A belated update

Many of you have told me how you are checking the blog for an update and you have found NOTHING! Forgive me.

Our last update was when Claire came home for the second time, on Good Friday morning. The weekend was full of blessings. My duties at the parish were relatively light and, for the end of Holy Week, we were able to spend a good deal of time together as a family. Kristen's mom, Kathy, was with us and was a great blessing to us as we adjusted to being back at home. Claire was visibly so happy to be home, and was also incredibly sweet. She was in the Holy Week spirit, walking around and telling people that "Jesus died for me!" On Easter morning, she asked Kristen "where's Easter?" to which Kristen responded that "Easter is everywhere." This too she proudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen.

Monday was a difficult day. On the way home from showing Kathy our new house (closing date April 28), Claire vomited a few times in the car. In addition to being a real mess, it concerned us and so we spoke with the surgeon's nurse practitioner, who wanted to see us. After all the perfunctory tests, they told us that everything looked good. Not only had the fluid remained down in her chest and lungs, but her liver was working well and her electrolyte levels were still good in spite of the high level of diahretics. Nonetheless, the dosage was too high and had made her sick, so they cut out one of the diahretics (she was on two adult doses of two different medications each) and that seems to have done the trick.

Claire is getting back to herself and her personality seems much more like the normal Claire. She continues to say funny things. The latest was when she solemnly explained that I was like Gusteau, the chef in her new favorite movie Ratatouille, and that mom was not (I do more of the cooking, so I don't think it was a comment on Kristen's skills generally - trust me, they're quite good!). There's nothing like being compared to an extremely fat French chef who has no neck (see here).

These days we're gearing up for the move, which is in less than two weeks.

With thanks for all your support. And happy Easter!

Round 2 - The Last Day! (Good Friday)

I am sitting here at the parish preparing for the Good Friday service. Before I got here, I helped pack up Kristen, Kathy, Isaac and Claire in the van and sent them on their way back to our house.

Claire's home!

Claire and I were snuggling on the couch this morning when her doctor came in and told that her x-day looked gorgeous and what time was the Good Friday service so that they could get us out of the hospital in time. Claire got all dressed up in a dress and her new snazzy shoes (see yesterday's pictures) and skipped around the floor as we packed up all our things. She goes home with a much higher dosage of the diahretics, but it seems that they are working very well and releasing all the excess fluid. Praise God!

This will be a joyous Easter, to be sure. And what a Good Friday. We have known the power of the Lord's mighty death in our lives, the saving power of his sacrifice. Thank you for your prayers.

Behold the wood of the cross, whereon was hung the world's Salvation.
O come let us worship.

Round 2 - Day 3 (Maundy Thursday)

Today begins the Sacred Triduum (the three Sacred Days in the Church year) and as we put ourselves in mind of our Lord's great love and sacrifice in his Passion, and we are rejoicing in God's provision to our family. Claire's cardiologist on the floor (who happens to attend St John's, where I served as a deacon) came in this morning and told us that her x-ray looked beautiful. And then a series of doctors and nurse practitioners all filed in over the next hour, smiles on their faces, hoping they were the first ones to give us the news. She's been getting rid of lots of fluid; in fact, she lost a kilo (1 liter) of liquid between Tuesday and Wed. I spent the night and I think I chaged four diapers last night, all of them very full. Strangly, this stuff doesn't work gradually: once she gets the diahretic, it works all at once and quickly. But they mean recovery and we'

Kristen's mom, Kathy, arrived last night from Washington. Claire is so excited to see her grandma and her presence has been a great comfort and help. She arrived bearing gifts, in good grandparent-style, including not one but two pair of shoes (see the way-cool Crocs above). We're working on getting some more pictures, but we're rather slow. We look a plethora of pictures during the first round, but I think we're in a little denial this time and are expressing it by not marking the moment with photographs. These are grandma' pics, for which we're grateful.

Thank you for your prayers, which many of you continue to offer on our behalf. We still have a few more days here - Holy Saturday will likely be our day to travel home - and we will be immensely relieved to have all of this finally behind us.

