Successful Day!

Today was a successful day indeed. Jackson made it through his surgery with no complications and is back to himself tonight.

Today started at about 5:00am for Val and I. We got up and got showered and ready for Caleb to go to spend the day with my mom and for us to spend that day at the hospital with Jackson. The boys both woke up at 6:15 and Val and I and Jackson left for Fairfax INOVA Hospital. We arrived at 7:15 and got him checked in 2:30 hours before his scheduled surgery as required.

Jackson settled in and was playing in the play room for children in the waiting area soaking up the individual time he was getting without Caleb. Val and I had read the instructions for preparation for the surgery and read that we could give him clear liquids before the surgery. So we decided to give him some Jello. More on that later....

We were called into the recovery room with the nurse who would be taking care of Jackson in preparation for the surgery. We had been told the surgery was going to take about 1 and 1/2 hours and he would need to spend 4 hours in recovery and if things went well, he would be released.

At this point Jackson is doing just fine and is certainly starting to be a little weary about what is going on. As soon as the nurse started touching him, he realized what was going on and decided he didn't want to have anything of it. So Val and I did our normal routine of distraction and finally found that the VCR in the room with Thomas the Train cartoons really helped get him through it.

After going through the initial screening and temperature taking etc... we were greeted by the doctor and Anesthesiologist with news that because we had given him Jello we would need to wait around for another couple hours and the surgery would be pushed to 12 noon instead of 10am. That was a real bummer as Val and I both felt like we had screwed up big time. But the doctors were very understanding and looked through the document with us and realized that the wording was not clear enough so it was an honest mistake that they can help fix in the future.

At this point we sat around watching cartoons and took a nap in the recovery room. Here is a picture of the brave little guy while waiting.

So we made the best of time and waited it out until noon. The doctors showed back up and walked us through again how the surgery would go. We would take Jackson into the surgery room ourselves. Then lay him down on the table. Then the doctor would give him the medicine in the mask to start to put him asleep. Then we would say goodbye and leave to go and wait for the surgery to be complete. After that the doctors would go to work with inserting IVs and putting him under general anesthesia. They would then insert a needle into his artery in his leg, with a couple catheters. They what start by putting some contrasting liquid that would show where and how large the PDA was in his heart. Once they do that, they can measure the size of the PDA and determine the size of coil they are to use. They explained that at this point there are many possible modifications to the surgery but all rely on placing a device in the spot where the PDA is in order to clot the PDA and close the hole. After this was successful, the would put more dye in his system to see if the hole was closed. If that all went well and everything looked OK, they would remove the catheters and be done with the surgery with no stitches and just a large band aid. Then he would go into recovery.

At 12 noon we took Jackson into the surgery room and he was really pretty calm. Val placed him on the table and he seemed to look back up at us not knowing what was about to happen in this room filled with lots of equipment and TVs etc... He looked at Val without a fuss as he laid there trying to figure out what was going on. It wasn't until the anesthesiologist put the mask on his face that he let his lungs go. It's hard to watch your child at this point get put into a weird type of sleep but you have to keep telling yourself, that is in his best interest to allow this to happen. As the doctor removed the mask he had already rolled his eyes back and was pretty much out but very eerily was still mumbling a cry. That part was the hardest part. Seeing him wanting to cry but this medicine was preventing him from doing it. At this point Jackson was in Gods hands and the doctors he had chosen to work on him.

Val and I left the operating room and began the wait......

We decided that keeping busy was the best thing to do, so we went for a walk and tried to see if we could eat some lunch. We had a pager to notify us when we were needed and he was out of surgery. We went for a walk in the hospital and got some lunch after seeing some of the places I frequently visited when Val was in the hospital.

We came back from lunch and got back to the recovery room. The nurse came in and told us the doctors were done and everything went well. Whhhheeeewwwwww!!!!

Jackson was brought back to the recovery room and as expected was Groggy and out of it. Because they needed him to lie still for a while they gave him something to relax him and not get upset. It helped but he periodically decided he really didn't like all the things attached to him. So he was obviously ready to tell us he didn't know what was going on but he felt weird.

Val and I were happy to hear that the surgery went well. They only needed to use one small coil to close the PDA up and the doctors said there were no complications. That was great news. Now they needed to monitor him until 5pm and make sure he recovered fine.

