Update 10/20

Little Man is doing great! He's almost back to goal calories and he is his happy self as long as he gets his pain medication on time. We're hoping to start weaning him off the Tylenol with codeine soon--we don't want him to have to enter a 12 step program at such a young age. I don't think they have detox or addictions programs for 14 month olds. ;)

He doesn't look nearly as bad as we thought he would at this stage of the game. He has some fluid build-up in the back of his head, which is kind of creepy, I have to admit--it definitely distends his head shape in a weird way. He still has bruising at his left eye, and there are some faint bruises on his forehead, but they are going away day by day. Sarah informs all of our visitors that, "Liam has an oval head right now, but it won't always be that way." Ahh, life with a three year old.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

And after a difficult 20 hours...

we're going HOME!!!

I returned to Liam's room after publishing that last post to find chaos reigning supreme. It's pretty much stayed that way ever since but we still get to go home today (thank goodness!). I think we'll fare better at home at this point. Anyone who's been hospitalized for any length of time understands that!

Our internet is down at the house. Depending on how quickly AT & T gets on it, I may not be able to post for the next day or two. Feel free to call us if you're wondering how we are. I won't answer or will turn the phone off if I can't answer it or need some sleep.

Keep on praying!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/14 at 11:30 AM CST

Looks like we're going home tomorrow (maybe)! YAHOO!! Liam had a rough night last night. He had a tough time settling down to sleep and then woke at 3:30 and was awake for an hour. Hopefully he'll get more sleep tonight. Everything else looks good. They were talking about releasing him this morning but ultimately decided to keep him another day, which I was actually happy to hear. I need to escape for some time this afternoon to go spend some time preparing Sarah and the house for Liam's arrival back home.

Don't stop praying!!

In Christ,
Lisa (and Bill)

Update 10/13 at 4:05 PM CST

Liam continues to improve with each passing day. They removed the drain tube from his head today, and while he fussed at them immediately after, he soon calmed down and has been himself ever since. He's enjoying a toy drum on loan from the Child Life team and his favorite rattles from home.

We hope we get to go home soon!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/12 at 3:40 PM CST

We have moved to a regular room on the post-surgical floor! YAHOOO! The drain tube in Liam's head is still in, along with 2 IVs, but other than that we are tube-free and monitor-free. Lisa happily held Liam for a full 90 minutes today. Both Mama and Liam were happy about that! He continues to do well, needing less pain medicine with each passing day. This afternoon he is able to be content when awake and even waved hello to his new nurses when he was moved. We anticipate they may be able to remove the drain tomorrow. Lisa had to go out to the car and get some toys for him to play with to keep him occupied, which is an excellent sign!

Keep praying!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/11 9:35 PM CST

All continues to go very well. They are stepping him down bit by bit from the pain meds and sedatives, so he's more restless now than he was earlier today. We should be moved out of the PCCU tomorrow if we continue down the same path of recovery. YAHOO!

Sarah is doing better today than she was yesterday, too.

Thank you for your ongoing prayers!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/11 at 1:15 PM CST

Liam continues to do very well. They were able to take out his arterial line this morning and his eyes have started to open a bit. We're looking at being released to a regular room either late today or early tomorrow depending on how he does, what beds are available upstairs, and how crowded the PCCU gets. I think neurosurgery would be fine if he was released to a regular floor anytime now. Plastics wants him to stay in the PCCU until his eyes are open and they'd like the drain to come out of his head before they send him up, as well. We'll see who wins. Pain control is going well and we've been blessed with excellent nurses, so we have a lot to be thankful for right now.

Keep praying!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/10 at 9:15 PM CST

"Everything is going just as well as it possibly could be!" said the neurosurgeon on rounds tonight. Can't ask for better than that! He has had three feedings and is now up to goal volume of formula. They were able to remove the catheter tonight (yahoo!) which made him madder than a wet hen for a few minutes but then he was fine. He's just snoozing away on his cocktail of meds. They are now down to alternating morphine and ativan every 5-6 hours, so that's great, too. His night nurse mentioned he is now considered PCCU Transition case, so I'm hoping we'll get to move to a regular room late tomorrow or early Sunday. We'll wait and see how tonight and tomorrow go. His eyes are swollen shut now, but he still isn't nearly as swollen as we expected. He should get to peak swelling tomorrow afternoon and then the swelling will begin to decrease. He has to be able to open his eyes again and they have to be able to remove the drain in his head before he can move to a regular room.