A blessed Triduum to all of you. I'm sad to miss Maundy Thursday tonight at Church of the Incarnation, which will be beautiful and moving as always (my sincere thanks to Fr Philputt for preaching in my place this evening). I will be able to participate in the Good Friday liturgy and also have the privilate to baptize four individuals at the Great Vigil on Saturday evening, including an adult whom I have been preparing for a number of months. If you are looking for a place to celebrate our Lord's Passion and are in Dallas, I hope you will join the good people at Incarnation over the next few days (click here for a map and a schedule).

God bless you all.

Round 2 - Day 2

Good news this morning: Claire's x-ray looked better than yesterday. The fluid has gone down some and so the diahretics are working as they should. I had a pretty good night with Claire last evening. She didn't sleep great, but she slept as well as could be expected for a first night back in the hospital.

Kristen's mom has kindly offered to come and give us a hand and we are incredibly grateful. She'll arrive tonight and with us for almost a week. This means I'll be able to participate in at least some of the Holy Week services. They're telling us that we could go home on Saturday in time for Easter. At this point, we want to stay long enough so that we don't have to come back, but Saturday would be fantastic.

This probably isn't too cogent, but we wanted to give at least a brief update. And Praise God, the news is good.

The Hospital - Round 2

This is the not the post I was hoping to make this evening. But before I let you know what transpired today, I should let all of you know that we had one unexpected return to Children's last Friday because of a little oozing from the lower part of her incision sight. All they had to do was take off the lowest of the steristrips over her incision and clean the area (and have us do the same for the next few days) and all was well. She hated us putting the iodine on the wound but it continued to heal quite well (these photos are from the day after she came home, last Thursday).

The family got up early this morning to head back to Children's for the scheduled surgical follow-up visit. The first sign that things were not right was when her oxygen saturation was coming in at 71, which was 10 points less than what it was when we left the hospital. And those numbers were supposed to be slowly going up, not dropping. Then the nurse practicioner came in with a less than cheery grin. The x-ray showed a significant build-up of fluid, particularly around her right lung. This meant that she was taking shallow breaths and thereby taking in less oxygen, hence her lower saturation. She would have to be readmitted, they said, for a minimum of fours days or so. They are putting her on two different diahretics via IV, which they hope should flush out all of the excess fluid.

This is not really the best week for all this, as you probably know. Holy Week is the busiest week in the church and it was with a heavy heart that I passed off preaching on Maundy Thursday to one of my kind collegues. But, we have a much bigger room this time, a view of the downtown skyline, and a bigger bed for me to sleep on! So not all is lost.

Your prayers are welcomed with grateful hearts.

Day 8 - Wednesday, April 1

We're going home today!

The docs did their rounds this morning and told us that everything looks good. She still has a very, very small pocket of air in her lungs, but they said that this will work itself out in a few days. She's off oxygen and her stats are still quite good.

She goes home with just over the counter pain medications, the heart medications she was on before we came to the hospital, and one diahretic to make sure that any excess fluid gets flushed out of the body.

My parents head back to Pennsylvania today, something that causes all of us some sadness. They have been more than help than they will probably know. My mom was hear from before the heart cath and it provided a real breathing space for Kristen especially as we prepared for the surgery.

Ahh...to sleep: perchance, to dream.

With joy and thanks,
The Olvers

Day 7 - Tuesday, March 31

The chest tubes are out! Te Deum!

The picture here is of Claire and I walking back from having taking a ride in the elevator down to the 4th floor Troy Aikman play room. She's sporting a pretty exciting blue purse that holds a pocket-size version of her monitors and some custom Children's PJs. In the photo she was stilled hooked up to oxygen, but she was weaned from that last night, so she's off that as well.

The chest tubes were taken out around noon yesterday and the x-ray that they took about 4 hours later showed her lungs to be totally clear without any significant fluid build-up at all. Praise God!

PopPop spent the night for the first time last night and they had another great evening (thank you!). Our favorite night nurse Alison was again adept at getting Claire to take her meds.

This morning is the post-chest-tube-removal echo that is the final check to make sure that all is well. They tell us that we likely we make the trek home tomorrow, which is great because my parents have to return to Pennsylvania tomorrow.

We'll try and get some more pictures today for all of you.

Thanks agian for your prayers.