Progress

It's hard to believe how much faster Kyson is recovering from this surgery. Today the doctor was able to take out his chest tubes and arterial lines. He will continue to get oxygen and he has two IV's to give him his medications and that is it! Although his body is recovering very well, he still feels terrible when he wakes up. They are having to give him quite a bit of pain medication. His blood is no longer pumped to his lungs; it can only get there passively with gravity and pressure. His body has to adapt to this huge change and until it does he will have a lot of pressure in his head. As you can only imagine this is probably causing some major headaches and migranes. Hopefully his body adapts to this change quickly so he can be his happy little self again soon.
Today the doctor said we will probably be able to go home Wednesday. That sounds wonderful to me.
I have to say that I amazed with the doctors who perform these surgeries and all those that surround them! They are such intelligent people who save lives every single day. Can you imagine having the lives of babies in your hands every single day? It would overwhelm me! I am grateful there are people who have the ability to take on such a huge responsibility and are so good at it! How can you thank someone enough for saving your child's life? I'm also grateful for the nurses who have been so good with Kyson. He has been very well taken care of.
Yesterday Tiger came to visit Kyson and he gave him a balloon.

Goofy and I decided to join the picture too!

Blessed beyond measure

We want to let everyone know that Kyson is doing very well. Yesterday he had a very long day. We arrived at the hospital around 5:30-6:00AM. Kyson went back for surgery at 8:00 and we began the waiting process. They said they had quite a bit of trouble getting his lines in so they didn't actually get started with the surgery until about 11:00. Around 2:00 they came and said they were finished with the surgery and just needed to watch him for a little bit and sew him up. The next few hours went by very slowly as we waited until we could see our sweet boy. Finally about 5:00 Dr A. allowed us back to see him. He said the surgery went well overall and he was happy. When we left for our hotel room we were feeling optimistic and grateful.
While we were gone for the night he made quite a bit of progress. They took out his respirator to allow him to breathe all on his own. We are now just on the road to recovery in the sense that they just have to watch him and slowly decrease the medications he is on. It seemed to take forever last surgery to get to the point we are already at today. They may even begin to feed him some of my breastmilk today and if he continues to tolerate everything well we will probably be able to hold him tomorrow.
We want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. I know without a doubt that we have felt those prayers. It was quite amazing to me when I began to feel those prayers Thursday night. I had been feeling stressed and overwhelmed all week as we approached his surgery. Then Thursday night I felt a huge calm come over me and I knew everything would be ok. I am just so grateful for the power of the Priesthood, the power of prayer, and the power of fasting. I have definitely gained a stronger testimony of each of these things as I have been a witness of the strength they bring. Thank you all again. We love you and feel blessed beyond measure.

Caleb's leaving soon

I'm going to miss my little man. He is riding up to Pinetop with Jared's Dad Thursday morning to spend time at the cabin while we are at the hospital with Kyson. After that my Mom is planning on keeping him up there for a while depending on how Kyson does. I hope Caleb does ok and is happy while he is gone. He is such a joy in my life and I love him so much! Tonight I took him swimming and we had so much fun together! In the hot tub (it's not very hot) there is a seat all the way around that is the perfect height for Caleb to run around. We just laughed and giggled as we chased each other around it. I will definitely miss his smiles and laughter while he is away and I'll be looking forward to having him home again. I hope he knows how much I love him!

Do you ever just needed to write? Just sit down and write? I do, I find it helps me. I have no idea what I want to say, but I need to write. I am so full of mixed emotions, I don't even know how to express the way I'm feeling. All I can think about is Kyson's surgery. If I let myself think too much about it I just want to bawl my eyes out, but I shouldn't...I know better. I have the hope, faith, and comfort from the atonement of Jesus Christ. He knows my needs, and he knows Kyson's needs. He has given us so many miracles in Kyson's little life and I am so grateful for them. I try to stay focused on these things but then for just a moment I start to feel sorry for myself and I am overcome with sadness again. Maybe that's part of the reason I have been given this trial. I need to learn to completely rely on and have faith in my Savior.

My dear Kyson is only five months old and he has to go through so much. I don't want to see him suffer and in pain and I wish I could take that pain from him. I am grateful that he is young and doesn't understand what is going to happen to him and he won't remember everything he has gone through. I will never forget the last five months. I will never forget the day he was born and how special it was to bring home a "perfect" little baby. He was so sweet and so beautiful. We have been through so much together since that time. It has been a long five months. Soon we will be back in the hospital, but hopefully it will be the last time for a couple of years.

We are given trials to grow and learn so I hope I have grown and become a better person from the things we have gone through. We still have a lot to experience but I hope that in the end I can emerge a better person.

Patience...

We got a call today informing us that Kyson's surgery will be Friday instead of Tuesday. Dr. A had some emergencies he had to deal with so we were pushed back to Friday. I understand that emergencies happen, in fact three months ago we were the emergency! I just don't want to worry another four days. I guess I need to get a better perspective and think about as a blessing. We get to enjoy Kyson being happy and healthy for another week and I am grateful for that. I just need to stay focused on that and try not to worry...

Anyway, Friday 6am check in time, surgery at 8!

Surgery on Tuesday

We met with Dr. A this afternoon and he has decided to go ahead with Kyson's surgery on Tuesday. We check into the hospital at 6 am and his surgery should begin around 7:30 am. We were told it will last around 6 hours. When he returns from surgery he will look similar to how he looked after his first surgery except they don't plan on leaving his sternum open again. He will have a couple of very difficult days where his body will have to go through a huge adjustment. If everything goes as planned we were told we should have a hospital stay of around 5 days. All I can say is I'm looking forward to getting this overwith!

