1st Implant Surgery Journal - 3/27/2007

(Journal starts at bottom of page)

May 3

Well we went back to San Antonio yesterday and Corbin had some of his stitches removed.  There is still one area that looks like it is trying to open up, so they left four stitches in.  But that means most of the stitches are out which is progress!  He has been a little under the weather lately with the stomach bug, but we are trying to get him to keep as much down as possible so that he can gain some fat and his incision will heal better.  We go back to San Antonio in 2 more weeks and hopefully will be able to take out all of the stitches then.  As for now, we are just getting stronger every day. 

We wanted to thank everyone for all of the thoughts, prayers, and emails during the last several weeks.  Now that things are getting back to normal, we plan on giving everyone a break from the daily updates.  We will update the website with new pictures periodically.  As of now, we are tentatively scheduled to go back for the next surgery in August. 

April 24

There's no place like home, there's no place like home!!  Right around noon we were discharged from the hospital.  Once Corbin was tucked into his carseat, he was asleep before I even got on the interstate.  And he didn't wake up until I was about 20 miles from home - he did great!  As I pulled away from the hospital, I was overcome by so many different emotions - joy to be coming home, relief that Corbin's first surgery is under our belt, gratitude to the staff that was so good to us, appreciation to family, friends, and others who have been thinking and praying for us, etc.  We unloaded our bags and Jonathan was able to get off early and meet us at home.  Jonathan needed a haircut, so all three of us went to the barber shop.  Being that it wasn't crowded, we decided it was time for a trim for Corbin, too.  When Corbin heard the buzzing around his ears, I think he was ready to get back to the playroom at the hospital.  The rest of the evening we rested and gave Corbin his first bath in about four weeks.  As for what's next, we will go back to San Antonio next Wednesday to get Corbin's stitches removed and then go from there.  It is good to be home.

April 30

We are so happy to be home.  Yesterday was the first normal Sunday we've had in a long time.  After church, we took a several hour nap.  Corbin is quickly learning that this is a standard on Sunday.  Corbin is getting stronger and stronger.  He is starting to stand against his toys for a couple of minutes at a time and he is occasionally crawling if we cheer him on hard enough!  Below is a picture of his first crawl post-op.  We go back to San Antonio on Wednesday to get his stitches out.  We are still watching his incision closely, hoping that his infection does not come back. 

The picture we’ve all been waiting for!

I'm not sure which helped more, the bath or the haircut?!

April 23

Happy Birthday!  Corbin turned one year old today and the hospital threw him a party this morning.  Here are some pictures of the big event...  Corbin got several presents from the hospital.  He got some toys and a t-shirt.  He also got some clothes from his grandparents.  Ironically he enjoyed the clothes hangers probably more than anything except the cake!  This afternoon, his drains were removed as well as his IV, so he is now completely line free.  We have to spend tonight to make sure that the incision is ok, but were told that we would be able to go home tomorrow.  Funny thing is we kind of got sad when they took his IV out.  I guess we have just kind of grown accustomed to being here.  Don't get us wrong, we were only sad for a few seconds.  Who knew that we would find such joy in such a little boy!

"My Pre-Birthday Cupcake...”

Ready for the Party..

Pictures of the Birthday Prince

"Why haven't I been getting this type of cafeteria food all month long!!!!

After the last IV was taken out.  Doesn't it look like he thinks this is the best present of the day?

April 22

Just a quick note.  Corbin's output is getting slower, so the nurses think there is a good chance the doctors will pull Corbin's drains tomorrow.  They may decide to monitor Corbin for a few days after they pull the drains, but for the most part, it is one of the last steps before we get to go home.  Yeah!!  We are anticipating a long car ride home, but we are really starting to get excited and hopeful!  As for Corbin's Fiesta, it is in full gear... and Corbin is loving it!  The past two nights he has danced and laughed for a good hour to the music (until after 11:00 PM, mind you!) .  It amazes us how much he loves Tejano music, and it seems like the louder it is, the better!  We like Fiesta, too.  The food is great and the people watching is even better.  Corbin also had his first taste of cotton candy - and just like us, he loved it!  I'm afraid we are creating a monster!

