Out of ICU

Christian has been moved from the ICU back to the 5th floor. We will be seeing if he can walk soon. He seems to be glad to be out of the ICU. It is much more quiet up here and it also allows us to stay with him all day. It would seem that we are out of the woods as far as a trach is concerned but I don't think that we have let our hopes get up yet.

Recovery Update

Christian's recovery is slow but steady. Christian was extubated back on Friday but they had to reintubate that same day as he was unable to deal with his secretions because of his inability to swallow. Christian was extubated again today (3/27) and so far has been handling it well. I'm sure that they will want to monitor him for quite a while this time to make sure that he will be OK. If not he will most likely get a trach put in on Wednesday. This would be temporary until he could regain his ability to swallow.
Since he has no tube in his mouth now, we are able to hold him outside of his bed. I think that this is helping to boost his spirits. I'm sure when we make it out of the ICU and into a room that will really improve his mood.
With any luck we will be able to update his site a little more frequently. Keep checking back as I'm sure we will have more to post later.

Surgery was a success!!!

Yesterdays MRI showed that Dr. Sanford successfully removed all of the tumor. Christian is still in the ICU and we are waiting for the ENT group to remove his ventilation tube and evaluate whether or not he will need a trach tube going forward. Thank you to everyone for your prayers. Christian seems to be doing well and hopefully we can continue to update you with good news. The best way to reach us, while we are without an individual room here at the hospital, would be to leave a message at our room @ Nora's home (901-271-5603) or Amy's cell phone (716-310-6609).

We are here

Hi everyone we finally made it to the hospital today and was able to get an internet connection. Our travel down went pretty well. Christian watched movies or slept. The phone number for the room we are in now is 901-572-5614. His surgery time is scheduled for 7:30 am tomorrow (3/22). And after that he will go to ICU for awhile. We will try to update the site afterwards, if not tom. then on Thursday. I have a feeling we are going to get lost often while we are here. Its like a maze to get through. So far it seems like a nice hospital to be in. We met with Dr. Sanford yesterday, so that makes us feel a little more comfortable with him doing the surgery. Please continue to pray for him.

updating

Just wanted to let everyone know that we might try to update before the surgery to let you know how the trip went. Then we will try to do so again after his surgery at some point. Thanks for all your prayers.

Surgery Date

Christians surgery date will be March 22nd. We will be leaving home on Friday the 17th we are going to drive so that Christian can see his great grandma before he has this surgery. Everyone please keep him in your prayers and us while we travel.

"...boy you've got a prayer in Memphis"

Well, our options were finally presented to us. Our choices bring us to Memphis, TN. A neurosurgeon by the name of Dr. Robert Sanford, affiliated with both St. Judes and Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, has graciously offered to perform the final resection surgery. He has more experience with this type of brain tumor and surgery. It is also our gut feeling that this is the way to go. Please pray for our journey, the surgeon, and Christian. This will be a tough road ahead.

PS: Quote from Mark Cohn's tune "Walking in Memphis". A good song.

Update

Christian's counts are looking good right now his Hemo. is 9.4 white is 3.5 plat. is 218 and Anc is 2730. We also found out that the results from his spinal tap were negative. We are still waiting to hear what the next step will be as the doctors are waiting to hear from the neurosurgeon at St. Judes and the Radiation Oncologist in Boston. Hopefully we will find that information out some time next week.