Fri. 7/11 - update

Caed did SO well at the hospital today for the UGI. When we first got there, he was pretty quiet and a little clingy, but soon...found out there was nothing to worry about. He was so brave and never once cried. His main concern was getting it over with so he could go EAT!! We had to stop his feeds at 5 am, and he couldn't eat or drink until after it was over. The past several months that was never an issue. Not now! This boy wants food the minute his feet hit the floor in the morning and then continues to ask for it every 20-30 minutes. So, this was tough on him this morning. The x-rays lasted about 3 hrs. (about the same amount of time it took for the last one mid - May) I guess we won't really know anything until we see our GI dr. next time. The only thing we could see was that his stomach still had an odd shape. The radiologist came out one time and said it was moving through, just a little slowly. I guess we somewhat expected that. However, at least it didn't take over 24 hrs. like it did the first time he had this done. He's making progress.

Todd and I had our weekly night out tonight since he'll be leaving again tomorrow....and be gone for 11 days. He and the youth will be heading to Durango, CO for Student Life camp next week. His brother, Matt, will also be going with his youth group from FBC Belton....should be fun having both "Hollingsworth bros." there together. Each of their youth groups always laugh and can't get over how much they look and act alike.

Thank you for your prayers concerning today's procedure. It was truly a calm, peaceful morning. The radio techs asked if he was a screamer......uummm......hard to say.....he has been known to do that in the past!!! ha! I am SO thankful he had a good experience today. He told me at one point he was a little scared b/c he didn't understand what they were going to do. Boy, has he come a long way!!!!

**SO GOOD to see you again Jason!!!!!!


Being silly as we waited (for 3 long hrs. up on
that hard table)


Finally.....he's getting to enjoy IHOP.
Watch out Greg....he practicing up for y'alls big
eating contest in a few weeks.

Thur. 7/10 - update

Not much to report today. He did great again! Ate a lot....and kept it down.

Please pray for his upper GI, etc... in the morning - 9:00. I truly do not know what to expect with him. Normally these procedures produce LOTS of anxiety, but this will be our 1st out-patient one. I haven't even told him where we're going in the morning. I think he'll be ok....but again, once we get into the room, and he sees the big x-ray machines, etc....it might all come back again. Also, pray for the results!!!!! We can see how God is healing him on the outside. We pray this will show a clear picture of what HE'S done on the inside as well!

I'm off to pick up Todd at the airport......................

Wed. 7/9 - update

We had a very busy....FUN....good day! This morning Marnie and I loaded up all our kids (plus 2 more) and headed for the Science Spectrum. It was lots of fun and the kids enjoyed getting out. We ate lunch and then came on back to Idalou. The kids played hard all afternoon, and then this evening we went over to my Grandmother Mitchell's house for a cook-out. Of course, after supper we HAD to bring out the marshmallows! It was a beautiful evening (perfect for a fire). Caed told us as we were sitting out tonight...."I sure am glad I thought of this!" (yes....the S'mores were HIS idea)


Caed ate a lot today......and NO throw-ups!!!! Thank you God! For some reason he kept wanting cheese ALL DAY LONG. He seems to get stuck on one particular food (like the spaghetti) and will literally ask for it continually. It is so hard to tell him no (simply b/c of all the months we begged him to take even one bite of something). However, I am learning to just make him wait even an hour before he gets something else. Seems to help (maybe.....?). We set his G-tube at 50 cc. last night and had no problems. He did need to get up once during the night to go to the restroom, and then this morning when he first woke up he complained his tummy was hurting. I was so nervous! We really need this to work. However....within minutes he was completely fine and never heard him complain the rest of the day. The diarrhea was "normal" I guess for Caed. He went maybe 6-7 times. Tonight the pump is set for 60. Our plan is to increase by 10 cc. each night until we get to 100 by Mon.


Our main prayer request right now is the absorption issue. He can eat like crazy, but if his intestines are not absorbing the nutrients & water from the food....my guess is....how is that really helping? Not an expert in that area, so....maybe I'm wrong. I know I'm probably getting too detailed for you, but the diarrhea (for the most part) is purely liquid. Again, not a good thing. The more solid we see....the better! That would mean his intestines are working more like they should.


We also have an appt. with the "play therapist" on Mon. Todd and I had talked a lot about it, and had decided there wasn't a need to pursue that any longer. If you could only see the change in Caed in just the last 2-3 weeks! Behaviorally speaking, 90% of his days are relatively "normal" for a 5 yr. old. However....just last week he had a major outburst! (very similar to how he was in the hospital) And, there are times he won't speak and just points, etc.... The therapist said as she was reading over his initial assessment from the previous dr., she was very concerned. She said it's wonderful that he is doing better, but there is no way a child who has been through as much trauma would be completely back to normal in just a couple of weeks time. We agree. So, we will meet with her Mon. My thought is....what harm can it do? I'm sure we can learn better how to handle when those rare outbursts do occur.



