Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Tears of Both Kinds

We vividly remember Caleb's first surgery and the long recovery. He was only eight days old. We made friends with several families of babies and kids that had surgery the same week he did. After a week or two they were all discharged and went home. We did not. It was hard to stay and see them go. It was lonelier without them and we often wondered through the ups and downs when it would be our turn to go home.

Today we got discharged. Probably long before before our new friends.

In having to say good-bye, we remembered being the last ones to leave. We didn't want to say good-bye, but what if we never see them again. Some of our new friends are Alexandra, Elliot and Lauren. Alex is a little girl who had the same surgery as Caleb and has been at CHOP for almost a month. Elliot had surgery the day before Caleb. He just got out of the ICU. Lauren played with Caleb in the playroom. She is waiting for a heart. Please pray for them. These are just three of the faces we saw as we walked up and down the halls of the cardiac unit. Although we are crying tears of joy and thanksgiving to God for His plan and for you and all the people who prayed and comforted us during this time, we are deeply sad that these kids are still in the hospital. We were almost embarrassed to tell any of them that we were leaving. We were promised a long stay. God had other plans.

Since the chest drainage tube came out on Monday, they want us to return on Friday for a follow-up visit and some testing. It takes about four or more days for the plural effusion (water around heart and lungs) to really show up. If his x-ray looks good and his lungs sound good on Friday, we will be cleared to fly home. Otherwise we will be re-admitted for IV diuretics and another one or two chest tubes will be inserted for the liquid to drain out. This is a common complication of this surgery, but so far there are no signs of this starting.

Thank you much for praying for us! God heard and answered in such a miraculous way!

6 comments:

Melinda said...

Praise God! This is incredible news. How powerful and mighty our Creator is!!

Thanks for sharing with us - we will continue to be praying!

Love,
Melinda & Earl

Anonymous said...

Amazing news . We are very happy and grateful to our Lord.
We love you all!!!
Jorge, Paola, Sofia Lopez

TiaMiami said...

I'm thankful to God for the way He has shown His grace and mercy to Caleb and your family. I'm so happy Caleb is out of the hospital and on his way home (soon).

Big hugs,
Vicki Fernandez

Anonymous said...

Praise the Lord! We are rejoicing over the good news!
Daniel was asking for Caleb and Genesis last Sunday at CCK.
We'll continue to keep your family in our prayers.

Love,
Dulce (Christian, Daniel and Jason)

Anonymous said...

Praise the Lord! We just learned of the wonderful news! We have a mighty and awesome God! We will continue praying for His blessing and healing upon Caleb.
To Him be the glory!
In His grace,
Bert & Lourdes Ponce

Anonymous said...

This is such great news about Caleb. Thank you for sharing so personally. We'll continue to pray for him and the other children.

Janice Summerill