Elena Update 11.8.09, Sun

Subject: Elena Update 11.8.09, Sun

Elena Update 11.8.09, Sun

1.) Oh, if you don't mind, let me set the pronunciation record straight. Elena's name is pronounced "Eh-LEH-nah". It's not pronounced, "Eh-LAY-nah". If it was pronounced "Eh-LAY-nah", it probably would have been spelled, "Elayna". Just sayin'...No offense meant, if you've been saying it incorrectly. Just trying to help you out. Thanks. :-)

2.) On Friday, 11.6.09, the doc had told us that Elena had to remain in the hospital another 8 days to finish out her antibiotics since they were intravenously administered. (By the way, I used spell check on 'intravenously'.I've got skillz, but not that many!). Of course, that was not exciting news to be at the cozy-cozy hospital another eternal week, because we wanted our kid back at the casa 3-weeks ago! Kath, being the ever-so-meek-&-never-to-speak-her-mind wife that she is :-), communicated very eloquently that there's gotta be another way! They had already removed 1 intimidating, gagging ventilator tube, 2 very awkward chest tubes, 1 long slithery painfully tickly nose-feeding tube and 1 very uncomfortably placed groin I.V. line.can't we do the rest of the "fun" stuff at home already! The doc stuck to his "syringes" (a.k.a.: the proverbial "guns") and essentially said "No soup for you!!".which is Seinfeld terminology for "No, you have to wait the full 8 days in the hospital to finish out her meds."

3.) The doc came back about 3 hours later after conferring with the surgeon and said "We've come up w/some alternative meds that can be given orally, so you guys can go home tomorrow." Kath, who was holding Elena at the time, stated, "If I wasn't sitting down w/Elena on my lap, I'd jump up & kiss you." Well.heavens to Betsy.who woulda thunk that hell froze over on Friday afternoon, November 6th 2009? Kath telling some complete semi-stranger (or anyone, for that matter) that she woulda jumped up & kissed him if she wasn't sitting down was a subtle clue for a very, very non-touchy person that she was just "a little" excited! So, for my very, very non-touchy wife to tell our doc that she woulda kissed him was "Type-A" talk for "I love you man!"

4.) We were ecstatic! Praise God!

5.) So.Kath stayed overnight w/Elena in the hospital room Fri night & Abuela (Grandma) and I went back to the house.

6.) Prior to taking my mom to the airport to catch her early morning flight Sat a.m., we swung by the hospital so Abuela could get Elena to do some more giggling. For the record.Abuela has been about the only person thus far that has gotten Elena to do some full-out belly laughs. No kiddin, I think my mom has more energy than most kids do! Seriously. If you know my mom, you know that's the real deal Holyfield right there. First, she'd bounce around our little shoe box of a hospital room like a bunny rabbit for a little bit and then grab a little green rubber ball and boing it on the floor enough times to just about be annoying & then jump up & down as the rubber green ball bounced and then threw it off the wall a few times (I'm sure our next-door neighbor appreciated that) and then she'd place one of Elena's hundred stuffed zoo animals on her head & then Abuela would drop it on Elena's lap.and did each iteration as if it were an Army circuit training session.I was "wo out" just watching the whole one-woman-show!!!! (That's southern for wore-the-heck-out!!!) Abuela is her own Panasonic Entertainment Center.except that she can probably do a whole heck of a lot more stuff than Panasonic equipment ever could! Elena would just sit there & strain to keep her little head up because her neck is still so weak & just belly laugh watching Abuela do her thing! It was the greatest sound & beautiful-est site to hear & see. It was awesome! You see, it's been very difficult to get an already mellow 2-yr old that is heavily sedated on 3 or 4 different meds to even crack a hint of a smile.let alone get her to show her pearly whites. It's a whole other level of entertainment to get her to do a belly laugh! It was just exhilarating to watch & listen! Thank you Abuela! (Evidently they teach you that kind of entertainment training at Grandparent school. I bet my Mom got first in her class!)

7.) Also, Saturday morning, we brought in warm, fresh-off-the-oven Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts that smelled like only fresh warm Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts do! You know.the ones that are soft and moist and just melt in your mouth. (Is anyone drooling yet?) That was the absolute least we could do for the amazing nurses that took care of Elena! I think a bunch of the medical staff on the 5th floor of the hospital were bummed to see their little CFVHWP (Cape Fear Valley Hospital Warrior Princess) Elena go! We took a bunch of pictures, though. (I know that's hard for you all to believe. "What? Noble & picture taking? Wait.you mean the Gibbens family likes taking pictures?" For those of you who haven't known our family very long, wouldn't know that my wonderful Mom, code name "Abuela", has photo albums of my sister & me for just about every month we've been alive!!! Well.guess who swore they'd never torture another soul with the awkwardness of snapping their picture? And now guess who makes people endure the awkwardness of snapping their picture? Yep.me!)

