little fella

Blog Moderator, Ahdra, here and just had to comment on this picture Liz just sent of Carson.  Wow.  It looks like he already knows all the answers, right?

We sure love you little buddy!

update for today

Thank you to all of you for your prayers!!! YEAH, the ultrasound was negative for any masses or abnormalities on his liver. He has a gallstone, which they believe to be fairly normal and are just going to watch. Tomorrow he will get a CTScan of his lungs to make sure there aren't any potential areas of question for metastasis from his mass. They are not expecting any, but just to be thorough and make sure, they will get the study tomorrow.

Carson did have an elevated white blood cell count (indicating infection), so they got cultures from his tracheostomy, blood, and urine to see if they could find a source of infection. They started him on antibiotics prophylactically, and we will just wait to see what the results from his lab work are. Let's just pray he gets over this quickly and doesn't have any bad infections. His ventilator is the same.

Exciting news, it was okayed with surgery that he can have a pacifier so he gets to start having some practice sucking! It makes me feel better too because when he gets mad, we can at least try to soothe him with his pacifier. Starting a bad habit maybe, but oh well, he will grow out of it. :) He also got to wear his first stocking cap today!

Kellen is doing great. He gets to start breastfeeding twice a day instead of once. Liz and Preston are doing excellent. And both boys now weigh over 5 lbs!!!!!

Thank you to all your prayers and keep up the prayers for healing of Carson's neck and ability to swallow, for Carson to be able to get off the ventilator, and so Carson does not develop any serious infections. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Posted by Sarah

update on special prayer request

Carson has had his ultrasound of his liver completed. However, we won't know any results until tomorrow. Thank you so much for your prayers and as soon as we know anything, we will email the information out. I will say, the doctors do not seem to be very concerned. The tech didn't really talk very much and wasn't sure when the doctors would review the results.

On a positive note, Carson got to go down on his ventilator rate to 30, which means he is doing more of the work himself. His bilirubin is also down to 4.8 instead of 10 where it was a week or so ago. His color is so much better than it was. He is doing great with his feeds and is up to 7 ml/ hour. He continues to pee and poop like a champ. :) They are hoping to start allowing him to suck on a pacifier soon, but need to get the okay from surgery that his surgical wounds are healed up. So, we will just keep praying for healing until we find out what the study showed.

Kellen is doing fantastic and is up to 45 mL per hour on his feeding! We are changing him to taking a bottle every other feed so he can get some rest in between bottle feeding. That way he can grow and get stronger faster to where he will be able to take a bottle with every feed. The doctors believe he will go home in the next 7 to 10 days.  Wow.

Prayers:
1) Continued healing for Carson's liver, ability to wean off the ventilator, protect his airway with swallowing, and be able to eat and swallow instead of having to use the G-tube.
2) Thanksgiving: his agitation level and ability to move his neck have been fantastic the last few days.
3) Direction for Liz and Preston with where to stay once Kellen is discharged from the hospital. The Ronald McDonald house has been wonderful but there are a lot of sick children there so it is not the best place to have a premature baby.

Thank you for all the prayers everyone!!!

Posted by Sarah

please pray

Carson's abdomen has been much more distended in the last few days. As a result, they took a chest x-ray this morning. The good news is that his bowel does not appear to be distended or have a lot of extra air in it. Unfortunately, it does show that his liver is quite a bit larger than it should be. They will be doing an ultrasound tomorrow looking for any abnormalities. There isn't any really good explanation for why it is so much bigger in the last few days. He is receiving nutrition via his veins and that is much harder on the liver, but it has been a pretty rapid increase in size. The doctors are somewhat concerned it may be issues with some of the malignant cells of his tumor spreading to his liver. This is the worse case scenario and hopefully not an issue, but we just were asking for prayers for wisdom for the doctors reading the ultrasound and healing of his liver. Hopefully, it is just from all the drugs and nutrition he is receiving and will go away on its own. The ultrasound is tomorrow around noon and then if necessary, they will schedule a CT Scan later but hopefully this won't be an issue.

On a positive note: Carson is up to 6 mL of breast milk every hour and pooping a lot better...go Carson! We all celebrated his first really good poop this morning. :) Because he is getting more food, his color has been a lot better too. He is also moving so much better in his neck than a week ago and we are so thankful for that. Also, your prayers have been appreciated so much for his comfort and God holding him while he was agitated as they took him off pain medication. He seems to be much calmer today and yesterday and we are hoping this is a trend it the right direction. :) He hasn't received any medications other than for his nutrition and to prevent reflux of his food since last Friday. Praise the Lord!

Kellen continues to do very well.

