Holiday Cheer

So I took the kids to buy presents for Daddy today. As soon as I walked into the clothing store with five children, I had the full attention of one of the salesmen. I'm not sure if it was to hurry us out of the store or because he worked on commission. Either way I don't care, I really appreciated his help. We got home with our purchases and I had the older kids wrap their presents for Daddy by themselves, and I let Emma and Derrick help wrap theirs. I used to be very picky about how the presents were wrapped and I never let the kids do any of it. But they really enjoyed it - well Dana, Emma and Derrick really enjoyed it. Calvin and Bradley didn't seem to care one way or the other. Dana wanted to see just how many bows would fit on a tie box. Derrick enjoyed it so much, after he put his under the tree, he came running back into the room yelling "more more more" and grabbed a scrap of wrapping paper, crumpled it up, put a bow on it and ran back out to the tree. Maybe since it was so much fun to wrap the presents, they'll stay wrapped until Christmas.

Home at last!

So we finally got the go ahead to go home. I say finally, but really it was like an in-n-out burger. 4 days for open heart surgery. That is crazy when you think about it. The surgeon, Dr. Teodori, is a wonderful person who clearly cares about his patients.

Calvin was so happy to be home. He's still a little nauseous, but he is getting around really well. Both Amy and I swear that he looks stronger already. Only time will tell.

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Going home???

The doctor is doing a last blood test and double checking his heart and if all goes well we get to go home tonight!!! So open heart surgery on Monday, walking Tuesday, eating and more walking Wednesday, go home thursday. Amazing! He looks really good.

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Calm

Calm

Calvin is continuing to do fantastic. One of the doctors told him that the more he walks the faster he can go home. So he has been walking ever since. I think the doctor was absolutely right by the way. He looks so good some people have been asking why he was here. Amy got here with all the kids. I states outside with the two youngest and took the following picture. For all those who have been thinking praying or helping to watch our kids THANK YOU!

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Fruit Basket and Scrabble

So Chris got to come home today and take a nap for a couple of hours while I stayed at the hospital with Calvin. Chris didn't sleep much last night, so he was pretty wiped out. Truth be told though, I probably got as much of a nap staying with Calvin as he did staying home. While he was home, he got a phone call for a delivery for Calvin. It was a fruit basket from his new job. We were so surprised. That was so nice of them. Unfortunately Calvin felt nauseous today and didn't want to eat any of it. But they put it in the fridge at the hospital and he should be able to eat some tomorrow.

Calvin did really well today, he got up and was walking around quite a bit today. The more he walks the faster he'll recover. When he heard that he asked if he could get up right then. He played a mean game of scrabble with me today as well. Mopped the floor with me and I swear I didn't let him win. He's really rather good at it.

Breathing tube came out

After many hours of pointing and tears the respitory nurse finally took out the breathing tube. Unfortunately for Calvin it was promptly replaced with an oxygen tube that blows into his nose. Calvin is not entirely sure that this is an upgrade! He's very sick to his stomach but is handling it okay so far. I asked him if I could do any thing for him and he looked at me funny and said his bum itches. I drew the line! We figured out a way for him to scoot his bum from side to side a little and the crisis was averted. What a sight!

He has a feaver of 38.0. That is not bad but it needs to come down.

Calvin wants water! But the nurse says it will make his stomach worse! Dang!

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He looks great!

Amy won't let me post the picture I just took but he looks really good.

All is well, in fact, he woke up for a minute and pointed at his reporator tube and his chest. The nurses took that to mean "hey get this tube out of my mouth and ouch my chest hurts".

So back to sleep with the pain medication.

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Almost done!

The nurse came out and said that they are almost done. They are closing him up and then they will come and get us. It was much faster than we thought. They said it went perfect. We will hear from the surgeon soon...

And he walked in as I was typing. He said everything went perfect. He was even able to completely remove the thymus which may be helpful with the Myasthenia (muscle problems).

Dr. Teodori said that the old valve had scarred down to 9 mm (less than half it's original size). The one he replaced it with is 26mm. That will make a big difference!

We will see him in about 10min.

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Waiting at PCH

So we are waiting in the waiting room. They started by giving Calvin some Variced which makes him goofy-er than normal. He never seemed nervous the whole time this morning. He asked the doc to remove a wart as well. Not sure that is going to happen. I wonder how much a thorasic surgeon charges for wart removal?

We are sitting by the outside door so we get a good chill every time someone goes in or out.

We'll update when we have any info. The surgery should be done around 6-7pm.

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When It Rains It Pours

Well, so much is happening all at once. Chris got a new job in Sierra Vista which is a small town about an hour past Tucson. I've always wanted to live in a small town but never though it would be possible with Chris' type of work. He will be working for a company based in Virginia that has a contract to do computer back up at Ft. Huachuca. It's a really great job and we had a clear answer to our prayers that it would be a good move for our family. They called on the 5th of December and wanted him to start on the 22nd (of December) or sooner if he could arrange it. So he made arrangements with work to turn in a one week notice and start the new job on the 15th. So we started figuring out where he would live while the kids and I would stay here to finish the school term and get things ready to move once Chris found us a house to accommodate our numbers. The week prior to this Calvin went in for his routine cardiologist appointment. His pulmonary valve which was replaced with a donor valve three and a half years ago needs to be replaced again. We've been expecting this to happen for some time now. We just never knew when it would need to be done. We met with the surgeon yesterday and found out it needs to be done soon. We were able to get that scheduled for Monday. So Chris called the new job and they moved his start date back to the 22nd and he will have the week of the 15th between jobs to help with Calvin having his surgery. The excellent news for Calvin is that his valve has been affecting his energy levels and he should feel much better after the surgery. They are also going to be removing the rest of his thymus gland which is associated with Myasthenia Gravis. So hopefully that will clear up as well. So let's see, heart surgery on the 11 year old (one day after his birthday no less), Chris has a new job, we're moving to Sierra Vista, and Christmas is coming. I'm not sure my plate is full yet.