Home Again! :)

We are home and Samuel is sleeping. He is in a lot of pain and is having to take two strong pain medications.  The drive home was rough, but he is resting now. Hopefully the pain will lessen tomorrow and the next day.  They replaced all the tubes and sometimes when they have a hard time working them into his kidneys and bladder it is very painful for him.  There is so much scar tissue now and it can really complicate things.   Praying he gets a good night of rest!  I'm about to bathe babies and head to bed early too.  Exhausted!

This Afternoon

Samuel is out of surgery and in recovery. I haven't got to see him yet though. They are going to keep him for at least another five hours, but they are hoping to be able to release us to go home this evening.  Please pray that he meets his milestones so he can be released.  Pray for pain to be manageable and for a safe and comfortable drive home tonight.  The staff at Memorial Hermann is wonderful.  They sent me to his room and as soon as I got here, the nurses were asking how much weight Samuel has gained and wanted to know how he was doing. Then they brought a menu and said to make sure he orders plenty to eat so he gains weight while here instead of losing it.  He weighs 110 pounds now and is inching his way closer to the minimum weight for his big surgeries coming up.  

Another little bit of good news is that just a few days ago the open wound on his abdomen stopped draining and the skin closed over allowing him to have one less bag.!  I called Dr. Kozar that day because I was told by several doctors that it would never close without additional surgery. I wasn't quite sure if it was a good thing or not.  Dr. Kozar was a little puzzled too and said until it proves otherwise, we will assume this is a good thing.  At this point it seems to be going well and we are going to count that as a praise!  The fascia is still not closed and will need some sort of mesh to close it after the big surgeries, but the skin is closed now and that makes things a little easier for Samuel.  He had minor wounds from previous tubes that have never been able to heal due to all the adhesives and tape when applying the wound bag. Now those wounds will be able to heal too. 

I know these random surgeries are to be expected and part of that "two steps forward, one step back" process, but it was really hard to accept that we were headed back to the hospital again.  I am just so thankful that they were able to get things under control again and that his stay here will be short.  It has been so great to see him getting to enjoy the things he loves again.   Thank you for joining us in praying for Samuel.  God is good ALWAYS!  

Back to the hospital! :(

You can't imagine how I don't want to post this message tonight. Samuel is having complications again. At 3:30 a.m. we will be heading back to Houston for surgery early tomorrow morning. Please pray for good news, quick healing, and pain control.  The last few weeks have been so nice and Samuel has been feeling really well and pain free.  It has been the first time in a very long time that things felt close to "normal" again.  Please pray he is able to come home and is strong and can return to the things he enjoys doing.  

Update on Samuel

Samuel came home from the hospital on Friday evening.  It took until Friday afternoon to get the sensitivity cultures back to know which antibiotics would work best to treat the kind of infection Samuel has.   He has been on several IV antibiotics that were broad spectrum, but they needed to know what antibiotic would actually work best to treat him. 

On the way home from the hospital, we had a minor car accident and now we are without the Highlander until it is repaired.  Thankfully everyone was safe.   Houston traffic it is a nightmare!

Saturday was a pretty painful day for Samuel, but he managed by sleeping a lot.   On Sunday morning he woke up and spent the majority of the day throwing up. He felt horrible!  By evening he was feeling much better though and he has been feeling pretty good ever since. The pain seems much more manageable than before and having one less tube appears to be working so far. The key to success with having one less tube is that the other three tubes continue to work properly so that fluids do not pool and create an abscess.  

We've been so busy since we got home and it has been hard to take the time to write an update.  We are blessed to share such a good update though!  Samuel is making progress and getting better.  He continues to take two steps forward and one step back, but in the long run that's still progress forward. Thanks for praying for him and our family. 

Samuel is out of surgery and doing well!

Samuel was scheduled for surgery at 9:00 this morning, but he didn’t go to surgery until 2:00 pm.  The nurses said there was bus crash in Houston and Ben Taub Hospital was full, so they sent the rest of the injured people to Hermann Hospital.  Last night Samuel’s fever spiked.  We still don’t have the final results back, but he definitely has an infection in his kidneys and bladder.   Dr. Kozar said she wasn’t surprised by that at all and actually expected it a long time ago being that he has some many tubes and the human body doesn’t like foreign objects.  Samuel came out of surgery at 5:30 pm.  The surgery went well and he doesn’t have a JP drain anymore!  That’s one less tube!!!  We are praying his body will tolerate it and that this will give him a little relief from the pain.   He is low on magnesium so they are going to work on bringing those numbers up.  He is still pretty out of it and only wakes up for brief periods of time. 

Dr. Kozar came by while Samuel was in the operating room and talked to me for about an hour and a half.  She was heading home and just came by to chat and see how Samuel was doing.  We had a great conversation.  After talking to her, I think it’s time to start moving towards setting things up for him to have the big surgeries he will need in Baltimore.   I am guessing we won’t be able to do that until after the first of the year, but we can start working on getting all the info to his doctor up there and scheduling those surgeries.  Dr. Kozar said that Samuel will need to weigh about 117 before he will be healthy enough to have such serious surgeries.  He is gaining weight well now and we are all pleased with his progress.    

So…..thank you for praying for Samuel and please continue to pray for his progress, peace and complete healing.  It sounds like the soonest we can go home would be possibly Friday because they won’t have the final results from some of the tests back until then.  I feel like today brought some good news though, and I am so thankful for that.  God is good and deserves all the glory!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013 Updates on Samuel

Morning Post --

They ran tests all night. Very long night! The ER was crazy last night. They were so busy and short on staff. Most things were not serious so Samuel was given priority. We haven't heard any results yet. There is no phone service in the ER. At 5:30 am, they finally gave me a chair. At 7:00 they moved us to the floor. Samuel is on the 8th floor, which is "Silver Trauma" with all the senior citiz...ens. I slept from 7:30-9:00. At 9:00, they started him on Cefapeme, Vancomycin, and Flucon, all IV antibiotics. They are trying to attack the infection from every angle, even before we know what it is. The cultures will take a long time to grow and determine what kind of an infection it is. We are hoping they will be by with the CT scan results soon. They are concerned that the JP drain has migrated again. He was scheduled for surgery on the 8th to replace all the tubes and to try and down size that JP drain and start backing it out again. Now I am not sure what they will do. He is not allowed to eat or drink anything because he may be going to surgery. We don't know anything else really. On a good note, he now weighs 105 pounds, which means he has gained 25 pounds!! I will post another update when we know more. Thank you for praying for Samuel.

 

Evening Post --

It has been a long day. Tomorrow Samuel will be having another surgery. We don’t know what time yet because we are waiting to hear from anesthesia. It will be a long procedure. Apparently Samuel has an infection in his kidneys and that may be what is causing the fever. They have decided to move forward with the surgery because by morning he will be on IV meds for a full 24 hours and several o...f the tubes and not working properly today. There is talk that they may try to remove the JP drain and see if he can tolerate it. We don’t have the final results from the blood work and cultures yet though, so I guess that could change things. Please continue to pray for Samuel. I will post more tomorrow. Good night!

Here we go again...

Here we go again...we are headed to the emergency rom at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Tonight Samuel has a 103 degree temperature. He doesn't have any symptoms of any type of bug or anything, so we are guessing there is an infection of some sort. We know infections are to be expected with his type of wounds and so many tubes. Please pray for quick answers and complete healing.