Good News

Today Isaac had a thorough examination by our ENT at Children's Hospital, Dr. Kozak. He declared that Isaac looked and sounded so good that he didn't even need to do a scope! Hooray! He said that even if he did find scar tissue, it's obviously not impairing his airway very much so he wouldn't need to do surgery. He figured it wasn't worth putting Isaac through the trauma of the scope, which I agreed with! Dr. Kozak has given us the "all clear", and we don't need to return unless Isaac gets sick again. We have instructions to watch him carefully, and to get him straight to his pediatrician if he even gets just a regular cold. If he shows the slightest signs of difficulty in breathing, then it's straight to Emergency.

Now we face the continued battle of keeping Isaac healthy. It's hard to not be overly protective of him, and yet we know we have the right to be a little paraniod :). We have kept Isaac fairly isolated during this past month, but we did reintroduce him to the church nursery last Sunday. He also returned to daycare this past week, and I am returning to my classroom next week (both of which expose him to a lot more germs). So, we will continue to be vigilant with hand washing and sanitizing, and we will continue to pray for Isaac's protection.

And now, a final word:

...for praying for our son! Thank you for all of your support - for your phone calls, visits, meals, Starbucks cards :), gifts and words of encouragement. We have been very blessed!

This Boy....

This boy.... ....is doing great! He's running, playing, talking, sleeping through most nights, and learning new signs faster than we can keep up with! To look at him now, you would never know he was so sick just a month ago. Tomorrow we are taking Isaac to Children's Hospital to have another scope done. They will be looking to see if he has developed any scar tissue, which would require surgery. We are praying that we will be given the "all clear", and that we won't have to walk into that building again any time soon!

This boy... ...even managed to stay healthy while Kaitlin and Russell had colds. They both wore face masks around the house for about 10 days.

This boy... ...still loves to "read" any book he comes across :).

This boy... ...is learning how to feed himself with a spoon. Many messes abound!

This boy... ...still calls Grandma "Mommy" (we're working on that one!), but insists on calling Grandpa "Papa", despite Grandpa's many attempts to teach him otherwise!
Grandpa: "No, not Papa -that sounds too old! It's Grandpa!"
Isaac: "Papa?"
Grandpa: "No... G-r-a-n-d-p-a!"
Isaac: "Papa?"

This boy....
...was Superman for Halloween...of course! Russell actually bought this cape from the thrift store at Children's Hospital when Isaac was in the ICU there.

This boy...
....had a great time at the Apple Barn on Halloween afternoon. He tried valiantly to pick up every pumpkin we came across, calling them all "balls" :).

This boy... ...loves his sister! He has taken to calling her "Kay-tee", complete with the sign for "sister". Very cute!

This boy...
...will be sorely missed by his Mommy when she returns to work next week.

This boy...
... is the light of our lives! Isaac means "laughter", and never has a name been more fitting. He brings a smile to people's faces wherever he goes! We will never stop thanking God for healing our boy, and for allowing us the privilege of being his parents.

Adjustments

It is so good to be home. And even better to be in our new home! When we walked in the door late Tuesday evening, I was thrilled to see how much my parents and friends had unpacked for us. There are still some boxes remaining, but all the important stuff is where it should be. We are so grateful for all their hard work... it made for a much more pleasant homecoming!

Isaac is doing very well, all things considered! He is still breathing well (although we have noticed a runny nose and nasal congestion today, which makes us nervous), and has more and more energy each day. He has started trying to walk, which is quite funny to watch! He's a little unsteady, and sort of hunched over... kind of like a drunken old man! We're just thrilled that he's already trying to use his legs. He is happy and giggly most of the time, and has been saying all kinds of new words. We are so relieved that there doesn't seem to be any neurological effects yet of all the drugs he was given. However, he is definitely struggling at night. He wakes up crying and moaning almost every 1/2 hour....making for exhaustion all around! We think that it's still the "morphine nightmares" that we were told about, and him getting used to not being woken up regularly by nurses. He goes back to sleep after some singing or cuddling from us, and then we repeat the whole process 1/2 an hour later. He is also in his own room for the first time, so I'm sure that's part of his adjustment as well.

Russell will be going back to work on Monday, but I still have a few weeks on leave. Isaac isn't ready to go back to daycare, and we're keeping him away from large groups of people and kids for a while yet. It's hard to find the line between being over-protective and keeping him safe.

And now... here's something to give you a good chuckle :).

"All Done!"

