So… I haven’t written in awhile. Everything is somewhat the same, somewhat different. I’m still trudging along on the long path called life.

Natina and the Eliana (baby’s name) are doing really well.  Natina’s belly is growing by the day it seems.  Now that the health crisis of the gallbladder and flu are over we are having a delightful pregnancy. New Sono pics go here.

Eliana is extreemly playful!  (She’s my kid, could she be anything less?)  If you push on Natina’s tummy Eliana will push back.  Sometimes Natina and I will be cuddling watching a movie and Eli will start kicking me as if to say, “Move over dad!”

I am looking forward to meeting this new person who is scheduled to be here around July 9th 2009.  She is already a joy in our lives and I am so excited to meet her!

I got a new sax within the past couple of months. It’s a beauty! Selmer Paris Super Action 80 Series II. A local musician here in KC traded me straight up for it. I gave him my Keilwerth and he have me the Selmer. I think I got the better end of the deal.

I would liken the trade to trading in a Camaro (nice car good performer) to a Corvette (much better) and not paying the difference.

I took it to the shop recently to have it fully serviced and cleaned.  (I like the dirty dingy look, but would rather have it be my dirt and dinge.) When the shop owner saw the sax he was fairly astounded that I merely traded for it and didn’t have to pay any extra $.  I felt pretty cool, not going to lie.

Well I think I’m out of stuff to say.  I’ll be back more often.

-T

Natina and I had a sonogram appointment on Friday, and we were able to find out the gender of our baby…

If you haven’t guessed already, IT’S A GIRL!!!

I’m so excited.  The Lord is good and faithful.  She was really active, didn’t seem to even know that just a few weeks ago Mommy had her gallbladder removed.  We were able to get some really good ultrasound pictures.  Here’s the best ones.

Not only did Natina give me something that I’ve wanted for awhile, but she kept it a perfect secret.  I don’t know how she managed to keep the secret from me without blurting it out, but she did.

My present came via UPS and she hid it in the “special place” that I wasn’t allowed to look at.  I should have known by her excitement that the gift was major, but she kept saying, “Now if you don’t like it we can always take it back and exchange it.”  Which made me think that it was something from Target.

We went to Jack Stack for dinner on my Birthday.  And she made me wait untill after the appetizer.  (But that was mainly because we were both starving and she didn’t want me to get food on the new phone.)  So I wasn’t expecting something this cool but I was eager, none the less, to open my present.  (Those of you who have seen me at Christmas know.)  And when I opened it I pretty much geeked out and flailed my arms and looked ridiculous in the middle of the restaurant.  Here I am at a nice restaurant acting like a little kid who got “the present.”  Because I did get the present… The G1!

This thing is sweet!  It’s got pretty much everything (and has a touch screen!).  Pictures, Web Browsing, IM, MMS, SMS, mP3 etc… (Basically an iPhone for half as much money.)  It is run by a Linux based OS called Android (or something, I’m probably butchering it).  The sweet part about that is that it’s an “open” platform which basically means that anybody and write programs for it (equals plethora of free apps) and it also means great compatibility with Windows/Apple/Linux.  This phone is compatible and will work well on all three platforms.  Really cool!  Also it will support a 16gb SDHC micro SD card (which I bought online with b-day money for $55) so as far as capacity goes it’s the same as iPhone.  So I’m stoked!  All the functionality of an iPhone for cheaper and no obligations to Apple (which is nice because, as much as I like apple, they can be the “man” from time to time).

If you can’t tell I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it… (um, wow.)

Later,

-Tom

We got home Thursday night. I haven’t had a chance since then to post something new.

Natina is doing great. Yesterday she decided she didn’t want her pain meds anymore. She says it makes her really drowsy and that if she can tolerate the pain without the meds and be awake she’d rather have that. Also her mobility is going up every day (almost every couple of hours).

The best part of being home thus far is seeing her appetite come back. A week or two before she started vomiting she was not really eating as much as I thought she should have been, and when she did she was really picky and not eating everything. I thought it was kinda weird (obviously it was the gallbladder). But now she’s eating two eggs and two pancakes for breakfast. We had chicken teriyaki for dinner tonight. I added some merlot to the chicken while it was sauteing the chicken and it turned out sooo good!

