Mommy, I'm OK.

This is the sixth post to fill in the details on what happened with Andrew's emergency lung surgery last month. You can read the introductory post here.

I feel the need to give you "the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey would say.

Andrew had a great check-up on Monday with the surgeon.  We had more x-rays done before the appointment.  This poor child has been exposed to a ridiculous amount of radiation in his 10 weeks of living, but it was worth it.  The x-rays showed 1 1/2 beautiful lungs.  His right lung, which had some atalectasis (was slightly collapsed) now looks great.  The remaining half of his left lung is in great shape, and the surgeon said both sides of his chest sound the same--they sound great.

With time, the lower left lobe will grow and fill in the entire area where the top lobe used to be, and his lung function will eventually be like any other child's.  At this point, she said Andrew can handle sickness, so we can start leaving the house with him again.  We'll have another check-up in two months, but unless there are problems, we won't be having any more x-rays.  It's not worth the extra radiation, especially if he continues to be healthy.  The surgeon was incredibly positive about everything and was pleased to see him looking so great.

At his release from the hospital, the doctor and dietitian were incredibly concerned about his weight gain.  I felt confident that if he had unlimited access to nursing, he would gain weight rapidly, since he was such a great eater from birth.  Sure enough, at Monday's checkup, he was 12 pounds, 2 ounces, and he'd only weighed 10 pounds, 5 ounces two weeks prior.  That's nearly two pounds in two weeks!  It usually takes babies 16 days to gain a pound--one ounce per day.  He's doing extremely well.

I can't pretend that it's been easy coming home. It was a little scary, in fact, since we're completely in charge of Andrew's care now and we don't have immediate access to nurses and doctors. Emotionally, it was also difficult because of the emotions that come from being, as the doctor described, "hours or minutes" away from losing your child. I had to take a couple of days to just process and deal with all of that. It took several days for me to stop being weepy, and it has been a complete act of faith to trust God with our future. I don't know why it was hard. He has already carried us this far. But it really is hard to come so close to losing your tiny baby. So I'm soaking in the Psalms for my daily devotional, so that I can keep focusing and reflecting on God's amazing character.  He really is good.  All the time.

Everyone who has seen Andrew is amazed at how healthy he looks.  I guess it's hard to think of him as anything but a sick baby, so here he is, just cooing and grinning at me.  He's saying "Really mommy, I'm OK!"



Where Did March Go?  Andrew's Emergency
Andrew's Emergency: It's Not Just a Cold
Andrew's Emergency: Flight
Andrew's Emergency: Surgery
Andrew's Emergency: Recovery
Andrew's Emergency: Mommy, I'm OK