Surgery Dates

Lillian and Matt have finally gotten surgery dates. Lillian is the 2nd surgery scheduled for Aug 1 so it might get bumped till the 2nd. Matt’s surgery is Aug 4th. Both surgeries will be at the Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Recovery time is unknown and varies depending on how long the kids are on the heart and lung bypass machine. We will be in Utah until July 28 or 29. So if any of our Utah friends are in town…give us a call.

So I know the writers strike has ended and that my blog needs a serious update but I have a good excuse….I’m on vacation. Vacation started in the beginning of June and has gradual gotten longer. What started out for a 2 or 3 week visit to San Diego has gone 6 weeks. The kids and I have gone swimming almost everyday and have gone to the beach a couple days too.

The reason for the extension? After only being here, in San Diego, a little over a week Matt got sick. Of course when Matt gets sick we end up in the ICU at Children’s Hospital. Four days later we get out and Matt looks better then he has in 6 months. The Doctors here put Matt on a mixture of helium and oxygen. This opened up his capillaries in his lungs that albuterol and other inhalers have not been able to do. (ER put Matt on a continual albuterol treatment for over 2 hours with no improvement.) The heli-oxide treatment isn’t used in Salt Lake Children’s for reasons unknown to me. All I can say is hallelaijah it works. Matt’s retractions on his chest were completely gone after the treatment. The surgeon at the Children’s hospital here also believe they can improve Matt’s lung functions which the surgeon in SLC didn’t know that he could do it and not end up with the same results that Matt currently has. (60% on the right lung, 80% on the left lung) We are currently waiting for a date for the surgery. The waiting part stinks. And since we are doing Matt’s surgery here, we had Lillian’s records sent here too.

Matt is a maniac. He has started to pull himself up and use furniture to walk around it. He has been so excited about his progress that he can barely sleep at night and now wants to climb on everything including the stairs. Yesterday, the dishwasher was left open and he pulled the bottom rack out and climbed inside…all the way inside.

Lillian and Marissa have loved going swimming. Lillian will jump off a ledge to her Uncle Ray’s pool that is five feet up from the water. Marissa still does not want to go underwater so jumping isn’t her style…yet. Other then swimming they play with their cousins all the time. Sam is three months younger then Lillian. Emma is a month older then Marissa and Dayna is three months younger then Matt. They all love each other a lot and usually get in to trouble a lot too.

Now the big question is 'Can these surgeries get done and can we get back to Utah before Lillian starts school?'
I talked to the surgeon's secretary on Friday about our time tables and hopefully we will get an answer Monday or Tuesday. If the surgeries won't be for another week then we will go back to Utah for a week or so.
The kids and I miss Philip. He has been out to see us on two of the six weekends.