Continue to pray

Dearest friends,

Please continue to pray for our dear Josiah. Yesterday after the surgery the Dr. gave him a "bolus" shot in his spine. That was to help with pain through the evening but seemed to wear off sooner than later. We were kept in a holding area till 7:00pm and then they wheeled Josiah toward a room. At this point Josiah must of remembered how they wheeled him away before surgery and he went crazy. Screaming and trying his best to get out of that bed. We were transferred to a very nice room on level 7 (they weren't sure if had been cleaned or not... I know God is in control :) where both Jim and I could be with Josiah all night. Unfortunately after this incident Josiah has been in increasing pain and crying ever since. He will have 5-10min at a time that he calms down sometimes falls asleep just to have muscle spasms shake his whole body ( on top of the other pain he is having). During the surgery they had to cut through muscle causing severe muscle spasm (like charlie horses) as they heal. They have given him strong medicine to try to help with this but doesn't seem to be helping. Jim and I, but most importantly Josiah has hardly slept even an hour all night. I know the Lord can take this pain from him and bring peace. Please join in with our prayers and continue to lift our little Josiah before the Lord. Thank you

Update #2

Josiah update as of 3:45pm....

The Lord is hearing our prayers! Josiah is out of surgery and working on waking up. The surgery only took 5 1/2 hours unlike even the new expected time of 7 hours. The Doctor we had was very patient and professional and has been a blessing in our lives. They were not able to fix the hip sockets but the Hip bones and ankle cuts and rotates were a success. He does have a lot of metal in him right now but the Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes. A huge praise is that he only has two ankle casts on and really no limitations besides he can't walk on them. The Lord is good!! He also got to pick the color so for all our James fans out there, we knew Josiah would pick green for his hero brother :). Right now Josiah is awake enough to drink lots out of his sippy cup by himself (something they need him to do..) and holding daddy's hand (which he loves to do). They do have him on a catheter to monitor his output of liquid. That needs to resolve as well, but as much as he is drinking I think the Lord has already answered that one. :)

Prayer request ... he is in a holding room right now with lots of "emergency" type patients (i.e. germs), they don't expect him to have a room for at least 3 more hours and don't know where that will be. The doctor encourages that he be on floor 8 in a clean and sterile room. Also, for him to take deep breaths and maybe even cough a little.

Fluid is already settling in his chest

and that needs to go. One of the main concerns after this surgery is pneumonia setting in. His swelling in his face and throat to go down as well to help with his oxygen levels. ... and of course the pain. Right now they are keeping him on high doses of medicine but they can't do that for long. He seems to be more awake and at himself right now and resting peacefully. Please pray that continues.

My heart is overwhelmed at all the love and prayers bestowed on our family. The Lord is so good and I know we could never of made it through this day without Him working in our lives through all of you. Words can not express how much we have been blessed. Thank you!

Beginning of surgery

Updates from mom..

Josiah slept well last night and was ready to go today. I don't think he knew what he was getting into. Although, I don't think we do either. When we met with the Doctor before surgery he explained that plans have changed a little. He shared all of Josiah's information with his fellow doctors to get more imput on the situation. They have all said that very few patients have they ever seen to need as much reconstruction as Josiah does. So for right now the plan is to cut and turn both upper and lower leg bones to re-position his legs forward. They will then do a dye test to see how much cartilage his hips actually have (that doesn't show up on an x-ray). If he has more cartilage than they think, they can take the cartilage and stretch it to reconstruct a hip socket and mold it to the cut bone. More than likely this is not going to happen. If there is no cartilage then they will postpone a further surgery to cut the pelvic bone and reconstruct a socket. This causes massive bleeding so they didn't want to take the extra risk by adding this procedure to his current one. If just the upper hip bones and lower leg bones are cut to turn the legs forward the surgery should be about 7 hours. They are planning on waking him up after the surgery and giving him a shot in his spine for the pain. Waking him up sooner helps to reduce risk of infection, especially in the lungs. Once the pain shot runs out he will be in A LOT of pain. The average stay is still 5-7 days and that is mainly for pain management and to get him to eat.

We just received our first update from the nurse. Josiah went back to surgery around 7:15am and they called around 9:30am to say they finally got him intubated and all the IVs in. They will be monitoring him consistently and will give us updates every hour and 1/2. Right now they have just gotten started but Josiah is doing well. Please pray that the extubation goes well so he will be transferred to the 8th floor and not PICU. Also, for his appetite to come back and pain management. We will keep you posted when we know anything new. Thank you so much for praying for our little guy, he is such a trooper.

God bless,

Josiah's mommy and daddy

Surgery is a go for Feb.28th

Hello,

We were just having a "boy" party! My sisters like to have tea parties, but that is for girls. So James, and I have Boy parties in our tent. Here we got to eat chocolate chip muffins and watch the Chipmunk movie... my favorites!

Just wanted everyone to know that my surgery is a go for Tuesday Feb. 28th. I went to have my pre-op appointment on Friday and everything looked good.

We will be at the hospital at 5:30am on Tuesday. My

sisters and James will be staying

with my Grandma and Grandpa so prayers for them are appreciated too. We couldn't do this without all the support and prayers from my family and friends. Thank you so much for checking in and mommy will be posting updates on here and on Facebook to keep everyone posted on my days.

