Sending a big Texas hug back home

After an early morning in our beloved mountain town, we drove to the Flagstaff airport for the first leg of our trip to Phx – love that! Aunt Jaina brought freshly baked pumpkin muffins to send us off with (thank you Jaina!). We decided the weekend prior to get Aspen one of those “harness backpacks” (read: leash) because of her spontaneous desire to bolt away from us at any moment. This one looks like a cute little monkey hugging her back. A great idea which led to a handful of tantrums as it had to be taken away to run through the multiple security scanners. How do you explain that to a 2 year old? The flights went well and Elden slept through most of it.

Check out Elden’s plane outfit – cute! Aspen was pleasantly occupied by goodie bags from friends Becky, Georgia, and PJ. San Antonio welcomed us with warm humid weather and a sleek white Dodge Grand Caravan with more cup holders than we knew what to do with.

Our first trip was to the hospital so that Pat could donate blood for Elden. Mom, Aspen and myself stayed in the cup holder bus and waited. I forgot to send the camera with Pat to document his experience, bummer!

We then drove to the rental house – which turned out to be a nice house – but – not very clean. This is about Elden, so I’ll save those stories for another blog entitled “Odd things you find at vacation rental houses, and the things you have to buy that should be there”. Anyway, my mother bear mode had me wiping everything down with clorox wipes and washing the bedding. Another day in the place, and it felt like home.

Today (Tuesday) we got up late, had a relaxing morning and then went to the Riverwalk for lunch. We ate some super yummie BBQ and fed the ducks French fries. It was a nice and relaxing time before our hectic day tomorrow (Wed.). Elden had a good time, he is just such a smiley, happy little guy! Papa Tony is coming tomorrow to join us in our adventure. Thanks for reading and keeping us in your prayers. So many things are going through our heads right now, and we are tired! We’ll post more soon.

Travel and Surgery Schedule

Well, all of the plans have been made, and we are flying out of Flagstaff this coming Monday, Nov. 9. We will be in San Antonio for 11 days. We have rented a vacation rental house to be comfortable while Elden is recovering. Jessica’s mom is traveling with us to help with Aspen and Tony will meet us out there on Wednesday. Thank God for the support of friends and family!

Here is our little guy. We got him this soft hat to wear after the surgery, and before the helmet. Here is our schedule for San Antonio

Monday, Nov 9: Fly into San Antonio, arrive by 2 pm. Head straight to the hospital for Pat to donate his blood to be a direct blood donor for Elden. There is a 10% chance Elden will need a blood transfusion during the surgery.

Tuesday, Nov 10: No appts this day! We will do something fun - maybe we’ll go to the zoo!

Wednesday, Nov 11:

10:00 am meeting regarding a study on craniosynostosis

11:30 Elden head scan at Star Cranial Center

1:00 PM. Appointment with the surgeon Dr. Jimenez. We will find out specifics of timing for the following week at this appt.

Thursday, Nov 12: SURGERY DAY! (time to come)

Friday, Nov 13: Anticipate discharge if medically stable. Recovery at the rental house over the weekend.

Monday, Nov 16: Head scan for helmet.

Tuesday, Nov 17: Helmet fitting.

Wednesday, Nov 18: Follow up appointment with Dr. Jimenez at 1:00 PM.

Thursday, Nov 19: Fly home at 2 pm, whew!

Learn more about the procedure

To learn about the doctors and the procedure Elden is going to have click here...

http://www.craniosynostosis.net/

He is having the Sagittal strip craniectomy.

The decision has been made

After a week of praying and researching, we have decided to go with the endoscopic version of the sagittal strip craniectomy. Last week we were in contact with Dr. Jimenez in San Antonio, TX. He and his wife developed an endoscopic alternative to the traditional strip craniectomy. We received an email this morning from Dr. Jimenez' nurse and he agrees with the diagnosis that Dr. Avery gave us last week. Surgery is set for Nov. 12 in San Antonio and we have a lot of travel and logistical preparations to do before then. We will be there for about two weeks for the surgery. Elden will have to wear a helmet for a year after that and we will be making many trips back to TX to see our new neurosurgeon friend.

We have attached a few pics of Elden's Cute Head - these are the mug shots we had to send to TX for the diagnosis (along with the CT scans). Isn't he CUTE!! You can see from the "top" view that his head is growing out in his forehead, and also to one side in the back. His ears are also not placed evenly on the sides if his head. The closure of the sagittal suture is causing this. We think he is fabulously cute just the way he is, but we don't want any potential problems to occur in the future. A hard decision to make for your 3 month old!!!

Thank you for your continued prayers for Elden, our decisions, our financial situation through this, for safe travels, and now for Dr. Jimenez and his team. God is good and He has a plan.

We will try to post as often as we can throughout this process. It is our hope that this site will help to inform friends and family, but might also offer peace and hope to others out there who are or will experience this. Blessings to all. =]