April 20

Well, we are trying to stand.  And we are able to for all of two seconds, and then his legs give way.  He has gotten pretty weak during the past four weeks, but hopefully will start to move around soon.  It is still fairly difficult with the drains attached to him and his IV lines in.  We have learned the past few days just how gracious the city of San Antonio is being to us.  I guess they knew we were going to be here around Corbin's birthday, so they have decided to throw a huge birthday party for Corbin right across the street from the hospital.  Since we are in San Antonio, they are calling it his "Fiesta!"  It is amazing what all they have done.  They have brought in tons of street vendors selling everything from freshly made fajitas filled with guacamole to funnel cakes.  But our favorite is the chocolate covered strawberries on a stick!  They really did their research on what we would enjoy.  They have already brought in the carnival rides for when Corbin feels better, and in the meantime, tons of his friends are riding them.  And when I say tons, I mean tons.  In fact, the whole city and all of the surrounding area have been invited to his "Fiesta."  And we haven't even experienced the live music that starts tonight.  We hear that they plan on playing outside our window till about 3am!

April 19

Corbin is doing good.  He has his two drains in place and will likely have them until Monday is what we have been told.  They are one of the last hurdles to get over in order to go home.  When they come out we can change to oral antibiotics for several weeks.  But, who knows.  He is doing good.  He is definitely in better spirits through the day and wants to play.  We are just now starting to realize exactly how weak he his.  He wants to hold himself up but just can't sometimes.  And he wants to stand and roll over, but just isn't there yet.  Once we get home where he knows where to crawl to get into trouble, I am sure that strength will return in no time.  Though the infection seems to be behind us, we have now developed a more pressing problem -- Corbin's hair.  It has to be at least an inch over his ears, and Holly doesn't trust me to cut it.  She says that the last time I cut it, he looked like Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber for his Christmas pictures.  She wants to take him to a stylist.  Uhh, don't think so.  Maybe a barber...

At Christmas: Isn't that a perfectly straight line?!

April 17

Corbin went back to the OR this morning and had his woundvac removed.  The doctors decided to stitch him up and put a couple of drains in his back for a few days.  Although they did not put the rib-to-rib device back in, everything looked good and clear.  When we come back for Corbin's first expansion in a 4-6 months, the doctors will probably put the device back in then.  We are pleased that the rib-to-pelvis device was able to stay in.  Although we are not in the clear yet, things are looking pretty good.  Corbin slept pretty much all day.  He woke up for a couple of hours tonight, but was pretty out of it.  He did wake up enough to mess with the new IV that was put in during the surgery.  So, we've now cut up a sock to put over his arm IV in what looks like a leg warmer from the 80's.  Amazing!     

April 16

After a late night battle with the IV, Corbin has been IV-free all day.  A couple of different nurses tried to get an IV in, but it just wasn't working.  So, as of 1:00 in the morning, Corbin is now trying to take all of his medicines by mouth, at least for today.  Not an easy task, but he is doing it.  Corbin is also getting stronger.  He can sit for a brief time by himself and is enjoying playing with his toys.  Today was also the first day Corbin was able to wear some of his own clothes.  Such a nice site!  Below are pictures of Corbin sitting up and playing with his toys and Corbin in his "real" clothes.

April 15

Jonathan left the computer with me, so I'll be doing the updates for a few days.  Today was a pretty good day.  Corbin is starting to drink lots of bottles and is even wanting food now.  I have been very hesitant to give him table food here in fear that he will choke and I will have to whack him on the back.  However, he wants nothing to do with baby food and cries if I don't give him bites of whatever I'm eating.  So, I have perfected the art of breaking my food into the most miniscule of crumbs .  Anyway, eating is a good thing!  On the down side, we are having some issues with keeping Corbin's IVs in.  He moves his legs too much to keep one in his legs and tries to eat the IV if it is in his left hand.  And I have tried my hardiest to keep everyone away from his thumb-sucking hand, so we are kind of in a bind.  His poor little veins are pretty bruised, so our nurses are trying to figure out what to do now.  Corbin's next surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, hopefully his last for a while.  I want to thank everyone for all of the emails.  Although we haven't written anyone back, it is so encouraging to hear that people are thinking, praying, and supporting our little boy - and we can't tell you how much we appreciate it.     

