Post Op Day 2

Today is Noah's 8th birthday. We were able to visit him this morning and he had the coolest room in the hospital, due to Jaime's awesome Steeler decorations. Many visitors came throughout the day (all dressed in black & gold) for his birthday. They even managed to convert a Browns fan medical resident to a Steeler fan with all of their Steeler Spirit!

Noah was doing much better today, and he had a much better night last night. He was in pretty good spirits when we were there, and I took lots of pictures (but managed to leave my camera at the hospital!) I will post them tomorrow after I get it back!

A few hours ago, sugery ordered a chest x-ray to determine if they could take the chest tube out today. It must have looked good to them, because they pulled the tube a few minutes ago. This is a very good sign that Noah is progressing extremely well. He was actually up and around a bit today and managed to take a "walk" around his floor.
Noah will have another chest x-ray in 3 hours to determine if any air was let in during the removal of the tube. If that x-ray looks good, surgery will most likely sign-off. Then it will be up to Medicine to decide when he can be discharged!

Look for another update tomorrow afternoon with pictures!

Post-Op Day 1

I just spoke with Jaime a few minutes ago. She said that Noah had a bit of a rough night. He pretty much had a constant fever - which actually was to be expected. The surgeon said that since the operation stirred up the infection, his next few days may be a little rough. He is hopeful that the chest tube will be able to come out on Sunday. We really don't know when Noah will be able to come home, but hopefully shortly after that.
Aside from the fever, Noah is naturally in pain and has some nausea. Please pray for his comfort during this expected rough patch.
Jason is at the hospital with Noah now, as Jaime was able to get away for a few hours to take a much needed shower. As you can imagine, she has had no real showers, no sleep and no appetite through all of this, so please pray for strength for her as well.
Keith, the kids and I will be leaving late this afternoon to go to Brownsville. We will finally be able to visit the little guy (just in time for his 8th birthday tomorrow), so we look forward to seeing him for ourselves!
My next post will be tomorrow. I will bring my camera so I can post some pictures!

Out of Surgery!

At 8:50 pm I learned that Noah was out of surgery and in his room! Jaime said that everything went very well. Noah was tired and a bit crabby, but much better than after the previous procedure which failed a few days ago.
The surgeon was able to get most of the infection out of the lung and was optimistic that after allowing the chest tube to drain for 2-3 days, Noah would be ready to come home.
Well, we can all thank God that the day went as it did. As it turned out, the schedule being the way it did landed Noah a great team. The nurses told Jaime that Dr. Kane was "the best" and that he was the one they would want for themselves!
I truly wanted to post this earlier, but this all happened while I was in the middle of putting the kids to bed!
We are all so relieved... Jaime really sounded good, which made me feel good. Jaime and Jason will both stay with Noah at the hospital tonight - they are in the process of trying to find Jason a chair to sleep in!
Again, Jaime sends her thanks for all of the continued prayer, love and support. We are so greatful to have such faithful friends and family.
God is so good and we are very blessed.
I will continue to update the blog with any additional news!

In Surgery

Noah went into surgery with Dr. Tim Kane a few minutes ago. Jaime went back to the OR with him until he fell asleep, and he did fine. They said that it would take until about 8 pm. I will update when I get news!
Thanks for your prayers!

Delayed!

Argh!!!
Noah's surgery has been moved to between 4 and 5 pm. The wait is frustrating (and the poor kid can't eat anything)!
Oh well, that gives us more time for more prayers! As soon as he goes into surgery, I will update.

The Latest on Noah

I know that we are all kind of just waiting today, so I wanted to give a bit of an update. Noah's surgery will be at 2:30 pm. This time is likely to be delayed (as OR times often are), so just know that I will post an update as soon as I get any news.
Thank you all for your outpouring of support and prayers for Noah.