Posted by Sarah

update for today

Everything is about the same with the boys today. We took a break from the hospital to go to the state football game and it was AWESOME!!! Way to go Logan-Rogersville---state champs!!! We didn't get to dress up the boys in Wildcat garb, but someday we will. Although, Preston has made sure we understand they are going to be Bearcats.  :)

Kellen is cruising along and doing great. Carson had to go back up on his ventilator settings. He needed a little more help than we thought, but it may be all that turkey Liz ate, making him sleepy and wanting a day off. :) He is up to 5 mL of breastmilk every hour on his feeding so that is wonderful. He looks absolutely amazing and so much better than a week ago. We are so thankful.

Thank you so much for your prayers and we are just continuing to pray for healing for Carson's neck, ability to breathe on his own, swallow, and protect his airway. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your Thanksgiving weekend!

Posted by Sarah

reflections from Grandma Francie

As I sit here with Carson and Kellen...and everything is quiet, I wanted to share some of what I have felt these last couple of days.

Yesterday, on Thanksgiving, my cup truly runneth over with gratitude to God. When I first walked into the room, Dave and Sandy were there with their precious grandboys. Dave was watching over Carson and Sandy was holding Kellen. What a beautiful moment to have all four grandparents, Preston and Liz, and Carson and Kellen in one room.

Then, last night, the seven of us (Doug, Francie, Sarah, Elizabeth & Preston, Joshua, James) were in the room with Carson and Kellen. From my perspective, it was a PERFECT ending to an amazing Thanksgiving Day. There was so much love in this room that I could almost physically touch it.  Elizabeth was holding Carson's hands, calming him, because he had been more agitated due to the withdrawal process of coming off some of his meds. It melted my heart to see her talk so gently to her son. Then it was James' turn to hold Kellen. Joshua was standing close by, beaming from ear to ear. Oh my, words cannot describe that sight. I am smiling as I try to put it into words. I can only imagine the fun Uncle Joshua and Uncle James will have when they take Carson and Kellen for a weekend adventure. :)  

Then we got to witness Preston and Elizabeth give Kellen his first tub bath. Wow, did that bring back memories...especially when Kellen pooped in the bath water. Preston and Elizabeth were soooo calm throughout. THEN it was it was time for Carson's very first sponge bath from Preston and Elizabeth. And I watched in awe, thinking of where Carson had come in these last two weeks. There is nothing impossible with God!!!!

After Kellen's bath, it was Aunt Sarah's time to hold him...and more love flowed. :) Grandpa Doug even got to take his turn holding Carson's hands to soothe him. He is still a natural with children; especially his grandchildren. I just wish everyone could have seen the LOVE on each of their faces as they looked at these two precious lil' souls our Lord has blessed us with.

So, this evening, as I held Carson's hands and prayed over him and as I held Kellen for some time and prayed my chaplet of Divine Mercy, words REALLY cannot describe the feelings deep within.

I continue to pray blessings on ALL those who have prayed sooo faithfully for my grandsons and for Preston and Elizabeth. They have truly been the recipients of God's Divine Mercy, Love and Grace.

And I am a very grateful Grandma.  :)

More exciting news!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We have very good news today!

Preston and Liz got to give Kellen his first bath in water last night. Kellen certainly showed us he has really good lungs (screaming his indignation that no one saved him from the unpleasant experience) but did great. He was so precious and the Bunch part of his family got to be here to watch the experience. Then, Preston and Liz gave Carson a sponge bath and Carson did really well. Liz also did physical therapy for Carson before the bath and he did great. The prayers for loosening his muscles in his neck have been answered. Carson is getting his neck almost all the way over to the right which he was unable to do a few days ago!

This morning Carson's weight was about 4 lbs 6 or 7 oz and Kellen's was 4 lbs 10 oz. They both are doing well. Kellen continues to do well with his feeds and just needs a little more strength to get it all down from a bottle. Carson still gets agitated at times, but is doing much better from that standpoint. They have stopped his Fentanyl (pain med) and he only gets it if he has an episode where it appears from his vital signs that he is having pain. He has only gotten one dose since yesterday morning. He also continues to be weaned from his ventilator and is getting closer to the day when he won't need it any longer. They think in the next week or two, he will come off his ventilator. Carson is getting 4 mL of breast milk every hour and has tolerated that well. He is pooping a little more so we are really happy with that! They believe once he gets closer to full feeds all of his body systems will function better. Also, Preston was able to hold his firstborn son today for the first time. YEAH!!!

We are just so thankful for such positive news on Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support. We pray for a blessed weekend for you. In addition, we might add... GO Logan-Rogersville at the state football championships tomorrow!  :)

Please continue to pray for healing for Carson in his ability to swallow, protect his airway, breathe on his own, and have protection from infection. They have noted more immature white blood cells and were a little concerned about infection. They drew blood cultures and we will be watching, but so far so good.

Posted by Sarah

Preston holding Carson for the first time!