Surgery Next Week

Yesterday, Jethro had an appointment with Dr. Jensen. They did a follow-up echo and things are looking pretty good. His body is slowly working on absorbing the clot in his heart, and the shunt is functioning as it should. Jethro is now 11 pounds (by my scale, their office scale doesn't have him at quite that much), but they would really like to see him gain weight better than he is.

So, it's time to "pull the trigger" as Dr. Jensen refers to it, and move ahead with a G-tube. So, instead of having a feeding tube running through his nose and into his stomach, there will be direct access to his stomach, through his tummy. We have heard good and bad stories about G-tubes, but more moms have told me what a blessing the g-tube was for their child. I am trusting that it will be for us as well. Dr. J also told me that it thought it would simply things following Jethro's next heart surgery, because we won't have to deal with feeding issues to be able to come home. He'll have his g-tube, I'll already be comfortable using it, so feeding will be a non-issue.

We'll go in on Monday afternoon. I think the cardiologists have some stuff they're going to do...tests and such, the feeding team with be working with us (we are NOT going to stop working towards oral feeds!), and then Wednesday morning he'll have surgery to place the G-tube. While not overly anxious, I am not looking forward to sending Jethro into another surgery. It's just not an easy thing for a Mama to do, even when you know that it will ultimately help them ~ or be their only chance...it's still difficult. But, I know that I can trust God to watch over him while I cannot, and I have no doubt that God will be right there in the OR, guiding the Dr.'s hands.

Please pray for:

• wisdom for the feeding team. Jethro has a body-wide rash. The GP we see thought that it was just eczema, but it doesn't look like it to me. The speech therapist that we saw yesterday was concerned about it as well. We think it's likely an allergic rash. So, we need wisdom to figure out what exactly is going on.
• guidance for the surgeon's hands. His name is Dr. Chan, and we would appreciate prayers for steady hands on Wednesday morning.
• Mike and the other children. I'm not sure how things are going to work at home quite yet. Ezra is sticks pretty close to me ever since Jethro was discharged last month, so I expect this will be difficult for him.
• for plans for the kids and where they will be/who will take care of them to come together.
• that I would figure out the new feeding stuff quickly, and that Jethro will heal well and there would be no complications ~ so we can get home that much sooner.

Also, we have gotten a settlement from the insurance company! Thank you, Lord!! We are now beginning the process of figuring out what we want to do for a house ~ stick frame, post and beam, modular, etc., and looking at house plans. We would appreciate prayers for wisdom in this process.

I'm off to fry some chicken and boil potatoes for salad. We leave for Kamiah tomorrow. Levi and Garth are both competing at the regional track meet, so we will be going down to cheer them on.