Sat. 5/17 - update

...and their joy was very great! (Nehemiah 8:17)

This picture sums up the last couple of days. To be able to see this smile again as much as we have has been a gift from God! He has had his "normal Caed moments" throughout the last 2 months, but they usually didn't last too long. However, the last 2 days we have "seen Caed" for about 3/4 of the day! He still has moments of pain/vomiting, etc... but even those are lessening. We also plugged up his G-tube. It has not drained now for 2 straight days!! MAJOR progress! That basically means his stomach is pushing fluids through. He is suffering from acid reflux pretty bad, which makes him throw up some and also is causing major pain. (from his esophagus being raw) They have started him on some more meds for that, so hopefully it'll get better. Caed and I had such a wonderful time this morning. He wanted to go back to 3rd floor to see some of his nurses and while up there we stopped in the playroom. We played for such a long time. We shot baskets into the wagon. He was on the "T-Tech" team. He kept telling me he was going to get really good once he got bigger. He was doing and saying everything the way I remember him "before." Joy was literally bursting out of me! I have missed him SO VERY MUCH! After we got back to our room, the drs. came in and we discussed several things. Their plan was to reinsert the J-tube (intestinal feeding tube) on Mon. After the progress Todd and I have seen this week, we decided to ask them if we could hold off a few days. Caed has had 4 different feeding tubes...all of which have failed at some point. We're not saying that we don't want to try it again (if absolutely necessary), but right now, we're PRAYING his body is healing and we don't have to resort to it. Please join with us in praying for that specifically. His stomach is obviously dumping (better), the vomiting is much less, so we're just praying we can gradually start encouraging more food and it WILL STAY DOWN!!! The drs. were absolutely in favor of giving this a shot since we are seeing such improvement in other areas. They also told us we could go home today!! Finally, after getting all the Home Health squared away, we left about 6:00. He was exhausted tonight because he didn't get a nap today. Our HH nurse came tonight to go over all the new meds. (he's on 2 new antibiotics, so she was teaching me how to administer those.) I have a feeling it's going to be a very LONG week! I will be getting up about every 3 hrs. to do all the meds through the night! I guess since I missed out on all of Caleb's nightly feedings, I'm getting this opportunity instead. ha! At least it will only be for a week or so (we pray). We also are guessing Caed got the staph infection in his broviac this past week while home. The nurse said it's everywhere, and that it wasn't anything we did wrong. She told me how to protect it better now. So, also pray we don't keep having to fight that.

I am exhausted and it's going to be a short night for me, so I better go get some sleep.

Brad and Krystal....we love you guys! We thought about you all day and wished so much we could have been there to celebrate with you. We are SO sorry we had to miss the wedding! Please know we were there in spirit. Caed kept giving me a funny grin everytime I talked about Uncle Brad getting married today. Have fun in Mexico!!!

2 very special visitors


Do you think he's seen ET too many times?


He sure missed his brother! (and sister too)