Praise Jesus!

This morning around 9 am we got a call from the hospital telling us the surgeon had moved up the Payson's study time to noon. The nurse also informed me that Payson had been up all night and finally fell asleep at 7:30 am. Guess who hasn’t figured out his nights and days? I was excited to hear we would get the test earlier because the sooner the better, but since I had promised the nurses a pre-mature pizza celebration I had better get to steppin. Todd called in the Pizza’s and I ran to get ready! When I arrived in the NICU I noticed Payson was completely passed out. When I say passed out I mean a gong could have gone off near his head and he wouldn’t have winced! There was an excitement buzz going around the NICU concerning Payson’s test and every nurse/staff was asking about it! It was so nice to have a positive buzz instead of the rush hurry to save the baby or surgeons are coming to operate, (yes, they have operated in the NICU 3 times) or run around like a chicken without a head to prepare for a baby buzz. It was a nice, pleasant, calm atmosphere this morning and it seemed the babies felt it, (the monitors dings/dongs were fairly quiet). Noon came and our hearts welled up with anticipation as we walked Payson up to the X-Ray. Todd carried his medical chart that is now an encyclopedia, I rolled the oxygen and the nurse rolled Payson! When we arrived in the room the surgeon had yet to arrive so we left Payson where he was happily asleep, but began to prepare his transfer. In order to avoid the disaster of a day that happened last time, (he almost coded, went down hard and took all afternoon to calm down), the doctor ordered Payson receive medicine that would help prevent heart rate dips and have oxygen on during the whole test. A transfer to the bed proved to be a little more than Payson wanted. He began to have issues with his secretions and his sat levels dropped, but after a very quick suctioning of his mouth he was fine. When the surgeon showed up I figured we’d be asked to leave, but instead we were handed the heavy lead jackets. Todd and I scooted ourselves around the table to that we could talk to Payson and assist in any way we could. They began the test by inserting barium (a dark liquid that should reflux into his stomach and one esophageal end) into his G-tube, (he hadn’t eaten for three hours) and then moving the table down head first. This did not please Payson, but he held it together. The surgeon then stuck a tube down his mouth and pushed on his pouch towards his stomach. The first picture was taken and we heard from the surgeon, “it’s grown a lot” our excitement grew. Then they took another picture and we overheard that it was 3 to 2 ½ vertebrae apart, (you might remember that in order to have surgery we needed the two ends to be 2 vertebrae apart) our excitement immediately began to leave our bodies. They manipulated Payson’s body by lowering the head of the bed more, adding more barium and pushing on his stomach. Apparently, Payson wasn’t having reflux and was getting rid of the barium quicker than they expected, which isn’t a bad thing had it not been for this test and the need for reflux. This did not please Payson as he struggled to handle his secretions and began to have labored breathing, but with a tiny amount of crying he put his big boy pants on and held himself together. All the while Todd and I kept talking to Payson telling him we were there and that he was doing a great job! After a couple more x-rays we heard the words we were desiring, “okay we got a picture of it 2 vertebra apart”. With that they up righted Payson’s bed and got him comfortable. This whole time Payson handled his secretions, maintained his heart rate, remained pink and didn’t have any episodes! Yahoo! I couldn’t have been more proud of him! He really did amazingly well! The surgeon walked over to us as we anticipated what he’d tell us, “Looks like we can do surgery on Monday”. That is all he had to say we smiled and began walking on cloud 9! With those simple words a wave of relieve engulfed us both. Payson went on a head of us as the surgeon walked back to the NICU with us to give us more details of the surgery. He fully expects that we will transfer to DuPont on Friday or Saturday and that we will go back to the NICU. You know what that means? Hotel DuPont is back…private rooms, TV’s, free meals for breast feeding mommies, great nurses, free valet parking and our doctors on hand every day! Yes! (Don’t get me wrong I have become accustomed to life in the Bryn Mawr NICU and have fallen in love with most of the nurses. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that we were in that big open room when Payson got his blood infection or even his latest little episode if we had been in a private room I don’t think that the infections or episode would have been noticed so quickly. Since all the nurses are in one room, Payson gets attention all the time and everyone knows when he isn’t acting quite right! To be honest I will be very sad to leave Bryn Mawr and am dreading saying goodbye. His regular nurse has already asked to come visit next week on her day off! Isn’t that sweet?) As we continued to speak to the surgeon he told us the surgery would most likely be around 9:30-10 am and take 2-4 hours (depending on how much stretching will need to be done). He also mentioned to us that he wouldn’t paralyze Payson after surgery, but would heavily sedated him unless he felt paralyzing would be necessary! We were notified that since Payson’s lung will be collapsed during surgery it might take Payson a while to come off the ventilator. When asked about the long term affects the surgeon said that we wouldn’t know until after surgery because it would depend on how much they actually had to stretch the two ends. Really we will know how much stretching is needed on how long the surgery takes. The shorter the surgery the less stretching they did! We expect from day of surgery to remain in the hospital for 3-4 weeks…the light at the end of the tunnel turned on! Our baby boy will be home soon!

It remains our prayer that God reveal a miracle where He can’t be denied! How cool would it be on Monday morning when they operate the two ends are kissing vs. the distance the surgeon saw today? He can’t be denied that miracle! (: It will be a rough week next week, but one we are willing to go through to get Payson home! Please continue to pray for Payson: That God chooses to perform a miracle, that Payson recovers quickly and heals at amazing speed, that as a family we all rise to the occasion and get strengthened through this. Thank you all for every prayer, kind word and help! It will not be forgotten!

Gotta run, Margaret Ruth just broke something…what doesn’t kill us will make us stronger!