It was definitely tough at first to see him the way he was, but as time went on, he got less fuzzy and more himself. Here is a picture of the brave little guy about 20 minutes after surgery laying with mommy.

As I mentioned he started to really become himself and began to eat for about 2 hours straight. He was real thirsty and hungry and started laughing being more normal after at this point.

Here are some after he was comfortable enough for us to not being laying with him in the bed.

This is his idea of catching up on missing a days worth of food. Bananas.... Yummy!

Well, our little guy is sleeping away now at home with his brother. It was a rough day but we got through it and Jackson did a great job considering all that went on. We continue to thank god for being with us through this and we owe it all to him for keeping us safe and getting us through all of this stuff. Thank you also to all of you who have prayed for Jackson. Your prayers were answered.

September Pics

Val was nice enough to put together some pics from September. Yes, I know it is almost the end of October. But at least its something. It has been a busy couple months.

Here are the pics:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbtXDdm4atGL1Q&emid=sharview&linkid=link4

One thing that is big right now is that on the 30th of October. Next Tuesday, Jackson goes in for surgery on his little heart. They are going to correct his PDA. It is an outpatient procedure using a catheter. Here is a link to a site that explains it some for you if you are interested.

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=72122#pda

It will be tough to see him go through it but it really is a relatively simple procedure. The main reason to get his PDA closed is to prevent possible complications from the defect. It is rare, but with this procedures risks being so low it out ways the risks of not getting it done. Its tough especially when your child looks and seems just fine. But it will be worth it for sure to know that it has been taken care of.

Poor Jackson has had some rough things go on, but he is a tough little guy and is surrounded by love so he will be just fine. He will also need surgery in the next 6 months to repair a small hernia that he has. I had one when I was born too so like father like son. Once that is done, he will be free of it all. We are just trying to get all this done before he can remember it.

Please keep Jackson in your prayers next Tuesday as well as after that for good healing.

I also wanted to mention that about a week ago, my Dads mom died after living for 96 years. She seemed to have lived a good life and had a large family. The Blows are a real large family and all come from Kansas originally. My dad had to drive from Montana to Kansas for the funeral because the plane tickets and travel were going to be hell. The poor guy had to drive it alone too. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, but all I could do was pray for him and the rest of the family to get back to Kansas and home just fine. Luckily my dad was able to get back to see his mom a couple weeks before she passed.

The Blows in Virginia are doing just fine and are keeping busy. Ill update soon with more news.

Take care!

Great day of hunting

This morning I went out hunting with my cousin Rich. We went out to bow hunt for Deer on the opening day of Buck season. We were in the tree stands in Luckets VA at around 6:00am. I didn't see any movement until around 7:30 when I saw some legs go by in some brush about 50 yards away. I thought, boy did I pick the wrong tree. I should have gone farther up the hill. But I was happy to see that the Deer turned my way and came out from the cover at about 3 yards from me and was coming my way. I noticed he had Antlers so I stood up to get ready for a possible shot. NOTE: I have missed about 8 times with my bow and never hit a deer. I am dead on with a gun but its definitely a challenge with a bow. My range is only about 15 -25 yards max. We'll this guy walked right to my 15 yard mark and turned sideways and was not stopping. So I didn't really have a lot of time to think about the shot other than what I was taught. Draw the bow back, get the site on, bend at the waste, aim a little low and "Trigger Down" when ready. This time the shot made a different sound than usual. It actually felt like I hit him. I saw him stumble a little bit and jump off about 25 yards away and stand there. I think this where he said, "What the heck was that?" As usual I sat there and waited a little bit thinking, did I hit him? About 2 minutes later I hear a loud stumble and fall about 25 yards away and that gave me the clue that I must have hit him. I got down from the tree about 10 minutes later and I saw a large Doe coming the same way so I hung out in my tree stand for a little bit. After I got down and the Doe had gone off away from me, I went to where I shot. There my arrow lay as usual, but this time was showing a clear sign that I had a direct hit. I'll leave out the details from here other than, I found my 6 point buck about 25 yards from where I shot him. Perfect shot!! What a great morning...The blows are starting the season early with Venison.

Here are some pics.