Collin, back to himself

If it were not for the small(ish) patch of hair that is still missing (but slowly growing in) and the scar on the top of his head, you would not know that this boy had brain surgery just 3 short weeks ago.
We are getting back to our life as we knew it prior to the surgery/recovery. Collin can be around kids again and go out and about. So that makes us all happier.

We are back to working on our ABC’s. He knows them, but boy is he stubborn when I try to get him to tell me them or sing the song etc. He goes to pre-school in the fall. Just 2 days a week. I think he will love it, but he is not too happy about it when you mention it to him now. 
This Sunday he will get to return to church with his friends. And then tuesday he can go back to childcare in the evenings while Daddy goes to FPU (financial peace university by Dave Ramsey) 

I will try and get a picture of his head tomorrow and post it. It looks so much better than the last pictures I posted. :)

all about Collin

first let me apologize for not posting sooner. Things have been crazy around here to say the least. Not to mention I came home to a broken laptop.  :(  (good news though, I got a NEW one)  YaY!!! Oh and paid cash for it. (hubby is taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Univ.)
And I wanted to take some time to clear my head and remember the details to have for us for Collin later.

Most of you follow me on facebook, so you know most of what has been going on. For those of you who don’t and for me to have a clear recollection,  here we go.

We arrived @ Children’s last tuesday just before 8AM. We were to be there by 8:10am for surgery @ 10:10am.
We check in, fill out a couple forms and are immediately called back to the “holding” room, where the nurses, anesthesiologist, Dr, etc come to check Collin over, ask questions of us, and go over the procedure once last time. 
Things move rather quickly for awhile.  Our young adults Minister from Church comes by to see us & Collin and to pray with us prior to the surgery. (He also has a son Collin’s age and they are our neighbors)
My Mom & step dad arrive and we are just hanging out WAITING. and waiting and waiting.
During all of the waiting Collin was able to go to the Ocean Room and pick out a toy. All kids having surgery get to pick a toy from the Ocean room, which is basically a large closet FILLED to over flowing with toys.

  
Collin chose a Dr’s kit…how appropriate.
And he proceeded to use us as his patients.

   

When the Nurse Practitioner came in to check Collin out, she asked if she could get anything for him…he said “a drs suit”. What he wanted was a pair of scrubs like all the drs were wearing. She told him she could not get him a pair in his size, but she could get him a hat, mask and shoe covers.  He agreed and she came back with them… 
 
the future Dr. Collin  ;)

And the waiting continued, so we were allowed to go to the toy room, where Collin could pick out a couple toys, games or books to occupy some of the time.

He has been wanting this very book from Kohl’s for a long time, so this really helped to pass the time along.
 

We also opened presents from our cousins in Indiana. THANKS Susie & family…Collin says “these are the BEST cars EVER”.

and the wait continues
Finally @ 12:05 pm (TWO hrs after he was to be in surgery) they came to get him. And we were off to the waiting room.

I did not get any pictures of them taking him bc he was crying and I was crying and my Mom was crying and it was just a mess.

The surgery itself was to take 1hr…and @ 1;10pm Dr. G came in to talk to us. He did find an abnormality and was able to realign Collin’s pathway for his spinal fluid to drain. He had been re-absorbing the spinal fluid prior to this. He was a little concerned bc when he first went into Collin’s head he did not know where he was at…turns out bc of the dilated ventricle he was not in the correct spot and had to come out and go back in. He thought there could be some temporary nerve damage to Collin’s left side, but assured us that it would only be temporary.  He tells us he will order a CT scan for the morning to be sure.
Now just more waiting until Collin is out of recovery.
Shortly Dr. G comes back in to tell us Collin is starting to wake up a little, but it will take some time and that he decided to go ahead and have the CT scan done today.
WAIT
WAIT
WAIT
About an hour & half later  they come wheeling Collin out of recovery for us to join him for his CT scan.  He is groggy, but alert and wants either Me or Daddy to be with in his sight at all times.

His Thomas (aka Comfy) blanket and Handy Manny (aka his son) got to go into surgery with him.

He lays real still for the CT scan and now we are on our way to his room.
Once in his room he is in and out of sleep, but does not complain about pain.

his bandage is in the shape of a heart. One nurse commented that in the 11yrs she has been @ Children’s she has never seen a heart bandage. We have no idea who did this as Dr. G was surprised as well.  :)

The CT scan showed no damage and Collin is moving both sides of his body equally. :)

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Collin does get sick three times…mostly from the anesthetic. He eats some crackers and popsicles and drinks sprite.
 
Collin sleeps pretty good through out the night and still does not complain about the pain. He does not act too much like himself, but that is to be expected.

