Happy New Year, Hospital Style

Yesterday morning got off to a good start. Oliver and I went to the play area on the floor. He did well, although a bit unsteady on his feet. Then we got a special pass and went down to Starbucks for 30 minutes or so. He was happy as could be on his iPad. Unfortunately, the rest of his day was filled with crying and severe pain due to constipation. We wish we could take this away from him...

Yesterday we had a few visitors, and indeed a confetti cannon made it into our room (with a few other celebratory...beverages). One of the agents from LPG stopped by with his wife and brought some NYE treats, and of course I freaked out when I saw this hat. It says "Best Year Ever"

Thanks for the confetti cannon, JP & Mallory 

And...it perfectly matches the Best Year Ever Worksheet we use at Lanier Property Group to plan. I struggle to believe 2017 could be my best year ever based on how it has started, but I figure a bad beginning doesn't always mean a bad ending.

Found some NYE decorations at Target and couldn't resist. 

Clearly we were not ready to go home this weekend. Oliver still continues to refuse all drinks. He is drooling a great deal, which is a sign he doesn't want to swallow anything (even his own saliva). We are now 99% sure he will have a g-tube and possibly a Nissen fundoplication. Per the surgery consult we had today, Oliver could have two sedations this upcoming week or they may be able to do everything at once. We are still hopeful we'll be out of here by this time next week.

Last night we wearily cuddled up on the hospital couch and toasted a New Year. The implications of going home seem insurmountable now, so you can pray for us for our transition home. We are overwhelmed about how to add all this new medical complexity into our already full lives.

Super romantic...

I just keep clinging to this from Tim Keller's book, King's Cross:

Following the Thread

About 150 years ago George MacDonald wrote a children’s book called The Princess and the Goblin. Irene, the protagonist, is eight years old.  She has found an attic room in her house, and every so often her fairy grandmother appears there.  When Irene goes to look for her she’s often not there, so one day her grandmother gives her a ring with a thread tied to it, leading to a little ball of thread.  She explains that she’ll keep the ball.

“But I can’t see it,” says Irene.
“No.  The thread is too fine for you to see it.  You can only feel it.”  With this reassurance, Irene tests the thread.

“Now listen,” says the grandmother, “if you ever find yourself in any danger… you must take off your ring and put it under the pillow of your bed.  Then you must lay your forefinger… upon the thread, and follow the thread wherever it leads you.”

“Oh, how delightful!  It will lead me to you, Grandmother, I know!”

“Yes,” said the grandmother, “but, remember, it may seem to you a very roundabout way indeed, and you must not doubt the thread.  Of one thing you may be sure, that while you hold it, I hold it too.”  A few days later Irene is in bed, and goblins get into the house.  She hears them snarling out in the hallway, but she has the presence of mind to take off her ring and put it under her pillow.  And she begins to feel the thread, knowing that it’s going to take her to her grandmother and to safety.  But to her dismay, it takes her outside, and she realizes that it’s taking her right toward the cave of the goblins.

Inside the cave, the thread leads her up to a great heap of stones, a dead end.  “The thought struck her, that at least she could follow the thread backwards, and thus get out…But the instant she tried to feel it backwards, it vanished from her touch.”  The grandmother’s thread only worked forward, but forward it led into a heap of stones.  Irene “burst into a wailing cry,” but after crying she realizes that the only way to follow the thread is to tear down the wall of stones.  She begins tearing it down, stone by stone.  Though her fingers are soon bleeding, she pulls and pulls.

Suddenly she hears a voice.  It’s her friend Curdie, who has been trapped in the goblins’ cave!  Curdie is astounded and asks, “Why, however did you come here?”

Irene replies that her grandmother sent her, “and I think I’ve found why.”

After Irene has followed the thread and removed enough rocks to create an opening, Curdie starts to climb up out of the cave- but Irene keeps going deeper into the cave.  Curdie objects:  “Where are you going there?  That’s the way out.  That’s where I couldn’t get out.”

“I know that,” says Irene.  “But this is the way my thread goes, and I must follow it.”  And indeed the thread proves trustworthy, because her grandmother is trustworthy.

So many of you are texting, "How are you holding up?" Sometimes we feel like a strong tower and other times we feel like a pile of gravel. It is an emotionally depleting experience. But in all honesty, all we can do these days is follow the thread. We can't go backwards. Often times all this testing has looked like a dead end with no answers, but we do trust The Thread Holder is good and trustworthy. So we move forward. One hour at a time. Handling each challenge as it presents itself. Sometimes we stop to cry because having a child's life hang in the balance is as scary as it gets.  But no matter what, we carry on. Feeling our way through the dark and tearing down stone walls. We give everything, but up.