8.) Elena was a blessing to everyone that took care of her. She just has a sweet spirit. And, "no", that's not biased Dad making that comment. That's the real skinny. She really does. She's just a gentle spirit. We also prayed that everyone that would come in contact with her for any reason would be blessed & touched by God. I believe they were! We have really be-friended many of the PICU nursing staff up there. They were just wonderful! They were congenial, nurturing & competent. And when you're taking care of my kid, that's what I want-not only squared away, but also nurturing. It made it a little easier as parents to put Elena in someone else's hands knowing they had great hearts & who knew what they were doing. Both were equally important to us. How do I know? Because we encountered some who were just competent, but couldn't give a rat's rear end about Elena. Those were the ones I just wanted to guerilla stomp. And we actually did meet one on the other end of the competency spectrum. She was nice & congenial, but I think the clue bus drove right by her street every morning w/out stopping. I wanted a second opinion every time she came in checking on Elena. So, you see, you gotta have both: nurturing & knowledgeable.

9.) We then filled out the myriad mounds of medical-legal discharge paperwork. Wow.how about that for the best of both worlds.medical AND legal! Those two groups should teach seminars on how to make the simple as complicated as absolutely possible.as evidenced by the super "simple" 1,900 page health-care bill that's in the works right now. They even take it to the next level of 'complicated' because they add into the equation "medical + legal + government" equals "Astronomical-Einstein-Chuck-Norris levels of complication!" Ok, enough of my political rant.

10.) We grabbed our army of stuffed fuzzy zoo animals & enough "Get Well" balloons to float me into the atmosphere and checked out of the hospital around 2pm! Of course, I had to hug every nurse in sight, and even some out of sight, & thank them one last time for taking care of our precious priceless princess of pediatrics. Then, we scooped up Elena & got the heck outta there!! It was the last time headed to that cold abrasive concrete cave of a hospital parking garage! No more trips back to the house w/an empty car seat in the back seat of our car w/deafening silence blasting on no-one point five of the radio. No more empty house to come back to! Can I possibly begin to explain the feeling of gratefulness & thankfulness to our amazing Creator of the Universe? Are you kidding me? Talk about overwhelmed with emotions. Geepers crow.every time I looked in the rear view mirror on that 6.2 mile trip to the house & saw those big baby brown puppydog eyes looking back at me, I just about had to flip on the windshield wipers for my eyeballs.

11.) So, here we are.Sunday.Nov 8th. She is very, very mellow still. Being that she's still on multiple sedatives, they keep her very chilled out. It takes a lot of effort to get her to even put on a little smirk. We do our best to give her some activity. We want to keep her brain engaged & her body on the mend, so we've carried her on a couple walks outside. She's had the stale hospital air & "refreshing" florescent light bulb tan the past 3 weeks, so we wanted to get her some fresh air and real sunshine. Kath has also done some fun games with her & try to getElena to participate as much as she can-which isn't a whole lot at this point. At least it's something.

12.) She's still very, very sensitive to the Band-Aids that covered her two chest tube incisions and her 4" bandage covering her thorocotomy incision. Her legs are very sore, so any attempts to stand are met w/buckets of tears & loud whimperings. She still has difficulty picking up her head. Of the 3 weeks she was in the hospital, 2.5 of those weeks she was completely knocked out w/sedatives & totally motionless, hence her current physical pain & weakness. She did take a huge 4-hour nap today, which she desperately needed. It's been somewhat challenging getting her to sleep. I'm sure she still harbors some fear of getting woke up in the middle of the night to a poke or a prod by a nurse w/a new dose of this or a check-up of that. It also appears as if she's a little sad or depressed. We think that's due to some of the side-effects of some of the meds she's taking. It's definitely not fun seeing your 2-yr old sad or depressed, but I'll take that over doing the uncontrollable kickin' chickin of withdrawals. She has a few more days of the withdrawal medications and two more weeks of antibiotics. We're super stoked for her to be off all these various drugs.

13.) We are just incredibly thankful to have our kid home.to rehab her the way only a mother knows how to do. There's nobody that can nurture her back to health like Mom can-and Kath is flat out amazing. She's loving, patient & persistent. She wants the absolute best for Elena, knowing that as Elena's parents, we've got the awesome responsibility of raising a no-joke world changer. We are so thankful that it was the Lord's will to heal & mend the little Princess He's given us stewardship of for this short time we all have on earth.

14.) Now.onto Daylen! God is so good! Daylen's scheduled to come off the regular ventilator any day now! Billy & Dawn said that he was even shaking his head today."yes" & "no". Praise God! He is healing up so quickly! Thank you all so much for your continued prayers for their recovery. Now as their parents, we have to be very careful to protect the kids from too much exposure to people until their little immune systems get back up to speed. It may be about 4-8 weeks of sequestering because of the severity of their pneumonia they had. The absolute last thing we want is for our kids who have gone through almost a month of hell, to end up back there because we didn't protect them enough. And Jeremiah, who is an 18 mos old little boy, also fighting pneumonia in the PICU, is healing up well, too! He is to come off the ventilator tomorrow (Monday). And Nate, the 6-yr old, who had a kidney transplant, is healing also! Again, I wish I could tell you how much we all appreciate your prayers for Elena, Daylen, Jeremiah & Nate. Your prayers are absolutely priceless & so incredibly powerful! Thank you, thank you, thank you for including them in your prayer time w/our Creator. Your prayers ARE making a difference.

15.) We love & appreciate you all!

"The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships." --Michael Fletcher

1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you."

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NASB) 11 "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. "