Caden’s Page

It has been a busy week preparing for the trip to CHOP. Caden is almost as excited as me. He will get to go in the green car with Daddy on Monday morning. That in itself creates a smile that you can’t pry off with a crowbar. Then Caden will get to board a plane for his first flight ever. It will probably take days to settle him down from the joy of that experience. He loves planes and as much as I wish I could have taken Caden for his first flight in a little Cessna the way I did with Riley, this is almost as good. While Sherry really wants to be there to meet and hear what the doctors have to say first hand, I know she is happy for me getting to share this first airplane ride with Caden. I plan to try and conference Sherry into the talk with the orthopedic surgeon so she can participate in that conversation.

The fact that this trip is so important and packed with so much fun, I have decided to live blog it right here on Caden’s Page. Beginning early Monday morning I will post here on Caden’s Page throughout our trip to Philadelphia. You can follow along and read first hand how much fun Caden and I are having on our trip shortly after exciting things happen.

All that said, today we faced a fever of 102.3 with Caden. He has tugged at his ear a little in the past couple of days and Sherry has been giving drops. Please lift him up in your prayers this weekend as we prepare for this trip.

Prayer Requests:

Please pray with us for:

• Caden to be protected from fever, infection, or any other illness
• Safe and smooth travel for Caden’s first airplane ride
• Favor with the TSA security screeners
• The ability to conference Sherry into the conversations with doctors
• A opening at the Ronald McDonald House Monday night (This will save nearly $150)
• An appointment with ENT or anyone at CHOP who can address swallowing issues
• Strength, hope, and faith for our whole family (Sherry and I are realizing that the pending medical issues with Caden are affecting everyone in the house more than we thought.  This has all been especially taking a toll on the two of us.)

I want to thank the folks at Plantation Pediatrics for providing a letter of medical necessity for this trip. While the letter is not required, it is recommended when traveling with things like a pacemaker, foot braces, suction machine, feeding tube, and all the gear required to deliver nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube.

Email Subscription Changes for ALL

Even if you current get emails from me when this page is updated, you need to read this. I am changing the way update emails are delivered. In the near future I will stop sending manual emails when updates are made to this site. This change will require that EVERYONE re-registers for email updates using the form below. I cannot transfer your email into the new system automatically. This new delivery method is an opt in email system. Please enter your email in the form on the left and click the subscribe button. You will be prompted to enter a code that appears on the screen to help prove that you are a human. Then you will receive an email that you must respond to in order to complete the process. This new system will work just like the email subscription process on GrowingKids.org. You will automatically receive an email in the morning after a new post has been made to this site. If you like more instant gratification then you can always subscribe to our RSS feed using a feed reader and get more real time updates. Just click the “Subscribe to our feed link” here or in the side bar for that option. Want to know what a RSS feed is? Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know. Everyone has to ask at some point.

We have secured appointments with two clinics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). One appointment with the genetics counselor in the 22Q and You center and one with the orthopedics clinic. The orthopedics clinic is the main one we are after for a number of reasons.

The primary reason for the CHOP orthopedics visit is to get a second opinion on the scoliosis diagnosis. The importance of this second opinion is playing into the heart surgery plans more by the day. More on that in a moment.

Caden and I will be flying to Philadelphia early on the morning of the 12th and will have two appointments that day. We will bunk for the night at the Ronald McDonald house if they have room and approve us as guests. If not we will stay in a much more expensive hotel that has been reserved as a backup plan. We will fly home the next day. I considered the train which was a total of two hundred dollars cheaper, but it would have forced two nights in the hotel due to train schedules. The flights are direct Charleston and Philly in both directions.

Heart Update

I received a call from Caden’s cardiologist this week. The BIG aortic valve replacement surgery will not happen just yet. The very first thing out of the cardiologist’s mouth after identifying himself over the phone was to ask me when we were going to CHOP. He explained that he and the surgeon wanted wait on the valve replacement for as much as 4-6 months. The plan is to perform a Ross Procedure on Caden which is a bit more complicated than only replacing the aortic valve. I will try to explain the details, but just in case here is a link to a very good description with graphics. This procedure basically involves switching the pulmonary valve over into the place of the defective aortic valve location and then adding a foreign valve in place of the lower pressure pulmonary valve location.

