Hospitalization #11 - Day 7

Going home for Christmas Eve! We feel as though we got a Christmas miracle! We are thrilled to be able to take our little man home and celebrate the birth of Christ together as a family - all under one roof. Merry Christmas!

Hospitalization #11 - Day 6

Blood cultures are still negative for bacteria growth for 48 hours now!!! We are so grateful for this! We feel as though we've "dodged the bullet" since we don't have to get the port out right now. Hooray!

Mark came to visit yesterday and we decorated Brett's room.

Mark set up the Christmas tree

Daddy hung the lights

 Mark painted the window

 Love this one with Mark smiling in the background

 Brett is off contact and droplet precautions so he can now hang out in the hallway

The finished window

The finished room

Thank you so much for your fervent prayers for Brett. Please keep them coming as he will have IV treatment every 6 hours for two weeks to try to completely eradicate the bacteria.

Hospitalization #11 - Day 5

Results are in : the blood cultures taken yesterday morning, 24 hours ago, have not yet grown any live bacteria!!! We might be getting the infection under control. This means no surgery this week!

Visit from Jason Michael Carroll

Brett's surgeon is very adamant about trying to treat through this line, because he says Brett's body is getting harder and harder to get central lines into - he's put 5 central lines in Brett, so he should know.We need IV access, so they are going to do all they to keep the port Brett has now. We are super grateful that Brett will not have to be put through that surgery right now and have to have a peripheral IV. After we stop the antibiotics, there is a chance that the bacteria will start growing again, and we will have to revisit this issue. But that will at least be a few weeks away, and a lot can change in that time.

Today we had a special visitor from an up-and-coming country artist, Jason Michael Carroll. He lives in Wake Forest also and he does a lot with NC Children's Hospital. He came by today to see Brett and give him a cute little frog that dances to Christmas music. 

Hospitalization #11 - Day 4

No surgery today. Brett's surgeon wants to see if there is any other way we can take care of this infection without having to remove the port. He has done all of Brett's surgeries - a total of something like 10 times he's done a surgical procedure in Brett's body. The infectious disease people are afraid the staph will start growing in his heart if we don't get the port out. I get both sides. It seems like a no-win situation. His reluctance has bought us one more day, though, for there to be a negative blood culture. It seems if we can at least get one negative, then we might have more options. Right now all we see is 2 options, and they are both bad. I might be able to explain that in more detail when I have more time. But we are praying for God to make a different way where there is no way. I am reminded of that song, "God will make a way, when there seems to be no way, He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a way for me. He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side. With love and strength for each new day, He will make a way." Please pray with us that there will be some way we can treat this infection without having to remove his port.

Hospitalization #11 - Day 3 - Quick Update

Short update - Brett's blood cultures continue to show positive for live bacteria, even though the fever is gone. It is important not to wait too long to remove the source of the infection - the port - because the staph could easily start growing on his heart. It's what they call "vegetation." This could be a life-threatening illness if they do not intervene, so he's scheduled to have surgery tomorrow to have his port-a-cath removed. This means we will be spending Christmas at UNC this year.

A Chick-fil-A Christmas

Santa came to Chick-fil-A Wake Forest last week! If you were there, you know how busy it was and hopefully you enjoyed the day. Our breakfast with Santa is always a hit with the community!

 Mrs. Claus, Santa Claus, Mark, and Rob with the Chick-fil-A cows

Our first Chick-fil-A restaurant was in Brunswick, Georgia.  Rob took over as Operator of that unit in June of 1999. One of our most loved team members, Heather, painted the picture frame shown below and gave it to us that year.  We've displayed every Christmas since. It's so fun to look at those faces and remember the times we had there. There are some we never lost touch with, including Heather. There are other special ones we did lose touch with, but just this year reconnected through - you guessed it - Facebook.

Rob and I with our 1999 team (we're in the back)

Rob and I with our 2010 team

(we are seated in front)

Back then we had around 17 employees and now we have over 60! What a difference 12 years has made, and how richly God has blessed our business by increased sales and great people to work alongside us serving chicken and striving to be good stewards.  Chick-fil-A's purpose statement is "to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all He has entrusted to us and to be a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

Hospitalization #11 - Day 3

Christmas tree in the main lobby

A few changes for the better yesterday - Brett's fever is down to 99! Also, now that the fever is down, he can breathe much easier. He's in good spirits and more interested in play. Vancomycin is the drug he needs for this - it's also the drug that he had the adverse reaction to last year, called Red Man Syndrome. Since we know that, they just give him Benadryl before the infusion and run the infusion over a longer period of time. He still gets red sometimes, though, and that happened today.

Brett with mild Red Man Syndrome- notice the red top half of face and white bottom half. The Benadryl keeps this from getting all over his body and itching like crazy.

Brett's second set of blood cultures came back positive again. Has to be negative before he can go home. So we try again today and hopefully it will come back positive on Wednesday.

Rob's holding down the fort at home - went to urgent care yesterday because he was sick. He's taking care of Mark and Gantt by himself this weekend while very sick himself. What a Superdad! I am so thankful for him and the way he loves his boys. I admire him for doing whatever it takes to take care of his family when it's hard without complaint.

Hospitalization #11 - Day 2

 We have bumblebees out our window this time!

Brett is feeling better today! The blood culture that was taken the first night he was here tested positive for staph - which means a blood infection. They took 2 more cultures - one from his port and another from his arm, just to be sure. It's easy for a blood culture to become contaminated, even with a flake of someone else's skin. But these are real, and last night they started him on IV Vancomycin to treat the infection. He's had 3 doses now and is starting to feel well enough to sit up and play a little bit and watch TV. His temperature is down to 99! And he's breathing much better since the fever went down.

Checking out the equipment

f you're wondering how Brett got something like this, here's the way one doctor described it to me. Although his port-a-cath is covered with skin, whenever it's accessed, there is a chance for it to get contaminated. If bacteria is allowed to enter the space there at the port, it can colonize and start an infection. Then if some of the bacteria break loose from that colony, they get swept through the bloodstream and you now have a blood infection. It's a risk of having permanent IV access.