Life as a Wife

Psalm 97

The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
All worshipers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
worship him, all you gods!

Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.

O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!

Christopher posting again. Rashell and I got to sleep through the night last night. When we got up, Rashell called the hospital and they told her that Robert was up most of the night, but in a good mood. They said he watched all six Pixar movies we brought for him and that the nurses took turns rocking him on their laps. He’s still in the PICU but we’re hoping for a move to “the floor” some time today.

We got to the hospital a little after 8 this morning and Robert was writhing in pain. It was heartbreaking. Rashell held him and he just moaned and cried, reaching up and gingerly touching his chest. It was so difficult to watch, knowing there wasn’t anything we could do except comfort him. Eventually, the nurse gave him some morphine to help with the pain and it was like someone flipped a switch. He stopped crying and turned into our little Robert boy. He started smiling, talking, eating, and interacting with the movie (Toy Story). When I started filming him, he asked for the video camera, which I gave him.

He’s recovering very quickly and his doctor said he might be able to go home earlier than we expected. Of course, that all depends on how effective the pain management is and how quickly he can be weaned off the stronger main meds. The plan now is to stop using morphine and instead alternate ibuprofen and oxycodone every four hours. Once he’s down to only needing ibuprofen, Dr. Salazar said there would be no reason to keep him in the hospital.

He still has his chest tube in and it will probably stay there until Monday. Aside from that, all Robert has is a heart monitor, O2 sat monitor, and two peripheral IVs. Dr. Salazar said once he gets his own room, we can allow him to do anything he wants, including walking around and playing. We’re looking forward to that.

Thank you all for praying and please keep it coming. It’s obviously effective and we are so thankful for all of you. I’ll update this post when Robert gets a room and we have more information. Until then, here’s the video Robert shot of himself:

1:45 PM: Robert is now in his own room and he’s been doing really, really well. He’s been awake and pleasant since this morning, though he does look awfully sleepy. He’s been sitting on Rashell’s lap almost the whole time.

Since he has his own room, now he can receive visitors. If you’re in the area and want to drop by, get in touch with Rashell or me and we can give you the room number and info. Here’s another picture of our little patient:

This is Christopher guest posting. Today Robert is having his surgery and we’ll be using this post to try to keep everyone updated. As we learn more, we’ll append updates here, so refresh every so often.

They took Robert back to anesthesia about 10 minutes ago, so he is now in the doctor’s hands. More importantly, he’s in God’s hands. So please keep praying for us and him.

More to come, news as it breaks…

10:04 AM: The nurse just came in to say that they are just now starting the surgery. Robert went to sleep without incident and everything is going well so far.

11:01 AM: Robert is on bypass now. They’re using a heart & lung machine for this surgery. He’s still doing really well.

12:08 PM: Just got an update. Nothing new to report. They’re still working on him and he’s still doing great.

1:01 PM: Same as before. Still working, still doing great. For the record, I am expecting the next few updates to be along the same lines. This is a 7-10 hour surgery and the surgeon told us he won’t give us details until he’s finished.

1:40 PM: Well, I was wrong. This update is not going to be the same as the last one. The nurse just came in and told us that the surgeon got inside and found that the diseased aortic valve is actually in better shape than anyone thought. So he repaired it instead of replacing it. Going into the surgery, the only question really was which procedure would he use to replace the valve. As it turns out, he didn’t have to replace it at all. This was an outcome no one ever told us to expect so obviously we’re happy.

The nurse said that the surgeon is closing right now and that he should be in to talk to us in about 45 minutes. I’m not sure now long after that it will be before we can see Robert, but I don’t think it will be long. Thank you all for your prayers. There’s no question that God has been gracious to His little one.

2:50 PM: We just got finished speaking with Robert’s surgeon, Dr. Salazar. He told us about Robert’s bicuspid valve and the repair that he did. He also said that he discovered an aneurysm forming in the aorta above the valve, so he removed it and it is no longer a threat. Robert’s prognosis is very good. He now has a trivial leak, though the tradeoff was slightly more stenosis. But this is in an acceptable range and, in Dr. Salazar’s words, “I think you’re going to be very happy with this valve.”

As far as long-term outlook, Dr. Salazar literally guaranteed us that we will be here again, needing another surgery. He told us that Robert’s valve will last him at least until is is five, which is good because older children have a lot more options when it comes to valve-replacement surgery. To put this in context, we were already expecting another surgery again in the future, and this way, there are fewer possible short-term complications, plus the pulmonary valve was left alone.

Robert has been transferred to the PICU and we’ll get to go back and see him in about 20 minutes. More updates later.

5:40 PM: Robert is now resting comfortably in the PICU. He’s under sedation so he’s still asleep, but they’ve taken him off the paralytic so he is moving a bit. We’ve gotten to hold his hand and talk to him. He’s doing great. We expect that they’ll wean him off the sedative some time tomorrow. For tonight, the plan is for everyone to get a good night’s sleep, so this is probably the last update for this post.

Thank you, everyone, for praying. There’s no question that it works. God hears His people and He has been kind to our little boy.

Here’s a picture of our sweet child.

8:03 PM: Well, I was wrong again. Shortly after my 5:40 update, Robert started to fight against the sedative. And since he was off the paralytic, he started to roll around and reach for things. So they called us back in to help calm him down and decided to go ahead and let him wake up and take out his breathing tube. But that has to happen on Robert’s time, and by 7 PM (when visitors are no longer allowed in the PICU), he still had not woken all the way up. So Rashell and I went home to get some dinner and try to sleep. They will call us once Robert wakes up and has the breathing tube out. He’s doing so well. It’s borderline corny to say “he’s a fighter,” but he really is. I put his stuffed owl (which he can’t sleep without) in his hand and told him he was holding his owl. Robert started to lift up and tried to throw it, his typical “I’m-not-going-to-bed!” reaction. So Robert is really doing great and we’re confident he’ll be up stressing the nurses out very soon.