So what does the heart surgery have to do with orthopedics and scoliosis you might ask? Three letters – MRI. The next move for the scoliosis is to get an MRI which requires that there be no pacemaker in the mix. The Ross procedure on Caden will result in the need for a pacemaker. I cannot explain why, but according to the cardiologist the need for a functional pacing device will increase with the Ross procedure. The removal of the pacemaker via a thorocatomy (the way it was installed) is more risky than if they were going to have Caden’s chest open for valve replacement. So based on our current information we are expected to go from having a malfunctioning pacemaker to removing pacemaker to getting an MRI to inserting growing rods in Caden’s back to having an aortic valve replacement and then back to having a pacemaker.

We and the cardiologist are all hoping that there will be another way to assess the spine without an MRI. If so, then the malfunctioning pacemaker can be left in place throughout the process of dealing with the scoliosis. This would free up the cardiologist and cardiothorasic surgeon to address the aortic valve on their own terms and timing.

Additional Stuff

Added to all this is the need to have an ear tube replaced and a question as to whether or not having his tonsils and adenoids removed might help illnesses. All of this would hopefully help minimize the need for antibiotics. There is concern for Caden building up a immunity to some of these antibiotics that he has been on numerous times in the past year due to sinus and respiratory infections.

I don’t know about you but my head is spinning.

Prayer Requests

Praise Reports:

• Rapid scheduling for CHOP appointments
• Wisdom with the heart guys
• Rest for our family
• Financial blessings from the Bush economic stimulus

Please pray for the following:

• Whole body healing for Caden
• Protection from infections and illness (we have been seeing goobers again)
• Safe travels for Cadan and me
• Appointment to allow a visit with ENT at CHOP on the morning of the 13th (this will require someone else canceling)
• Continued financial blessings
• Comfortable first flight for Caden (i.e., ears and pressure without being able to swallow)
• Smooth dealings with TSA screener (i.e., with suction machine, feeding pump, syringes, water, formula, pacemaker, and braces on Caden’s feet)
• Potty training
• Continued progress with sign language skills
• My current assignment as there are lots of changes going on that affect me directly

Thank you all for keeping up with us and joining us in prayer. Blessings to you and yours!!!

The recommendation made on Wednesday was to proceed with the replacement of Caden’s aortic valve.  The cardiologist is talking with the cardiothorasic surgeon to determine if this is a go or not.  I believe Sherry and I both or more at peace with this recommendation than just about anything we have faced in recent years.   The peace is a God thing.

The current recommendation is based on a thickening of the muscle tissue around the left ventricle.  The gradient across the valve has not increased significantly, but the thickening of the ventricle wall has caused concern for the cardiologist.  The heart is suspected to have been working harder to get blood out to the extremities of Caden’s rapid growing body. My questions was to the cardiologist was, “Are you recommending surgery in days, weeks, or months?”  The answer was months meaning that this is not an emergent or even urgent requirement for surgery.  It is a serious issue that must be addressed before the muscle tissue begins to protrude in on the capacity of the left ventricle.

Pacemaker 

The removal of the pacemaker did not factor into this decision.  We will have the pacemaker removed if this valve replacement proceeds as recommended by the cardiologist.  If the cardiothorasic surgeon is not ready to move on the vavle right now then we still have to make a determination on the pacemaker separately.  It can be removed via a less invasive heart surgery.  Is there really is such a thing?  Anyway, we have not received a second opinion on the scoliosis diagnosis yet.  So we don’t know for certain if there is another way to determine if back surgery can be done without an MRI.  You wil remember that the MRI requires the pacemaker to be removed.

Recent Illness

Caden did recently go through a rough time with pneumonia AGAIN and a nasty ear infection.  He was switched between three antibiotics within a week and a half.  He ended up on Rocephion shots again.  This all resulted in three ER visits in a five day period.  It was bizzarre in that the ER actually called the next day and switched the diagnosis after the first visit.  We fought fevers between 102.5 and 104 off and on for four days.  We actually got sent home from the ER with O2 sats in the low 90s on one occasion.  I think we spent about as much time in the ER during those five days as I did sleeping.  Things got so bad for a couple of days that Sherry and I took shifts sleeping right by Caden’s side much like we did in the early days.  Now he is doing much better.  He only had to get three days of Rocephion shots and he is about to finish a round of Augmentin.

Prayer Request

Please pray for:

• Complete healing of Caden’s little body.
• Discernment for us.
• Wisdom for the cardiologist and heart surgeon.
• Speedy appointment with CHOP for a second opinion on Caden’s back.
• Protection from infections and illnesses.
• Rest for the entire family.

