly and listened close to her breathing and cleared her for surgery. They were running ahead of schedule so they took her about 15 minutes or so early. They usually give a little Versed or something to take the edge off but they said she was acting so calm they would skip it with her. She let them write "yes" on the back of her head with a sharpie marker. They told us her face might be a little puffy because she'll have to be on her belly for the surgery. We played Concentration and put a Max and Ruby movie on the laptop but she wasn't too interested in watching. Pink Santa Bunny got his own ID bracelet and went with her into surgery. She looked so cute in her hospital gown and pants. The anesthesiologist let her pick out a mask for her giggle gas and they put a flavored spray on it. She chose cherry flavor for her mask. Dr. Kane expects the actual procedure to take 30 minutes or less but they have prep and recovery and such so they said they'd be finishing up around 11:00-11:15. I'll keep you posted when we hear something more. Thank you for the emails and prayers. They mean so much. Compared to what Connie's had done, this is a piece of cake, but I was worried about her and being afraid since she's older. That hasn't been the case at all and I know it is because of all the prayers.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Yuck again!

You guessed right. Connie is vomiting again. Tonight at dinner he turned his head when I offered him a bite. He drank 1/2 a cup of soda (not an everyday occurrence but Grandpa said he barely had any wet diaper today and I didn't want him to get dehydrated. I knew he'd drink soda at least so I gave him some in his cup). He commenced to throw up at the dinner table. He played and acted fine. He ate a nutri-grain bar and drank milk and kept it down for over three hours and then all of a sudden, a little cough and some crying and up it all came. He's been getting his antacid so I'm not sure what's going on. Speaking of antacid, I got a letter from Cigna (the world's tightest insurance company) today saying that they will not approve a refill on the prevacid the way it is written. Someone who works there apparently knows how to treat Connie better than his own pediatrician so they've decided he should be taking twice as big of a dose once per day rather than 1/2 the dose 2X per day because it is cheaper that way. Ugh. Not looking forward to dealing with that issue. Please pray that he stops vomiting.

While we're asking for prayer requests, please keep Mary Kathleen in your prayers on Thursday, tomorrow, for her surgery to remove her congenital nevus birthmark from the back of her head. We head down to Children's around 7:45. She's scheduled to be taken in sometime around 10:00-10:30. That's if they proceed. Generally they don't like to put kids under who have any symptoms of a cold/cough. She has been coughing some and has a runny nose on and off. We're not sure if she's actually sick or if it is allergies, especially with the hives she had all last week. They said they will make the call tomorrow and listen to her lungs and check her out thoroughly before proceeding with the surgery. I don't want it postponed after taking the day off and arranging a sub, but I don't want her risks of complications increasing due to an illness when the procedure could be rescheduled. We'll update when possible.