Scan cancelled and surgery scheduled

Happily, the infamous lump disappeared prior to the scheduled scan date, so the doc agreed to postpone the scan and keep an eye on Liam's skull. He has a "void" in one area of his skull, which can be normal given his history. So, the doc is keeping an eye on it for a while to see if it closes. We are assuming the lump was another leak of cerebrospinal fluid that reabsorbed into his head. This has happened before.

In other news, we saw ENT today and will do a new set of tubes in Liam's ears and have his adenoids removed on March 30. We knew this was coming, so it's not a surprise. We postponed it for a while to see if his ears would improve on their own, but they aren't and he's not a happy camper with frequent ear pain, so we're moving forward.

Thank you so much for your many prayers!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Firing up the blog again...unfortunately.

We would appreciate your prayers for Liam. All was going swimmingly until we noticed a lump on his head on Saturday. By Monday, it had increased in size. We were worked into Dr. Kelly's office today (craniofacial doc) and he has ordered a CT scan as quickly as we can get it done (started insurance approvals today). He noted that it was odd and that the skull appeared to have a soft spot under the lump. It's not unusual for a 3 year old to have soft spots, but the lump is unusual. Most likely, we will discover this is an anomoly that is nothing to be concerned about, but we trust Dr. Kelly's opinion and are moving forward with the CT scan. I talked to his scheduler late today and she thinks it will be early next week before we can do the CT scan due to insurance approvals. Please pray all is well with our energetic little guy so he can continue to run races in his walker!

We are again reminded: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single day to your life? Matthew 6:25-27

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Casting for braces!

I have my fair share of mom guilt for various things, but tomorrow takes the cake! Liam turns 3 tomorrow (woohoo!) and we're celebrating by having him casted for his leg braces. Well, not really: We're celebrating later with the cake and ice cream and gifts thing, but we do have the leg brace casting appointment RIGHT on his birthday. Great, eh? Friends tell me he won't know the difference. Hmmm...

I do take some solace in the fact that I really didn't have much choice of appointment times, because they had a cancellation. If I didn't take them up on this time, it was going to push it into September, so I snatched it while I could. At least it will only take an hour!

For those who have been asking, I should find out tomorrow when the actual braces will be in and ready for Liam to try. Please keep praying for smooth sailing! It was kind of dicey with insurance approvals there for a while, but persistance paid off once again.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Braces, but not for his teeth!

Last week, Lisa, Liam, and his physical therapist went to talk with the folks that made Liam's helmet about the difficulty Liam is having learning to walk. His foot placement is wrong with both feet, but especially with his right foot. It looks like he will need an ankle-high brace on his left foot and a mid-calf-high brace on his right foot to correct the placement of his feet as he walks. We are hopeful this will finally help him walk. He has a nifty little reverse walker that his physical therapist loaned us, and he LOVES the mobility it brings. However, as he started cruising around furniture and began using his reverse walker, we quickly realized he needs the braces to correct his foot placement.

So, the wheels are beginning to turn on the insurance approval. We again ask for everyone's prayers. We hope this process moves quickly, because we are anxious to see Liam take his first steps without needing to hang on to something! These will be custom-made braces, so they will be expensive and will take a while to be made.

Prayer Requests:

1. Thanksgiving that Liam is enjoying good health this summer!
2. That the insurance company will allow us to use our local prosthetic company the way we did with his helmet, because is sure is nice not to have to trot back and forth to Vandy constantly when an excellent local treatment provider is available.
3. That insurance will pay 100% of the cost of these braces.
4. That the approval process and construction of the braces goes quickly.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Prayers for Baby Madison

Liam is doing fantastic, which is why we never post any more! Our two biggest issues right now are his lack of speech (though he is picking up sign language pretty well) and the fact that he can't walk. He has a new reverse walker that he loves being in and we're looking into getting orthotics or braces on his legs to help him place his feet correctly.

Friends of ours are going to have Baby Madison on June 8 at Vandy. We'd appreciate your prayers for them, as Madison has spina bifida. Madison's parents are a wonderful Christian couple and we know they will be ok despite all the stress--we just wish they could experience Madison's birth without all the medical complications and the associated challenges.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Liam's (hopefully) last surgery is behind us!

Whew! It's been a long 2 1/2 years! We are happy to report that Liam no longer has a hole in his tummy! His surgery today went very well. It lasted about 45 minutes start to finish and he is recovering nicely. Thank you to all of you who kept him in your prayers! We hope his recovery is fast and pain-free. We had a bump in the road this afternoon when he refused pain meds and all liquids by mouth, but Mama and his babysitter seem to have resolved that issue by jointly tackling it. He is now resting comfortably and snuggling with Winnie-the-Pooh on the couch. Codeine is great stuff!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Surgery on January 26

Sad to report that Liam's feeding tube hole has not yet closed on its own, so it appears we'll be doing outpatient surgery on Tuesday. It should be a very fast surgery in terms of exposure to anesthesia, but all prayers are greatly appreciated.

A family at our church has been struggling for several weeks with their son's illness with Kawasaki Disease. Please pray for Baby Jack for recovery from this rare disease. It's been a long month for their entire family, and Baby Jack is experiencing cardiac complications right now.

Many thanks to our church family for so many expressions of support and concern this morning. You all make us smile and we appreciate that you help us face this (hopefully) final surgery with courage, knowing that so many of you are lifting our entire family in prayer.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Happy, happy news!!

We are very happy to announce that Liam is now tube-free for the first time since birth! We took him to Vandy yesterday to check into getting his feeding tube removed. They pulled the tube out right there in the office and said the hole might close on its own. He is scheduled for surgery on January 26 to close it surgically if needed because it's very rare for the hole to close on its own after being in place for two years. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for God to step in and show us all once again Who is really in charge!!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. Psalm 105:4

Some Christmas pics...