April 14

Well it is now Saturday and we realized today we are closing in on three weeks here.  Corbin went back to the OR yesterday and they changed out his woundvac.  They said that everything looked good and he was definitely getting better with it on.  They just irrigated his wound out and put the woundvac back in place.  Now the game plan is to go back in early this next week and hopefully take off the woundvac and close him up.  We are cautiously optimistic that things are on the mend.  The decision will also be made at that time whether or not the other titanium rib will be put back in.  It will at some point, but they might decide to wait on it for a few months.  Corbin is doing much better.  He is back to his normal self and starting to get into trouble.  He is trying to be brave, but we notice that he spends lots of his time watching the door, waiting to see who is going to come in next.  And lets just say that someone has become a huge mama's boy!  We have been working on getting him to use baby sign language to tell us when he wants more and he always just looks at us like we are crazy.  Well, he has finally picked up on what to do.  Holly was giving him tastes of a cinnamon roll latte coffee and he decided he wanted more, more, more.  And today he did it for diet coke! I guess we learned that he might have caught on sooner had we given him something that he wanted, rather than trying with "more" carrots/green beans.  We also went on a little wagon ride today.  Our plan was to just chill like it was a normal Saturday.  We are getting pizza later and going to watch a movie.  So, things aren't too bad here!

Working on standing up

April 11

Corbin is continuing to improve.  His blood count dropped this morning, so they had to give him a little blood.  But he was in a good mood almost all day long.  He was tugging at all of his lines which is a good sign.  Every few minutes he would be yanking at another line or cord attached to him.  I came back to Temple today and Holly said this evening he was flirting with almost every nurse on the floor.  He was waving at everyone and just laughing per her.  Below are some pictures with the Easter Bunny.  The first one that visited (on the left) he didn't like so much.  Or it could have been the politician that accompanied the bunny.  The second one came and brought a basket.  It didn't take long for Corbin to realize he might just like this...

And here are the pictures of Corbin with his happy juice that he got before surgery!

April 10

Corbin did good this morning.  He is already done and back to his old room.  And has some of the goofy medicine still in him, so is sleeping great.  He did have an infection in his back and they ended up having to take out one of the titanium ribs placed the first time.  We don't know the exact bug, but it is probably a staph infection.  He now has a special dressing called a woundvac which is continuously sucking the infection out of his incision.  The plan is to change it every few days and reopen everything up next Tuesday to see how it looks.  One of the funniest things has to be when Corbin is given his sedative.  He just sits there and smiles and laughs.  We got some good pictures of that this morning.  I will try to post them later.

April 9

The decision was made today to take Corbin back to the OR tomorrow.  He goes in at 7am to clean everything up and see what else needs to be done.  We are hoping it is just a simple washout and then he gets sewn back up.  Hopefully, once all of this gets cleaned up, his pain will be better as well.  It hurts just looking at his wounds, so it must hurt him to have them.  We wanted to thank everyone for all of the emails and calls again.  They really mean alot.  One of these days, we will respond!  We are just looking at tomorrow as one more step in the direction to get home.  And we are optimistic that we might be able to come back to a normal room if everything goes well instead of the ICU.

April 8

Sorry no updates for a few days.  We have been at the hospital and we didn't have internet access.  It was really good to have our little family back together for at least a few days.  Relatively speaking, we had a fun couple of days.  We took Corbin for wagon rides, played with toys, read books, sang songs, and just tried to be normal.  Corbin is continuing to gain strength.  He is still in quite a bit of pain, not only from the surgery, but also from the wounds on his back that appear to be infected.  The wounds are draining quite a bit of fluid, so we are constantly changing his dressings.  He seems to be over the pneumonia, so we are just watching and waiting to see what his wounds do.  Either they will close on their own and get better with antibiotics or we have to go back to the OR to clean everything out.  Finally, some more pictures.

