Day Two, we will make it through

Day two did not start out to good. After I posted last night, we went to sleep. Around 2:30 am the phone rang. The nurse said that the Gopher had had a seizure and they thought we should come back to the hospital. The doctor asked me a few questions and then we got up, changed and headed over. It was an eerie feeling walking down Fannin with absolutely no cars. Not even an ambulance or people walking around. We made it up to his room and the nurse described the events that led up to the seizure. He had had some trouble breathing so they suctioned out his throat and placed a face shield with oxygen in front of him. He did a little better, but continued to have low oxygen levels. So they suctioned again and gave him a breathing treatment. That helped a little, but he continued to have labored breathing. At around 2:15 am he started having a very mild seizure that only lasted about 2 minutes. They gave him medication to stop the seizure and also gave him steroids to help open up his throat (which might be swollen from the breathing tube used during surgery.) At 4:00am they decided to do a CT scan of his brain to check for possible bleeding. It was quite an event to get all his wires and monitors and equipment on the bed to move him. It is a good thing he is a small boy or there wouldn't have been room for him. The CT went fine and the results showed that there was no bleeding, but he did have a little air in there (so now he is an air-head). The neurosurgeons said that this is very normal after surgery and the air will dissipate on its own. They decided to put him on maintenance medication for the seizure for at least a few days and if everything goes well they will take him off of it. We will speak with a neurologist later this morning about that. He has been very sleepy from all the different medications and that is not helping his breathing. The breathing treatments have helped a lot and they took a chest x-ray this morning. It showed a little fluid in his lungs, so they changed his antibiotics to help prevent pneumonia. They are also going to clean out his nose a little and give him some saline spray and ointment to try and help him breath a little better through his nose. Right now he will stay in the ICU until his breathing improves and they can take him off the oxygen. We are doing the best we can on very little sleep and the doctors and nurses have been super. They have been explaining everything and we are able to stay in the room with him 24/7 if we need to. We took a break at 9:00am to shower, check-out of our hotel and write this. Tonight we are hoping to stay in the Ronald McDonald house that is in the hospital. It is only one floor up from where he is, so we will be closer if he has any more problems. Thanks again for all your support and we will keep you posted.

Day one is almost done

Well the day started at 4:30 am this morning when we had to head to the hospital for the Gopher's surgery. They took him back at around 8:30am, but didn't start until 9:30am. The neurosurgeon went first and we spent several agonizing hours waiting for him to finish (we had thought that his would be the shorter portion of the surgery.) After four long hours, he finished and the ENT started (that was at 2:00pm). Finally at 4:45pm, the ENT came out and talked with us. She said that they were able to completely remove the cyst and the tract connecting it to the brain. He had lots of extra skin on his new nose, so she added a few stitches to make it look nicer. She called it the 10 foot rule (they should look good from at least 10 feet away). Right now he wouldn't pass, but hopefully later he will. She said that he will have trouble breathing through his nose for awhile, but after it heals a little he will be better. She said at that time the neurosurgeon was closing up and would be out in an hour or so. At around 5:30 pm the neurosurgeon came out. He described his portion of the surgery. He said that it took longer than he expected because the tract went further in than he had originally thought. It took a long time for him to close up the hole and then put everything back together (like Humpty Dumpty). He said that we should expect him to not look to good for the first few days. (He wasn't kidding.) We had to wait another two hours until we were able to see him in the recovery room. Once we did see him, it was a little hard to take. His nose was much smaller, even with the bandages we could tell that there was a big (now little) difference. His head was completely wrapped in bandages (like a stocking cap) and on the side by his ear you can see part of the sutures. His eyes are swollen shut and he is not a happy camper. He has a hard time breathing through his nose (as to be expected) so they have oxygen blowing by him. He has tubes coming out of everywhere (and I mean everywhere) except his right hand. He was very unhappy when we got there so they gave him some morphine (I'd want drugs too if someone cut my head open). Finally Daddy got to hold him and that really helped calm him down. He was fine until they had to put him back in the bed for the transfer to the pediatric ICU. Once we got to the ICU it was like all hands on deck. He had 6 nurses plugging and unplugging and checking and flushing. Once they got him all connected (I think he is wired for internet now), Daddy was able to hold him again. He was fine for awhile, until the nurse cleaned the drainage from his nose. Then nothing made him comfortable. So we put him back in his bed with some music playing and he finally settled down. We decided that it was a good time for us to leave and try and get some sleep. It was hard leaving him, but he needs his rest and so do we. It has been a very long day and tomorrow will probably be another one. He is supposed to only be in the ICU for 24 hours, but that depends on how his breathing and pain management go. We will keep you posted and thanks to everyone for all the prayers and well wishes. We certainly needed them and felt them today.