 PS: Grass-Fed Beef Coming

I am in line for a side of grass-fed beef.  Please contact me via email if you would like to partner on a portion of this beef and I will send you cost information.  The side of beef should render approximately 200lbs of packaged meat depending on how it is packaged (amount of bone and fat left in).  That would be approximately 50lbs per partner family if I get three folks to join me as I hope.

I actually started this post a few days after Easter. It was going to be sort of an update after the hospital discharge. Other priorities got in the way and here I am finally posting weeks later. The delay actually caused a titled change that was originally focusing on the sixteen shots Caden go in just over a week. He got 14 Rocephion shots and 2 Synagis shots. I’ll get back to that in a minute or two.

Orthopedics Visit

If you can’t tell from the photo, the biggest news is that we had a six month follow up appointment with orthopedics at MUSC recently. What you see in the image is a picture taken of Caden from the front in a standing position. The radiology report says that this x-ray shows a 54 degree curve. That is up from 37 degrees seen less than six months ago. I know I told you that the last report was only 35 degrees. That confusion is a great lead into my next section.

Preparing for CHOP visit

The recent orthopeds visit has caused us to move quickly to get into CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) for a second opinion. There are two major reasons to pick CHOP as a second opinion on the Scoliosis diagnosis. First, they have a 22q and You clinic, which has made the world leader in dealing with the 22q11.2 deletion diagnosis. The second reason is that CHOP is ranked number one in two separate rankings for children’s hospitals from US News and World Report and Child magazine. We have been gathering records and filling out intake forms for more than a week now.

The reason for wanting a second opinion is that we are not 100% comfortable with the communication between the orthopedics doctor and us. He is not quite as forthcoming with information as we prefer to have. The information has varied with little to no explanation. For instance, the post in October talked at length about our misunderstanding of the severity of the curve. Even with the “corrected” information, we have now found from Caden’s records that the numbers in the radiology record do not match the mistaken number of 40 degrees or the corrected number 35 degrees. Another reason we have decided to look elsewhere for opinions on this diagnosis could border on gossip if I shared them, so I won’t.

The bottom line is that orthopeds at MUSC is recommending immediate surgical intervention to place growing rods, if an MRI confirms that Caden’s spine can take the stretching caused by the rods. The need for an MRI gets us back to our pacemaker dilemma. As you can also see from the x-ray, the pacemaker is still right where the cardiothorasic surgeon left it back in June 2006. The device has not worked since July 2006 and has been a barrier to getting an MRI. Research says that you should not get an MRI with a pacing device or associated wiring in place. If you have ever taken a physical science or physics class you have probably experimented with magnetism and wires. The magnetism causes one of two things when moved across a wire, heat or electrical current. Neither is a good thing when the wire is attached to the heart.

What we are hoping for is a way to avoid a heart surgery just to remove a malfunctioning pacemaker simply to get an MRI so we can see if back surgery is even a possible treatment for the curve. If you are wondering if bracing has been considered, it has. We have been told that bracing will not correct a curve but will help to slow or possibly stop further progression. The bracing solutions are a bit complicated for Caden since he is very active and exclusively tube fed through a port that is in the way of bracing. The x-ray picture above actually shows the g-tube port immediately to the left of the spine at the bottom of the rib cage.

I will try to do better about posting updates as the trip to CHOP nears. We are hoping for an early May visit. Based on travel costs I am planning to take a train to Philly. Caden would love it and it is the only way for me to be able to properly care for Caden and travel for such a long distance economically. CHOP supposedly has a deal with American Airlines, but I have not got the details on cost. If we decide to take the whole Gang of Ozz’s a train is the most economical choice without driving. I would not want to ride with me in a car for 12 hours and I know Sherry wouldn’t either.

Post hospital report – Goobers AGAIN?

We suspect that Caden picked up a bug when out with Nana this past weekend or when we all went out to eat after church. Maybe it is the season change with all the junk floating in the air, but the amount of suctioning caused by goobers has certainly increased in recent days. This happened a few days after Easter, but seemed to clear up. Now its back. Up until Easter Caden had a pretty good week. The post hospitalization was quite a fiasco, but I will get to that in a minute. Caden has had some fever this week with a ton of stuff to suction. A couple of weeks ago he responded well to OTC fever meds, but ended up waking about three hours after he going to bed coughing and ganging on the secretions. The stuff was so deep in his throat that the suctioning was really tough. Please pray that this current congestion stuff and fever passes rapidly like the last spell.