To add a little, here is what Kyson is going to be going through on Tuesday:

1.) Removal of the restrictive band around his pulmonary artery placed during his first surgery
2.) Removal of the shunt which created a temporary path between his pulmonary artery and aorta placed during his first surgery.
3.) Permanent connection of his pulmonary artery and his aorta which provides two paths out out of his heart which is a backup systerm in case something happens to his aorta as he grows.
4.) Splitting of his left and right pulmonary artery (right side is for blood going to lungs and right side is blood going to the body which is part of that backup system)
5.) Connection of his superior vena cava (blood coming from head) to his new right pulmonary artery (blood going directly to lungs bypassing the heart)

Kyson is very healthy and all the doctors are optimistic for a fast recovery. None the less, Kyson will be undergoing major surgery on Tuesday. We appreciate all the prayers and help that we have and will recieve from all of our family and friends.

Update from Kyson's heart cath

So, Thursday turned out to be quite an interesting day. After we said goodbye to Kyson we waited about 2 1/2 hours before they came and let us know we could see him. When we got to where he was recovering, he was very sad. They said he was probably still waking up from the anesthesia and didn't really understand what was going on. The nurse explained that he should figure out how to suck and swallow in about 15-20 minutes and then I could feed him and comfort him. Well, fifteen minutes went by and he was still very sad. I kept trying to feed him and it wasn't working. Finally about two hours later they decided to give him some morphine. It finally worked. He went to sleep for at least 15 minutes and then woke up and drank 5 oz of breast milk. After that he seemed to do great. They kept us overnight and we were able to go home Friday morning. I was so grateful to leave, mostly so we could take Kyson off all the monitors. In the hospital there are so many wires and monitors it is hard to hold him and feed him.

We were grateful to learn that Kyson's heart seems to be doing well considering the circumstances. They do have some concerns but that is to be expected. Right now we have the 26th scheduled for surgery but the doctors are debating whether or not they want to do it now or wait another month. I personally hope to get it overwith so I can stop worrying about it and move on with life, but I know that is a selfish motive. More than anything I hope they make the best decision for Kyson's little body. Next Thursday the 21st I have an appointment with Dr. A (the surgeon) and he will let us know his decision. So, for now we sit and wait and wonder...

Our tender mercy

Right now we are just waiting for the doctors to finish Kyson's heart cath and I just wanted to let you know about a little miracle we were given today. For anyone who knows Kyson or has been around Kyson very much you probably know that he does NOT tolerate being hungry very well. If he hasn't eaten in 3 hours he is screaming and very unhappy. Well, I have been dreading this day for a very long time knowing that he would have to go 6 hours without eating before his procedure. He usually eats about every 2 1/2 hours so I just knew we would have a screaming baby for 3 1/2 hours. Well, three hours went by and we still had a smiling baby. Another hour went by and we were on our way to the hospital with still a happy baby. At the hospital he was still happy as I walked around with him while we waited for the doctors to call us back. Dr. Lamers came out (the doctor performing the procedure) and he looked at Kyson and he gave him the biggest smile! Dr. Lamers even said, "Wow, he sure is a happy baby for not having any breakfast!" It was so true. I am so grateful for this tender mercy in our lives because it reminded me that the Lord is watching out for us and he does answer our prayers!

Aunt Christy's wedding

Hi, this is Caleb. So, this last weekend we went to my Grandma's house in Show Low. I had a lot of fun with all of my aunts and uncles! The weather was nice so I got to play outside a lot. One of my favorite things to do was jump on the trampolene!

Saturday my Aunt Christy got married. I got to go to the temple and watch her come out. Doesn't she look so pretty?


My mom took forever taking pictures and then she decided we needed a family picture. You can see how excited I was about that!

Finally we left the temple and I was sooo tired I fell asleep in the car.

Next we went to have lunch with everyone but my Mom made me take a nap so I missed most of that part. When I woke up everyone was decorating for the reception. I just hung out with the people preparing the food and begged for more olives...

The next thing I knew my Mom said we had to go take more pictures as if we hadn't taken enough yet!?! Well, here is one with all of my Grandma and Grandpa Pearce's family. My brother was sleeping so he's the only one missing.

Once the reception started I found the coolest place to play with my cars and I did that all night long!

As you can see by the end of the night I was all tuckered out! (No worries though, I still have a car in each hand which makes me a happy boy:)

Kyson's upcoming surgery

This month is a busy one for our family. Last Saturday my sister Christy got married. It was a wonderful day and I am so happy for her. I have tons of pictures that I will share later. It was so good to go to the temple and be there with a lot of my family. I needed it in so many ways to help prepare me for everything. Next Thursday, Aug. 14th, Kyson will be going in to PCH again for a heart cath. It is supposed to be just a one day procedure to see how his heart is working. They will inject die into his heart and watch how his blood is flowing. This will help the doctors know how to proceed for his next surgery. If all goes well he will have his second surgery on Tuesday Aug. 26th. In this surgery they will take out the shunt and the band they had to put in for the first surgery and they will take his superior vena cava and hook it directly up to his pulmonary artery. In other words all of the blood from the top half of his body will go directly to his lungs rather then to his heart and then his lungs. Eventually all of his blood will have to do this (go from his body directly to his lungs and then to his heart) since he really only has a two chamber heart instead of four.
Kyson has been doing really well lately and I have to admit it is very difficult to have to start the whole surgery process over again. I am dreading it in every way. Last surgery I know we had people praying for us everywhere. It was such a strength to us and we felt so much comfort from our Heavenly Father. As his surgery approaches I would like to ask again for all of your prayers, especially for Kyson. That is what got us through the first one and I know it will get us through this surgery as well. We feel blessed to have so many family members and friends who have helped us out so much. We love you all so very much.