We're off

We're off tomorrow for my first camping trip ever. I've got my axe to cut wood and my lighter fluid in my knapsack. We'll take lots of pics to share.
Happy Memorial Day!
-Sim

Diaper Rash Cream in My Coffee... okay, just everywhere else

Mom made the most of the evening, but tension was still high. I got to have a lollipop tonight after dinner and that was the beginning of the end. I peed in the toilet once, but I graced the kitchen twice and my bedroom once. My Thomas underwear are not as absorbent as I may like them to be.

The nighttime bed routine was clearly re-defined when mom was feeding Clay in the kitchen while I was applying diaper rash cream to myself in the living room. Thankfully, I was naked, so I was able to get good coverage. Mum was upset overall, but did laugh out loud after she cleaned off the couch, sent me to the bathroom to start cleaning my hands off, returned to me in the bathroom, wiped off my belly and then discovered that my backside was also covered with pasty white cream. Who knew I could be more white? Moments later, when I had my entire body wedged between the wall and my bed and I yelped for help as only my head was visible, mom was simply at a loss for words. Clay and I survived the night. (barely).

My new favorite words are "Cake" and "Crash" and "Poops." Dad taught me the last one.
Oh hey, and I discovered Clay this past week and decided to start talking to him.

Happy warm summer night,
Simeon Bowne

Memorial Day Adirondacks

Any advice on tent camping with an infant and a toddler?

All 90 Years of Humor

That's Vienna photographed above.
And below is Vienna and Clay with their Great Grandmother Ruth Sager.
We drive to western Pennsylvania last weekend (before the surgery) for her 90th birthday bash.


We really like this one below. After lunch, she disappeared and comes back rather dressed up. This is one of the many glorious facets of Ruth Annette Rankin Sager. She's still getting (and giving) a kick out of life at 90 years old.

Thanking God

Here's three pictures from right before the surgery. Clay is in a baby-size johnny. It was stinking cute. Stephen went to the OR with him to see him put under.

Amazingly, he fell asleep. He hadn't eaten in quite a while from food restrictions for surgery so we were glad when he choose sleep over whaling.
After he was in surgery, he was sent over to the building next door: MGH's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

We had to wait most of the day to see him again.


He had an AMAZING amount of tubes, nodes, lights, and IVs attached to him. The PICU had about six doctors and then many more nurses on the floor constantly. They monitored him very closely. He was sedated and put on morphine for a full 24 hours so that he would not pull the tubes out.
This was his room/area. The back section is where parents can sleep.





We knew that this surgery was potentially saving his life, so it was a GREAT day. It was hard to see him like that, but the gratefulness we felt for the surgery over-road our concern.

Above is what he looked like the first day. Below is the following morning after they took out the breathing tube and had inserted a feeding tube and put on an oxygen tube.


Once he was stable, they moved him back over to Mass Eye & Ear. We spent the night again.



He smiled when he woke up the second day and that's when I knew Clay was back in town.

The view was fabulous. We could see most of Boston.


Thank you to all of you for asking God to protect Clay. He owes us nothing, but has chosen to be gracious.

Proverbs 3:25a and 26a
Have no fear of sudden disaster . . . . for the LORD will be your confidence.

Surgery

Hi again computer land.
We just spoke with the hospital a few minutes ago. Clay's surgery is tomorrow (Tuesday). We are still fuzzy on the time of the surgery and should know later this morning.

We had a great weekend celebrating Grandma Ruth Sager's 90th Birthday and I have some hilarious pictures to share with you after the craziness of the surgery. Dad mentioned over the weekend that the death rate with kids with the type of rare cyst that Clay has is rather high (40 % !). I was reading abstracts and medical journals last night and sure enough almost 1 in 2 babies with them die because it can very quickly obstruct the airway. I am just amazed and so so so very grateful that the cyst was found last week. The thought of something happening to Clay is frightening.

Again, we are grateful to God for caring enough about all the little sheep with broken legs to go after little Clay. I don't know the formula for these things and I know that some of you do not believe that God really cares, saves, or is alive and well. Clearly the cysts aren't found on many children. I simply don't know his will, but I do take comfort in that God didn't make our world like this from the start.

The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. Ps. 145:7&8

We'll post after the surgery but likely not before. Tonight we'll have a lot of organizing to do. We need to find a place for Sim to hang out and pack, etc.
Thank you for praying and thanking God,
Abby and the fam

Clay Update

Hi family and friends,
We are busy packing to go to Pennsylvania tomorrow, but we wanted to post about Clay. He is a happy baby and doing rather well and I sure didn't expect to have this news after our appointment today.

I took him to Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital today to see the specialist again and this time he saw a cyst in Clay's throat when he looked with the endoscope. I saw it clear as day too and it sure wasn't there the last time we took at peek at his larynx. It is called a Vallecular cyst and it is just behind his epiglottis (just above his vocal chords).

It looks as though Clay will be having surgery next week. He will be "put under" with anesthetic and will stay over night in the hospital (Mass Eye and Ear in Boston). The cyst cannot be removed because of it's location so they will be draining it and then checking up on it in a month or so to see if it is filling up again.

He will be getting a CT Scan as well as a whole bunch of "scopies" that I don't fully understand but are more intense than what he has been getting so far.

He also got X-Rays today and the final word is that he has mild tracheomalacia and also mild laryngomalacia. Both will heal with time and need no further treatment. He has been eating very well and it really hasn't been a stresser lately for any of us.

Praise God that the cyst was found! It would have obstructed his airway if it continued to grow.
Clay (and our family) are fortunate to have medical care and we are very grateful to God for providing it.

Love,
Abby and all the boys.

Clay and my Train

Batters Up in our home made batting cage