Goodbye poopy 2007 Hello awesome 2008

Who would have thought that 2007 would be the year will so much stress in our brand new little family. Not I. Nor did I think the twins would be in the NICU for 12 days or that Liam would be in NICU for 4 months let alone have heart condition. I've never been so stressed in one year. But now that's all in the past and 2008 is gonna be a great year for our little family. The only good thing about 07' was Liam and Zefram where born the rest wasn't so great. But God has taught me so much that I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Well before I sigh off and post THE most adorable picture of the twins. Just wanted to thank everyone who has prayed for us this past year, and all of your encouraging words. It's really great to know that so many ppl were praying for us and Liam. So thanks :0) Now for that picture you are all waiting for .....



Happy New Years
Matt, Mary, Liam and Zefram

Thank You

The boys received a lot of gifts on their first Christmas from a lot of people, as did Mary and I. I just wanted to briefly thank everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness.

Merry Christmas, Hosers!

Not Quite Ebola

Zefram's pediatrician diagnosed him with bronchitis, with a side order of eczema to boot. I would've guessed that he just had what Liam had, but his pediatrician was confident it was bronchitis (of course, Liam's diagnosis may have been inaccurate, so who knows). Apparently it has the potential to lead to asthma, so that sucks. So Z's on antibiotics and has a puffer chamber, which is a bit tricky.

Zef still hasn't had his RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) shots, and apparently RSV is one possible cause of bronchitis (there are many), so I really hope it's not the culprit here.

Sick Swap

Alright, I better update this thing before a riot breaks out! ;) Liam's doing great as he seems to have kicked whatever needed kicking. He really is a different kid in that he complains a lot less and is much happier (which I'm sure I've said several times, but it occurs to me often). In about 2-3 more weeks, we'll be able to lift him under his arms, although we've done that a few times unintentionally and he hasn't batted an eye.

It's Zefram's turn however, as he's had what seems to be just a cold for the last few days. Hopefully he clears up in time for Christmas. He's got a doctor's appointment tomorrow because Mary's afraid he's got Ebola, and also because he's past due for his 6 month shots.

Smilier

Liam has been a lot smilier today (yes, I realize that's not a real word). His throat doesn't seem to be as sore when he coughs, but he's still throwing up from coughing 3-4 times a day. It's nice having Liam a bit closer to being back to his usual self again; his relentless fussing and crying was starting to drive us a bit batty.

Hello, Doktor

Liam was a bit happier today due to having lots of people over for Mary's birthday. But tonight he decided to play a few rounds of "cough until I throw up", which drew our attention to his laboured breathing. Mary was really concerned about it, and I ended up calling the on-call cardiologist at Sick Kids. After 5 or 6 minutes of talking, he said that he didn't think it was anything to worry about, but Mary wanted me to take Liam to the hospital just in case.

At the hospital, the doctor's only concern was Liam's cough, and he ordered the whole nine yards; x-ray, blood work, urine. A few hours later, he said that Liam's x-ray showed what might be the beginning of pneumonia. It wasn't certain, but better safe than sorry, so Liam will be on antibiotics for the next 10 days.

On the way home, Liam threw up in the car, but he was fine. And now, it is time to sleep.

Poor Lee Lee (and Us)

Liam's first 24 hours home have been really rough, as he has a cold that continues to worsen. He's been cranky and crying all day as it still hurts his chest to cough, and it's obvious that his throat is really sore (but cough medicine isn't a safe option, so it's just acetaminophen). Tonight after I fed him, he was coughing so much that he threw up on my shoulder, and was choking on his vomit briefly (I laid him sideways on the floor which thankfully worked, but Mary was a bit freaked out).

Since putting him to bed a few hours ago, he's been waking up every half hour or so crying, so I expect tonight to be another restless night for everyone (except Zef, who tends to sleep through it all).

Liam's tolerating his diet formula (Portagen), but he isn't fond of it... fortunately, he's drinking the minimum amount so far. The last thing we need is for him to get dehydrated; we'd just as well prefer to avoid another hospital visit for a while.

Here are a few pictures from today:

Zefram fighting for his very survival (he won... barely)

Z's happy to be home

One of the very few moments where Liam was happy today

Liam not feeling so hot

Homeward Bound

YEAH GOING HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My mom should be here soon to help us pack up this room then we are going to travel through T.O. and head homeward bound. I cannot wait to be back home and see my kitty again and just be back home.

I better get back to the last min packing and then just wait for my mom to get here and it's SEE YA LATER!!!!!

chow for now

Coming Home... Again

Liam will have his draining tube pulled today (ouch!), and we'll be coming home on Friday or Saturday. Woohoo!

