Pluggin' Along

We are now 12 days into our healing phase and we hit a snag. Matthew's top 3 stitches came out...and that top stitch had the knot that held the entire suture line in place. So, the top half of the incision has sutures that are not holding the incision together. Fortunately we are 12 days post op and a lot of healing has already been done. We spoke to the Nurse Practitioner from LCPH and took Matthew to see the pediatrician here in town. She applied steri strips to the entire incision and we are back to not getting it wet. We go up to Stanford on Tuesday for a check up with the surgeon, so they can reassess at that time. What else should I expect from a wild almost 2 year old boy?! Overall he is doing great. Still running a low grade fever but no one is concerned about that. We are all going a little stir crazy. Not being able to be around other kids, go swimming or to the park has been no fun. The doctor didn't want Matthew exposed to anything for the first 2 weeks so we have pretty much been at home. We take the occassional car ride over to A&W for some ice cream, then drive around and let the kids make the car as messy as possible. But hey...it is out of the house no matter how you look at it.

Sami is doing awesome. This is the first summer she has really known how to swim and she is loving it! Everyday the first thing she asks is "when are we going swimming?". We wait until Matthew goes down for a nap and then go outside until he wakes up. She is jumping off the side, doing cannon balls and having tons of fun. Today she went to Papa and Granny's house and jumped off the diving board for the first time! She is turning into a little fish. We can't wait until Matthew can get in again - we can spend all day soaking up the sun and swimming ourselves into blissfull exhaustion! Here are some pics we took the other night of her swimming skills..enjoy!

Big Sigh of Relief

Dr. Guzman called yesterday evening with good news. The pathology report was in - the mass was a benign lesion, most likely a hemangioma. We will go for our post op. appointment the beginning of July and Matthew will need a follow-up MRI in 3 months. After that...we can put this all behind us! PRAISE GOD!!! We can officially say that we have 2 healthy, beautiful children. Matthew is continuing to improve with each day. He is off of the narcotic pain medication and just taking Tylenol, sleeping pretty much through the night and back to normal. I never thought I would enjoy watching him fight with his sister, but I do. Every moment I am reminded how fortunate and blessed we are. Each day I have thought about his roommate from the hospital and the countless other children we saw while we were there. Most of them have long roads in front of them, roads I cannot imagine traveling. When I let my mind go to worst case scenario, I tried to picture how I would handle being that mom. I couldn't...I couldn't imagine what that devastation would feel like. I feel so blessed I never had to find out. But each day I will pray for all of those children, all of those families. And every time I feel frustrated or overwhelmed, I am going to do my best to remember what could have been and count my blessing over and over. God had a plan for all of this...maybe that was it? I know that we will be better parents, friends and supporters simply because of what we have gone through. And hopefully, somewhere in the midst of all of that, God will be glorified and His kingdom will be expanded.

Our Blessings

Matthew is continuing to amaze us each day with his ability to bounce back from this surgery. He is running, jumping, crawling....just about everything he was doing before surgery. Occassionally you can tell he is uncomfortable or a certain position hurts more than others - but for the most part he is back to himself. Cory's boss and his wife bought Matthew a "Get Well Soon" gift...he came by on his lunch to give it to Matthew. He and Sami both loved it! Not long after came a delivery from the gang at his work - balloons and goodies for not only Matthew but Sami as well. We are so blessed to have all of these amazing supporters in our lives. It is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day business of life that we forget about the blessings that surround us. Cory and I are so fortunate to have not only wonderful family and friends, but employers who are understanding and supportive. Thank you just doesn't seem like enough...but THANK YOU!!!