**Congratulations Richard and Leann....Garrett (aka. "Ty") is absolutely adorable! Cannon and Caleb are so excited to have another boy cousin around. Do we even want to think about all the trouble the 3 of them are going to get into? ha!



Caleb - now 5 mos. old


Caed feeding the fish in Grandmother
Mitchell's pond


roasting marshmallows


eating S'mores.....look away, Dr. Higgins!


playing "firefighters"
(Reagan, Bergan, & Caed)

Tues. 7/8 - update

The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.
(Psalm 41:3)

Tonight Caed and I had a very special evening with some very special new friends. It's a long story how we got connected, but basically by word of mouth this family found out about Caed and our experience. They have been following through the blog. However, they are not just an ordinary family....you see they too have a child with short gut. The drs. discovered her malrotation just days after she was born. Kensley has lost 75-80% of sm. bowel, part of large, and the value that connects the two (sound familiar?). She also shares the exact same drs. as Caed! (Goldthorn and Higgins) Her mom is a children's minister, and they have a daughter (9) and son (5). The similarities are astounding! (other than their age difference) Caed and I went to see them up at Covenant (in the exact same room as Caed.....only on opposite floor). It was a very eerie feeling walking into that room. Everything was so familiar.....right up to the point when Dr. Higgins walked in! Only this time, I was the "visitor." I was able to leave. I was not having to sleep on the couch-bed, eat hospital food and watch my child suffer (and feel helpless as a parent). I wanted to cry for them (& did). I felt all that they were feeling. We talked for quite awhile and decided that there was some special reason God joined our paths. We don't fully know what the outcome might be, but are excited to see how He leads. Please add precious Kensley to your prayer list. She is 2 months old and so beautiful! Her parents love the Lord, and it is very evident who they are leaning on during this time. God has already brought her this far, but just like in Caed's situation....you feel like you're making progress and then a major "setback" comes. They believe God is in control and have given their daughter into His hands. (something so difficult to do!)

Lord, I pray for sweet Kensley right now. She is so young and has so much life ahead of her. Please deliver her from any pain or discomfort. I pray for her parents/family as they are going through a major storm. Help them to see Your Hand in this and know You are holding onto them so tightly. YOU ARE FAITHFUL!!! BE GLORIFIED THROUGH THIS!! Use little Kensley in a mighty way to bring others closer to YOU!

**Mon. 7/7 - update**

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)

Praise God!!! We feel abundant blessings from Him today! NO MORE TPN!!!! This is such a milestone day for us. We have been burdened from all the time on the TPN (affecting his liver) and have prayed for him to be able to get off of it soon. Today is that day! Thank you God!! We saw Dr. Higgins today and he decided it was time to do away with it. Now we pray Caed continues to improve and we can stay off FOR GOOD! He will still have his central line in (for possibly another month) as long as there are no problems. We will continue to give meds through it and also draw his blood from there. G-tube will stay in longer. Our dr. wants us to get to 100 cc. by Mon.! That is another praise. All the time in the hospital we barely ever got to 30 cc. ~ maybe. The fact that Caed is doing well enough to get to that number in 1 week is incredible! Our dr. always told us it is much harder going from 0 - 20 cc. than from 20 - 50+. So, now....we should be on the homestretch. Caed lost 2 lbs this week, but Higgins wasn't overly concerned. Even though he is eating like normal now, his bowels are still trying to heal and are having trouble absorbing the nutrients. Hopefully the G-feeds should help more now that we are drastically increasing the dosage and rate. Caed is scheduled for an upper GI and sm. bowel series Friday morning. He will not have to drink the barium...they will inject it straight into his G-tube (like the last time). We are very ready to "see" what these results show.