The great news about the food is that she’s eating a ton and is hungry a lot. great news for the pregnant lady!

Anyway, love you all. Thanks for stopping by and checking up on us!

-Tom

We are getting ready to go home. Dr. Huse (the obstetrician who has been taking care of her this week) has filled out all of Natina’s paper work for her PTO and disability leave for work. It’s amazing that T-Mobile is going to give (or at least consider) giving a part-time employee disability! Great job T-Mobile!

Now we’re waiting for the discharge papers to be written up and we’ll listen to some more fetal-heart-tones. Then we’ll be able to go home! I think they’re going to hook Natina up with some kind of liquid pain reliever, which is great since she has trouble with swallowing pills. Thanks again St. Joe! You guys have been great!

Again thank you all for your prayers and support while we’ve been in the hospital.  We love you all so much and are looking forward to seeing you.  I am so thankful for having friends that lift us up and encourage us so well in times of need.  Bless you!

Love and grace,

-Tom

They brought in the ultra sound this morning.  I got to see it this time!  The baby is doing really good.  It’s had a steady heartbeat of around 160 every time we check. Great news to know that the baby is doing fine and did great with the surgery!  (They checked it immediately after surgery as well, for those of you who were wondering.)

Natina’s eating on her own and getting better gradually.  Food is mostly liquid right now (chicken broth, pudding, water, apple sauce, apple juice) but it’s food and it’s staying down!  She’s moved from “pain” as her response when we ask to “sore.” So she’s definitely getting better pretty quickly.  They’ve also moved her from morphine to another pain killer (I can’t remember the name right now), it lasts longer and I think they’re going to prescribe it for her when we go home.

The doctors and nurses here have been really great.  I’ve been impressed with their nursing staff as well.  Everyone is really nice and caring.  Thanks St. Joe!

Good times (sarcasm implied), but we’re almost done.  It’s so nice to see her getting better finally!  Especially after days of nothing working.

Thanks for taking time to stop by and see how she’s doing!

-Tom

She’s back in our room here at the hospital recovering now from the surgery.  The doctor said the surgery went really smoothly, there were no complications and she did not loose any blood.

I’m pretty impressed by the whole no loss of blood bit.  Any surgery you would expect to loose some blood.  But for there to be no loss of blood is pretty impressive to me.

Keep praying for her though.  She’s recovering from the surgery now and is in quite a bit of pain.  They’re giving her morphine for it.

My favorite part of the whole day has been giving her water, watching the level in the cup go down while she drinks, knowing that it’s going to stay down.  I am so relieved!  We are both very tired as you can imagine.

Thanks again for all of your support throughout this week!

-Tom

Well here’s the big news.  She is having the gallbladder removed today.  She is tentatively scheduled for 2:15pm today but it could be later because her surgery has been added onto the original schedule.  So it could be later in the day depending on how the others go.

For those of you who are dying to know, we did get a second opinion from her OBGYN, and her opinion is the same as the doctors here at St. Joe.  Plus she reassured us of the skill and surgical talent here as well so Natina and I feel really good about the decision.

Please keep praying for us.  We need the continued support and prayer from all of you!  The Facebook comments, texts and emails are really helpful.  Thank you all for being there for us when we’ve needed it!

Please pray blessing over the surgeons as well, keep their hands steady and their mind’s sharp!

The procedure is called Laparoscopy.  This is a minimally invasive surgery that has a very quick recovery time and is the lowest risk surgery from mom and baby.  It will leave three to four very small scars that should heal up really well and may not even be noticeable at all.

Please leave a comment with a prayer or blessing for Natina and I’ll make sure she reads them or at least hears them.

Bless you!

-Tom

This has been an interesting week for me.  But it has been good all at the same time.  Natina’s sleeping while I write this and the room is pretty dark.  That’s kind of been my existence this week.  In the dark.  Waiting, watching, hoping, comforting.

