Big News

Biggest news stories to come from the Brooks family this year:

• Noah is born (2/12/07)
  
• Noah has heart transplant (4/6/07)
  
• Noah comes home (6/6/07)
  
• Autumn poops on the potty (7/24/07)

That's right, last night Autumn pooped on the pot. Before going for our evening walk, I went upstairs to get my shoes. Autumn called out as I came down that she did it, she peed and pooped. I thought nothing of it as I went in to ensure that she cleaned herself up in a timely manner. She has told me that she pooped in the pot before, but all previous investigations for signs of any poop in the pot have come up fruitless. Well, last night there was no missing it. I became very excited, calling Maria in to see for herself what our big girl had done. We told Autumn that, like her cousin Ellen, she would get a special doughnut when she accomplished this feat. We still went for a quick evening walk which gave us time to call the whole family and let Autumn tell them what she had done and what her prize was going to be for doing it. Immediately after the walk, Maria took Autumn to Harris Teeter and allowed Autumn to pick her special doughnut. Maria reported to me that Autumn told nearly everyone they passed on their trip that Autumn was getting "a special doughnut for a special Autumn" because she pooped on the pot. Below is a picture of special Autumn eating her special doughnut.

4th one in a row!

Zero rejection! Thank God! I don't have a lot of time to write but just wanted everyone to know. Thanks!

Back and Forth

Well in case you didn't figure it out we ended up staying in the hospital from July 10th-12th. Everyone talked about how good he looked yet we were stuck back in the hospital. His meds from the originally infection had his other meds acting up so we had to adjust his anti-rejection meds and finally they let us come home on the 12th. I wish I could say that we got to stay home for longer than a weekend but we had to go back on Monday for a scheduled heart cath. The Dr.s said everything looked good but we haven't heard yet on the level of rejection if any. They were suppose to call today but no one called so I guess no news is good news. I'm sure I'll know for sure by Wed. evening. Other than the running back and forth to Duke Noah is doing well. Actually everyone is doing well. I survived my first 2 days with Noah and Autumn at home and they are both still alive thank you very much. I think potty training is going to kill me. I wish there was a button I could press every time she needed to go. I need the EASY button! Anyway things are fine and I will update everyone later when I know the level of rejection if any. Thanks again for your continuous prayers.

Well it's been a while but here I am again. I guess we have had Tim so busy that he can barely get any sleep. We have had a rough but good first month at home. We actually only had about 3 weeks at home because you can't count last week considering that we spent the whole week in the hospital. Poor Noah had a fever and between me, the pediatrician and the Duke Dr.'s we decided that Duke's ER was where we needed to go. So at 3am Noah and I took off and he ended up having multiple infection in his broviac. They admitted him for what was thought to be just a few days but as the blood cultures came back they found out it was pretty serious. They removed his broviac on Tuesday and he got an IV in it's place. He then lost that one within 24 hours. They replaced it again and he lost that one in about 20 hours and finally he went to the PICU to receive a pic line but lost that one in less than 18 hours. I don't know what I'm gonna do with that child. The Dr.s decided that his infections can now be treated with oral meds and they gave up on an IV. We went home on Friday the 6th under the condition that we would come back on Monday for another set of cultures. His labs came back all out of whack and we almost had to stay again but we are trying an oral remedy to see if we can flush him out. The Dr. said we might not have given the old infection enough time to clear up but we will see tomorrow. In the mean time poor Noah is getting an extra ounce of fluids and his belly is so full that he is spitting up a little more than before. We have slowed his feeds down to help him out. If this oral remedy doesn't work then we will most likely be admitted to run IV fluids. That should be fun to get started considering they have already blown every good vein he has. That child has so many bruises it's not funny. Please pray that he doesn't have to stay in the hospital again and that he can come home tomorrow.

Just a couple of Duke kids

My daddy makes me smile!

Looking good in yellow.

Excuse me, have you seen my paci?