The caveat portion of the discharge from the hospital a few weeks ago actually ended up being a circus. Caden was discharged on a Wednesday afternoon. I flew back to DC on Thursday morning. Sherry had to take Caden to the pediatrician Thursday and Friday of that week to get the Rocephion shots (2 – one in each leg). I returned home on Friday night. At that point Sherry had acquired the needles, syringes, and the medication for the weekend, and she even got an RN friend from church lined up to come give the medication to Caden. BUT Sherry could not get sterile water or lidocaine. No one had it in stock. She found a health supply store that said they had it, but it ended up being sterile water for oral use only. You need sterile water or lidocaine to reconstitute the Rocephion from a powder into a liquid. The lidocaine is preferred because it can help numb the area where the meds enters the muscle tissue. We also had topical lidocaine cream to put on 20 minutes prior to the shots due to the extreme pain caused by this medication.

Anyway, I ended up having to take Caden to MUSC to the ER. This visit would not rate in my top ten ER visits, and yes I have done enough ER visits to MUSC Children’s to have a top ten. Even with a less than stellar visit over all, the ER nurse slipped me some sterile water so that we could get the shots at home on Sunday and avoid another ER visit. Our friend Shannon came over after church and administered the shots. Since the medication was mixed with water rather than lidocaine, Sherry saw the difference in pain reaction when Caden got the shots. He screamed violently for several minutes. This was not your regular “I upset because I have been poked again” type of cry. Sherry and I have witnessed him get dozens of shots, IVs, and blood draws over the years and he never screamed and squired like this minutes after the shot had been given. Fortunately the Sunday shots were the last ones in the seven day regiment.

Cardiology on the horizon

We have a six month check up with cardiology in a couple of weeks. We are hoping and praying for a good report out of Cardiology. The cardiologist want to keep an eye on Caden’s aortic valve which was diagnosis as being bicuspid. They reported an increase in the pressure gradient during the last six month visit while means they come closer to a recommendation of valve replacement.

Prayer Requests

I want to start this prayer request section by stating that I firmly believe in healing prayer. Sherry and I completed the School of Healing Prayer^® Level I last year. Through that we learned that healing does not come immediately in very many instances.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

Contrary to what many pastors preach, God is still in the business of healing by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has been in the business of healing and miracles through the hands of his people throughout the Old Testament, New Testament, and He is still in the business today. Just like when the miracles were performed at the hands of many in the Old Testament and then those performed by Jesus, His disciples, and many others like Paul in the New Testament, there will be those who witness miracles first hand today and still will not believe. There will be many people who will claim medical error during diagnosis or something happening by chance before they will give credit to the Almighty God. I pray that you are not among them. Please join me in lifting our little boy up in prayer. As Pastor Shawn put it this past weekend when referring to the four men in Luke 5 who lowered their paralytic friend on a mat through the roof of the house in front of Jesus, and I am paraphrasing here, “the one on the mat received healing based on the faith of those who went out of their way to carrying him up on the roof.” We can carry Caden and lower him down in front of Jesus with our prayers.

Please Pray for:

• Caden to be completely healed
• A good report from Cardiology
• Planning for CHOP visit to go smooth
• Potty training
• Increased communication skills
• Rest for all in our family

PS: Sherry has begun to blog on GrowingKids.org. She recently wrote the introduction post to a new series of posts on Structure and Routine.

We got to bring Caden home today.  He was so happy that he was given all the nurses two thumbs up and grinning from ear to ear. The doctors were looking for Caden to go 24 hours without fever and be able to sustain his O2 saturation levels in the mid 90s on room air.  He did both by noon today.

The caveat is that Caden has to continue to get Rocephion shots every day through Sunday.  The pediatrician can give them on Thursday and Friday, but we have to get a nurse to come to our house on Saturday and Sunday.  If no home health nurse is available, then we have to go to the ED, that is the new politically correct term for ER.  They call themselves an emergency department now from what we were told today.

Please keep Caden in your prayers in the next couple of days.  These shots are very painful.  Not in a big needle kind of way, but rather the medicine is very painful once it contacts the muscle tissue.  The dose is so strong that they give him one in each leg because it would be too much in a single shot. OUCH!!! It hurts to even think about it.

By the way, I forgot to mention that he has been working really hard at potty training.  He has been doing pretty good, but there is still work to be done once he is feeling better.

