Moving Right Along

Willem is doing really, really well.  The two of us had a rough night last night; in a case of insult added to injury, Willem got an ear infection and his eardrum ruptured.  The good news was that he didn't even notice his chest incision.  The main question on his mind was, "Mom, how do I get out of here?  Can you get me out of here?"  They finally got him settled down at about 3 am.

He's been getting better and better all day today.  He'd had an elevated heart rate and temperature, and those both came down.  They took out several IV's and the catheter, so most of his extra lines and wires are gone and he's a lot more comfortable.  He was able to start eating and drinking today.  The original plan was that he get out of bed and do some walking, but everything else took a little too long, so we'll get to that tomorrow.  This afternoon they moved him from the ICU to a regular room.  Apart from the fairly gruesome chest tube, he looks fantastic.

As we walk the halls, we hear other parents on the phone, explaining to their loved ones how their kids are doing.  And I feel so blessed that Willem has this fixable problem and that things have gone so well.  I'm also incredibly thankful for all the doctors and nurses who make it their work to care for people.  It's hard to imagine a more important job, and I have so much admiration for all my friends and family in the medical field.

Shaun said it before, but I too would like to thank you all too for your prayers and support.  It has been such an encouragement to us.  I'm guessing that we'll be heading home before we know it.  When Thanksgiving comes we will be feeling particularly thankful, both for Willem's health and for all of you.

Update!

(This is Shaun writing.)

Surgery went very well, no problems! One of the primary risks of VSD repair is damage to the heart's electrical system (which then requires the installation of a pacemaker), but this was successfully avoided! No pacemaker! We are very thankful (and relieved).

Willem is in ICU now, and hooked up to every machine you can imagine.  He should be off the ventilator in a couple of hours and should become conscious again shortly thereafter.  He's still very much in critical condition, with much attention required, but doing very well.

Thanks everybody for your comments, gifts, thoughts and prayers!

Getting Ready

It's been an unusual few days for us since I last posted.  Every person--and family--reacts differently to stress.  Our way of preparing for Willem's surgery has been to hunker down, stay close to home, and enjoy spending some time together with just the four of us.

Over the weekend, we watched some TV, finished up a few house projects, and got caught up on laundry and dish washing.  Shaun took the boys for a drizzly walk around the lake in the last hour of daylight.  It's too bad that it always takes some major upheaval in my life for me to appreciate how precious these seemingly mundane moments are.

This morning we roused our protesting boys at 6:30 to try to get to the hospital in time for our 8:00 appointment.  Shaun's folks came and got Nels while the rest of us did all of the pre-op stuff.  Willem was a champ like he's never been when it came to all of the tests and procedures.  Up until now he has refused to lay on a table to be looked at, but today he seemed excited to have the opportunity to show how grown up he is.  He was perfectly still when they drew six vials of blood.  His only response was to say "Ouch." 

We met several of the people who'd be working on Willem's case and then took a tour of the PICU.  It was really helpful to see everything and have a better idea of what to expect.  It's pretty amazing how involved heart surgery is.

My sister prayed that Willem would be the first case of the day (so he wouldn't have to go too long without eating or drinking), so I'm going to blame her that we have to be at the hospital at 6:30 tomorrow morning.  Actually, I'm very thankful.  Willem wakes up ready to eat as soon as he jumps out of bed, so the early hour will hold him off a bit.  They'll come take him between 7:00 and 7:30 and get started.

Once they have him under, they'll do an echocardiogram down his esophagus.  This will give them better pictures than they've had so far, and they can confirm what they need to do.  At this point the plan is to close the hole (VSD), break up a muscle bundle (they just snip it and it comes apart), and trim an area near the base of the valve that is obstructing the blood flow.  The last problem has the potential to recur after the surgery, but the first two should be fixed for good.

If all goes well, he'll spend 1-2 days in the PICU and then a few more days in a normal room, with a stay of about 5-6 days.  They gave Willem a bunch of toys today, so he's quite looking forward to going back tomorrow.  I really feel for the parents whose children are old enough to be anxious.   

Speaking of anxious...well...Shaun and I could use your prayers in that area.  They expect to be all done in about 5 hours, and I'm sure that will be the longest 5 hours of our lives.  Of course there is a risk anytime anyone undergoes anaesthesia, so we will be praying for Willem to come safely through that.  

We'll also pray that the surgeon will be able to make the repairs without damaging anything else, and that the heart will return to its regular, healthy beat once it is restarted.  This is considered a low-risk operation (which somehow does not do much to make me feel better.)  The surgeon said the risk of fatality is about 2%, and the risk of needing a permanent pacemaker (if the heart's electrical system is accidentally disrupted by the location of a stitch) is around 5%.  My step-brother's baby had a large VSD and came through surgery swimmingly, and my brain knows that that is the norm.  Sometimes, though, my heart does a very good job of disregarding the facts.

I don't know how much I'll be posting over the next week, but I will make sure to share all of the major things, like how the surgery went, when we leave the PICU, and when Willem is discharged.  We'll be in touch with my mom and Shaun's folks by phone, so family members can call them for updates.  And I'm sure that Willem would love some visitors after the first few days, for those who live nearby.

Deep breath and here we go!

Let's See...

What have we been up to lately?

Well, not to be outdone by his older brother, Willem has decided to do some representational drawing as well.  See above for his rocket.  You'd be forgiven for guessing that the rocket is surrounded by smoke and flames from the blast-off.  But no.  It's a storm.  

