Free At Last

We made it through the snow to LeBonheur this morning. Everything went great! Houston had the cast and stitches removed. Dr. Sawyer said that the incision is healing well. Houston is excited that his leg is wrapped in an ace bandage instead of having another cast. He can finally straighten out his leg!!! We will have a follow up appointment next week. 

Only 32 days until our baby turns ONE!!!

Bye-Bye Stitches

I talked with Dr. Sawyer's assistant this morning. Houston will have his stitches taken out on Wednesday, January 28th at Le Bonheur. He will go to the Starlight room for conscious sedation. This way Houston won't have to be put completely under, and they won't have to worry about a wiggly 11 month old. (It is hard to believe that he will be one month away from his first birthday.)

On a funny note, Houston is kissing the baby in the mirror. Where is the video camera when you need it?

Friends

Houston has been doing great! He is taking his pain meds once or twice a day, and he is sleeping through the night. He is still wearing Cast #2. He crawls at lightening speed and is climbing up the stairs again. Houston's friends have stopped by to visit. He has been loving every minute of it!

Hudson and Houston

Tucker, Houston, and Collier

Houston, Andrew, and Piper

Audrey and Houston

Houston and Dawson

Cast #2

Yesterday was an adventure. Around 11am, Houston crawled out of his cast. Dr. Sawyer warned us that it might happen, and we had bought an ace bandage just in case. (Prior to his surgery, Houston had been wearing a brace to support his ankle and to make up the length difference. We had to make many trips to the brace company for modifications because Houston kept crawling out of it. So, crawling out of the cast wasn't too big of a surprise. ) I called the clinic, and we met a resident at the hospital. The look on the resident's face was priceless. You could tell that he wasn't expecting a 10 month old (especially a wiggly, tired 10 month old that couldn't understand why Mom and Dad weren't letting him crawl around and pull up). After pulling every trick out of the hat, we left with a new cast. We will see how long this one lasts. =)

Waiting

Still Waiting

Who is this man? What does he want?

Just Great

We had another great night and morning.  Houston is back to his eating, nap and sleeping routines.  He's increasingly active - crawling, pulling up and attacking the stairs.   

New photos, blogs, and movies are posted at web.mac.com/kirksters.

Amazing little kid

Houston had a great night. He had his pain meds at 12:30 and 5:30 and went right back to sleep. He was happy to be in his bed, and he didn't miss all the late night visitors. We all slept in until 8:30. =)

He is getting back to himself -- talking, smiling, crawling, pulling up, wanting to climb up the stairs. He wears himself out pretty quickly. He is absolutely amazing!

Home Sweet Home

Houston slept for much of the ride home.  He was so ready for a dark, quiet spot.  Once home, he played with a few toys, ate, and started getting ready for bed.  

It is clear he's happy to be home.

This afternoon...

Recovery...

With Dr. Sawyer...

In the Bunny Room...

Flirting with the nurse...

Earlier this week...

His precious three little toes...

Checking Out!

Houston had continued improvement this afternoon, and is taking the oral meds nicely. The last IVs were removed a few hours ago. His appetite is improving - he did better with bottles and ate solids for the first time.

Last night, the doctors told us that if things went well today they would likely give us the option of leaving today or tomorrow. Given that Houston is doing so well and we are anxious to get home, we were heavily leaning towards a Thursday departure. Dr. Paidipalli and Dr. Sawyer's peers stopped by at the end of the day to check in on us and gave us the thumbs up to leave!


So, the nurses are processing our checkout papers as we speak.

We'll be home with Houston shortly.

Day Two

Last night went relatively well. There were interruptions throughout the night, but for the most part Houston was able to go back to sleep shortly after having a visitor. He pretty much slept in 2 hour blocks. The pain medicine wore off twice, which resulted in some intense crying - so he had new doses at 11pm and 4am. We woke up just before 7 this morning.

This morning, he got in a few good laughs at the expense of Gran and Papa's pranks, songs and faces, which was good. Houston hasn't had much of an appetite, so we've just gone with his wishes - figuring he'll let us know when he's hungry. He did put down a few puffs, which he always likes. He got a bit of a nap this morning, so we're hoping he'll slowly get back on his normal schedule.

All nurse and doctor check-ins today have been good. His progress and stats are where he needs to be. He's slowly getting used to the 3 medical visitors an hour, and is starting to ignore them to some degree!

