Caden had a good week. He/we had an appointment with the pediatric surgeon earlier this week at MUSC. This appointment was used to get Caden checked out, and get Sherry and me trained on how to replace/change Caden’s g-tube. This was a very interesting visit to MUSC today the least. The intent of this training is to hopefully prevent another emergency room visit simply due to the failure of Caden’s g-tube. The tube that he uses now is held in place by a little balloon that is inflated using water after the g-tube is inserted. I actually inserted Caden’s new g-tube button during this visit to MUSC. Oh yeah, we got a new type of g-tube for Caden during this visit. It is pretty neat. I will not get into the details right here, but you can read more about the different types of tubes that we have experienced with Caden on the links page if you get into that technical medical stuff at all.
I personally had a rough week. I got so run down by the end of the week that I stayed home from work. I took some sound advise from a friend who told me to not let myself go too far like I did back in December when I ended up in the emergency room on an IV due to dehydration. The long hours are hard on my body with little to no nursing assistance throughout the night. We did have some help during one evening this week up until about mid-night that allowed for me to sleep for a few hours that I might not normally get. I was better after some extra rest and fluids.
We ended up taking a day trip to a family reunion this weekend. It was about five hours round trip on Saturday, but well worth it for many reasons. The first good reason was that I got to visit one of my favorite people on this planet Aunt Dolly. She and her sister are the only two remaining in their generation of my Mom’s father’s (Papa) side of the family. Papa pasted away back in February. Within about a week prior to his death we lost his brother. His brother’s son Bruce was there the night Papa passed as was Aunt Dolly and Aunt Mattie. It was just within the past month or so that Bruce also passed away due to complications with an open-heart 
surgery. Bruce had taken care of his own father into his home. Until his father’s death, he regularly took his father to the nursing home to visit his step-mother and my Papa. His step-mother also passed away within weeks of his father and Papa passing away. All of this has been a great strain on Aunt Dolly in particular since she also lost a son within the past year or so. You can see me pictured here with Aunt Dolly this weekend.
Another good reason for our trip was that we got to meet a cousin that I didn’t even know I had. The interesting thing about this meeting was that his daughter lives right here in Goose Creek. She has been struggling with some medical issues with her child who is a little older than Caden. My cousin gave Sherry his daughter’s contact information and Sherry plans to call her this week. We are hoping that we can share notes on what programs we have learned about to help each of our families as well as share notes on doctors, clinics, and specialists that we all have found helpful.
We got to see my Mom’s new house and visit our old cats. The cats had to move out from our house a couple of years ago due to allergies.
The last great reason for our visit to the upstate of SC was so good was that we got to visit my only living grandparent. She is my father’s mother. She had not seen Caden in several months and was absolutely delighted to hold him yesterday. I take time to stop by to see her even if for a few minutes every time I am in town.
To wrap this up I want to share a couple of notes on my birthday this week. Sherry went the extra mile as usual. She took Caden and Riley to a place called Kiln Time in Mt. Pleasant, SC to hand paint a piece of pottery for my birthday. It is shown here on the right side of the page. It is a serving tray that I used to serve up a great pork tender loin that I grilled for our family and some guests this week. Be sure to call Sherry if you are ever short on creative ideas for a special occasion. This tray features Riley and Caden’s had prints on the front to complete the shape of a lion’s head to go along with the “king†of the grill caption. This ties in to one of Riley’s favorite books The Lion King that I read to him regularly.
We thank you for your continued prayers and support.
May God shower you with blessings as he has us.