Eastons surgery, pro reel's grandson

[pro reel]

Well, Easton is still in the PICU, but he is getting better day by day now. I was there this weekend to see him and to bring my wife back home. She was there all of last week. Easton still has the ventilator tube to help him breathe. The main reason he needs that is because they need him to gain as much weight as possible and for him to get a little bigger. The ventilator reduces the amount that his body has to work so his caloric intake can mostly go to putting weight on. He has been gaining an average of one ounce per day. He is still on a feeding tube that they give him mothers milk through along with a high calorie booster. They plan to remove the ventilator at the end of this week to see how he does without it. If that goes smooth, they will also remove the feeding tube a few days later and let him start to nurse regularly. If both of those things are successful, he will be able to leave the PICU and move to a regular room for a couple of weeks just to be sure he doesn't have any relapses. After that, he should be able to come home. I promised everyone that I would get some new pictures up. I had hoped to get some with his eyes open , but they had him on a mild sedative this week because he is not happy about the tube and trys to pull at it all the time now. You will see in this picture that he has a hat thats a little to big for him yet. This is a very special hat. You may remember that about 6 weeks before Easton was due, we went to Children's Mercy for a meeting with doctors about the condition he was diagnosed with. At that time we already knew that he had di George syndrome and that he only had the one main heart artery. We had been told that this was repairable with 95% success rates and we were there to get the final tests and update from the cardiologists. We got in town the evening before the appointment and we went to the Olatha Bass Pro Shops do some shopping. While I was in the fishing section, Brittney found this hat in the gift section. She bought it and showed it to me when we left the store. The next day we had a bombshell dropped on us that Eastons heart now looked a lot worse and they didn't think he would survive. That was the worse day of my life so far. The 3 hour drive home that afternoon felt like an eternity. The hat got put up in Eastons baby room and I didn't think he would ever wear it. Well, I don't know if the doctors were just wrong, or if they underestimated Eastons will to live, or if all of our prayers were answered with a gift from God. I think the last two were it though. The doctors were right about what the last echo had shown, but Easton kept hanging on longer than they thought he could and they had time to do the surgery that saved him. So anyway. sorry for the long winded story about the hat, but Easton did get to wear it and one day it will fit him perfect. I will get a picture of that time also when he is in the boat with his own fishing pole and ready to catch some bass. I also got a picture of Easton with his teddy bear that Kory and Britney got him. He loves his bear.