Hearts Beat in the Park

Today we were surrounded by the tight embrace of family, friends, and community at Seeds of Love for Errol's Heart Beats in the Park. Under a bright blue sky, folks were led through a metabolic workout (hubba hubba), yoga, and tai chi.

When Errol arrived (fashionably late) he was given a hero's welcome. It's amazing how much joy one little boy (with one big smile) can bring to so many people, and it's wonderful to see the heart of a community grow so big.

There are more Seeds of Love for Errol events coming up soon.

Here's an interview I conducted with Errol where I asked him how he liked the Hearts Beat in the Park festival.

Expecting the Expected

Great, great, great news today from Dr. Hines: Errol's wound is healing nicely!
With Curveball, we've learned to expect the unexpected (which makes the unexpected actually not unexpected and thus....nevermind)
We've all let out a huge sigh of relief and we finally feel like we can start our lives back again. Which is good since school has started for all three boys, Cary is back baking, and the dogs are chasing the chickens around the back yard.
Here's to expecting the expected.
Time for more salsa dancing.

Soothing Healing

Errol is home and healing. Hooray! 

We decided to celebrate our homecoming with some calm and soothing post-open-heart surgery therapy: salsa dancing (Errol in my arms, not the other way around). We bobbed and weaved our way through he living room with Errol smiling and laughing and Cary and Owen dancing around us. Muevelo! 

Errol's wound seems to be healing and he's feeling better each day. Pretty soon Errol will be more like his old self than he used to be (???) In fact, I think Errol is on the cusp of having more oxygen in his blood and thus more energy than he did before the surgery. Errol 2.0.

We are so happy to have Errol at home and on the dance floor. We try to savor every moment with him.

Headed Home

Errol is headed home (again).

We'll hope his wound heals up quickly.

Wish us luck. 

Wounded Warrior

Errol is still in the hospital and has slept most of the day. He's not comfortable, but his wound has stopped seeping. 

Errol's medical team has concluded that Errol's wound is not infected (hooray), but we still can't explain why Errol's wound reopened instead of healing up properly. The other good news is that Dr. Hines doesn't think that we will have to go back into the operating room to close the wound, but that we can put a VAC on Errol instead.

Life has hurled one medical insult after another at Errol, and he's still the sweetest, happiest person in the universe.

Back in the Hospital

Errol is back in the hospital (this picture is from Errol in the emergency department tonight). His wound has opened up and it's infected. The doctors have put Errol on a two day series of antibiotics and if that doesn't work they will put him on a VAC (wound vacuum device) to knock out the infection. Dr. Hines says that Errol's heart and lungs look good and that he thinks that part of Errol's syndrome must be an inability to fight infections (three surgeries, three infections). We will keep you updated on Errol's progress. 

Climbing Down Mountains & Headed Home

People keep saying that Errol looks better than ever, that he's more active, that he's got more color in his face, that he should pull over and let his dad drive. Keep saying it! We are thrilled at our tough little man's recovery. Now that his blood is more oxygen rich, we hope for more progress ahead.

When mountaineers ascend high peaks and can't get enough oxygen in their blood they suffer from hypoxia which causes 

• headaches, breathlessness, 
• 
  
• fatigue
• 
  
• nausea or vomiting
• 
  
• inability to sleep
• 
  
• swelling of the face, hands
• 
  
• and feet
• 
  
• and general weakness

I feel like Errol's just come down off the highest mountain. Let's see what you can do with all that oxygenated blood, Little Giant!

Happier than ever

It happened tonight! Errol's blood is getting more oxygen than before the operation and Errol is funnier, sweeter, and happier than ever before. How can you be happier than happiest? Just ask Errol.

Homecoming

Only a week and a day since his surgery, Errol is home and healing. Errol’s operation was very successful and has significantly increased (and will continue to increase) the amount of oxygen in his blood. Our tremendous hope is that his more oxygen-saturated blood will give him greater muscle tone and higher cognitive function that might just give him the strength to walk, eat normal food, and perhaps even talk. We don’t really know exactly how high his blood-oxygen level will go and just exactly what it will lead to, but we can hope.

We carried Errol outside into the warm evening air and celebrated his homecoming with sparklers and Roman Candles. A dragonfly alighted on the flowers just beyond us, Cary lit Owen’s sparkler, and the dragonfly spread his wings and flew off into a sky filled with blazing sparks.