That's right, (borrowing from Isaac's favorite phrase) we're "all done"! After 25 days in the hospital, we are actually being discharged this afternoon! Isaac receives his last dose of morphine at noon, then they just want to make sure he doesn't react negatively at 4:00, when he would normally receive another dose. If he's OK (which they think he will be), then we get to go home! Well, "home" is a relative term at this point :). Many of you know that we moved the day after Isaac and I came into the hospital, and neither of us have actually been to our new house yet. It feels strange to say I'm going home, but it's not to the place that I associate with "home"! My mom, dad and friends have been working long hours the past few days to unpack our boxes for us and make our new house feel organized. Russell had also been working hard at unpacking on his own (while working full-time) a few weeks ago while we were in the Abbotsford hospital, but I'm so glad he hasn't had to worry about that while we've been here at Children's. I am so grateful to amazing friends and family who have dropped everything to help us, and have prayed fervently on Isaac's behalf. There's still a lot of healing and adjustment to come, so I will continue to update you on how our Superboy is doing.

Wow

Isaac and his "Doggy"... these two are never far apart!

Tube free and reading books... what a beautiful and familiar sight :)

Yesterday morning, one of the residents of Dr. Kozak (the ENT who did Isaac's bronchoscopies, intubation and extubation) came to check on Isaac. He was very happy with how Isaac's breathing is sounding, and told me something that I think I had missed earlier. He said "When we went in and did the second bronchoscopy last Tuesday, we couldn't believe our eyes at what we saw. We stood in stunned amazement at how much healing had taken place in just a week. The granulars (beginning scar tissue) were gone, bleeding was gone, and hardly any swelling remained. We all had seen what bad shape Isaac was in when we intubated him, and we were shocked at how much healing happened so quickly. I've never seen anything like it. You have a very lucky boy." I responded with "Well.. that's because this boy has hundreds of people from here to India praying for him!" He said, "Yep - I guess that would do it!" Wow.

Last night, Isaac began his oral feeds (drinking Pediasure from a bottle, instead of through his feeding tube), and it's going very well. Today we will start to gradually introduce solids. This morning, the doctor took out his feeding tube and his IV. It's so nice to give our boy a hug without him hooked up to any machine, and with no cords or tubes in the way!

This morning, we also got some big news. We may be going home tomorrow! Wow. Not sure if we're ready for that yet! Isaac is doing very well overall - he is sitting up for longer periods of time on his own, he is talking and signing, laughing lots, drinking well, and his bowel issues have almost been resolved. The remaining issue is that he is still weaning off of morphine. The doctors are reluctant to send us home while Isaac is still on morphine (and we agree). Since he is doing well, they are planning to speed up the weaning process and give him his last dose tomorrow afternoon. If he responds well, they will then send us home! They will be watching him carefully between now and then, as he did not react well when they tried to lower his doses too quickly last week. It's not that he actually still needs morphine, it's that after being on such high doses for even just a week, he has already developed a dependence on it and has to be taken off slowly.

So.... wow. Lots to be thankful and grateful for!

What a Beautiful Sound...

My Mom and Dad came this afternoon for their daily visit, so Russell and I went out for a few hours together. It was nice to be out of the hospital, but also felt very strange. As of today, I've been living in a hospital for 3 weeks. I almost forget that the rest of life has gone on as usual outside of these walls.

Isaac had a long nap this afternoon, and then seemed quite chipper once he woke up. He was sitting on Grandma's lap for a while, and suddenly a big flock of birds flew by the window. Wow, did he get excited! He loves birds, and can hear a bird call from miles away. He started saying "Bird! Bird!" over and over, and signing it too! We were pretty thrilled! Then, he and Grandpa got into a game together, and this is what we heard....

Baby Steps

I'm having to remind myself that progress with Isaac will come in baby steps. After the big leap in communication he took on Thursday (smiling, talking and signing), I think we all expected an equally big leap yesterday. However, Isaac has been very quiet - not signing and only speaking once or twice. He is still responsive to us though, and smiles a lot with his new, post-sedation, quirky grin. It's quite cute, but very different than the smile he used to have!

Isaac is still not able to sit up on his own, but is doing much better at holding his head up, and moves his arms around quite a lot. There are less and less tremors, and he didn't roll his eyes back in his head once yesterday (thank goodness... that was pretty creepy!). He hasn't needed oxygen in over 24 hours, and has also moved on to bolus feeding. He still gets fed through a nasalgastric tube, but instead of there being a continuous flow of food into his stomach, they have started doing a larger amount over a short period of time, every three hours. This is to get his stomach ready for regular meal times. This morning he received his last weaning dose of Ativan, and morphine will be finished sometime tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how he changes once those drugs are finally out of his system!

Yesterday a physiotherapist came to visit, and gave us some bubbles to use as therapy. The goal is to get him reaching for the bubbles... I think he did quite well!

I love how he seems to be imitating Russell!

We got in some good cuddle time too... also officially part of his therapy :).