Tuesday, December 23, 2008

We're Home...

At least at my parent's home, but we are so thankful to be out of the hospital. It was quite the early Christmas present when the doctor said that Austin would be released today. Thank you God!

Austin is in very good spirits and has been throwing a couple of his terrible two tantrums, so I think it's safe to say that things are returning to normal. I'm still a little nervous about getting through today without any more episodes, but I trust that God is watching out for our little guy.

Thanks to everyone for their encouraging words and prayers. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Monday, December 22, 2008

God's Plan isn't always Our Plan

The past few days haven't exactly gone as planned.


Things started off better than expected with our plane rides to Houston. Even though it was icy and wet in Connecticut, we left on time and Austin was a dream on the flight. We figured we were goners for the next leg of our trip, but again our flight was on time and Austin slept for much of the flight. Our trip was off to a great start.


And then Thursday night came....


Right after we put Austin to bed, we heard a gagging noise and then his little voice saying "I all messy." I was still optimistic as I cleaned up the mess, thinking that maybe something he ate just hadn't sat well, but this changed 30 minutes later when round two occurred. It was a loooong night, with Charlie and I taking shifts so that we could at least get a little rest. Poor sweet Austin threw up all night long. It continued until around 7:00 am, when he seemed to turn a corner and start to feel a little better. He was asking for water and food, so we started slow with sips of water and after he had kept it down for almost an hour, we progressed to a little more water. It wasn't more than 15 minutes later that he threw up every last bit of water and we were starting over again. We tried again around 4:00 pm, but the same thing happened. At this point, Austin had only had one wet diaper for the day, so I knew that he was getting very dehydrated and since he still couldn't keep anything down, we went ahead and called our doctor. The on-call doc called us back and told us to head to the ER, so we thanked our lucky stars that we weren't in Connecticut (in the middle of a winter storm) and headed for the hospital.


We got into a room pretty quickly in the ER. Our IV was started and Austin seemed to perk up a little. After he had gotten some much needed fluids, the doctors had us start to give him water again. Everything seemed to be going well, but all of a sudden Austin again threw everything back up and the doctor said that we would be admitted to the hospital. It was at this point, that I started to feel pretty bad. My parents took me their home to experience the joy of the same stomach virus that Austin was enduring, and Charlie stayed with Austin at the hospital.


I felt much better in the morning, and Austin started to eat and drink a little and keep things down. He was released from the hospital around 5:00 pm on Saturday and I was hopeful that the worst was behind us. Little did I know that the lovely diarrhea would start only 30 minutes later and would continue heavily through the night. It was 5:00 am early Sunday when he again threw up and we headed back to the ER.


I am writing this blog from the chair in Austin's hospital room, so yes we are still here and Austin is still having trouble keeping food and liquids in his little body. He is still on the IV, so thankfully he is staying hydrated, but he has to be able to self hydrate before this adventure will be over.


While this hasn't exactly been the Christmas vacation that we hoped for, we have still seen God's love and plan in action. We have had three wonderful visits from people/churches/businesses in the Southeast Texas area just today. The Ridgefield Retirement Home visited along with Santa and delivered a hot rod car for Austin to play with. Next, the Central Baptist Church of Buna came and brought Austin a Build-a-Bear.


Here is a link to the story on the local news station - Austin is featured!!
http://setxhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=33631&shr=addthis


And last, the Neches Federal Credit Union delivered a little Christmas tree decorated completely with Disney's Cars ornaments and toys (if you know Austin, you know how completely perfect this tree is!)






It is so awesome to see the generosity and love that people have for others at Christmas time. We didn't know any of the people that visited us today, but it meant so much to see the love that they had for Austin and the other children in the hospital during this holiday season.


Austin hanging in his hospital crib



We are in the hospital for at least one more night and maybe even longer, but God's plan is perfect and I just have to trust that there is a reason for all of this. Here's to hoping that all of you reading this are having a wonderful and safe holiday season. Merry Christmas to you all!

Love,