Midweek stuff

Our week is zooming by, just in time for another fun, busy weekend! On Friday the three of us will make our annual drive down to Iowa to hang out with my college friends. I can't wait! We will be staying at the beautiful lakeside Kings Pointe Resort, where my good friend Katie works. I'm hoping Elijah will enjoy the waterpark this year. Last year he wasn't a huge fan.

Dan and I carved pumpkins earlier this week. Can you tell which is his and which is mine? Elijah was not interested in the gut-emptying or carving process AT ALL. Once we had all the messy, hard work out of the way he fell in love with his "punk-ins."



Elijah's cath date has been set for November 9th. There are only TWO dates for the remainder of 2009 when both Dr. G and Dr. B will be available. Dr. G specializes in catheterizations, which is lucky for us since we love and trust him so much and also because Elijah is a cath lab frequenter. But Dr. B specializes in not only caths but specifically in stent placement/tweaking. Since Elijah has a stent in his right pulmonary artery that will likely need some adjusting, Dr. G wants to make sure Dr. B is around the halls of Children's Hospital on the day of Elijah's cath.



Tomorrow, October 15th, marks the one and a half year anniversary of Elijah's most recent open heart surgery. I can hardly believe that much time has passed. That surgery did amazing things for our little boy. The time before April 15, 2008, was uncertain and devoid of energy and at times very scary. The time after April 15, 2008, has been filled with energy and pink lips and 100% O2 sats and developmental progress. It feels amazing to have put so much time between then and now. Now to gear up for the next one, right?

I will post the yummy Caramel Apple Pie recipe before we leave for the weekend. We have two pieces left! Anyone want to come over tonight?

Home and thankful

Chugging down some apple juice after surgery


Eating yogurt, holding onto the belly button, and...check out those chub thighs!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
We were released from prison, I mean the hospital, at 9:00 this morning. We slept in Elijah's room with him last night on the very small and uncomfortable pull-out couch thing, and none of us got much sleep. No surprise there. There are constantly people coming into the room, even when Dr. G gave specific instructions not to bother us through the night. The respiratory therapist who came in at 4:00 did a great job of waking Elijah (and us) up for the day!


Watching Veggie Tales this morning and cuddling with his favorite pillow. He woke up pretty puffy this morning. They had been pumping fluids into him all night, so he retained a little bit of that.


This was our Minneapolis skyline view from Elijah's room. Not bad for a hospital room!


He was intrigued by the stethoscope. He kept handing it to me because he liked it when I put them in my ears and listened to his chest.

We got home and all of us slept for THREE HOURS. That's not saying much for Dan and me, because we could sleep for three straight days if we had the time, but that is saying a lot for Elijah. He was and still is one tired little boy.

After our nap we went to Dan's parents' for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was fabulous, as it always is, and it was good to see family. Elijah just wasn't into it, though. He didn't really want to eat and we could tell he was still exhausted. At one point, he crawled over to his diaper bag, pulled out his blankie, put it on the floor and then snuggled up to it in the corner. We left shortly after that and he stayed awake for about 2 minutes in the car. I turned around to see this:



We put him to bed super duper early tonight. He needs it. He will get caught up within a few days and be back to his usual self.

I am so thankful that this cath is DONE. It always feels good to get over each hurdle. It was a bit of an emotional day for me today. Partially because I'm overly tired, but also because of what we just watched our little boy endure. Again. Hospital time is tough. It is a totally draining and emotional experience. Watching the emotional turmoil that our little man goes through is so super traumatic for us. It always takes me a while to calm down after a hospital stay.

Today, I am so thankful for my little boy's strength, and for Dr. Gremmels' compassion and knowledge and for my supportive and loving husband who is also an amazing father. I am thankful for the amazing hospital we have so close to us and for all of YOU who walk with us in this journey and love Elijah along with us. I am thankful for family and friends and everyone in our lives and everyone who prays for our strong, amazing son.

I hope you all had a great, thankful day! xoxoxo

Recovering on the third floor

We are on the third floor in our penthouse suite taking turns holding Elijah so that he doesn't bend his leg too much. He has already drank two juice boxes and he has eaten a grilled cheese sandwich, a container of yogurt and a half of a banana. He's a bottomless pit! He is pretty crabby and tired, understandably so. Right now Dan is holding him while he watches Elmo on tv.