The Dancing Queen and the Holy Queen

The first Sunday in May, the Bear had her first Communion. She looked as pretty as a princess, or a bride as she said. The dress was borrowed from a friend, but she didn't just like it, she loved it. The veil was my wedding veil. She wore her sister's "high-heeled" shoes and a necklace from her Uncle Robbie and Aunt Judy. Daddy had a sad moment before Mass, as he looked down and realized that the next time he will be standing next to her in a white dress and veil will be her wedding day. She did a great job and remembered how to hold her hands and what to say. I can't believe how grown-up she is getting.

She and her cousin had a great time at their party afterwards. They got to cut their cakes and open presents, and I think they both enjoyed being the center of attention for the day.

The Goose had her second dance recital at the end of April. For her tap class they were pink poodles and danced to "Who let the dogs out". They stole the show. They were so cute and in the bottom picture, she is the poodle on the right. They had to stick out their tongues and wag their tales. The Goose is certainly a dancing queen. She goes from shy and quiet to smiling and putting on a show as soon as she is out on that stage in front of the audience. She is certainly a natural when it comes to dancing.

Swing batter batter swing.

The Goose and Bear started baseball this past weekend. This was the Goose's first tee-ball game. It took her a few swings before she actually hit the ball.

But she did hit it. Then she stood there for a minute before the coach told her to run to first base. The first at bat she got out at first, but the second time she made it there. She said that she had fun.

This was the Bear's first game of instructional softball (machine pitch). During the first inning she had to be the catcher. She had never done that before. The pads were so big, she couldn't see or walk, much less catch or throw.

She looked like a robot trying to field the ball. But after being catcher, she did a great job at bat. She even made a home run. She doesn't hit the ball far, but she hit it on all three of her turns at bat and she scored on all three. The first time, her helmet was so big and had a face mask, so she had to hold it the whole time she ran. On her second turn, she knocked her helmet off when she hit the ball. She said that she had fun and is looking forward to her next game.

Hippity Hop, Easter's on its Way!

The Goose and Bear looked very pretty in their new Easter dresses. The goose especially liked her "high-heeled" dress shoes. I'm not sure what they are doing, but they looked nice doing it.


Easter morning, the bunny came and left eggs and presents for them to find. This washtub made a great Gopher holder for the picture. He even looked up for the picture. They had a great time hunting eggs. We made confetti eggs for D&P's house. Nikki sorry about your necklace. The grownups got a little carried away.

I just had to include this picture. This is what she would look like if she stuck her finger in a light socket.

Lions,Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Spring as sprung. So we took our annual trip to the zoo. It was quite cool in the morning, so all the animals were out and about. We had a close encounter with a jaguar (above) and got to see him do more than sleep.


The bears were out too. This is a spectacled bear (although he doesn't look very spectacled). He was fun to watch.


Everybody loves the komodo dragon. They even had dragon babies. They weren't very cute, but very interesting to watch.


Another new addition was this baby gibbon. It took awhile to see him, because they stayed on the roof of the viewing area. But they had signs to watch out because he is so little that he can get out of the fence. So they said not to be alarmed if you see him in the bushes outside the enclosure. We weren't that lucky. But we did get to see him climb around with his mother.


Hippo booties. They have a brand new hippo exhibit. It is very nice, but of course all the hippos did was stand there.

Gopher even liked the zoo. He laughed when the baby goat licked his hand in the petting zoo and he really liked the train ride. But his favorite animal was his moose.

Happy Birthday Texas

This past weekend was the Texas Independence Day Celebration at Washington on the Brazos. We usually go on Sunday for the Texas-size birthday cake, but this year we had to go on Saturday. The weather was absolutely perfect and Goose and Bear had a great time. They made corn husk dolls and danced and got see what life was like in the eighteen hundreds.

I tried to convince them to push the cultivator behind the oxen, but they weren't interested. They were able to see what children in those days had to do. They were able to grind corn and wash clothes.

When we got home, they wanted to try washing their own clothes. So I got them a washboard (works great on poopy baby clothes) a washtub and some soap. They washed their clothes and Gopher's. By the time they finished washing and hanging they decided they didn't want to have to do that every day. It would take too long and they didn't think they got the clothes clean enough. So after they had their fun, I rewashed everything in our modern convenience the washing machine.