The Comfort of Home

We made it home yesterday late afternoon. Matthew did really well on the ride home. He and I both slept the first half and he played happily the rest of the way. When we got home, my family and Sami were there waiting for us. Matthew was SO excited to see his sister. He is still a little wobbly on his feet, but he didn't let that hold him back. He was bending down to pick things up, throwing the toys like usual and trying to climb up into his favorite chair. Cory and I, of course, were ready to have an anxiety attack at any moment. We just want to put him in a bubble until he is perfectly healed! His night last night was wonderful...I think he would have slept all the way through if we hadn't been waking him up every 3 hours for medication. He woke up the same as he left off yesterday - ready to play! We will start cutting back on his pain medication today and see how he does. He should be taking just Tylenol by Wednesday. Matthew has got to be the bravest little guy...you would never know that just a few days ago he was going through a major operation. This has exceeded every prayer we said and hope we had - I could not have imagined all going this well! (Knock on wood) We will continue to pray that he only improves day by day and that the path report is as good as expected. PRAISE GOD! I am hoping to get some more pictures of him after his nap and I'll post them later on.

Post-Op Day 2

After posting yesterday we had a rocky afternoon. Matthew had been feeling so well in the morning and done amazing working with PT, but once he got settled in the pain hit. He couldn't get comfortable no matter what we did and the pain meds just couldn't catch up with the pain. He ended up developing a fever and stopped drinking anything. They put him back on the IV fluid and gave him pain meds around the clock. He finally started to perk up around 8pm and got some good rest last night. He woke up this morning feeling much better and actually let Daddy hold him for awhile. Most of the day yesterday he didn't want anyone to touch him nevertheless hold him. The "Dr. Guzman Team" came in this morning and removed his dressing. The incision is probably 5-6 inches long and looks really good. There is a small collection of fluid but they expected that and said it would go away over the next 2 weeks. Dr. Guzman said that he had expected our afternoon to go the way it did...the fever only lasted a short time and he is not concerned unless it goes over 101.5 F. They are giving us a prescription for the Lortab at home and they want us to rotate that with Motrin every 3 hours. They expect him to be close to normal by the end of next week. SO...we are heading home this afternoon!! We cannot wait to be at home and see our little girl we are missing so much. We are looking forward to putting all of this behind us! Thank you again to everyone who sent prayer, love, support and encouragement our way. We love you all so much!

Post-Op Day 1

Matthew is doing absolutely fabulous...even better than the doctors had anticipated. He slept the majority of the night and by this morning was up in the chair eating breakfast. He hasn't needed any more IV pain medication since we left the recovery room yesterday afternoon and he is tolerating the liquid pain medication very well. The Physical Therapist came by this morning to assess Matthew and work on getting him moving again. He was a little hesitant until he saw the beach ball and ride on toy she had for him. It wasn't very long before he was walking up and down the halls and throwing the ball to us. We went for 2 long wagon rides and he just now fell asleep for a nap. The doctors came by after the PT session and they are pretty sure we can go home tomorrow afternoon! They said that he can have a prescription for the same medication he is getting here at home, and there is nothing else keeping us here as long as he has a good night. WOW...the power of prayer continues to amaze us. We truly could not have even imagined this whole process going as well as it has. Praise God!

The Verdict Is In

We received a call from the surgery department around 9:45 am that the surgery was completed, they were able to remove all of the mass and that the doctor would be out soon to discuss the findings. Around 10:15 am here came Dr. Guzman with a big smile on his face. He was indeed able to remove all of the mass. He removed a small amount of muscle to make sure there were clean margins and the muscle did not look affected. He did have to shave some of the vertebrae, there was a small amount of blood supply coming from the spine but he was not overly concerned about that. Initial pathology did come back....NEGATIVE!!!! We, of course, have to wait for the final pathology report beginning of next week but by their assessment and the preliminary report it was not a tumor! GOD IS GOOD!!!! Thank you so much for your prayers, we are so blessed. Not only was the news wonderful, the surgery only lasted a couple of hours, he had minimal blood loss with no need for transfusions and he is already eating and playing. We just got settled in our room and the doctor said there is a possibility of coming home either Sunday or Monday depending on how he does. We cannot believe how well this day has gone and we know it is only because of all of the prayers and the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ!