What a week...

Thanks to everyone who has been praying, calling, and texting these last several weeks.  Tripp is truly a miracle baby that still has a lifetime ahead of him to show the world how strong he is!  I would also like to say thanks to my family (my sisters, parents, Kinsley, and Jim) for driving up to Augusta with us and being there while Tripp had surgery. 

We checked in to the hospital on Tuesday morning at 11:00 am and turned Tripp over to Dr. Macomson and his surgical team.  That was one of the scariest things I have ever done!!!  We sat in the waiting area during the surgery and kept waiting for the phone to ring with updates.  Surgery was scheduled to start at 12.  At 12:27, the nurse called me to say they had just started and that Tripp was doing great.  The surgery was to take anywhere from 60-95 minutes.  At 12:38, the phone rang again and the nurse told me Dr. Macomson was on his way out to talk to us.  When he came out, he said that Tripp did great and that the team was closing him up and that we should see him in the next half hour.  He said that it only lasted about 40 minutes!  When we got into recovery, Tripp was whining and trying to wake up.  He was so pitiful.  I felt his soft spot and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!  An hour after surgery and it was normal!  The nurse let me feed him and this seemed to make him better.  We sat in recovery for almost 2 hours and then we were on our way to a room for the night.  He was doing so good that we were allowed to stay on the fifth floor of CMC which is a regular pediatric floor and not in the NICU or PICU!  Praise the Lord!  Because he was sent to 5th floor, we got to stay with him.  Around 5 that afternoon, the nurse gave him morphine to control the pain.  He was so out of it and just not a happy, smiling baby that we were so used to seeing.  Around midnight we were faced with giving him another dose of morphine or just tylenol.  We tried the tylenol because we knew he would be going home the next day and just wanted to make sure that it would control the pain enough...and it did.  I finally saw a smile from Tripp around 2:30 am.  What a sight! 

At 2:30, he kicked his IV out of his foot and the nurses tried a few more times, unsuccessfully, to put it back in.  He has small veins and its hard to get the needle to stay in.  A PIC team came in at 5:30 to put in a pic line so that all of his meds could be given as well as his fluids without the continuous sticking.  About 7:30 we started our day of drs (always looks like an episode of house at MCG because it is a training facility) coming in and out in herds!  You have attending drs, fellows, residents, and nurses.  After they leave your room, they stand out in hallway and discuss!  It is just like you see on tv!  We saw Dr. Macomson again (neurosurgeon) and he actually showed us what the vp shunt looks like and how they put it in.  I can't believe some rubber tubing and a plastic valve are all Tripp needed to have put in to fix this problem! 

Tripp has 4 incisions.  He has one in the back of his head where the shunt was placed, one on the right side of his neck where they started fishing the tube down, one in his belly button where the scope went in to guide the tube, and one on the upper, right side of abdomen to pull the tubing into that area.  His head is half shaved and I hope that his hair grows back quickly!  You can see the shunt.  It looks like a small finger under the skin and feels hard.  It will always be able to be felt but as he grows and his hair grows, it will not be as noticeable. 

We were discharged about lunch time and have several follow up appointments in the near future.  We came home to a roast with carrots, onions, and potatoes compliments of my mama!  It was nice to not have to cook dinner and get to enjoy a home cooked meal!  We are going to take it easy for a few days and see how things go before I can return to work.

Thanks again for all of the support and prayers through our entire journey!  Keep them coming as we continue to get answers to many more questions regarding Tripp.  A HUGE thanks also to Kim Lucky from MCG and for all that she has done for us since our journey started there last June.  She means the world to us and has made our trips and stays there so easy!  Also, I would like to say thanks to the Grant family for their hospitality as we come and crash their house with a place to stay when we are back and forth between appointments. 

T.R.I.P.P.

