I took a break last night from blogging, to make sure Francis had a great birthday - he loved the fireworks, liveband and amazing food I'd arranged! Yeah, ok.... so he was kind of forgotten amidst the busyness of life, but he did get a pavlova with the promise of doing something fun at a later date. It was a busy and full house with my family and Francis' parents/bro here to enjoy a birthday roast thanks to Mum & my sis'n'law Kylie. Today Uncle Burp & Aunty Handstand (A.K.A. Selwyn & Kylie), Alison and Mum all left. Was so great to have time with them and it helped immensely over the school holidays to have the girls happy and entertained.
Today Samuel had a relatively quiet day. He was awake for most of the morning, just looking around and cooing and very settled. At about 12 we walked him down to radiology for his first C.T. scan. We were pleased that they had agreed to do the scan without putting him under a general anaesthetic, to save Samuel the stress of intubation. Samuel was very good and didn't wriggle and squiggle (which was the concern/need for anesthetic) and they got the required information.
The surgeon will operate on Samuel's left kidney tomorrow, based on the information gleaned from the CT scan, with the aim being to remove the blood clot from this kidney and see it reduced in size (the right kidney is in much better shape), as the clot is at great risk of infection. So we would value your prayers around 9.30am NZ time, as he is wheeled down ready for his 7th surgery. We hope and pray his body responds well to the intubation, anaesthetic and shock to his kidney as this invasive surgery takes place.
After his CT scan I had a lovely snooze in the lazyboy with Samuel wrapped in my arms for a good couple of hours, whilst Francis tuned out the beeps of monitors and worked at the nurses station on his laptop finishing his masters assignment. Samuel has finally taken to using a 'dummy' - that's 'kiwi' for pacifier. The nurses are keen to ensure he doesn't develop 'oral aversion', which is a reluctance to suck/feed due to only associating his mouth as a route for pain and tube installation. We've been trying to give him a few drops of milk orally and coaxing him to suck, and finally
today he slurped away like Maggie off the Simpsons which was very cute.
Today Samuels 'room mate' left NICU for home - was so lovely to see him head home with his Mum. Made us hopeful for this for us too - but for now he justs has to get past the hurdle of the surgery tomorrow.
Thanks so much ... again ...... for your love and prayers
Shirley
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10 comments:
Hey there, looks like you had fun together - pity Aunty Alison didn't teach the girls cartwheels to go with the handstands!!!
So pleased to read about the scan going smoothly and for the sucking/milk etc.(his cousin also started sounding like Maggie today!!) Will be thinking of you all tomorrow as you head to surgery again,
Lots of love and prayers
Janice & etc's xxx ;)
He is so beautiful! Praying for you guys today, for his kidney surgery, along with everything else. With much love and big hugs,
Bron xxooxxoo
To Samuel, i hope you do well with your operation later today, you look very cute in your picture's. I hope you will get better soon.
Love Benjamin x
Happy Birthday Francis! Sounds like a great time! Impressive organising Shirley- wow fireworks even!
Good news regarding the dummy. That is nice, our boy Asher loves his dummy and it brings him lots of comfort. Aria liked hers too because she didn't feed either. The more tools in your toolbox for comfort the better
We are praying for Sam today and his recovery might be quick and easy.
hey Francis happy Birthday - sorry we missed it. We continue to think of you guys loads and pray for the family, thinking of you tomorrow with teh surgery and praying for a positive outcome. He is a dear and precious boy. Lots of love to Candice and Jasmine especially, we miss you guys. MERRW
Thinking of you as Samuel would be well and truly out of surgery now and recovering...hope it goes well!
Glad Francis had a great day...we were debating, how old is he?
take care, love to all, Elaine & co xxx
Hope Samuel's operation was a success and they have got the flow going well.
Great to hear he was such an angel for the CT, they can be a bit trying so its great he was settled.
Been thinking of you guys here in Thailand.
Belated Happy Birthday, Francis! Glad you had a WONDERFUL party! Shirley is such a great wife & mum. I think she's so good at everything she does. Amazing!
We're so wanting to meet little Sam. Oh, well.. it's already so good to see his pix & all the updates about him. He's always in our prayers.
Hi to Jasmine and Candace too.
Lots of love - Oi, Andy, and Tahn
Greetings from Laos and we're praying all goes well with the surgery today. His breathing seems so much better, thanks for sharing those little "live" moments with us. Hudson says while watching, "I just love that little guy!" and this is true of all of us. Happy belated birthday Francis, hope it was a good one. Love and prayers for you all. The Hilliers.
I woke up thinking about you all- so often in my prayers, then I read “At that time we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9 PH). How we must all learn to trust......
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