Mark's accident

Nathan: "Take that thing off of you."
Mark: "Why?"
Nathan: "Cuz I don't like it."

Maybe you're wondering about what Nathan is speaking. That would be Mark's sling that he's wearing due to a skiing accident the weekend before Christmas. Yes, I received a call from Mark at the Breckenridge Medical Center mere hours after he started skiing. I didn't believe him at first. It was lunchtime and I thought he was just taking a break. I'm pretty sure one of the last things I said before he left for vacation was, "Just don't get hurt. That's the last thing we need right now."

He dislocated his shoulder and fractured his humerus after running into a snowboarder (who is fine, by the way). He saw his orthopedic surgeon last week who wanted to see him again today. Today he was concerned about something about a tendon and ordered an MRI. Great. What are the chances he can get in for that tomorrow before the new calendar year? Not so great. His appt with the doc wasn't until 5:00, so he can't talk to the scheduler until tomorrow morning, the last day of the calendar year. Why does that matter? Because we've met our family out-of-pocket maximum for our insurance this calendar year. So anything else that we get hit with in 2008 is covered at 100%. So if Mark's MRI is on Friday, we'll pay a ton of money for it. What a great way to start a new year!

Please pray that he's able to get in for an MRI tomorrow. Highly unlikely, I know, but it would really help.

The Christmas letter

The elves came through and the Christmas letter is finally written. See the link on the upper left side of the blog to read it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Micah had a great time playing with the wrapping paper. Nathan is still having a fun time "showing Micah all of his toys" (aka, playing with Micah's toys).

We're home

Micah had his first outpatient surgical experience today. It was quite a nice change. He definitely knew where he was after we put the hospital "gown" on him and he was no longer his easy-going self: he quickly became quite irritable. And he didn't come out of anesthesia well either (it was tough to settle him down). He finally settled after we put him in his car seat and strolled him around the unit with his IV still in. Yes, the car seat. I would not have thought a car seat could be a happy place for a baby after dealing with Nathan's aversion to that location as a baby. But Micah just loves it.

One of the challenges of having a baby who is fed through a tube is that he can't communicate that he doesn't want more food until it's sort of too late. He doesn't decide how much food goes into his intestines: we decide for him. So after a few hours of food going into him after surgery, he got puky on the ride home. When I vented his stomach, there was bile there. That is the only way we know that a specific volume of food is too much for him. If he ate from a bottle like other babies, he probably wouldn't have over-eaten.

Anyway.... we're home. Please pray that Micah heals quickly (he's pretty bruised "down there"). And that he would be able to get up to volume on feeds in the next day or so.

OR visit #6

Micah is having his "little boy" surgery today for undescended testicles. "Why 3 days before Christmas?" you might ask. Well, with the next baby coming on 2/2 or 2/3, I didn't want to take the trip to Milwaukee in late January (our other option). So here we are.
Let's make this the last OR visit for a while, okay buddy?

If you're looking for our Christmas update letter, let us know when you find it. We're hoping the Christmas elves will write it for us. Seriously, though, it's in process and we'll post it soon. Meanwhile, I'll try to do some updates on our lives for the last six weeks.

One major update is that Micah is sleeping much better these days (until the past 3 days that he's been sort of congested). Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our rest. Micah started sleeping better just in time for me to be less comfortable in my 3rd trimester state... but at least he is sleeping better and he's a much happier baby because of it (not that he was ever really a grumpy baby).

Please pray for Becky, Micah's occupational therapist. She is being deployed to Baghdad (though that could easily turn into Afghanistan, from what I hear). We will miss her dearly. Pray we would have wisdom about how to handle Micah's therapy needs going forward. We could wait for the county to hire a temporary OT, or we could go with private services.

I can't post pictures from the hospital, but I'll post some new ones soon.