Another 5-7 days

Liam drained 14mls today from his JP drain which is already over and 24 hours isn't up. So looks like we are going on to phase 4 which is still portagen (a minimal fat diet, which he is already on) and a shot every 8 hours to help and stop the draining. So we could be here for only 2-3 days OR 7 more days. We are just praying that it is only going to be a few more days. I don't want to spend my 25th birthday in a hospital. Not that I do anything for my birthday anyways but still not in a hospital room. But being here is getting VERY annoying and both boys have been super cranky. Zefram who is normal a happy baby isn't so much anymore. I think he wants to go home like the rest of us. But that is all for now. Keep praying

How we long to be home

Just getting back from the hospital and spending sometime with Zefram, Matt is there with Liam till about 7-7:30. Liam only drained 7mls from his JP drain which is good new since yesterday it was 20 in a 24 hour period. Mind you he still has 8 hours till they drain it again but it's still a big improvement. Liam had a gassy not so happy day. But seemed really happy in the stroller and boy are my feet sore. The 7 hours that I was there, most of those were spent on my feet just to keep Liam happy. So I am glad to be sitting while Zefram is napping.

One of the funniest things about being at the hospital is how many "girlfriends" that Liam has. So many nurses will stop by our room just to say "hi" to Liam and off they go to there patient. So funny. Lot of the nurses are really great and you just want to take them home with you.

But we do long to go home and 3 weeks of hospital life is getting to us. It's expensive and tiring and draining and boring. There is only so much you can do with your child in his little hospital room. Can't take him down to the main floor since he has the JP draining tube in so it gets boring fast. If I only remembered to pack my Christmas cards, but I didn't I expect to be here this long. Hmm maybe I should take up knitting again or cross stitching. But Liam is doing great just waiting to go home and asking God for strength to carry on day in and day out.

Well we ask that you keep praying for Liam and that his draining will continue to decrease and we can all go home before my birthday on the 9th.

Getting Closer

Liam's drainage has continued to slowly go down, and the day before yesterday was pretty close to the goal. Yesterday however, it went back up a bit, but it's not too crazy to hope it might be down so that he can go home sometime this week. Today marks 3 weeks in Toronto; it would be nice to be home before we reach an entire month.

We continue to be unhappy with a few aspects of his care, unfortunately. He's been getting lots of nurses from different units, as they're constantly understaffed (and he's a relatively easy patient). That wouldn't be a problem, except these nurses seem to receive no briefing on the cardiac ward whatsoever... asking my wife where they're supposed to enter data, lifting Liam under his arms, etc. We're going to request that he no longer be cared for by nurses from other units until they're properly briefed on at least the basics of the ward (as several other parents have, equally unhappy with the situation).

Week 3 Photos

Week 3 in Toronto

It's hard to believe that we've been in Toronto for 16 days now, especially after we were expecting to bring him home in just 7. Liam is now completely off IV, as his two most recent IV sites became inflamed. This is unfortunate, as the IV treatment he was receiving was fairly successfully bringing his drainage down. Now he is back to bottle feeds and is on a steroid, but he still isn't drinking much from the bottle (if I had to guess, it's because the special formula he's on isn't much to his liking). If he doesn't start drinking the required amount soon, he may have to get an NG tube put in (a feeding tube that goes through his nose and directly into his stomach), which he is sure to not particularly enjoy.

So please continue to pray for Liam. It's pretty humbling that so many people have been praying for Liam, so thank you for those who faithfully continue to do so. The waiting game continues...

Another day

I was a bit worried that Liam might get ahold of his IV tubing and rip it out last night, a concern that I shared with his nurse yesterday. She told me it was pretty secure, and much to my surprise, he got through the night without ripping it out.

But he changed his mind this morning, and sure enough, he ripped it out. Luckily, Mary was there with a few minutes later, and found him crying and bleeding. So yeah, we're both pretty damned pissed off about that, and we let them know it. If he manages to rip it out again, I'll seriously consider having him transfered to another hospital. This is actually the second IV he's ripped out... a few hours after his heart surgery, when I thought he was supposed to be sedated, he ripped out his leg IV and his breathing tube (it was again fortunate that I was there, as none of the nurses in the room noticed, and I had to run over to one to get their attention).

To be honest, we've both been really disappointed with much of Liam's care at Sick Kids. Some of the nurses have bordered on being negligent, and we've had to complain several times; I'm sure we'll have to complain several more. I was expecting a lot more from such a highly-esteemed hospital. Some of the nurses have been outstanding, but it's clear that the shortage of nurses is having a serious effect on the care provided in Ontario. It's nice to not have to pay for medical care in Canada, but it's a shame that the care is sometimes complete shit.

Anyways, so Liam has a new IV in him and is doing fairly well all things considered. We don't have any new pictures, as he looks pretty much the same from the most recent pictures, except that his wound continues to heal nicely. Grandma and Grandpa Gerryts are coming to visit tomorrow, so the four of us are looking forward to that.