As I reflect on the whole thing I’m amazed at how in the midst of affliction and pain the Lord has been leading my heart.  I’ve missed the prayer room so much.  Before this I had been questioning if it was really what I was called to do, or if I had just convinced myself that it was.  But being away I realize how much worship and intercession are a part of who I am.  Being away from it has been hard.  It makes me realize that being employed to be in the presence of God is a privilege and a glory that not many get to have.  I miss it.  I miss those I run with also.

Truly this momentary light affliction is working in me an eternal weight of glory.  Wow, what a blessing it is to have these songs written on my heart.  I’ve been able to sing them in my heart to myself and be comforted by the word through music.

The Doctor came in and interrupted me.  I’m not sure I can regain the flow…

I’ve tried to be strong for both of us.  I’ve been tired, energetic, spazed out, wiped out, and sometimes a whole mixture of emotions that I don’t know what to do with.  But I’ll keep pressing on.

Bless you and your journey today!

-Tom

Hello all.  Thank you everyone who has called me, texted and emailed concerning Natina’s health.

For those of you who don’t know what’s going on here’s the run down and the most current information.

On Wednesday Natina started vomiting about every hour.  At first we thought it might be the flu since it’s flu season and we were just at Onething with a whole bunch of people.  But by Thursday she had lost about five pounds and was still vomiting consistently every hour.

So we went to the ER to get her some fluids and see what the Dr’s would tell us.  They got her stable with two liters of fluids, checked the baby’s heartbeat to make sure it was okay, and some nausea medicine called Zoflan.  They prescribed some Zoflan for her to take orally and we went home hoping she’d get over the flu or whatever it was.

Friday rolls around and she starts vomiting again.  So we called the OB Dr and asked what they thought.  Their thought was that since the Zoflan was taken orally and she was still vomiting the medicine wasn’t staying in her system long enough to take effect.  So they prescribed a different suppository type nausea med (I can’t remember the name.)

That didn’t work so we went back to the ER and waited… waited some more… then again… and finally we were admitted to the hospital (St. Joseph) for further treatment and observation (and another check on the baby).  At this point everyone thought it was a condition called hyperemesis which is basically fancy speak for vomits every hour… (grrr I knew that already)

So this continues on till today (please note that while she has been in the hospital the vomiting has been once ever four to six hours and she is on an IV with fluids and nutrients so she is feeling much better).  Today (01/04/2009) her lab work has come back and they did an ultrasound to check and make sure the baby was fine.  Natina got to see the baby which was awesome for her, I was getting some much needed sleep at home while this was going on, and they checked out her gall bladder.

Now we’re getting to the culprit.  What they found was that her gall bladder was filled up with “sludge” or really thick bile.  Basically what happens during a pregnancy is the level of cholesterol goes up (this is normal).  However in some women when the level of cholesterol goes up the gall bladder isn’t able to cope with it properly, this is called gall bladder disease.  Here’s more info at WebMD. (Please note Natina doesn’t have a gall stone but does have biliary sludge.)

Now we are trying to treat her based on what we know.  There are three different scenarios that could happen.

1) We are able to get her past this episode and regulate her diet to control how the gall bladder functions until the pregnancy is over.

2) Her symptoms continue over the next couple of days and we remove the gall bladder. (This is most likely.  The second trimester is a good time to do this type of surgery because the uterus is still fairly small and would not be bothered by the laparoscopic surgery.)

3) This is the one we don’t want.  We get her past this episode, and she is fine for awhile.  But then later in the third trimester her gall bladder starts bothering her again and will need to come out.  We don’t want this one because the uterus will be too large for laparoscopic surgery.  This means that they would have to do “open” surgery on her to remove the gall bladder.  At this time there is also elevated risk of miscarriage.

We are hoping and praying for the first scenario.  But the second scenario is the most likely.  I guess there is also a fourth and that would be for her to be completely healed by the Lord.  Ultimately everyone would prefer this one so keep praying!

Bless you all.  Thank you for your prayers and kind words.

-Tom