The Beginning

I am writing this journal as I sit beside Parker's bed at Seton Medical Center in Austin. So many kind and wonderful people from all over the country text and email me all day, everyday, wanting to know about his progress, I thought I might start a blog I can direct people to for information.

I also think it will help me process some of the agony I am going through as I hear the doctor's say things like, "He's not out of the woods, we've got a long road ahead of us," or "This is the worst case of pancreatitis I have seen in ten years," or, "If there weren't so many complications it would be easier to treat and we could better predict an outcome." When they say that it feels like we drew the short straw.

The doctor said that Parker is malnourished because he hasn't had any food since March 8th, so they started him on IV nourishment. Its a big bag that looks like thick milk.They had discussed a feeding tube from his abdomen into his stomach, but once they put the gastric tube up his nose and into his stomach today they decided against that.

It's hard to imagine not having had any food in almost a month, but what little jello, applesauce and juice he could eat since the beginning almost always has come up. So much so that he has developed ulcers in his esophagus from all the stomach acids and bile (just one minor complication that made him anemic and required a bag of liquid iron to be put into his veins). Bile really is green, by the way. Not a pretty shade of green either.

The doctors don't want to say how this will end up, they say it could go either way. I prefer to think positive. No, I prefer to KNOW positive. Hence, the address of this blog: leap of faith 11 14 83 (Parker's birth date).

I will write from the beginning tomorrow, but tonight I have to rest.

I love you Parker.