Still in Toronto

Whoops, haven't updated in quite a few days. Liam is doing well, but remains at Sick Kids due to his excessive drainage. The 5-day diet didn't bring down the drainage sufficiently (it actually went up yesterday), so today they put him on an IV (which he thoroughly enjoyed receiving). Apparently, the IV won't satisfy his hunger, so the next few days could be a pain. Hopefully it will do the trick and we can have him home by next weekend.

We were told by another mom that he will most likely have to remain on his special pre-IV diet formula for 6 weeks after we bring him home. The really bad news? It costs $28 per can. Yeah. So we'll see what happens with that.

For those curious about why he's still in the hospital, something in his lymphatic system was "knicked", which isn't all that uncommon. It causes his body to have a difficult time digesting fats, so the idea is to keep fats out of his body and allow the lymphatic system to relax and heal. So the heart surgery part of his recovery is going great; it's the accidental collateral damage that's keeping him in the hospital at the moment.

No new pics at the moment unfortunately, but hopefully by the weekend. His scar is looking surprisingly good.

5 Days Down...

It's hard to believe that we've been in Toronto for nearly a week. Today Liam gave lots of smiles and was much more himself, cooing and flailing about (sometimes causing him to stop and cry for a few seconds, after which he would immediately resume flailing and cooing). But on the flip side, because Liam is draining more fluid than his doctors would like to see, he may have to stay as many as 5 more days, or even longer. While the issue doesn't sound overly serious, it's a disappointing setback, as we were hoping and expecting to come home any day.

Day 4 After Surgery

Matt here, doing an entry for the first time in a long while. Liam seemed to be a bit more himself today, giving a few little smirks here and there. He finally got to see Zefram today for the first time since Tuesday, and smiled at him right away. I believe the only "hook-up" Liam still has is one of the drainage tubes, so it's cool to see him without the huge number of wires and tubes from 4 days ago. Once he's draining a certain minimum amount of fluid, he will be ready to come home. His incision looks better, but it's clear he's still in a fair bit of pain.

As a bonus, Liam also had visits from Auntie Lar and Grandma and Grandpa Gerryts today, so he had lots of love. We're anxious and nervous to have him home, but we're both obviously very happy that he's recovering so well.

This last one is of Zefram hanging out in Liam's hospital crib.

As you can see from his bib, he is a wiener. I mean winner.
And a superstar.

Day 3 after surgery

We received some surprising news today, which is that Liam may be able to come home as early as this weekend, because he's recovering so well. This isn't guaranteed however; it's possible he won't be home until next week.

Liam had another great night last night, but when I went to see him this morning, he was cranky and irritable. Mainly because the draining tubes are uncomfortable and he was hungry but couldn't eat because he was going for a heart echo. So after I had calmed him down and he was given his meds he was feeling pretty good; so good that I got 3 smiles out of him and he was just staring at me for 5 mins it made me cry. Out of sheer joy because he looks like my little lee lee again with a zipper down the front of his chest. But speaking of his heart echo, they're slightly concerned about two things they saw that Liam's pediatric cardiologist in Hamilton will have to keep an eye on. Something to do with a narrowing in the pulmonary valve and back flow from a valve. It's possible but uncertain that either problem could require another surgery somewhere down the road. So we ask that you continue to pray for Liam and his heart and his cardiologist in Hamilton. But before all that His nurse and I wheeled him down in his crib to where he had his heart echo, and he was very happy and content, looking at me and the nice sun shinning through the 4th floor. We went over a few bumps and he didn't like that so much, and he tried yawning and I could see that it hurt him, but he's a trooper.

They took out the central IV line in his neck. He does have a rash from the tape and pretty bad one but the air will dry that out, and he still has one draining tube in him which is still draining quite a bit of fluid. I asked his nurse if they were concerned about it and she the Dr's aren't, since it is still a good color and it's good that it is draining. So pray that, it clears up soon so he can return home. But it is all God's timing and his timing is PERFECT. But here are some pics of Liam 3 days after his surgery.

48+ hours later

We cannot believe how great Liam is doing. It went from being in the CCU to not even 24 hours later to the 4th floor and now 48 hours later he is going to his own room. He is doing so well it's almost kind of scary. I spent most of the afternoon with Liam today and feed him his bottles and tried to burp him and hold him but he cried from so much pain and being uncomfortable that I got scared and nervous. So we just put him back in his bed and I fed him his bottle there and the nurse burped him but i have to leave the room b/c his cry breaks my heart. I've seen him cry to many time b/c of pain that I cannot handle that right now. I feel so bad for my little lee lee. I really miss him being awake and alert and himself. I keep praying for strength and it's granted everyday. But Liam is doing very well and I am so very thankful for that. So now that he gets his own room we can bring Zefram in and we can have as many ppl as we want as long as we aren't too loud and don't get in the way of the nurse that needs to come in and give him his med's and so forth and such. But we still need your prayers and support Liam still has quit a few more days of recovery and we need to get use to him again and learn him all over again. But here are some pics of Liam today. He is really starting to look like himself again. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!