Corbin's favorite way to sleep

Corbin's daily exercise while he was in the ICU

Since it is hard for me to take baths in the hospital, they give you some warm wet wipes for you body, and this for your head.  Already filled with Shampoo.

Chef Boyardee?

"When my parents knew I was ok..."

"When they knew I was really ok..."

Talking to Daddy on the phone

MTV came and Pimped My Ride...

Guess who is getting a

lot of attention?!!!

April 5

Another day.  Corbin is continuing to improve.  Per Holly, though he isn't moving around, he is starting to get back to his normal self.  He is pulling all of his wires, playing with his IV, and even wacking back at the respiratory therapist when it is treatment time.  He even made a trip in the wagon to the playroom today.  Thus far all of his cultures have come back negative, so for now we are on the same antibiotics and just waiting.   We just don't want the hardware that they put in to be infected.  The good news is every day he is looking better. I am going back to San Antonio tomorrow so we will have some pictures up this weekend.

April 4

Sorry there was not an update yesterday.  Corbin did well yesterday.  He had some visitors and from what I hear actually made it into a red wagon to be wheeled out of his room and around the floor.  And he didn't cry.  Which is definitely progress.  This morning, his labwork showed an increasing white blood cell count which is one of the markers that is used to track infection.  After being started on the antibiotics, his count started to come down into more of a normal range.  Now, it is going back up.  So we are waiting to see if he has another infection.  The good news is that he has not had a fever in the last few days.  Hopefully we will be able to get more pictures up soon. 

April 2

Corbin is continuing to get better.  Per Holly, we are getting more smiles every day, but he is still in a lot of pain.  Today was fairly busy because he was getting x-rays and CT scans to evaluate all of the hardware that was placed in him.  His antibiotics were changed once again today as we now know the organism that was growing in his blood and what antibiotics it was sensitive too.  We are still awaiting a final decision as to how long he will need treatment.  Tomorrow is a big day because we get to see the physical therapist which is proof we are heading in the right direction!

April 1

We finally made it out of the ICU today.  Corbin seems to be responding to the antibiotics.  The fevers have started to disappear, and we are still waiting on the cultures.  He actually smiles occasionally now, and we even got a decent clap from him with "If your happy and you know it, Clap your hands."  He still is in pain anytime we move him, but hopefully that will slowly get better.  I had to come back to Temple today for work, but fortunately, we made it to a normal room before I left.  Luckily, we have grandparents around to help out when Holly needs a break.  We are thankful he is continuing to make progress.

March 31 Part Two

We just learned that Corbin's blood cultures came back positive.  This is likely the reason for his persistent fevers.  We still don't know the exact organism, but will hopefully know it and the antibiotics that cover it soon.  In the interim, he is staying on the same antibiotics.  He still looks pretty miserable.  Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.

March 31

We are still in the ICU.  We were optimistic about moving out today, but Corbin is still having fevers.  So we are staying another day, and they are changing his antibiotics around.  On a more positive note, he did have his chest tube removed today, so hopefully the pain will get better.  He did not like having it pulled.  It is sad to see his eyes whenever he is in pain.  You know he just hurts so much.  The pain is pretty well controlled if he lies completely still in his bed.  But if we turn him whatsoever he just loses it.  And he is not a fan of the respiratory therapists banging on his chest to loosen up his secretions.  But that is all part of getting better.  We were able to get some wipes and give him a wash down today.  We even combed his hair while we were at it.  He just looks better with his hair parted!

March 30

Well, we are still in the ICU.  After a pretty long night and day, the Doctors just decided to keep Corbin in the ICU another night .  Corbin has a fever, a high heartbeat, and is still breathing pretty fast.  I think the pain of the surgery is finally catching up to him.  He is a pretty sad site.  He cries and whimpers if you even look like you are going to move him.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better and he will move to a room soon.  Jonathan and I tried all day to just get one smile from Corbin - but he had none of that!  So, we are now in a competition to see who can get him to smile first!  