Thanks for keeping up with us and praying for our big boy Caden and our family.   Many blessings to you and yours.

Caden was admitted to MUSC for observation late Monday night due to low O2 sat levels caused by pneumonia. He is being given Rocephin shots. These are high powered antibiotic shots used to fight life-threatening bacterial infections. Caden has been on these Rocephin shots before. You may remember back in November 2006 when is fever hit 105.4. That was the same day I accidentally pulled his g-tube button out of the hole in his belly.

Caden’s condition is improving. He has not had a fever in the past 24 hours. He is down to 1 liter of oxygen and that should be turned off later this morning. If all goes well, we should be able to blow this popsicle stand within the next 12 hours.

The attending physician just made rounds with his entourage of students and residents. They confirmed what I was expecting. The oxygen will be turned off and if all goes well we will discharge later today.

The visit from the attending and his entourage came to our room right as I was in the middle of changing a Gi-normous poopy diaper. The females in the crowd were impressed to see a man handling such a mess with ease. I have to say that it certainly helps to have a child that will cooperate and display self control. As I was changing Caden, he went to reach towards the disaster area zone below his waist and I said so calm and gently, “Caden, folder your hands please.” And he did just as I expected because he is characterized by following instructions. One of the female doctors immediately responded with a “Wow!” as a result to Caden’s reaction to my instructions.

I continue to be amazed at how surprised people are when they witness children following simple instructions. There’s no big secret to getting your children to follow instructions. It just takes training in times of non-conflict along with LOTS of practice. My lovely wife gets credit for about 95% of Caden’s training. That said, I will leave the rest of the details for her to explain. She has go the itch to start blogging and the subject of self-control training is on her list of things to blog about.

Sherry will soon begin to blog as Mrs. Ozz on The Land of Ozz. We have decided to convert that blog into a shared Osborne family blog where Sherry and I both will blog. I realized just how much work it is maintaining numerous blogs and I have not been writing mush on The Land of Ozz anyway. I also don’t know how many children we are going to have so I do don’t want to build and maintain a separate blog for each child. 😉

I will update again when Caden gets discharged.

I took a few minutes last night to catch up on our little friend Callie from Atlanta. She has been at Stanford since last July where she has endured numerous surgeries and spent a majority of her time in the ICU. This week Callie was moved back to an Atlanta Children’s Hospital via a care flight so that the family could be closer to each other. This family has two other children and it has been very tough with mom and baby sister on the other end of the country for the past eight months.

The miracle in this is in the simple fact that Callie is alive. There was a point a few months ago when the doctors were certain that Callie would not survive the next 24 hours. There was such certainty in this prediction that the family was making funeral arrangements. This week when Callie arrived in Atlanta one doctor said to her parents, “you will never really understand how incredible her survival is from a medical standpoint” after he had been reading through her records.

Reading the story of Callie’s safe arrival back to Atlanta brought tears to my eyes last night. I was filled with joy over what God has done through this little girl’s life.

Caden Update

Caden has been fighting a nasty cold for almost two weeks now. He has not been tolerating the tube feeds very well and has had green goop streaming out of his nose. Even still, I was able to capture some video of him saying a few words this week. He says Mama, I Love You, and Moe. Moe is referring to Moe and the Big Exit which happens to be Caden’s favorite video. I hope you enjoy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci1QXxwrvFQ[/youtube]

Having trouble viewing? Click Here

Riley and Josiah

As it has been said, “a picture is worth…” These guys are doing pretty good.  Josiah is fighting a cold, cutting his first tooth, and learning to roll and squirm/army crawl across the family room floor.  Riley is doing great and loving on his little brothers.

Today is Yesterday was Josiah’s big 6th month celebration. Oops, It’s after midnight. We did not make a big deal out of the day here, but it gives me a good reason post an update. As you can see, Josiah is practicing his high chair manners with both hands on the tray and seems rather pleased with himself. He has learned to roll over in both directions. He loves to laugh, especially at me. Hmm?

Caden has been doing okay except for a nasty cold. Sherry will be taking him in for a sick visit to the pediatrician on Monday. It has been a while since the last round of antibiotics, but we feel that this cold is getting bad enough to warrant some thing more than the over the counter stuff.