No more achy breaky heart

Liam is doing really well and he is getting moved from the CCU (critical care unit) to 4D so he's moving up which is a great thing, just means he's getting better. He is off the morphine and just on codeine which is another positive thing. It's just one awesome thing after another. Keep praying though he still needs your prayers as he recovers. He needs us more then ever. But here are some pictures of Liam from the past 24 hours. It will go from before the O.R. then when he came out of the O.R. and how he looks today

Our Little Mighty Mouse

Matt and I and of couse Zefram just came from visiting Liam in the CCU and he's doing really well. He Sats are 99-100 and he's doing so well that they already took out his beathing tube only 7 hours after his surgery. Well actually he decided to do that himself. He disconnected it so the nurse called the Dr and they removed it. He now has a little box over his head with some oxygen. I'm so thankful that God gave us Liam, he's out little fighter he's doing amazing. I wouldn't be surpised if he came home after a week. He's doing so well already. But we ask that you continue to pray as he recovers and for us and Zefram. Anywho from now on I will just update at the end of the day with one blog instead of 3...like today. HA! Well best be going back to the room since Zefram needs to eat soon and have a bath and I think we both really ready for bed too!

Happy that Liam's old ticker is fixed and he's good as new. I thank the Lord for all the strength that He's given us/me during this time.

Liam IS good as new

Well Liam is out of the O.R. after a 4 hour surgery and the surgery went really well and now is in the CCU recovering. I cannot thank Matt, my family that came here today and GOD who got us through it all. HE is an AMAZING GOD. I cannot believe the stregnth that He gave me today to pull through. Thanks for everyone that prayed and we ask you keep praying that he recovers and come home soon.

The Rikers

Surgery Day

Hello everyone we are about to leave to go to Sick Kids and wait the new if we are first or second today for Liam's surgery. Thanks so far for everyone that has been praying for us. We will keep you posted when we know how Liam is doing.

Ronald McDonald House

As Liam's surgery is getting closer we were trying to found out where to stay. We tried the Ronald McDonald house but we knew the chances of getting in there were slim. We knew there were hotels around the area where we could stay at but are VERY expensive and in no way could we afford to stay at a hotel even with the Sick Kids discount. My parents offered to help which is really great and nice of them but we didn't want them paying for our 2 week. But we prayed about and Matt called today and we got into the Ronald McDonald house in T.O. It's a 5 mins walking distance from Sick Kids. We have to be there at 4pm for a tour and an 'interview'. Pray that all goes well on the drive up and we aren't nervous but stay calm and remember to pray and breathe (the breathing part it for me)

Thanks again for your support and prayers

Liam and His Pre-Op Day

So we spent Sunday night at my parents' house so my mom could watch Zefram for the day and we could just concentrate on Liam while being at Sick Kids. We left at 5:15 am and despite some traffic and getting a little bit lost (stupid google maps) we arrived on time for Liam's first appointment at the blood clinic at 7:30 am, then we headed off to get an x-ray done and then went for an ECG. After that we did some waiting around for anesthesiology and Liam's surgeon. A nurse came to talk to us about what will be going on the day of his surgery and afterwards, and what time to be at the OR. It was a lot of information but glad Matt was there.

I finally feel ready for his surgery to be done. There is less then a 5% chance of Liam dying during surgery, which is my biggest fear. There are also other possible complications like a stroke and blood clots but at least we know what those risks are and if they do happen to Liam we are prepared. I think the more you know about it and research and talk about it the more prepared you are... well the most you can be prepared in this situation. But I feel at peace with it and I'm just at the point that I just want it done and over with. But after that long day and we were done at 2:30pm and home by I think at least 4:30. Liam slept the whole way home. It was a much needed nap since his were being interrupted throughout that day. Liam is up to 12lbs 14oz and 24 inches tall, or short how ever you look at it.

No pictures of the trip to Sick Kids; it was just one more thing to remember. Now Liam is doing well and his two bottom teeth are finally through. YEAH!!! :0)

Please keep us in your prayers for the next few weeks.

Liam's Pre-Op

Monday, Nov 5, 2007 Matt and I will be heading to sick kids for Liam's pre-op. Going to be a long day but a long day that will bring much comfort. Liam will go for blood work and x-ray and we will meet with the surgeon and nurses. So pray for us as it's going to be a very busy day and Liam's been really cranky and teething. My mom will have Zefram all day. Thanks Grandma. So that will make it easier on us.