Praise God!!

Praise God!!

Everyday is better than the one before. Thank you so much for all your thoughts, prayers, and concerns. I appologize to anyone who has texted and I haven't returned them. My head isn't as clear as I'd like, and I'm napping as often as possible. Vesti and I have sent Trey to their house so that he can get a good nights sleep and Vesti is staying with Cannon and I tonight.

So I'll back up a little and give a few more details, I'm thankful for all of Vesti's updates. I am trying to keep everyone informed, especially for prayer requests.

So Sunday night Cannon as more fussy than usual and I couldn't find a reason. After noticing that his head looked different, I felt his soft spot and it was bulging. I asked my mom for reassurance and she agreed. Trey called the neurosurgeon, Dr. Honeycutt was on call. (He is the surgeon we originally met before Cannon was born, and he was out of town when it was time for surgery...so we got Dr. Roberts) Dr. Honeycutt told us to come to the ER at Cook, so we quickly loaded up and headed this way. Thank you Sarah for helping us get together quickly and on the road. We got here about midnight and into a room around 5am. After a maybe a couple hours of interupted sleep, we were up and preparing for surgery. Mandy, the neuro nurse practitioner came in and took a sample of spinal fluid from the valve of Cannon's shunt. They were thinking infection as opposed to blockage because of it being so soon. As Vesti said, early results showed increased cell counts, pointing towards infection. We later found out it is a staph infection. That afternoon (Monday) Cannon went in for surgery #3. And how cool is it that before surgery Dr. Honeycutt asked if he could pray with us, he put his hand on Cannon's head and prayed over him and for all of us. It was AWESOME!!! They made a small incision on his right chest, and pulled out all of the shunt tubing leading to his belly. It is now draining externally, into a bag. They surgery went well, it only took about 15 minutes. They plan was to let the fluid drain on the outside while we treat infection. While in surgery they collected more fluid and sent it and the tip of the tubing for culture (this is how they check for growth, or infection). Cannon did pretty well waking up from surgery and did well recovering.

This is after Mondays surgery. The white circle on his chest is where his shunt is now coming out and is draining to the bag to the right of him.

Tuesday morning Mandy came back in and said that they wanted to put in a central IV line to give the antibiotics. For Cannon's sake this is best, however where was this thought Monday when we were already under anesthesia and on a breathing tube!! So another hard day! Surgery #4 wasn't as easy. It went well, but Cannon had a hard time recoverying from it. He didn't want to wake up, and his little throat was tired and irritated from having a tube put down 2 days in a row. He seemed to be struggling some with his breathing. He had Aunt Vesti and I very worried. And the pedi "on-call" took his getting up here and when he made his appearance said, "I think he is just cold, sometimes babies do that when they are cold". Of course by the time he got here Cannon was doing better. Not before frightening us though. It was a restless night. He wasn't eating, wouldn't nurse, and I was heartbroken.

Wednesay morning came and Mandy came to see Cannon. (I think it was Tueday an infectious disease doctor consulted and he swabbed Cannon's back for culture, he is also the doctor who gives the final word on what we do with antibiotics.) So looking at his back, Mandy says "when was the last time he ate?". My heart sank into my stomach and I wanted to get sick. NOT ANOTHER DAY OF SURGERY AND ALL THE YUCKY STUFF THAT GOES WITH IT!! I was upset! She said that she could see Dr. Roberts and Honeycutt going one of 2 ways. 1) watch it a couple days and see how it does 2) go back to surgery clean out the incision site and close it back up.

Cannon's incision has slowly opened up more and more. Starting with the carseat ride up here, then in the OR Tuesday they had put gauze over it and when it came off it pulled off the scab. Now it's wide open. But when Dr. Honeycutt came in he said it looked good and later Dr. Roberts came in and said the same thing. Dr. Mazade, ID (infectious disease) said the culture came back with infection, but it was a bacteria that is normal for an area so close to stool. And they aren't worried about it. After discussing it they didn't think we needed another antibiotic. So we are good to just watch his back, they felt like the tissue is healing and that it looks good! And today was a day of REST. Cannon slept a lot, as did Mommy and Daddy.

Thursday was another good day. We rested and tried to "relearn" to eat. And I got to nurse him, and he did well. (Restore my broken heart. Only a mom can understand the rejection you feel when they are not interested, esp. when they have been doing so well with it.) We are doing well with our antibiotic therapy, and Cannon is becoming more and more like himself. What a blessing! It's great to see him this way again.

Today was another GREAT day. He's eating very well. Can you believe that while Mommy was napping Aunt Vesti got Cannon to eat 4 1/2 ounces of my milk. He ate the first 2 1/2 in 11 minutes, then she gave a while to "feel" full, then he ate the next 2 ounces. WOW, Mommy is impressed!!! What a BIG boy!!

We also found out today that there has been no more growth on any of the cultures other than the original one that came from the valve. So Cannon's spinal fluid has so far shown no infection. I'm still a little confused how that works, but I'll take it.

Tonight the nurse came in and said that we get to unhook from IV fluids. One less tube!! Yea!

Can you believe he already picks up his head! 3 weeks old!