Devin is Home for Christmas

After a whirlwind 5 days in the hospital, we were able to bring Devin home!

His G-Tube surgery Thursday was a success and everything went well.  Our biggest answer to prayer was that Devin was able to go straight off the ventilator to just a little bit of oxygen immediately following surgery.  With his history of lung disease and collapsing lungs, this was a HUGE step right away.  The next step of getting him comfortable was much, much more difficult.  The first 3 days post-op, he was just in so much discomfort, and there was not a whole lot that could be done to help him.  The pain medication could only do so much.

We had to be cautious about starting to feed again, since he was vomiting blood from the surgery.  We needed to make sure it was just old blood from the surgery, and not another issue we were facing.  Thankfully, he seemed to get most of it out of his system, and they were able to start slowly feeding him again after the first couple of days.  On Friday, they had someone come suction out a lot of the air in his tummy that he had taken in during surgery. That seemed to help him some, and he was able to sleep for longer stretches.  Sunday we were able to move Devin to the step-down unit, monitor him, and start to wean his oxygen to make sure he could handle breathing on his own.  He did well with that, so after a little more education on how to use his new tube, going over his crazy meds, and signing papers; we were able to bring him back to the nut house!

We are so grateful to have him home in time for Christmas!  He's only been home one night, but he seems already to be throwing up less, and waking up less at night.  The night before surgery, he was up every 45 minutes to an hour vomiting.  Last night was SO much better!  We'll still have to get up to give meds several times a night, but a few hours of sleep straight in a row is very helpful for functioning properly!

Thank you all for your love and support over Devin!  We hope that his life is a testament to the faithfulness of Christ; and His mercy over us.  I know we have learned so much from this little man this year.  We are learning about what truly matters in life, and not to sweat the small stuff.  Like your 3 year old swallowing a nickel.  This too shall pass.  Quite literally...it did.  Life hands you more than enough each day.  We're learning to respond to what matters, and dust off what does not.

Having spent so much time in the hospital this year, and away from our others boys, there truly is something so special about saying "I'll be home for Christmas".  I just want to wrap up Dan & our boys in blanket and just hold them.  We are home.  We have each other.  We have everything we need.  God has provided so much for us; and that all started when he sent His son. What a beautiful season to celebrate my little boy coming home, and hopefully "home" for a long time.

May your Christmas be filled with Christ, and your New Year filled with new hope.  Much love from Devin's family to yours!

(P.S. This is basically our Christmas card that I won't be sending! Enjoy!)