Christmas 2009

We enjoyed Christmas very much this year. The grandparents came to visit, Pop and GG and Grandpa. Christmas Eve Mark attended his first candlelight service at RIchland Creek.


Christmas Day we opened presents and enjoyed each other's company. We are all so grateful to the Lord for sending His Son Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins and reconcile us to the Father. The next best gift was having our little Brett home! First, that he has made it this far. This year with his health has just been so uncertain, and I knew there was a possibility we would end up in the hospital on Christmas like we did on Thanksgiving. I am overjoyed that his first Christmas could be spent at home and all my boys were in the same place on this special day.,m

Mark and Brett

Monster truck toys

Monster Jam Tickets!!

Playing with Pop

Playing Wii

Grandpa and Gantt

Pop and GG with twins

A Little Fun

There is nothing really new to report on the health/wellness front, and for now that is a good thing. Not having to take care of the Broviac and do IV antibiotics lessens the workload a good bit at home. It means we don't have to stay up really late at night and we don't have to get up quite so early. Now we have our regular medications every 3 hours and breathing treatments and chest PT several times a day, but we can determine when we want to do those - there is not a set time like there is when Brett is on the antibiotics. So we're praying Brett can be home for his first Christmas. Thinking positively and enjoying our time together.

We had our Chick-fil-A Christmas party at Adventure Landing last night. This is the first year we have allowed Mark to attend, and he had a ball! Daddy won lots of tickets...

And we did almost 2 hours worth of continuous go-carts!

We also had an "adventure" making sugar cookies from scratch and decorating them. It was fun, but a lot to clean up!

Since we were unable to get Christmas cards out this year the way we normally do, we put together this short slideshow. It takes a minute to load, but it's cute! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Update on Brett - and- Mark rides a bike!

Brett's surgical procedure to remove his Broviac central catheter was successfully performed last Friday, December 11. He also had a bronchoscopy done. Pretty much anytime he has to go under general anesthesia for any reason, they will want to do a "bronch." This is where they go in with a camera and look around. If there are airways that are plugged with thickened secretions, they can inject a little bit of saline into that airway (called a "wash") that clears that one airway. The thickened secretions that are removed become the culture that they can set aside and see what type of bacteria are growing in the lungs - thus knowing better whether there is an infection, and if there is, what antibiotics work best on that particular bacteria. So far, the cultures have only grown oropharyngeal flora, which is good news. The bronch did show that Brett's airways are inflamed and swollen. Since this is the first bronch he has had when he is "well," there is nothing with which to compare this newest bronch. It is hard to tell if he has a virus coming on or if this is the way his lungs normally are. And there is no way to know as of now. He carried a fever for a bit after the procedure, but pretty much felt back to normal within a day. He is back to his regular smiley self!!

Mark rode his bicycle without training wheels for the first time tonight! Here is the link to the cute video if you'd like to take a look!

YouTube - Mark riding his bike for the first time.

Christmas Decorating

Once home from our last hospital stay over Thanksgiving, we set out to decorate the house for Christmas. Mark especially loves doing this at his age. Here's what we put together.

Mark decorating the tree

Mark's favorite part is putting the angel on the top

The mantel - this is a new set-up for this year. Everything is completely new! Do you like it?

Even Brett and Gantt got into the spirit!!

Upstairs handrail

The Gingerbread House Mark made -- and ate

Our Christmas cards - thank you everyone! I'm sorry we did not get any out this year! (Been a little busy...)

The tree - we love it!

Gantt, Mark, and Rob's little overnight trip.

Some of you know that Mark has been interested in Monster Trucks lately.  I helped a little by getting my truck lifted and getting off road tires.

Since I had both boys while Jennifer was spending the night in the hospital, I had the idea to take them to see Grave Digger near the coast of NC.  We were able to meet Dennis Anderson, the founder and driver of Grave Digger.  He has done more for the sport and Monster Jams than any other person.  Mark had a blast and got Dennis to sign his hat and one of his toys.

Enjoy the pictures.  Some of the photos are from Marks perspective.  It is interesting to see how big it looks from a 6 yr olds eyes!!

Couple more pics....

In order for the trucks to get in the garage, they have replace the huge 66 inch tires with much smaller ones.  Mark thinks they look kind of funny.

Home at Last

We made it home today around 6:30pm. Took us almost 2 hours with all the darkness, rain, and traffic. But what's most important is that we made it safely and we're all home together again!!

Answers and Plans

So Brett got to meet the UNC Tarheels Basketball Team this week! When they stopped by we got some pics as well as had them sign a poster. Here's Brett with his poster.

This is our awesome new room! It is so big and it is in the corner of the 5th floor. Hardly anyone walks down the hallway so it is much quieter than the previous room (and MUCH quieter than the PICU!)

As for Brett's condition - he is feeling much better, and pretty much back to his normal smily self. I know he can't wait to be back home with his brothers. The docs pretty much decided (based on the bacteria that finally grew from the culture) that the infection DID originate from his broviac central catheter. Therefore, the central line must be removed. However, we can continue to use it to finish out the round of IV antibiotics first. Despite the trouble breathing (brought on by the infection) that landed us in intensive care, his lungs are in good shape. Tomorrow (Monday the 30th) makes 7 days of antibiotics since a negative-for-bacteria blood culture, so we are going to go 14 more days after that (IVs that we will administer at home) just to make sure his lungs are in the best possible condition for when he gets the line out, because he'll be going under anesthesia for that. Chances are he'll be getting a bronchoscopy as well, but Rob and I still have yet to make our final decision on that. The procedure to remove the line will probably happen the week before Christmas. There are no plans to replace it. The good thing is that it will be one less thing we have to worry about and take care of at home. If he were to need another line in the future, he would just get another broviac or PICC at that time. As for being discharged, we are hoping it happens tomorrow.

Some pics with the team

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jen, Rob, Mark and Gantt at UNC Hospital's Thanksgiving Lunch

With Brett still in the hospital on Thanksgiving Day, we attended a lunch provided by UNC and served by hospital volunteers. It was so nice of them to give of their time to give families of patients a good experience and food for Thanksgiving. My mom (GG) spent the rest of the day and night with Brett and let Rob, me, Mark and Gantt go home and spend the day together. What a beautiful day it was in Wake Forest, NC! We went outside for a bike ride/stroll, and did some other fun outside activities. Later it was Waffle House for dinner! We enjoyed our time, knowing Brett was well-taken-care-of by his GG. She left to go home this morning and hopefully have a fun weekend at the lake with Dad and their friends. She deserves it!

Brett on Thanksgiving Day

As you can see from the photo, Brett is feeling much, much better. He is pretty much back to his old self behaviorally. We love to see all those gummy smiles! Speaking of gummy smiles, Gantt's is about to become a one-tooth smile - he is cutting his first tooth on the bottom!

Gantt on our stroll

Mark playing with his water guns

Our backyard on Thanksgiving Day - beautiful blue sky