All is Well!!!

[After surgery..at home, you can see the difference already]

***WARNING...as Brynn has often reminded me, my medical updates are BORING. She may be right, but this is my journal of these events, so proceed to read if you like, but there is a lot of detail most may not care about.

Anyway here's my update on our Little Linken. His surgery is over with and he is doing great now!

Morgan was already in GR so we left the girls with her and headed down on Monday (16th) night. Thanks again Mor for watching them...and teaching Kynadi some Spanish while you were here! :) Anyway, Tuesday we had to get up early and take Linken to Shields. They put him on a "scanner" and scanned his head, which then produced a 3-D image of him on the computer so they could get measurements and ratios...yadda yadda. It is amazing what they can do with technology these days!

Then the rest of the day we just bummed SLC, until that afternoon when they had us take Linken to PC (Primary Children's) for his labs. I was not expecting this to be so bad, but it almost had me in tears. They needed to get blood samples, and were trying to get the needle into his tiny little veins. Unfortunately they were having problems, and once they got it in his one hand, they couldn't get enough blood to come out. So they had to attempt it again, poking him on the other arm. I hate having my blood drawn and I have some pretty hefty veins, so watching them dig around in Linken's little arm was awful. I'm sure it was painful to say the least. Finally that torture was over, but before we left one of the nurses commented on how the docs/nurses the next day were going to need luck getting his IV in. Thanks for the peaceful thoughts-- and we left.

The 18th was the big day. We got to PC at around 8:00 where they prepped us for surgery. Basically just kinda talked to us, let us meet the anesthesiologist (Dr. Clark) and put Linken in funny little clothes (they match Brooklyn's set from her night at PC--we're collecting them I guess :) ) So then they took us over to the pre-op waiting area. This is when I really started getting nervous. I of course let all kinds of things enter my mind...while John entertained himself on the video games they have for the KIDS!!! Then the hardest part was when Dr. Clark came and talked to us a little and then I had to hand Linken over! Linken had had a blessing before we went, so I felt like things would be ok, but the "what-ifs" always pop up testing our faith, not to mention, they are awful to think about. I'm proud to say that I was strong though and fought back the tears...though it was tough.

The next two hours were spent mostly in the waiting room provided for the families with children undergoing surgery. That was interesting to me. I loved to eaves drop on all the conversations about how each child was doing and what procedure was being done. Doctor after doctor came in and the news to the parents was always positive. So that helped lighten the mood.
Finally, a little over two hours later, Dr. Siddiqui came in and gave us the update on Linken. The surgery had gone well. He did have a blood transfusion, as his blood was getting a little low and they didn't want to risk anything, but other than that, the doc said he was pleased with how it turned out. Yipee! So then off to the PICU to see Link.

This was hard too. The pictures don't show it much, but he was pretty swollen all over, and just seeing all the "things" in him and hooked to him was scary. The IVs and everything were put in him after we had handed him over, so this was the first time seeing him this way. He was crying a lot and the nurses and techs thought he was probably still feeling a lot of the pain. They had given him quite a bit of morphine, and were worried about giving him much more since it could make him stop breathing. That was a pleasant thought again.

He seemed so fragile I was afraid to hold him, but I did for the next few hours. He was in and out of sleep and crying. You could tell the poor thing just wasn't comfortable. I was so glad to be in there though, as a nurse was standing there with us the whole time making sure he was doing alright. As I sat there I was grateful that I knew Linken was just in there per protocol. There were so many sick little children. We had a little girl (under a year old) in the bed next to Linken's that appeared to have heart problems (she had a big scare on her chest). The PICU is all open so I could hear everything the nurses were telling the mom. She had been there before, and was obviously known by other nurses, and they were trying to figure out something that was wrong with her...anyway, it was humbling. Who knows if that little girl was going to get better or for how long, ect. Later, Linken was moved to a different spot in the PICU (he was being isolated because they thought maybe he was not over the virus he had a few weeks prior). In this room I could hear the boy across from us moaning continually. He was probably only about 7. Sooo sad. At one point during Linken's stay in the PICU I walked to the end to use the restroom...passing bed after bed of sick little kids. It brought me to tears thinking what special children I was surrounded by and the suffering that they were having to endure. Not to mention all the grief and stress the families must be enduring. Oh, this was cute though. When Linken was first in there and was crying off and on...a nurse came over and said her patient (a little 6 year old girl) had heard Linken's cries and said, "he must have a headache like me". Too cute, and sweet. I wanted to meet her but I never did.

Anyway, after a few hours Linken was given Loritab rather than morphine and he seemed to calm down a bit, but not completely. By night he was doing better, so John and I finally left around 9:30 to get some sleep.

The next morning we got there and Linken seemed a bit better. The swelling was worse, but he was at least calm for the most part. We sat with him most the morning and they finally released him from the PICU to a normal room. We just hung out with him that day and spent the night in the room with him (a terrible nights sleep at that). Then the next day we did the same thing. He had a temperature they were monitoring, but by that evening it had been controlled. Dr. Siddiqui had visited us that afternoon and was pleased with how he was doing. So that evening Morgan came with the girls and at about 6:00pm the released Linken. We took Morgan to the airport, and then after getting our belongings at Barbara's and Rob's we headed home. YEAH!!
Linken has a HUGE soft spot on his head now...it's pretty icky to touch. The two incisions in his head are healing well...and everyone that sees him says they look good and are small. They're still big scars to me, but I am the mother. I can already see a difference in his face. Now that the swelling has gone down, you can tell he is much rounder now.

Now we should be headed down this week or next week to get the helmet and go in for a check-up. But all is well, and I am soooo happy to have it behind us. I'm grateful to so many people for the prayers and concern on his behalf. My biggest fear now is dropping him or having one of the girls hit his head on accident with something. The helmet will be good to have just as a protection. :-)


This is the back scar This is the scar on top

Sorry...this is the only pic I got of the babysitter

My girls miss you Boston!!..can't wait until May

Linken the day he was discharged Look Mom I'm doing fine! (out of PICU)

If you look above his ear there is a mark...the doc made it before surgery...he said it was protocol to mark where the patient was having surgery so they would accept him into the OR

IV #1

IV #2


This IV was in his artery (thus the greater protection to keep it from coming out)

All hooked up--he was on oxygen at this point in PICU

Isolated in PICU...his whole body is swollen

Holding him right after surgery. You can kinda see

in the 2nd pic his eyes are swollen.

His poor head right after surgery

(I'm glad I didn't see the incisions for a few days)


Pre-op with mom...he was soo happy that morning, he obviously

didn't know what the day held for him.

Look Brooklyn, my PJ's match yours now!