Cash doing his cutie thing

In case you were wondering - he's still cute. We think these photos are proof positive of that... So, the good news is if Cash continues to do well on his feeds and does not lose weight, he will be home this weekend. A very tired mommy and daddy are beyond ready for that. We are tired of the hospital, but so grateful for his amazing doctors. It's true to say that Cash really connects with people already. They seem to gravitate towards him and want to look out for him. It could be those blue eyes and that knowing look he gives...Lord, we give YOU all of the glory for Casher's healing (and his gorgeous blue eyes, too!). Much love, Kari & Mitch

Casher is doing much better!

Since that chest tube has been pulled Casher seems to be feeling like a new little person! He is much more content and is smiling up a storm. He started eating from a bottle yesterday and is doing very well with it. We are just taking his feeds nice and slow to give his tummy a chance to adjust (after not eating for 10 days!!) It looks like he will most likely be out of the hospital on Tuesday! We are excited to get him home (home is currently Cheryl and Don's house in Lone Tree).

Our plan is to watch him closely and have some follow up doctors appointments in Denver. Then my mom (now known as "grandma"!!) will fly out from NC and fly back with me and Cash around the 11th of November. Of course, we want to make sure Cash is very stable before we travel with him. Mitch will drive the car and dogs with our brother in law Jeremy to NC around the same time. He has a job transfer with Starbucks and needs to start work on Nov. 16th. I have to say we are ready for some normalcy! For us that means a healthy little boy and being settled in NC. I myself am looking forward to a peaceful fall in NC with quiet holidays at home with our cutie pie. Thank you for your continued prayers. I am feeling so much more at peace. It really takes its toll having a little one that is so sick. Now that Cash is feeling better I can tell just how bad he was really doing and how hard that was on me as his mom. I am so grateful for his improvement and all of the love and support we have been getting from all of you. We will continue to keep you updated and post more photos. Love, Kari

Chest tube has been "yanked" literally

Good morning friends and family-Papa Mitch here with the Thursday morning update. Last night the g-tube button came out of his tummy, i knew it was broken and so did the doctors and nurses for about the last 4 days, but they said as long as it was taped down it would be fine. WRONG! It popped out in a crying fit last night. After the nurses got approval they stuck a new one in, blew it up, gave his some Tylenol and went on their way. More traumatic on Kari and I than Casher. About an hour ago the head surgeon came in the room like a hurricane-looked at Casher's output from his chest tube and quickly decided to take his chest tube out. Within minutes Casher was on his side, Kari was holding his hands and Dr. Rothenberg literally YANKED this tube out of Casher's Chest. Neither Nan nor I could believe how well Cash handled having a 3" section of tube ripped out of him like a loose tooth, a grownup would still be whining. He is resting now, getting a very small amount of food slowly throughout the day-The docs will increase that amount slowly day by day until he is eating enough to come home. We hope that will be less than a week from now. As always we thank you all for your support, love, and prayers-we couldn't do this without all of you. We are so blessed to have such a strong committed group of people surrounding us. More to come...

Pics from the pediatric floor - 3 months old

update

Well it's been eight days since Casher has been back in the hospital. It's been tough to update the blog without a laptop (thank you Cheryl and Don for letting us borrow yours!)...Casher is doing as well as he possibly could given the circumstances - he isn't allowed to eat and he is confined to this little room. The plan is that they may start him on food as early as this weekend (that seems like a loooong time from now for this tired mom). The reason to wait so long is so that the tear/hole that allowed fluid in the lung will heal on its own. After he begins to eat we should know pretty quickly if the tear has healed or not. (What caused the tear? We just don't know...) If it does not heal on its own, surgery will be the next step. Nobody wants that. We are praying he will heal with no further surgery needed.

Please pray also for me and Mitch. I particularily have been fighting off discouragement and emotional exhaustion. We have a small (and mighty!!) team that is allowed to visit Casher in the hospital. The number of visitors is so limited due to the H1N1 flu - we are only allowed 4 visitors (in addition to me and Mitch) total - those people cannot change for the length of his stay in the hospital. Really the very best thing you can do for us is to continue to pray. It lifts us up. Just thinking about you reading this right now gives me a great deal of hope.

It amazes me how much Casher has the ability to smile through all of this. His smile is more precious each time I see it. He's growing and looking so much older. I have to keep reminding myself he is just three months old. He's been through a lot in his little life. More soon...love, Kari

Back in the Hospital.

Hey all its papa Mitch with the long awaited update. Since Casher has been home we have had less and less time to update the blog-imagine that! Well, up until Sunday Casher was doing really well, typical baby day to day life with a few extra things here and there of course. However on Sunday while we were visiting my family in Pueblo Casher had to go to the E.R. because he was having trouble breathing, after an ambulance ride and a bunch of tests the discovered his left lung was collapsed and full of fluid. They were amazing in Pueblo, took great care of us, got him stable and on an air transport back to Pres. St. Luke's Hospital in Denver. He was then admitted to the PICU where they continued to keep him comfortable, and continued draining his lung.

He now has his own great big beautiful room in the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital. Room 4304.

Casher is doing OK. No one knows why this fluid is in his lung, but the suspicion is he has a small puncture in his lung and they are hoping it will slowly heal itself. Kari and I are pretty tired yet remain at peace knowing God will carry us through this.

This looks to be the toughest challenge yet since he has his own room and though the nursing staff is great they can only give him limited attention. We are trying to have someone with Casher at the hospital at all times. Kari can only do so much and I am still working a ton. Please be praying for our family, its a daunting task trying to make sure someone is always with our little man.

As usual thank you in advance for your prayer, consideration and positive energy. We love you all and can't wait for you to meet little Cash man. Love Mitch Kari and Casher

Casher is home with us...It's Official!!!!!

Well we did it. We finally got our baby boy home today on his 11 week birthday! We got his chest tube out this morning, we got all his extra tubes, bottles, wipes, syringes, pumps, hoses, and muffler bearings gathered up and then hit the road around 2 p.m. We clapped and celebrated the first time he got to go outside today, clumsily strapped him into his car seat for the first time and headed for the suburbs. Now were at home with mama Cheryl, she's oohing and awing at how adorable he is. Kari and I are struggling to remember which medication is which, when to give it to him, how much...It's so much fun having him home, playing with him away from monitors, screaming babies, overly perky and overly tired nurses, and reveling in how much room there is here to spread out.
Thank all of you so much for praying us through this stage, we are so blessed to have such positive, loving and faithful friends and family. Can't wait for all of you to meet him asap!
Love, Papa Mitch