Caed had another "food-filled" day. Again, he asked for it immediately when he woke up and didn't stop for several hours. It's not that he ate constantly, but he sure wanted to! He did however throw up after lunch. Not sure if he just had too much too soon. ??? The diarrhea was overall better today. I believe he only went about 3-4 times all day. (dr. also wants us to start some Imodium once a day)

Throughout this whole ordeal....we prayed for God to have mercy on Caed and heal him. As his parents, that was our desire....our will! However, we knew that God is sovereign and could choose to take Caed "home" and be completely just in doing so. All I could think about was other children / teenagers that died too soon in life, but yet God truly was glorified in their deaths. I have been to those funerals and sat in awe as the parents/family/friends gave HIM praise and glory. The plan of salvation was shared there. Many people attending those funerals were forever "changed." As much as I did not want that to be the case with Caed....I also knew that God could choose to do so if it was His will. (as extremely difficult as that would be). That's why it was so hard to know what to pray. I remember begging God to PLEASE deliver Caed! But, never through this did we ever have the attitude that "God WILL heal him." We hoped and prayed so, but were reminded that "our ways are not His ways..." (Isaiah 55:8) We knew the # of people reading Caed's story (and especially praying for him!) was growing day by day. Our thought was "how could God choose to end this story in death with SO many people praying for his ultimate healing?" "Wouldn't He be more glorified through healing Caed and answering everyone's prayers than through his death?" That was our rationale. But, we knew God sometimes chooses to do things that we in our human (depraved) minds cannot possibly comprehend. Like I said before, although we literally begged Him to heal Caed, we also trusted Him and knew He doesn't do things to harm or hurt us. So, even if He took Caed home...He would continue to be faithful and "not let us go."

Even though Caed has steadily been improving for several weeks (and drastically this past one), for the first time tonight it has truly hit me. God DID have mercy on us (& Caed)...He DID deliver Caed from months and months of pain, fear, sadness...He DID answer the heartfelt prayers of (possibly) thousands of people!! Caed still has aways to go. He still has gadgets going into his little body. He still is on lots of medications. He still is being "hooked up" daily. And his body is still trying to recover from the major trauma it went through. However....tonight as we were putting the kids to bed, Caed interrupted Reagan's prayer and said, "....and fank you God for not making me get hooked up to the ofer tube..." YES!!! Thank you God for this wonderful day You have given us! Thank You for answering our prayers in the way we wanted so badly. Thank you for pouring out Your blessing and favor on us! Oh...what love!! You never let go!

Sun. 7/6 - update

Taste and see that the LORD is good................... (Psalm 34:8)



This was basically the picture we saw of Caed ALL day! The first thing he asked for this morning when he woke up was his leftover "sketti" from supper last night. We told him to wait until after breakfast. He did. Maybe 30 minutes after breakfast!! He had about 5-6 helpings of spaghetti all throughout the day. He would have had more, but we tried to make him wait a little between helpings. He finally ate it all.....I guess we're going to have to make a big pot of it to have "on hand" here at home.

We spent most of the day over with Todd's mom. His brother Scott (& family) were in town for the holiday weekend. As I said before, Caed ate some spaghetti.....played some baseball....ate some more spaghetti....played with cousins....ate spaghetti....and then ate spaghetti again and again! That was basically Caed's day in a nutshell. So far, he has only thrown up once. He had some ice cream when we got back out to Idalou. Apparently we're seeing a pattern with dairy. (his cereal a few days ago came back up too) I don't know. I guess that will be one of the questions we have for our GI dr. tomorrow. Other than that, he had a terrific day! (had no problems with g-feedings........Todd is wanting to bump it up to 40 cc. tonight!)


playing baseball with Daddy


this one's for you, Brad!.........
(see how your absence has affected him?)


This is what I walked into while Caed
was in the restroom..........I think our
"crazy clown" is BACK!!!!!!!!

Sat. 7/5 - update

We had another full day! Reagan "officially" turned 8 today and even though she already had her party, we still wanted to make this day special for her. She invited (her cousin) Bergan to go to the movies with us. She wanted to see Kit Kittridge....but Caed wanted to see Wall-E again. So, all the "men" went to one and us girls went to the other. Then, we went to one of Reagan's favorite restaurants (Olive Garden) for supper.

Caed did ok today. Not bad.....but definitely not as well as he had been doing. Since last Mon., he had not thrown up any. This morning however, his cereal apparently did not settle well with him. Then, at supper tonight, he complained several times that his tummy hurt, and we (again) had to make many trips to the bathroom. Never threw up anymore though. And, he thoroughly enjoyed his spaghetti. When we got home, he asked me if he could have "just 1 more noodle!" Tonight his feeding pump is set at 26 cc. We will go for 30 tomorrow. Then, Mon. is his next GI appt, so we'll see what the dr. wants us to do from there. (since he's eating so much by mouth now)

We continue to see SO much progress with Caed! Thank you all so very much for lifting him up day after day. We know it is not over.....but we are sure getting close. Our God is Faithful!!!!!


Happy 8th Birthday Reagan!!!!
We love you SO much!


singing to her at the restaurant


Caed & Timmy