Wrapping up 2009

Gabe had a terrific Birthday and Christmas. He started getting into the gift opening towards the end. Next year will be a very different story. He spent some time with all of his cousins and had so much fun. It is so great to see them all together and they are all so good with him.

We are one week out from surgery. We had a day full of appointments today and things did not go well. We started with an EKG, which should have been very simple. He totally freaked as soon as he saw the nurses. They struggled getting the leads on and were finally able to get something of a read. This was with him bawling (which is NOT him at all) and him continually reaching for me. We were both laying on the bed, both crying, but he wouldn't really roll over for them and the leads kept falling off. We tried lights off and then after about 20 minutes, we were going to try to calm him down and try again. He couldn't calm down and actually made himself throw up. I decided to call it and I thanked the nurses. There was no way I could watch him continue and know that they probably weren't even going to get the information they needed. Next was the chest xray and Brian took him in for that. I could hear him crying, but it wasn't quite as bad as the EKG.

Then the H and P at the surgeon's office which didn't take too long. Finally, we had to go to the PICU to get his blood drawn. There are a couple nurses there who do such a good job (you know who you are) and can get the job done so fast. We love them for it! We were all so worn out after that, the whole family had to take a nap. He was in a much better mood after he woke up. However, I think we got a taste for next week. Gabe is starting to figure all of this out and he knows a lot more than before. Unfortunately, we can't reason with him or explain anything. He has been through so much and he is starting to make the connections. I think that this next surgery is going to be more difficult emotionally than we imagined.

Keep the prayers coming. We plan on really enjoying our time together this week before he goes in. I will be posting more before the surgery and daily when we are in the hospital. Thanks for your support.

Ang, Brian and Gabe

PS I will get more Birthday and Christmas pictures up. I will have SO much time in the hospital to get caught up on all kinds of things.