No tube (briefly)

Henry sleeping without any tubes.  This is before he had to have his feeding tube back in.  We're working hard on getting him to learn how to eat on his own.  This is a really hard thing to do.

Out of the ICU

As scary as being in the ICU is it's a little scarier to be moved to the "floor". We don't have a dedicated nurse and people don't exactly come running if you need something. I know it means that he's healed up enough to be there.. I hope. It's just not the same feeling leaving your baby alone in a room if there isn't going to be someone there all the time to watch them. I might be spending tonight in the recliner next to him.

Henry is doing great lately!

Again I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has provided their support to us. We are truly overwhelmed and humbled by it all. Especially Matt & Christine Clark (& Dylan) who have continually brought us food and broken us out of this place to keep us in good spirits.

So, now for the Hupdate. He's back to being a baby again! We might even move out of the ICU by tomorrow which means he will be off all medications and only 1 IV for emergencies in his foot. Basically he'll be (mostly) wireless. He'll still have a feeding tube to supplement until he learns to eat again for the first time. We are both so excited and happy to see him looking so good. Now we can hear his little voice and hold him. It's so amazing! What a change in 1 week!

Things are happening

I just got back from lunch and now Henry has a few less things attached to him! Things are surely picking up after a lot of days of waiting. Now he's slowly being weened off of medicines and the ventilator. Also, today he started getting Mom's milk (through a feeding tube) at an amazingly slow rate. 1cc per hour which is much slower than even your average leaky sink dripping. This will ramp up as more things start getting removed and before you know it we'll be out of the ICU and moved to the regular cardiac recovery area. Hooray for Henry!

For the benefit of Henry

Joanna has set up an account that people can deposit gifts for the care of Henry. There is no obligation at all. Some people were asking how they could help so Joanna set up this account to make it easy for people to help out. Here's a copy of her email with the information:

Hi everyone -

There is a benefit account setup for Henry Becker and his family. People have been wondering what they can do for the Becker's so if anyone wants to drop a couple of dollars into this account it will help defray some of the costs of being in Seattle and some medical bills that have already started.

If you live in Missoula you can stop by any Missoula Federal Credit Union branch and make a check out to:

For Benefit of Henry Becker

If you live out of town you can send a check made out to the same but mail it to:

For Benefit of Henry Becker
c/o Missoula Federal Credit Union
126 W Spruce St
Missoula, MT 59802

The account # of 256644 can be written on the memo field but is not necessary. The bank will try to include the name of who is depositing on the slip and forward any notes or cards to Polly and Rob but they can’t guarantee this will always happen. So if you send a check and want Rob and Polly to know you may want to follow up with an email or letter to their address.

Please feel free to forward this on to anyone who would like to receive the information (I know I don't have a complete list of email addresses).

Please don't feel like there is any obligation. We just wanted to make it easier for people to help out if they wanted to.

Thanks –
Joanna

Slow & Steady

I know.. I know... it's been a while without any updates. We had a bit of a rough weekend after Henry's surgery. He started to slip after the great results on Thursday. Saturday they found that he had an infection which was really sabotaging his recovery. He's on antibiotics. Now he has apparently "turned the corner" and is getting better after a couple day setback. He still has a lot of work to do to get back to being our beautiful baby boy.

Thankful

Everyone can take a nice deep breath. I think all of the prayers are working. The operation went great! Thank you so much for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers today. We cleared the first big hurdle.

Day -1

It's like NASA over here. We've got both babies back together finally. They are very cozy together and I know they like to be together. So we took some pictures which are here. Today there isn't much to do. We are talking to the people who will be involved in the surgery and getting time to hold him before tomorrow.

We start bright and early tomorrow at 7am.. we will be here at 6. He goes to the OR around 9am and should be done around noonish. So those are the times to take a moment to think of Henry if you like.

Thanks for your support everyone!

All together now

Well, everyone is back together now. Chuck & Linda drove Polly, Lydia, and Liam over on Sunday. They had a long drive and got in very late. There was a huge dust storm and lots of accidents on the highway so they had to take a detour. The kids were fantastic on the drive and fell asleep before getting here. Poor Lydia was so tired. I carried her up to the room and she didn't even wake up to know it was me. Then in the middle of the night she woke up disoriented and was so excited to see me. We had a nice hug and she went back to sleep after I told her that I'd still be there in the morning.

Everyone is adjusting to this new "lifestyle". Thankfully we all got some better sleep than the first night. We are all very busy taking care of the kids and trying to fit in hospital visits and naps if possible. I have much less time and brain power to update here and respond to emails so please understand if my responses are short and to the point at the expense of tact.

Today at 2 we meet the surgeons and get the full disclosure and give consent for the procedure. Nothing exciting happening.. they just answer our questions and tell us about the process.

My future's so bright.. I gotta wear shades

Don't be alarmed I'm just catching some rays. (same as you might bring a newborn out into the sunshine to help with jaundice) I'm totally fine. --Henry

I thought this was actually a combination of cute and hilarious. Maybe it's virtual reality and he's on vacation somewhere... maybe it's the new fashion... maybe you can come up with your own funny ideas in the comments...

I think I'm turning Japanese

I moved over to the Ronald McDonald House which is right near the hospital. So now we've got a room for Polly, Rob, Liam, Lydia and Linda (and maybe Chuck for a few days?) to all squash in to. It got me thinking that it's like the Japanese culture where the entire family (grand parents, parents and kids) all live together. It will be cozy but they have all types of things to help us out. Play room for Lydia, volunteers to make dinner on weekdays, kitchens, your own bathroom.. and on it goes! We are in room 269. A quick googling reveals their address: 5130 40th Ave NE, Seattle, WA and homepage: http://www.rmhcseattle.org/

Plus if anyone has "I think I'm turning Japanese" by the Vapors.. I really want to hear it now.

Tom Petty was right...

Surgery is scheduled for Thursday Oct 8th at 7am (unless he gets bumped earlier for some reason). Now it's just the waiting game...

We're feeling good

First let me say a huge thank you to everyone for their support during this challenging time. It's been very hard to adjust to this surprise. It's devastating to hear that your baby may not make it but I'm feeling better about it. As I learn about it and get over the shock I'm getting optimistic. His case is favorable for a number of reasons. Also I learned the success rate for the 3 surgeries are 80-90% depending on who you ask. So while it's not a sure thing by any means and the outcome of a "success" can be different in different cases... I'm feeling good.

Also, it looks like the rest of the family will be coming out here soon so the bros will be reunited.