Surgery Rescheduled

The new scheduled surgery date is Monday, November 16. Because of the length of delay, Ethan will need to go through pre-op again. The pre-op is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10.

Postponing the Surgery

It can’t be said that we didn’t try hard. But regardless of our best efforts, Ethan is definitely sick. It first started early last week with a slight cough. By this Thursday it became a running rose. This afternoon it became a fever, watery eyes, and sneezing. So we are going to have to postpone the surgery. Once I have the new details I will be sure to update everyone. Please continue to pray that everyone in the family will get healthy. Also pray that we can get back on schedule. The last two weeks have been a combination of illness (for me) and then preparation for the surgery. All that to say…I have a ton of things to catch up on at the office.

Two days and counting

Well, the last few days have been very challenging. On Thursday morning, Alanna started coughing. So we kept her home from school. Later that day her symptoms got worse. By about midnight, her fever was 104.7. So I stayed up with her through the night to make sure she was okay. Thankfully her fever went down to 103 around 5am and I was able to get some rest. Of course that meant Cecil (who was still recovering from her own illness) had to take care of the household. Then on Friday night and this morning, Ethan began running a low fever (about 101). Thankfully it was gone by about 10am this morning.

Because of the upcoming surgery, we are trying to keep the entire family quarantined. So we have either stayed in the house or gone outside to the park. Today we were all very tired of being cramped up inside, so we went to the beach in Half Moon Bay. It was a beautiful day at the coast and the salty air seemed to help the kids.

Please pray for all of us to get well and especially that Ethan will be totally healthy by Monday morning. Both kids seemed to be doing better tonight before bed, but who knows what tomorrow holds. I still think everything will work out for Monday morning, but if there is one thing I've learned, it's that you never know what will happen tomorrow. Also, pray for Cecil and me. The closer the surgery gets the more nervous and anxious we are. Tonight, I just spent some time holding Ethan and praying silently before I put him to bed. The other night as I was putting him to bed, I told him how proud I was of how he handled the pre-op visit and how brave he was. His response was, "Dad, I really don't like those blood tests."

Sometimes I wonder how aware he is of what is going to happen. Those of you who know him, know that he is a very energetic boy, so I am praying that he will be able to be patient through his recovery. His favorite thing to do is "play wrestle and tackle with Daddy." Of course he won't be able to do that for about 2-3 months.

I'll give you another update tomorrow night. Thanks again for your prayers.

PS - feel free to post comments if you would like. I am somewhat curious to see if anyone is following my postings.

Ethan's Surgery Updates

With so many of you praying for Ethan, it was getting more and more difficult to continue emailing everyone, so I decided to post about his surgery. For those of you who aren't quite aware of what is going on you can check out the previous post.

Today was the pre-op. As you can see from the pictures, Stanford is being very cautious about the H1N1 virus. When we arrived at 7:30am we had to check in with security and they then directed us to a nurse's station where they checked Ethan's temperature and gave us masks to wear. Starting last Monday, Stanford has a new policy that no one under the age of 16 is allowed in the hospital unless they are the patient. Unfortunately this means Alanna will not be allowed to visit her brother, which is another reason I am going to post pictures so that she can stay connected.

Here is what happened during the day:

1. Admitting - signed all the paperwork for the surgery
2. Chest X-Ray
3. Echo cardiogram - they did a thorough and complete check of his heart which took over one hour. The staff were so impressed with how great Ethan did that they gave him an extra special gift...a Luke Skywalker figurine!
4. EKG
5. Appointment with the surgical staff - our surgeon, Dr. Reddy, decided to push the surgery back to Monday since Ethan does have a minor cough and runny nose. (more on this later)
6. Lab work - After today, Ethan hates anything remotely connected with blood tests.
7. Donation of blood - I stopped by the Blood Donation Building to give another unit for the surgery.

So all in all the day went well. We are somewhat relieved that the surgery was pushed back to Monday. Cecil has been very sick and she continues to need R & R. Hopefully this gives our whole family time to heal up and get ready for Monday. The staff suggested that we isolate Ethan as much as possible. So we will not be attending church this weekend since we don't want to pick up any new illnesses.

Thanks again for your prayers, phone calls, and emails. It is always a blessing to know that we are so loved. I intend to continue posting updates and pictures all through next week so hopefully everyone can stay in touch with what is happening.

Update on my son, Ethan

Ethan had his MRI today at Stanford. Everything went very smoothly. He is already back to running around the house and wanting to wrestle with me.

The results came back quicker than we thought. I received a call from the Pediatric Cardiologist at Kaiser about 1 hour ago. The MRI confirmed his suspicions that one of the arteries from the lungs was connected to the wrong chamber of the heart. In addition to that, Ethan also has a fifth small artery (most people only have four) from the middle part of the lungs that is also carrying blood to the wrong chamber. The ratio of blood flow in and blood flow out of the lungs is 1.9 to 1, instead of 1 to 1 as it should be. Our doctor confirmed that even without consultation with the pediatric surgeon open heart surgery is needed to repair the problem. We are waiting to hear back from Stanford to set the date of the surgery.

As you can imagine, this news is not easy to hear. We are still in a little bit of shock that our precious three year old is going to have to undergo such major surgery. At the same time, we are grateful that this problem was recognized early, instead of having to wait until much later in life to recognize symptoms when the damage would have been irreversible. We are also so grateful for those of you who have taken the time to pray and email. You have been a great encouragement. Please continue to pray for Ethan, our family, and the upcoming surgery. Once the date has been set and we know more details I will pass them along.

Getting everyone caught up on my life...

It has been almost year to the date since I last blogged. For the past 3 months, I have continued to tell myself that I needed to get back to the weekly routine but obviously that didn't work. So I'm sure that all of you that are faithful blog readers (I'm only aware of one faithful reader - my wife :) and she just makes sure that I don't post anything too ridiculous), have been wondering what has been going all over the past year that has kept me from this incredibly important job of posting. So, here is the answer....

1. Some major personal stuff that I needed to work through - this is still a work in progress but seems to be headed in the right direction now.
2. Two month sabbatical from church life (December and January) which was connected to #1. This gave me a chance to get a break, finish the semester of seminary (I was taking 12 credit hours including Greek and Hebrew), spend time with my family, and do some much needed personal heart work.
3. My wife took a trip with her Dad to the Philippines in February for 3 weeks. It was her first trip home since she left at the age of 5.
4. Graduating from seminary with my Master of Divinity degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary - It took me 7 years to complete a 3 year degree but its finally over. The joke at our house is that now I expect to be called Mastor Josh like my great model in ministry the unpretentious Master Yoda.
5. The final summer with my daughter before she started kindergarten. I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. Alanna has turned into a beautiful young girl. She certainly takes after her mother. She is kind, compassionate, very obedient, loves God, and is always singing, dancing, or making up lyrics to a new song that are in her head.

Well...that just about does it. Hopefully this posting becomes the first of many more.

Parenting Survey

I thought I would pass along the word that our parenting survey (http://www.parenting.msconline.org/) is up and operational. Special thanks to Rod Rozin for all of his web design expertise and Andrew del Rosario for the video. Make sure to visit the site and take the survey so that you can get your free copy of the book Parenting Isn't for Super Heroes. I am very excited about this upcoming sermon series that will focus on Building Blocks for Successful Families. If you have friends with kids, make sure to invite them to attend. I know they will be helped!