Tuesday is going to be very long but also very intense. I will be in surgery for 13-15 hours and they are going to break my hips, make a socket and completely reconstruct it. The Doctors will access how much my body can take but if all goes well they will also be cutting my ankle's and turning my feet almost 90 degrees as well. The Lord has made a way for this surgery because right now I walk sideways on my ankles (mommy tried to post a picture but it is hard to tell when I am walking away :), and have been coming to mommy needing my feet rubbed because of pain a lot lately. The plan is to start on one side, complete 1 hip/ankle then the other hip/ankle. I will be asleep (from medicine) for at least a day after surgery because the Dr. said the pain will be so bad they are going to have to help me. Then they will start waking me up and we will see how things go. They don't expect me to eat anything for at least a couple days due to pain either, but mommy is going to bring my favorite cereal ... just in case :) They expect me to be in the ICU for 3-5 days. The Lord knows what my body needs and I know He is in control.

Please pray for wisdom and peace. Pray I am not in a lot of pain and that infection stays away (especially in my lungs!)!! Pray for the Doctors, nurses and everyone who will be working on me. Pray for my body and blood to be strong during the whole surgery and for the Lords will to be done. Please also pray that my family and I can be a witness to those we come in contact with, because without the Lord everything is pointless.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and beginning of a blessed week. No matter the outcome I know my week will be blessed because I trust the Lord has everything in His hands and there is no better place to be.

See ya soon!

Josiah and family

T+733 My smile is back

Thank you all for your prayers. Mommy says that I finally have my smile back.

If you saw my fish picture from last nights post you would see my last smile of the day. After surgery I was really groggy and had to have oxygen to help me breathe. I wasn't feeling to well and when I got home I took a really good nap. I am suppose to be on soft foods or liquids but after not eating all day all I wanted for dinner was "real" food. I finally settled on ice cream since I never get that for dinner but I sure wanted some chicken, that is my favorite! I didn't even give smiles out when I was going to bed and giving everyone kisses but I did sleep pretty good (besides the medicine daddy had to give me in the night). I woke up all smiles!

I share my toothless smile with my sister Leah, now. She lost one front tooth last week and then

wanted to make me feel

good and wiggled her last front tooth out last night. We make a good toothless pair. The doctor had to take 4 teeth out but I am good to go for awhile now. The teeth were so big that the Dr. had to stitch the holes up when he was done. I still am not suppose to eat much but I want everything in site. My energy as returned and am doing well this morning. Mommy still has to give me some medicine but I can still get into everything and play.

Mommy put pictures on the bottom of my letter if you want to see my prize possession. Although, if you don't like yucky stuff I wouldn't suggest you look at them. Mommy put them up for safe keeping but couldn't believe how big my teeth were.Thank you for praying for me because I was feeling so yucky and feel better today. Please continue to pray that I don't get any infection and I stay healthy for my next Surgery (Feb.28th). Hope you enjoy your day, it is about 60-65 degrees and sunny here so I want to go play.

Bye for now,

Josiah

Yucky stuff below.. :)

.

Quick surgery update

Josiah did well. They did have a hard time intubating him and had to have our ENT come rescue him. He had 4 teeth pulled and his ears drained (lots of yuck) and his ABR says he has mild to moderate hearing loss. He has been on extra oxygen for 6 hours and we didn't know if we would get home tonight because of the extra swelling from the intubation.... but we are home! Praise the Lord! Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray that the swelling will go down and we will have a smooth peaceful night.

Happy Unbirthday (a day late)

HaPPy UnBirtHdAy to Josiah and Torie!! Two years ago Saturday, Torie and I got new blood that has been working to help fix our bodies. Our transplant journey started many weeks and months before this but on that special day is when our bodies started from ground zero (again). We both have been through so much in the last 2 years but are doing so very well. Torie just had her adenoids taken out, Dental work done, an ABR and Ear tubes put in. She also has some super cool new glasses. Please take a look at her blog and keep her in your prayers, she is our twin/triplet and will always be family! (there is a link to her blog on the lower right sidebar)

As for me, I will also have surgery on Monday. Although, I have already had my adenoids taken out I have to be just like Torie and keep up with everything else. So tomorrow I will head back to the hospital to have Dental work done, ear tubes back in and an ABR. They already know that I need hearing aids and they have had the molds done for months (with cool green sparkles) just waiting for the results of our long awaited ABR (hearing test). All this is pretty routine but since I have been having colds on and off the Doctors are keeping an eye on any congestion I might have since I have to have a tube in my throat to help me breathe during surgery. Please pray that everything goes well and that I will wake up and be able to come home by lunch.

I have so enjoyed my time off from going to the hospital. All my blood work is good and I feel great (unless I have a cold).
I LOVE playing outside and taking walks to Grandma's house (who moved just down the driveway :). We are

building a new house

and James and I will have a new room. It will be awhile till it is done but James already wants to paint it green. I love running up and down the ramp on the back porch and would love to paint but mommy won't let me stick my head in the paint... oh well, I guess I might be able to when she is not looking sometime :)

If I do well on Monday and continue to be healthy, my hip and ankle surgery is on February 28. That is my Pa-paw's birthday, so as a birthday gift I want to heal up real fast so I can come have a super party with him. Please pray that I stay healthy and that the Doctors (& daddy and mommy) will have wisdom on all the decisions that are so important for this surgery and during this surgery. Jesus has carried me through so much since I was born and I know He will continue to carry me.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and for checking up on me. It means so much that you read this, it is encouraging to me and my family. Mommy will keep you posted on any new news.

May God bless you,

Josiah