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!