Noah Update

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Noah. We are actively recruiting all of the "prayers" that we know to lift this little guy up before the Lord.
Anyway, the latest news from Children's is that the docs have decided to forgo the TPA (the medicine they were going to put into the chest tube to lyse the adhesions). They feel that it will just probably not work.
Noah is on the schedule to have the VATS tomorrow. This SHOULD work, and is actually what Jaime was hoping for instead of just waiting for things to get worse.
This is surgery in the operating room which involves general anesthesia. If you are interested in learning about the VATS, click on this link: http://www.thoracicsurgery.medicine.pitt.edu/content/Video_Assisted_Thoracic_Surgery.pdf

We ask that you all please pray for him tomorrow. We do not yet have his surgery time, but we know that he is on the OR schedule.
Jaime is so grateful for all of your love and prayers. (Oh, and don't forget to pray for her and Jason, as well.)
Thanks all!

Noah is sick...

The cutie in this picture is my sister's 8-year old son, Noah. Shortly after Christmas, Noah came down with the flu. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and put on antibiotics. After he continued to spike fevers, Jaime had a chest x-ray taken that confirmed that Noah had a pleural effusion (infected fluid between the lung and it's lining). He was admitted to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh where he had IV antibiotics and was watched for a few days. He was then discharged to home. Noah didn't improve at home. After another visit to his PCP the following week, Noah was sent back to Childrens. He was admitted again 2 days ago. A CT of his lung showed that he had now developed necrotizing pheumonia with several cysts and adhesions in his lung. He underwent a procedure yesterday to try to drain it, but he had too many adhesions and it didn't work. They did place a chest tube, however, and it is under negative pressure to try to drain the infection. At this point, Noah is in pain from the tube, and just waiting. Tomorrow the doctors will inject TPA into the chest tube to try to lyse the adhesions and facilitate drainage of the infection. After this, they will wait to see if that works. If it doesn't, he will have to have a VATS procdure (video-assisted thoracic surgery) to debride the infection.
This is a pretty serious situation, and everyone close to Noah is concerned. I'm writing all of this because my nephew and his family (Jaime, Jason and Jilli) need your prayers. If you are reading this, please pray for Noah. We believe that he will be healed and recover, and we are asking God for strength for Noah, encouragement and comfort for Jaime and Jason, and wisdom for the doctors who are caring for him.
Thanks!

If you are interested on reading a medical article outlining exactly what Noah is going through, click on this link: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1001747-overview

A Great Day in History

Today is a great day in history. On this day in 1912, my Grandma Rohland was born! She is 97 years old today and still keepin' on!
Happy Birthday, Grandma.
We miss you and love you!

A picture of Grandma holding Bella at only 5 months old!

Going for the Six Pack!

Yeah... we're a little excited! It was a beautiful night in Virginia as we watched Pittsburgh trounce Baltimore. The cool thing is, for as close as we are to Baltimore, there seems to be much more support for the Steelers around here, which is very comforting to me! It was awesome to go to church yesterday and see some black and gold jerseys. Many of the folks here have nothing but great things to say about the steel city, and I couldn't be prouder to bleed black and gold!

Go Steelers!

Go STEELERS!

How proud are we of our Pittsburgh Steelers?? Even though we've lived in San Diego and now Virginia, I am a Pittsburgh girl at heart and we'll always root for the Steelers as our home team! The difference between tonights great game and some in the past was that the Steelers played like they truly belonged there. Even though we are quite fond of the Chargers, we couldn't be happier to see the Steelers advance in the playoffs!

Bella and Luca now totally respect the fact that sometimes, Mommy and Daddy just have to watch football. Today when the game came on, they each ran to their rooms to grab their Steelers jerseys!

Post-game victory snack. Hey... the Steelers won - they can have a little sugar!!

Back to normal!

We've been home from our Christmas trip to my parents for almost a week now, and I feel like we're finally getting settled again. It took quite a while to put away all of the new toys and gadgets, but now everything has a place! Bella and Luca are really enjoying finding something different to play with every day! I figure we should get a few more days of that, then it will be back to business as usual. Speaking of business as usual, the Christmas decorations are all put away, Bella is back to school, and I'm fighting the urge to get bummed out that it's all over. This time of year is tough, so I'll have to line up some more decorating projects to keep my mind occupied!

Happy New Year, everyone!