Update on the CT scan

We didn't end up needing the CT scan! We were really not wanting to do the scan, because it was more exposure to radiation and yet another procedure that needed to be done under anesthesia. One night while Bill and I were talking about it, Liam was sitting on Bill's lap playing. Bill felt for the lumps and told me they were gone! Sure enough, they had disappeared! Thank you so much for your prayers! God is great!!!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

2nd Birthday Pictures!!!!

Found the cord thingy!!!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

What a fall!

Whew! What a wild ride! Work really got hectic for Lisa in July and it's just now beginning to settle into a semblance of a normal routine. Sorry for the pause in posting--we appreciate those of you that check the blog regularly even when posting is a rare event.

Liam turned 2 on August 9. We had a great party and he enjoyed smooshing cake in his face this year. We'd love to post pictures but we can't find the cord that goes from the camera to the computer. We keep forgetting to check to see if Lisa left it at work and/or buy a new one. :( As soon as the planets align properly and we have a cord thingy, we'll post some pictures.

Liam passed his last swallow study with flying colors last week!! WOOHOOO! We will be tube free someday in the near future! We've been told that removing the feeding tube at this point will require a minor outpatient surgery. We're waiting until this winter when we have an ENT check his tonsils and adenoids before setting a surgery date; if he has to have his tonsils and adenoids out, we might as well combine the two surgeries and get a two-for-the-price-of-one deal again on anesthesia and the O.R. Besides, we are opposed to exposing Liam to even more anesthesia, so the more procedures we can combine into one, the better.

We have a CT scan scheduled for November 11 to see why Liam has strange lumps on his head. People don't notice them unless they are around him a lot, but there are some lumps. Dr. Kelly thinks it's a "not uncommon" complication from surgery that will resolve on its own, but wants to do a CT scan just to be sure he's not missing something.

We appreciate those of you who continue to pray for Liam and our entire family. We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many Christian friends and family members!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Bummer of the week

We were sad when we received notice last week that our favorite doc, Liam's cardiologist (sshhh-don't tell the other docs!), is leaving Vanderbilt Children's to start a private practice in Knoxville. Big, huge bummer. Dr. Michael Liske is the best!! We will miss him but wish him the very best in his new endeavors. We thank God that he was there to shepherd us through the worst of Liam's heart problems and feel very blessed that we benefitted from his expertise the past 2 1/2 years.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Still doing great!

Thanks for the cards, phone calls, e-mails, and Facebook messages to check on Liam! We're starting to fall behind on responding to each of them, but he's doing so well! We are continually amazed by God's power as we watch this little guy heal quickly despite ongoing heart issues and other health problems.

Liam's occupational therapist said yesterday that she already sees a big difference in his eye-hand coordination when he is attempting to accomplish tasks (such as putting shapes in a shape sorter, for example. He has definitely been babbling more in the past day, which we're taking as an indication that the tubes in his ears have improved his hearing, and therefore are already causing increased speech. His speech therapist noticed it yesterday, too.

He continues to take Tylenol or ibuprofen for pain and it's working. He seems quite comfortable and is scooting around on the floor playing with toys again. He has slept comfortable since day one at night, which has certainly been a blessing to his parents!!!

Next steps in Liam's health (aside from follow-up appointments with the three surgeons) will likely be the removal of the feeding tube and possibly the removal of his tonsils and adenoids (we're hoping to set an appointment with a different ENT who specializes in tonsils and adenoids rather than tubes soon). We hope to wait on both of these surgeries until next year and once again do them both at the same time.

Thank you all for your ongoing prayers and support!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Mission accomplished!

Liam had a great surgery experience yesterday (well, as great as these things can be, anyway!). The three surgeons were able to put the tubes in his ears, fix his lazy eyes, and circumcise him successfully. We went in at 6 for a 7:15 surgery. They started on time and were done by around 9:30. We were home by 1:30 p.m. He rested comfortably yesterday, slept the whole night straight through, and has been resting today as well. All is going well!

Thank you so much for your prayers! We feel very blessed to live in a country where we can easily access doctors who have the best training and resources and equally thankful that we have good insurance coverage.

Please pray that his recovery continues to go smoothly!

In Christ,

Bill and Lisa

Gearing up for Monday!

Liam is still set to have three minor outpatient surgeries on June 29. For those who haven't visited the blog in a while, he is having them all at once to minimize his exposure to aneshesia for the year. The ENT is putting tubes in his ears because he is showing hearing loss due to chronic fluid (without chronic ear infections, thankfully) in his ears. We hope this results in higher rates of speech acquisition! The eye doc is going to fix his lazy eye (yahoo!), just in time for his two year pictures! At the same time, the little guy is going to be circumcised since the docs said there were more important things to focus on when he was born.

We would appreciate your prayers. While he is expected to come through it just fine, come home the same day, and have a very short recovery time for all three surgeries, no one wants their little boy going "under the knife," no matter how minor.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

How 'bout a little Mercy Me this morning?

LOVE this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU

Surgery bumped to June 29!

I'm still not sure I get why they did this, but we've been bumped to June 29 for surgery.  It had something to do with booking the OR.  Still all three in the same day, just earlier than originally planned.  Actually, I'm glad we're doing it sooner--always nice to get this stuff over sooner rather than later!  God is good...

Lisa

Spring Pics 09

Pouty face while eating:  A Liam Classic Face!

Planting flowers with Mom

Spring 09 Pics

Easter Bunny Cake 09

Easter Morning 09

Such a cute smile!

Future Little Hoosier

Our Little Hoosier Man!