March 29th

Corbin was able to come off of the breathing machine this morning!  We were excited.  He was droggy but awake when he came off of it, and it was clear that he didn't like what was going on.  It took him a few hours to get settled down but now he is resting fairly comfortably thanks to some new medicines.  He almost immediately started looking for that thumb, and when he found it he instantly felt some relief.  Holly was able to hold him for a few minutes this morning.  Here are a few of the pictures that we took today.

And here are a few the evening before his surgery.  Corbin was taken out to eat by all of his grandparents and he even got a little concert.  Wonder if he liked it...

March 28th

Corbin did well through the night.  He is still on the sleeping medicine so he looks pretty peaceful, until he gets turned.  He then wakes up enough just to know that he can't get his thumb to his mouth because of all the tubes and restraints.  At those points, he does not look very peaceful.  He looks pretty mad!  But, he goes right back to sleep.  Early this morning they were giving him IV fluids and medicines to help with his urine output.  They ended up also transfusing blood.  After the surgery, he started swelling some, and he continues to be fairly swollen.  The swelling is the hold up right now in regards to taking him off of the ventilator, which is the first major step to recovery.  He is for sure going to be on it until tomorrow morning.  But perhaps off of it tomorrow.  The good thing is that while he is on the breathing machine he is getting plenty of sleeping medicine and pain medicine.  Thanks again for all of the emails and calls.  We haven't been able to call many people, but do appreciate hearing the messages and reading the emails. 

March 27th

Today has been a long, yet encouraging day.  Corbin slept well last night and was smiling and ready to go this morning.  We got to the hospital and after checking Corbin's vitals and filling out paper work, we were ready to go.  We took Corbin to the holding room and met with the different Doctors.  Everyone was attentive, supportive, and hopeful.  We felt at peace that this was no longer in our hands.  After giving Corbin some "relaxing" medicine, he was smiling and waving and could not have cared less when we told him bye and they wheeled him away from us.  Jonathan and I joined our family in the waiting room around 8:45.  At 10:05, they had gotten all the lines in place and started working on the rib.  After a while, a friend that works in the surgical unit stopped in the waiting room to update us and let us know Corbin was doing well.  Finally, at around 1:30, our Doctors came out and told us that Corbin did great and showed us his old x-rays compared to his new x-rays.  They were pleased with the results, which was encouraging and an answer to our prayers.  He ended up with two titanium vertical ribs.  The one on his side goes from his top ribs to his lower ribs, and the one on his back goes from his top ribs all the way to his pelvis.  Corbin is now settled in the ICU, sedated and on a ventilator.  He is being closely monitored and we feel confident that he is in good care.  Tomorrow or Thursday he will likely wake-up and we will go from there.  Thank you all for the prayers, thoughts, and concern.  We know that it is not by chance that Corbin did well today.  The road that we started today is a long one, but we are so thankful that we are on the road!  We are truly blessed. 

March 26th

We just finished going through another batch of tests today in San Antonio and are ready for the surgery in the morning.  Corbin did well today until the blood draws and then he was wondering what was going on...  He was pretty funny when he got the bandaid on his finger.  He likely thought it was a puff or something because he wanted it off of his finger and in his mouth.  And then when he had his IV put in  they had to tape his arm to a little board and put a cover on it.  He didn't care about the cover, but it was covering his bandaid and making it harder to get into his mouth.  He kept twisting and turning that arm to get a better look at that bandaid.  Had we known bandaids were so much fun we would have introduced him to them long ago.  We are scheduled for surgery 6:30 tomorrow morning.  Corbin just went to sleep for the night without a worry in the world.  We sincerely appreciate everyone's support, thoughts, and prayers.  Though we haven't had a chance to tell everyone thank you, we are gracious for the outpouring of support.  We are going to try to keep this updated fairly regularly this week.