Please keep praying! A special prayer request is to please pray for peace for Sarah--tonight it looked like she's starting to have a tough time with the disruption in her routine and she told me she told me she is "really worried" about Liam despite our reassurances about how well he's doing.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/10 11:35 AM CST

Liam is doing great! They extubated him at 1 AM ("in the morning" means a totally different thing in hospitals--I always forget that!) with fantastic results. We hit a rough patch around 6 AM trying to find the right cocktail of pain meds that would relieve pain and sedate him without decreasing his heart rate and breathing too much. The right mix appears to be morphine, tylenol with codeine, and ativan. Needless to say, he's knocked out right now.

We've received clearance to start feeding him today and they are going to take out his catheter later, too. He isn't too swollen yet, but they expect that to worsen over the next 48 hours. He can't open his eyes at this point and they are starting to bruise, which is all perfectly normal.

Thanks for the many prayers and good wishes! We know we are being prayed for because we are in good spirits and still doing well despite the sleep deprivation!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/9 at 8 PM

I need to type this one fast because shift change on the PCCU is almost over, which means I can go back to Liam soon. Bill and I have been out for dinner for the past couple of hours so I'll be glad to get back to Liam.

We FINALLY were able to see him around 6 PM for a brief period of time. They were settling him into his room, so we didn't stay long. Just long enough to kiss his feet (it's the only visible part of him that doesn't have a tube going in or coming out right now) and say hello. He was zonked out, so I don't know that he knew we were there. He has reportedly been awake once and fussed at them for messing with him, so they gave him pain meds to make him comfortable.

He failed the first attempt at extubation but that's fairly common at this stage, so no one worry about that. We'll try again in the morning.

I've been up since 4 a.m., so I'm wiped out and would like to get some sleep. I'll post as I am able tomorrow, so keep checking for updates!

In Christ,
Lisa (& Bill)

Post Surgical Update 10/9 3:35 PM CST

Liam is out of surgery. We talked with the surgeon a few minutes ago and then headed to the computers to update the blog, etc. because we can see him for another hour or so. So far, so good--he has come through with flying colors. He'll spend some time in the PACU (recovery) and then we'll head up to the PICU. Right now we're just waiting for him to wake up. They were planning to try to extubate and get him off the vent immediately, but they warned us not to be surprised if he heads to PICU still on the vent because the babies who have had this surgery often need to stay intubated over night (the heavy anesthesia required supresses breathing pretty significantly). If he fails the first try, they won't try again until tomorrow morning. He had to have 2 1/2 units of blood and will likely need more tomorrow, so thank you to all of you blood donors out there!

We continue to do well--we even caught a small nap in the waiting area after lunch today.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update: 10/9 at 1:25 CST

One of the surgical team members just called out to say Liam is doing well and the doc continues to operate. They took him back to the O.R. at 9:10 a.m., they opened at 11:05 a.m. I think they time it from the point at which they take him from us, which would be the 9 AM time.

We're doing fine. We just ate some lunch and we're settling in for the afternoon. Joe from church came by this morning and stayed for a long time, which was really nice. It was a welcome distraction chatting with him!

More later...

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

He's in the O.R. now...

So we showed up at the hospital this morning appropriately sleep deprived and were told that insurance hadn't pre-authorized the surgery. Great. I sat there having all kinds of cognitive distortions (sorry folks, but my counselor friends will love that one!) until I just started praying that God's will be done and that He give us peace to accept whatever new plan we developed. A few minutes after I began praying, we got the news that it turned out that the doc's office hadn't made the final call to the hospital insurance office to give them the info that the insurance issue had been resolved successfully. I later asked the surgical team that was milling around if they took chickens for payment. Surgeons just don't have a very good sense of humor, you know? Maybe I should have offered my Civic Hybrid instead. I hear that's a hot ticket item these days. ;)

Therefore, we are a little behind schedule. He went in at 9:10 a.m. and we are now being told to expect a 6-7 hour surgery (I'm no longer sure who told me it would be 3-4 hours, but I don't think I just dreamed that up!). I'll post updates as I'm able today and in the coming week.

In Christ,
Lisa (and Bill, too, of course!)