Here's his tank:

As for me, I'm just trying to fill the time until next Tuesday.  I went grocery shopping and noticed that my impulse buys are getting stranger as I get older.  This time it was blood oranges.  I discovered blood oranges on my honeymoon in Italy and have since noticed that they are used much more widely in Europe than they are here.  I love them, and, every year as the weather cools, I start to think about what I might make when they arrive.

Alas, the blood oranges never made it to Boise last year.  I called every grocery store in town and nary a produce manager could explain it.  So this year I grabbed a bagful when I saw them at WinCo.  Now what to make?

I settled on this recipe for a blood orange tart.  I figured it would be my belated birthday dessert.

Doesn't this look gruesome?  (I'm referring to the juiced orange, but the faux-stone countertop qualifies as well.)

Here's the finished product.  I was a little disappointed in how it tasted -- the flavor was too mild.  Not bad, but I  wouldn't make it again.

As for what our cat's been up to (you were wondering, weren't you?), she's been eating the birthday flowers and throwing up on the carpet.  So the flowers are in the trash now.

Nels has been spending his time thinking of new ways to drive his brother (and, by extension, us) crazy.  Once Willem started correcting people on the pronunciation of his name, Nels figured it would be good fun to start calling him "WILL-Y-UM."  His other tack is simply to not reply when Willem asks him a question.  "Nels?  Nels?  Nels?  NELS!"  It's been a long week already.

In election news, the results of the Bright Futures Learning Center apple election are in, and the red apples have taken it.  Nels was excited to have voted for the winner, mostly because it meant he got a red apple to take home.  According to the pre-school directer, as quoted in the Camas-Washougal newspaper (we live in a REALLY small town), the exercise in democracy was very successful, with only one student voting for an orange.

Democracy In Action

When I picked up Nels from school today, he was wearing a big "I Voted" sticker on his chest.

"What did you vote for?" I asked.

"Apples."

What Does Kindness Look Like?

Like this:  On Saturday night I stopped at Trader Joe's for some dark chocolate sea salt caramels and a bottle of wine.  When the cashier carded me, I couldn't help myself; I told her that it was my birthday, and that I had just gone out alone because my husband was home sick.  SO LAME of me, I know.  Instead of (justifiably) rolling her eyes, she disappeared for a moment and then returned with a bunch of flowers, which she placed in my shopping bag.  I almost burst into tears on the spot.

Now LOVE, love looks like this:

Upon my return home (and I really did have a nice time out by myself, eating and shopping), I found that Shaun had cleaned the house.  It had gotten into quite a state with me being sick for a week, added to the fact that I'm not the keenest housekeeper even when healthy.  Shaun's folks had the kids, so we got to enjoy Sunday with a clean, quiet house.  SO QUIET.  Our own personal resort.  Our "Camas vacation home," as Shaun now calls it.  Best birthday present ever.  I do count my blessings.

Boo!

Ah, Halloween.  I'm pretty sure our kids were talking about it FOREVER before it arrived.  I enjoy Halloween and all, but I won't miss the drama that comes along with a trip to Michael's or Target this time of year.  Nels is weird enough without having to worry about the impact a life-sized motion-triggered ghoul or a headless bride will have on his fragile psyche.  Seriously.  

Nels goes to a Christian pre-school, which chose to throw an inoffensive Noah's Ark party on Halloween.  Each child came dressed as an animal.  When I asked Nels what animal he wanted to be, he immediately said "DEER."  Didn't think about it for a second.  I suspect this is his grandmother's influence.  The boys see lots of deer out at their grandparents' house.

That was fine with me.  It sounded easier than any other animal, except maybe a cat.  Of course there was no way that Willem was going to allow Nels to dress up as a deer without him.  When I mentioned this to the pre-school director, she invited us to come a half hour before the pick-up time, so Willem could join in the fun.  Willem LOVES his big brother's school.  He's made friends with many of the teachers and knows them by name.  He also spends evenings poring over Nels's class photo and memorizing the names of the students.  I'll often hear him yell things like "There's Kaara!" in the parking lot.

I dressed the boys in head to toe brown (thanks to the providential sale at Target where I found brown pants for $2.98) and affixed white puffballs to the backs of their shirts (with a safety pin) for tails.  Of course I handed the headbands and pipe cleaners over to Shaun for the fashioning of antlers.  He once made me a sculpture of a man holding a flag out of wire, so I knew he was up for it.  The antlers received rave reviews from the teachers.

Here's our aspiring school boy.

The antlers didn't hold up so well, but I like them this way too.  I love how it's not even noon and the boys are already totally wasted by all their excitement over Halloween.  That's Nels's teacher, Ms. Treese, in the background.  She reminds me a bit of me.

Now THESE are the costumes the boys had already picked out for trick-or-treating.  We got it all a few weeks ago.  I was thrilled to score Nels's outfit at the thrift store (you can't see the jeweled short sword too well, but he's holding one) and Willem had a complete outfit with just the purchase of the $12 coat and hat at Target.  He already had rain boots with a firefighter insignia on the side.

I realized a little too late that I should have briefed Willem on what trick-or-treating is before we went out.  Apparently he does not share his brother's uncanny ability to remember things, so he didn't know what it was.  After the first house, he asked me if we were going to go home or go to another house.  And he asked that after the next house and the next and the next and the next and after EVERY house until we were ready to hand him off to the next vampire that happened by.

My birthday happens to be the day after Halloween.  I'm pretty sure that for about the next 10 years, my birthday is going to be mostly about "Phew!  Halloween's over!"