Monday, October 20th, 2008 - UPDATE

Monday, October 20th, 2008 - UPDATE
Mattie is doing great! The Surgery went as planned! Those two statements alone are sufficient for Vicki and I to be screaming a collective "Ya-Hoo!" We are filled with a sense of Relief, Amazement, and Exhaustion. The Relief is that Mattie's surgery went as planned and promptly as scheduled, and we even had a smiling surgeon appear at the hospital room door, telling us that things were good. We cannot tell you what a relief it is to have Bob Henshaw leading Mattie's limb salvaging activities. It fills us with a sense of comfort, confidence and security knowing that we are the hands of such excellent care. The Amazement is that in the course of one day, in a matter of hours, Bob took a complete bone out of our son's arm, removed any questionable and possibly cancerous material, replaced it with a high-tech synthetic prosthesis and returned Mattie to us, in good shape (albeit tired and bandaged) with a complete arm. To top matters off, Mattie was wiggling his fingers and squeezing his right hand once back in the room. The Exhaustion is that we are completely depleted from today. The hours moved both slowly and with lightening speed. We do not even remember looking at our watches, although we know we were watching the hours pass painfully by.

We want to thank Bob Henshaw for what we deem as miracle work today. Bob, from the deepest part of both of us, we cannot thank you enough for what you have done for Mattie. We want to thank our Georgetown Team for all their support and caring today. From the Clinic to the PICU, from Art Therapists and Child Life Specialists to Case Managers and Social Workers and even Sedation Nurses, you guys were there for us today, so thank you.

We want to thank everyone who expressed their support and caring for us today, and in some way sent us a communicationn (be that by email, blog post, prayer, e-card, etc). The outpouring of support from our collective community of family and friends was tuly amazing. Thank you to each of for keeping your distance at a time when many of you want to help the most. We were able to get through the day staying focused on Mattie and his return to us after leaving him at 7:50am this morning.

Last, I think it goes without saying, but the collective thoughts and prayers for Mattie's well-being were indeed heard today by our Lord, and he in return protected Mattie for us. God Bless you all!

It is 8pm, and Mattie is in his room, and sleeping soundly. The perineural is working like a charm so far. We have had two visits one from Dr. Davis a surgerical resident who was in the OR today with Bob, and Dr. Casey the PICU resident on call tonight. Everyone is pleased with Mattie's progress. There is so much I would like to say tonight, but I concur with Peter, I am exhausted. But two comments. Bob sent us some photos of Mattie's surgery today. Fortunately Bob is smart enough not to send me these photos. I would need the G version of these surgerical pictures. Way too graphic for me right now. But Peter did share with me the picture of the bone Bob took out of Mattie's arm today. A part of me has been pining about this arm bone leaving Mattie's body, but after seeing this picture, I say thank God Bob removed it. It looks deformed and not human. It looks like a huge turkey leg bone. It had to come out, and there is some truth that a picture says 1000 words. I am happy to report too that Mattie held and squeezed our hand tonight using his right hand. That is simply amazing considering Mattie had muscles and nerves moved around today. The whole surgery is miraculous, but we also realize God performs miracles through those of us on earth. Today Bob performed what I would call a miracle.

I am not sure what tomorrow brings, but like the 12 step philosophy, we take it one day at a time. It is the only thing that works. Thank you Liz C. for a wonderful dinner tonight. You really spoiled us. The nurses wanted to have a party in our room when they saw the food coming in from the Cheesecake Factory!

Thank you for all the wonderful e-mails today. Hopefully tomorrow I can pull myself together to actually be more coherent on the blog. But we felt that there was a powerful force and community behind us today. Thank God for all of you, you keep us going through some very difficult moments!