Coming home soon!

Cash is doing great and might be coming home as early as Thursday. We need to pray he will continue to gain weight as that is the key to getting him home right now. But so far the plan is to bring him home on Thursday. We just can't wait!

yep, still cute.

Casher is doing better every day. He is eating a lot and starting to act like he is recovering from his surgery. He is smiling and goofing around again. Everyone thinks he should be coming home pretty soon. We went for a ride around the NICU in the wagon this afternoon. He likes the stimulation and seeing some different sights than just his little crib. We are in the process of packing up the house. We move out at the end of September. We are going to stay with our dear friends Don and Cheryl Kelley in Lone Tree (just south of Denver) through October. The plan is at the end of October to head to North Carolina. We are excited and ready for some down time with our son.

We are still thanking God for the good news on Casher's liver function and successful surgery. We are a little weary after all of this but so thankful and continuing to draw our strength from the lord. love, kari & mitch

p.s. we need help loading our moving truck on sunday, sept 27! just putting that out there :D

9 weeks old today!

Yes, Cash is 9 weeks old today. It's hard to believe. He seems much improved this morning. He is just about off of the narcotics and is getting tylenol for pain. He has a terrible cough and lots of junk in his chest but they are working that out with antibiotics and respiratory therapy.

Casher is awake and letting everyone know that he found his voice again! I held him this morning and slowly he started opening his eyes and looking around at the world again. He gave his nurse the eye brow furrowed "suspicious" look and even managed the one eye brow "I'm checking you out" look. No smiles for mom yet, but I'm sure he will be back to that soon. He is out of the warmer and back in his old crib. He sure loves looking at his mobile. The surgeon said he looks great and he can start eating again this afternoon. Woo hoo! Praying he is truly on the road to recovery this time...love, Kari

afternoon update...

Cash is off of the breathing tube! He is still groggy but seems to be comfortable. He did get a blood transfusion this afternoon as his levels were low. They don't like to do it, but it was necessary. So 24 hours post-op, he is doing quite well. I bet in another 24 hours he will be much improved and probably letting us all know how hungry he is. I'm ready for him to start looking like and feeling up to his old self. His face and eyes are very puffy and he has more tubes than normal. I will post another update tomorrow and let you know how he is doing. LOVE, Kari

Casher is doing much better this morning. Yesterday post-op was tough. Maybe more so on mom and dad than on baby. After a "cocktail" of morphine, fentanyl, and a sedative, Cash was finally out. For a while there, I thought I was going to need a morphine drip!! Watching him suffer was super hard. But he had a good night and today is a new day. He should be off the morhpine soon and on tylenol. Hopefully, the breathing tube will be pulled this morning and he will be able to breathe on his own. He does not like having that tube down his throat! The first thing the nurse said to me after last night was "He is a fighter!" and I couldn't agree more. More soon...love, Kari

Out of Surgery!!!! -let the healing begin

He's out of surgery-we spoke with doctor rothenberg just a miunte ago. He reconfirmed that Casher does NOT have biliary atresia and went on to state he believed casher 's liver problem may have been a result of scar tissue from his previous surgery blocking his bowel activity and his biliary ducts. He said that might be why he appeared to have biliary atresia. So...his hernia should be permanently fixed, his g-tube (button) is installed, the adhesions from the scar tissue have been initially addressed and hopefully completely repaired. We're about to go see him in the nicu, will update again later today. Thank you all so much for caring so much about us. We are sustained by your love support and prayer. -Papa Mitch