The next day, he is allowed up to move around some and that makes him feel better, but he still wears out easily. What do we expect the poor boy just had brain surgery.

The view just outside of his window was of a HUGE playground.

About 3:30-4pm we were released to come home…YAY!!!


THANK YOU ALL for your prayers and words of encouragement. They have meant SO much to us. The blogging world is AMAZING!!!
I just LOVE how so many come together through the Lord and the internet.

We go back to Dr. G on Monday for a follow up and will have another MRI in Aug-Sept.
If all goes well, after the MRI we should be able to start weaning Collin off his seizure medicine. That will be another PRAISE!!!

Update on Collin

Hello Ladies (and gentlemen if there are any that read my blog)  ;)
I want to apologize once again for my abrupt absence. After getting my laptop back, we discovered that it was NOT fixed after all and it had to go back. For now I am using my husband’s laptop. Have I mentioned that I do not enjoy using the desktop? Laptops spoil you. :)

Collin had an appt with a nurse practitioner in the neurologists office this past friday. She specializes in seizures. We absolutely love her. We also have a husband & wife neurosurgeon and neurologist. 
Collin’s EEG read normal after all, which is good. He has a 70% chance of out growing the seizures if they go un-diagnosed as to why he is having them. If he goes 2 years with out having another seizure, they will try & wean him from the Keppra. (YaY)
He goes next month for an MRI. They did notice on his last MRI (in Jan. 2008) that he has 2 small scars on his brain. No one seems to know why he has the scars or if they are causing the seizures. The NP thinks it is unlikely they are causing them, since he went almost three years with out having a seizure at all. The only way to find out if the scars are causing the seizures would be for him to have a seizure while hooked up to an EEG. This is almost impossible.

THANK YOU all for your continued prayers.

PTL: Harper is home in Arkansas

Woo~hoo!!!
Praise GOD!!!
Harper was released from the hospital in Tulsa, OK today and is now home with her Mommy & Daddy in Arkansas.

God is SO good!!!

Again, thank you all for your prayers!!!

  
The HAPPY family  :)

Wordless Wednesday (update) Praise the Lord!!!

Today Kelly & Scott got to hold Harper for the first time.
Praise the Lord for he is Good!!! All of our prayers have been heard and answered.
If all continues as well as it has been, they could be headed home early next week.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for ALL of your prayers.

God IS Good!!!

Where does the time go???

I have no clue how it is almost 5:30 pm already. WoW. I need to get started on dinner, yet it seems like I just had breakfast and I skipped lunch.
C & I got up about 9:30am...which is sad to say a little early for us lately.  (did I really just admit that???)  ;)
We got ready right away and my Mom came over. We went to Tim Horton's for breakfast (love their bagels) and then to Target bc, well the week is not complete for me if I do not make AT LEAST ONE trip to Target. (with the economic slowdown and stores closing left & right, I can not let Target be one of them)  HA!  I tease P (all the time) that we may lose our house (kidding) our car (kidding) and have to sell anything else we may own (again kidding) but I can NOT let Target go under.  ;)
(they really should pay me for ALL of my support)

Anyway, now that I got off track...after going to Target we went to get C's haircut and bonus, my Mom got her cut as well. My little guy now looks like a BIG BOY again. How is it that by trimming his hair he ages so much??? Does this work for me as well? If so I think I will keep letting my hair grow...forever.  ;) 

After the haircuts we ran to the post office and back thru Tim Horton's for my Mom to get more coffee. (she is addicted) And then we came home. C played with his new puzzles he got and I started working on organizing some online pictures...take a look...

What do you think? I am going to try and keep up with ALL the pictures we take and do a page or two each week of online pages. Maybe this will motivate me to start scrap-booking IRL again. (I wish...no motivation here)

Now it is time to figure out WHAT to do for dinner. And I am not even hungry.

Have a GREAT evening.

HARPER UPDATE...

She is doing so much better. Still a long road ahead of her and her parents. They have lowered her oxygen levels to 43% (I think). Which means she is breathing (more) than half on her own. PRAISE THE LORD!!! Thanks again for ALL of your prayers. If you check out Kelly's blog, ( Kelly's Korner ) you will see that a reader of her blog gave her life to the Lord after logging in and reading about Harper and the miracle that she was, is and continues to be. AMAZING.  In regards to this lady Kelly says...

"Every second of the last week has been worth it for that fact alone. And we truly mean that".

You MUST check out Kelly's blog. She is an inspiration to us ALL!!! Please continue to keep Harper & family and ALL the NICU babies in your prayers. THANK YOU!!!