Home Sweet Home . . .

We are home!!!! I know, I know - hard to believe!!! It has been crazy since we pulled in the drive at 2:00. Matthew is very weak so he has stumbled twice and I caught him. Yikes!! We are trying to get things in order and get all his meds picked up. I will post more details as we get settled but we wanted to let all of you know we are HOME!! Can you tell that I'm excited.

Ready to Move Forward...

Yesterday was a very long day, but as it drew to a close things were starting to look up. The rash had Matthew completely miserable for most of the day and to make things worse the surgeon planned to work on Matthew at 11:00 but couldn't make it to his room until 4:00. By the time 4:00 rolled around Matthew was miserable from his owies and the rash and was convinced that we were trying to starve him. As Matthew's room began to fill with people to help out he became very agitated and ready to fight. After giving him what the surgeon described as "enough drugs to put a lumberjack to sleep for 12 hours" Matthew was finally relaxed enough to let him go to work. He didn't actually fall asleep until they were done.

We took this picture immediately after they were finished. As you can see, the bottom part of Matthew's belly was completely raw and the rash was all over his chest scar. They took all of the bandages and tape off of his chest and set up an oxygen mask to blow directly on the rash to help it heal.

In the end, it was just enough to give Matthew a relaxing 3 hour nap. Thankfully, he woke up in a great mood and was ready to eat, play and laugh. Good times...

Roller Coaster Ride . . .

Okay, I'm probably not the right person to be writing this post due to my complete exhaustion but bear with me. Our roller coaster ride has taken a temporary down hill turn. Matthew started getting extremely irritable last night. I pulled his blanket down to find a terrible rash around his incision and all over his belly. He became very agitated and couldn't sleep. The Nurse Practitioner who worked last night determined it was a yeast infection but the cream she prescribed did nothing for the itching. He was up most of the night. He had these nasty night sweats and we changed his bedding twice. Finally, they gave him some Benadryl and he slept for 2 hours. He woke up at 4:30 screaming for me. I discovered that during his intense itching he pulled the surgical tape off his incision and had worked loose all of his dressings. There is concern that if he continues to scratch at it he will end up with a staph infection. We had that after his first surgery and don't want it again!!!! Thank God Dr. Geiss rounded early this morning. He confirmed it was a yeast infection resulting from a greenhouse effect. He has all of these bandages and tape all over his chest and belly which makes things moist and causes yeast to grow. He made the decision to pull his RA line and pacing wires. They will sedate him and Dr. Geiss will do this procedure. They have everything ready including a blood supply at 11:00 but Dr. Geiss has been held up so we are waiting.

I know his heart is strong so we have a lot to be thankful for but wow this is starting to wear us down. Our mental state isn't so great today. Sleeping for 2 hours and stressing all night just wears you down emotionally and mentally and physically. Taylor is starting to struggle at home and has said some pretty sad things. Craig needs to go back to work so he is dealing with all of this plus work. Please pray that getting everything off of him and the antibiotic will make him feel better and we start going back up hill. Also, pray that we bounce back emotionally. Your prayers have made a difference every time we post specific concerns so please keep praying!! We will update after the procedure is done.

A Great 24 Hours . . .

Dr. Matthew Orwig

 Checking his doggy's heart. His doggy gets medicine when he does.

Pulling Matthew's chest tube went great yesterday. He ate a great lunch and a little for supper last night. We are making some major progress. They rounded this morning and decided to pull his other chest tube and the ART line. This mean we can get up and take a walk to the toy room!! He is a different little boy in the the last 24 hours. He is much calmer and talks non-stop. We are starting to see our little boy's personality returning. Craig stayed with him last night and he slept for 6-7 hours. Wow we are moving forward!!



Pulling Drainage Tube at 11:00

They rounded this morning and they have decided to pull Matthew left drainage tube. This is the one that seems to be causing him a lot of pain. The will give him some heavy narcotics sedate him and then pull. We will let you know how it goes and give a more detailed update. Please pray this isn't too painful.

Things are calming down . . .

As you can tell from a couple of Craig's post last night that Matthew had another rough night. Dr. Geiss came by this morning and went over all the tests and they have determined that Matthew's pain is from his drainage tubes. They would like to pull them but he's not eating enough. They started back up with some narcotics to help with the pain which made me nervous since his stomach still has issues. Thanks to everybody's prayers he finally pooped today which means his stomach is waking up. The best thing was that he went 5 times!!! Seems crazy to be bragging about this but it was becoming a major problem. He ate a couple of crackers, part of a bag of pretzels, 4 slices of banana, 5 bites of rice and 4 bites of mashed potatoes today. He also drank a little. We are hoping to keep moving forward.

So many of you have asked for specific prayer requests so we would love to share those with you:

1. He starts eating and drinking regularly
2. He continues to have bowel movements
3. That they are able to pull the drainage tubes soon
4. He remains with no effusions after eating (fluid around the lungs)

Thanks for all of your prayers today. Look how well they worked.

On a fun note, Matthew was a character this afternoon and was talking up a storm. It was wonderful to see him happy. He was feeling better with the pain meds and being able to poop. He named all the fish on the ceiling (Grandma Fish, Grandpa Fish, Mommy Fish, Daddy Fish, Sissy Fish, Gracey Fish and Zavier Fish). We had a few visitors and some special honeymooners. I was in a wedding yesterday (Craig was suppose to be but somebody needed to stay with Matthew). The wedding couple, Heidi and Fred (by the way, we introduced them!!!) came by for a visit and brought a big doggy that Matthew loved.

A visit from Grandpa and Grandma Orwig. They brought him a book that has buttons which makes noise and Matthew decided to operate it with his foot.

Sissy came for a visit and he was excited to see her as she was him. They watched a movie together and it was so good for the both of them!

He kept an eye on her because he didn't want her to leave.

We would like to say a special thanks to our church family. All of your emails, phone calls, visits and prayers have meant so much. We love you and can't wait to be back to church with the whole family.

By the way, today was my Mom's birthday and I forgot until this afternoon. My mind isn't functioning too well these days. So if you see her tell her Happy Belated Birthday to make up for my forgetfulness!!

Blood Test Results...

Matthew's blood tests indicated no sign of Pancreatitis this morning. Still not sure what's causing his sudden chest paid. It seems to be happening every 2-3 hours. He had multiple x-rays taken this morning and we should get those results by 9 a.m. The popular opinion has now changed to drainage tube complications. He is now back on one of the narcotics for this pain.