I am still learning about this blog and I am trying to figure out how to keep adding pictures!  If you know how please let me know!!  (Magaen????)

reports from day 2

Day 2 included Endocrinology and NICU follow up.  Dr. Houk, our endocrinologist, said that Tripp looks great.  He is still on prelone, a steroid, that he has been on since birth.  He was put on it because he had low blood sugar and this would help prevent seizures.  He wants to see us again at the end of April to follow up and make sure his dosage is ok.  He will hopefully out grow this and the adrenal deficiency will correct itself.  At 1 year he will also check us to make sure Tripp is still growing at a good rate because he had concerns that his pituitary gland may not function properly.  At 1 they need the growth hormone to continue growing whereas he can grow right now without it. 

NICU follow up was great too.  Dr. Boedy was in clinic today so we got to follow up with him.  He cared for Tripp for the 19 days he was in the hospital.  He also played for the Gators in football and has season tickets one section over from ours!!!  He has become a part of our family so we were excited to get to follow up with him.  He told us to watch out for hernias when the fluid starts draining after shunt is placed.  He said its common for this to happen because the fluid comes in large amounts into stomach area and can cause them to pop up.  He said we would then have to have a surgery to fix those if that happened.  We asked him would we know if Tripp's shunt wasn't working?  He said YES!  It would be no doubt that something was wrong.  He said we wouldn't have to kill ourselves to get to hospital but to just go on and go.  It wouldn't be life or death but the symptoms would come very quickly. 

Please just remember us, Tripp, and the drs as we prepare and go through with Tripp's surgery on Tuesday.  We will be leaving Monday for Augusta. 

Trust & Rely In the Power of Prayer!!!

reports from appointments

Well, we made is safely to and from Augusta.  Thanks for all the calls, prayers, and texts.  Tripp had his MRI Tuesday morning.  It was very hard for them to find a vein for the medicine to go in.  He screamed for 15 minutes while they looked.  They finally got it in his foot.  Well, after we left him as he was falling asleep things changed!  The IV in his foot came out and started leaking in his foot.  They then tried the other foot and it wouldn't stay.  When the dr. came to get us as he was coming into recovery, she said "please don't kill me, but we had to use a vein in his head for iv."  When we saw him, he had a fat foot, another bandaged foot, and a bandage on his head!  He looked pitiful.  He woke up happy and very hungry.  The dr. told us just by comparing the old scan to this one, she could tell there was more fluid.  We had to wait until 3 to see the neurosurgeon.  He came in and agreed that there was building pressure and that we needed to have the surgery sooner than later.  So Tripp is scheduled to have a shunt placed on Tuesday, January 24.  He will have to spend at least 1 night in ICU and then hopefully will be able to go home.  His recovery should last about 2 weeks.  Please continue to send prayers our way.  We are scared and excited all at the same time.  So excited that he will be able to do "normal" things that a 4 month old should do.  The dr. said that within the first 2 weeks his head should drastically change sizes.  I am so eager to see what Tripp will be able to do (hold head up independently and completely roll over) with the new size.  Pray that he will tolerate this shunt and that he will not have any complications. 

I have to go pick up students from PE but I will update day two Augusta tonight. 

Summer

T.R.I.P.P.

Please Pray

I know it has been a while since I posted and I will catch you all up on the delivery and what has happened since but this is a little more URGENT.  Please pass this to anyone that will join us in praying. 

This is a copy of my sisters email from yesterday.

Tripp (our little miracle baby) needs our prayers. I just spoke with Summer a few minutes ago and she had just left Dr. Maria’s office (neurologist). She asked for me to send out this email to all our “prayer warriors. He said that he does not like that way that the soft spot feels and does not like the continued growth of Tripp’s head. He said when the growth is charted, he wants to see a curve but it shows more as a straight line. This concerns him and he feels like there is probably fluid build-up taking place that is causing pressure on the brain. He is ordering a CT and is going to set Tripp up an appointment with neurosurgeon to see about putting shunt in. Tripp is happy and content now and we do not want him to get sick by waiting too late for the shunt if it is needed.
Please pray for the DR’s as they make these decisions, as well as Summer, Tripp, John and Kinsley. Life is full of twists and turns but nothing is beyond our grasp if we remember we are in God’s hands and that he ultimately has a plan for each of us, including our little Tripp.

Thqnks!

Trust & Rely In Power of Prayer