Today marked the third Sunday in a row that we attended church as a family. It has been several months since we attended church together. Sherry and I were taking turns staying home with Caden and practicing big church using the Internet Campus feed right here in our living room. We would have Caden join us standing in the living room during worship time and then we would sit down beside him during the sermon just like we do in church. Once we felt that Caden could handle church without making a scene with his screeches (his way of saying NO! when given instructions), we decided to give it a try. He has been doing pretty good. The Seacoast Interent Campus offered a great opportunity for self control training for Caden in this particular area. We never got any new help that worked out to watch Caden in the nursery during services, so we felt that this was God’s way of telling us that Caden was ready to move into the big house with Riley, Mommy and Daddy. Caden is growing into such a big boy.

There has not been any excitement in a while and we are not complaining about that fact either. However, today brought a little excitement to us with a short visit to MUSC. I must start off by saying that this was the smoothest ER visiting at MUSC ever.   And we have had our share of ER visits to MUSC.   I did call ahead to peds surgery so they knew that we were coming and why. It was the middle of a weekday and most of the rooms were empty so I am sure that helped make things go smooth too.

Okay, I will cut to the chase. Caden accidentally pulled the g-tube port (mini button) out of the hole in his stomach during gym class today. Sherry said he seemed more upset about missing gym class than loosing the button. Oh, I guess I have not been keeping you updated like I should. Riley and Caden are in gym classes at Rolly Pollies of Summerville. The membership was a Christmas present from their Grandpa and Grandma. The idea of doing this came from Caden’s physical therapist. She is reaching a limit to what she can do with him in our home since he is getting so advanced. Yeah!!! The Rolly Pollies thing is really fun for both boys. Sherry and I are amazed at how much it is really helps Riley and Caden. Riley is getting some much needed confidence building with heights especially among other things. Caden is getting some much needed upper body strengthening and balance. The programs at Rolly Pollies are structured and very professional.  The owner took time out of her evening to call and check on Caden. He may go back later this week to make up the class he missed today since the fedding tube thing happened in the first few minutes.

As for the incident of today, Caden was doing his thing during class when he rubbed his belly against an exercise pad and caused the button to come out. Sherry saw him reach down for his belly and immediately knew what happened. The button has been handing out a little and showing signs of wear.  This button has been in for nearly ten months if my memory servers me right. Sherry and I both have changed the button before, but Sherry was not able to get the button back in this time. We have been told by doctors that the hole can close up within hours so she immediately started working her way to MUSC. She got Aunt Addie to watch Riley and Josiah. Thanks Aunt Addie!!! I left work and met her at the ER not knowing if this even would lead to a surgical procedure. There Sherry’s trouble with replacing the button was reiterated by the ER staff who could not get the button in either. The part that goes in the belly is a bit flexible and it just would not go in. The trick one nurse showed us all is to put a piece of cue tip stick down in the tube to help keep it stiff. That worked like a champ. We were out of there in under two hours and had Caden on his way home with a tummy full of refreshments by way of the new tube. Oh yeah, on a side note, the ER doc confirmed that Caden has lost an ear tube.

In other news, I forgot to tell you that Caden took a pretty hard fall back before Christmas. He tumbled about half way down the stairs a the morning after I returned from my first trip to DC. He got a busted lip and a pretty nasty rug rash on his chin. Other than that, he was fine. Sherry and I both got a little excited as you might imagine.

As I get ready to close this post I will leave you with a little fun. This picture (click it for larger view) was taken on Saturday afternoon as we were leaving the place where Josiah got his first hair cut. Caden loves to make us laugh and he asked to wear these funny sunglasses. And yes, we did get our 5 month old’s hair cut. He looks so much better without the all natural mo hawk thing. As for Caden, well he is becoming such a funny little boy as he matures and he knows it. He is copying EVERYTHING Riley does. It is sort of cute right up until the point that I realize they are both repeating one of my bad habits. 😳

Prayer Request

Please keep Caden in your prayers by asking God for healing of:

• Swallowing
• Aortic Valve
• Back and Spine
• Speech
• Pinkie Finger

Caden has a few more medical battles as you can see. We still face diagnosises of scoliosis, heart (pacemaker and aortic valve), speech delay, and lack of swallowing functionality. We have taken a break from trying so hard to get things fixed. We have continued to see closed doors with regards to medical solutions for the swallowing issues in particular. Sherry and I strongly feel that these closed doors are telling us that it is time to step back and let God do what man has not been able to do for Caden in the area of swallowing. Please join us in asking God to take charge of Caden’s health.