He did GREAT during the cath! He was a little star, as usual. The cath took four and a half hours! That is the longest it has ever taken. Dr. G spent an hour and a half trying to coil ONE collateral artery, unsuccessfully. Everything else he wanted to do, he was able to get done. He ballooned the existing stent that was put in his right pulmonary artery during his last surgery. He also coiled off a few collaterals that were supplying duplicate bloodflow. The collateral that he wasn't able to reach isn't an immediate concern. We will need to keep an eye on it and we can possibly wait (hopefully) till Elijah's next open heart surgery to address it.

Dr. G thinks his next open heart will take place in "a couple years." Not the most ideal answer, but it could certainly be worse. Elijah will unfortunately need more heart caths before that happens. Again, not ideal, but it could be worse.

The pressures in his heart are "ok." Not good, not bad, just ok. His heart function looks great. His oxygen sats are great. He is doing really well. Getting sleep tonight for any of us will be an enormous challenge, but we'll do our best. We will get to leave in the morning, hopefully early.

There is one cute thing I want to share before I go gobble down a sandwich. The nurse who was taking care of Elijah post-op told us that she thinks that Elijah is Dr. G's "special one." Apparently he came back in to check on him a few extra times after the cath and he said, "Hey buddy! You're my special buddy." Awwww, I love it!

Good night everyone. I hope you all have fabulous holiday plans and that you have a fun, safe weekend! Thanks for checking in on our little monkey man.

Our list

We did some brainstorming this weekend and came up with a list of six things (two for each of us) that we would like to do to help other people out this holiday season. I debated a bit about whether or not I should post the specifics. I don't want it to appear insincere because we are writing all about it. The reason I decided to write about this in detail is because it makes me happy to think that others might decide to do similar things with their families to show their giving spirits. I am also excited to document some of the fun things we have planned. Here is our list:

- We put together two Operation Christmas Child boxes for children in desperate situations around the world. We put together one Girl box and one Boy box. I just realized this morning that today is the deadline for this, so we scrambled this evening to get them put together and dropped off at an OCC location. It was a lot of fun! We will definitely do this every year.

- I am going to recruit some friends/family members in the Cities to help me make homemade snacks/cookies to donate to Minneapolis Children's Hospital. These treats will be given out to parents/families of children who are staying in the hospital. Having spent time there ourselves, we know what a huge help it is to receive goodies from people, and I can especially imagine how nice it would be to receive something like this around Christmas time. I would love to just bombard that place with Christmas treats so everyone is well cared for in that regard during the holiday season. If you are in the area and you are interested in helping with this, please let me know!

- We donated a frozen turkey to a holiday food drive last weekend.

- We want to put some toiletries, snacks and essentials into a couple big stockings and drop them off at a homeless shelter.

- We know of a family in need of assistance right now. I have mentioned Ellie on this website before. She is my good friend Cara's niece. Ellie was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of brain cancer in April 2008. Her tumor has grown and she is really fighting for her life right now. Her family is dealing with some very difficult times, and among other things, they have many medical bills that have piled up in an attempt to lengthen Ellie's time here on Earth. We would like to help them out in some way. I'm not sure how we'll do that yet, but I am thinking we might give them a nice big gift card for groceries.

- This last "deed" is our fun, "gamble" item. Dan and I are both risk takers after all! We want to approach someone in public, after we have stalked them a bit :), and hand them a note that will be attached to a large bill ($50?). The note will have a Bible verse on it and it will also encourage them to do something good with the money, so the giving will continue, and hopefully multiply. This reminds me of the movie Pay It Forward, but I didn't realize that until just now as I typed this out. We obviously run the risk of putting money into the wrong hands, but it is a risk I am willing to take. I think that this has the potential to create some generous deeds. And if the person we give the money to NEEDS the money, then good has been done!

It feels so good to give. As I said before, I would love to instill this in Elijah and I hope he grows up knowing how important it is. If any of you have other fun, giving ideas, please share them!


p.s. The prayers have worked for Elijah's cold symptoms. He was at daycare all day today and did great. No snotty nose, just a little bit of a cough, no sneezing. Just to be safe, I am taking him in to see his pediatrician in the morning for a pre-op physical to be sure he is ready for Wednesday's cath. I have a really good feeling that Wednesday is the day! It will feel so good to get this behind us. Thanks for the prayers. Keep them coming!