We have made some progress! Houston is very excited that they removed all his monitors and the drainage tube this morning. So he just has two IV needles left. His noon meds were taken orally rather than IV. If things continue to go well, we may go home this evening or tomorrow!!!! We just need to make sure that the oral meds are strong enough, and he is drinking enough liquids.

Calling it a Night

Dr. Sawyer just stopped by to check on Houston, and said that he is doing excellent. He expects Houston to get back into his normal routine over the next few days.

Nurses are scheduled to come in twice tonight to take his vitals, so hopefully Houston can sleep through it!

Based on the children in surrounding rooms in obvious (audible) pain, we are very lucky that Houston has done so well. We feel blessed, and really appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.

Restless

Houston has had a good afternoon. He's had a few bottles now, and it's pretty evident he's ready for something solid.



He's not been able to get to sleep yet. It's nearly like he is too exhausted to sleep. There have been a few times where he's been very close but a nurse knocks on the door or the blasted monitor machine starts to beep for no apparent reason.



Interestingly, that has led to him being the biggest little lap baby. Houston has not been a lap baby since he was about 8 weeks old! He'll just sit with us for long periods of time. He's also very willing to watch cartoons, which is uncharacteristic. He is typically a busy body with no time for TV, so that has been an interesting thing to see from him.



All the nurses have praised his toughness, and have said that he is doing fabulous to have such little crying so close to the surgery.

Settling In

A little after 10 they brought us back to see Houston. The nurse said that when he was finished with surgery and they were moving him to the recovery room, he was already active. He didn't want to lay in the roller crib so they carried him over. He was drinking some apple juice - something he doesn't get to do often! About 30 minutes later, we tried giving him a bottle, but that didn't go over too well.... We'll try again later.

He looks very good. Noticably tired with heavy eyelids, which was expected. He has done virtually no crying - mostly frustration from the lack of sleep. It's 1:40 now, and we're still trying to get him to go down. It's tough for him being in a new place with new noises and sights.

Selfishly, the hardest two parts are seemingly behind the 2 of us. The first was the doctors taking him off to surgery. The second was seeing the cast for the first time - it just hits you that it's done. His leg is in a blue L-shaped cast above the knee so it's securely on there for a few weeks. It's unfortunate that more of the 'hard parts' over the long-term can't be pushed our way so that not everything is on Houston's shoulders.

We need him to get a good nap so that he can wake up and give us his trademark smile - that's the one thing we haven't seen quite yet.

Success

Dr. Sawyer stopped by to tell us that everything went great. Houston's heart and breathing were perfect throughout the operation. He will be fitted for the temporary cast over the next few minutes and we can go back to see him shortly in the recovery room.

Dr. Sawyer reassured us that we had made the right decision given what he saw with Houston's leg during the surgery. The foot, ankle and leg bones were such that reconstruction would have been unsuccessful. During the roundtable review, his 3 peers agreed with the decision. He ended by saying that he would have made the same decision for his son.

9 o'clock call

Just got a call from the nurse. She said that everything went well and that Dr. Sawyer is pleased with how everything looks. Houston's vitals are good. Houston will be back there for a while longer for stitches and sutures. They decided to go with a spinal block that will keep him comfortable for 24 hours.

The Morning

We arrived and Houston got checked in with the nurse. Dr. Paidipalli came in to walk us through the anesthesia process, and Dr. Sawyer came by to answer any questions. They said they expected to get started around 8 and it would take about an hour and a half.

Houston had a very good morning considering his very early wakeup time and skipped breakfast. He flirted with every nurse.

At 7:30, we walked him down to the Bunny Room where he got to pick out a new dumptruck to play with. Then, the staff took him down to his operation room.

So, now we're just playing the waiting game.

Heading Out

We're heading down to Le Bonheur now.  Early start!

Houston's Leg

Some of you may not the story about Houston's leg, so I thought that I would share it with you.

When Houston was born, you could see that something was wrong with his right leg, but none of the doctors knew what it was. After 10 long days of waiting, we met with Dr. Sawyer and found out that Houston has fibular hemimelia (FH). He is missing his fibula and two bones in his foot. His tibia is bowed, and there is a limb length discrepancy and ankle instability. Like most parents, we were worried. Would he be able to walk, run, or ride a bike? The answer was yes. We would have to make some decisions, but our little boy would be just fine.

We had two choices, amputation or leg lengthening with ankle and foot reconstruction. After reading lots of research articles, guidance from his doctor and a close friend with FH, getting to know our son, and many prayers, we decided that amputation was the right choice for Houston.

Houston is scheduled to have a Syme amputation on January 14th.