Surgery Tuesday; Recap and update of a very difficult week+

First off, Mom and I thank everyone for their words and offers of support over the last days.

Loki will undergo surgery on Tuesday to replace his G-tube button. Unfortunately, he is not yet big enough to upgrade to the Mic-Key--an upgrade he will still undergo in a couple months or so. Instead, he is getting the same style of button , only one that was not damaged by a nurse. Yes, this surgery is solely due to someone's negligence. It will take place at UCSF, and require one overnight.

The last ten days or so have been among our most difficult. Mom was nice enough to let me go to a three day camping and music event in southern California. Not long after I left, she got a bad stomach flu. And the next day, Loki was sick and unable to keep anything down. He recovered somewhat after I returned on Monday, but then got worse when I left unexpectedly for a few days soon after (more on that below). We (that is, mainly Mom) greatly slowed his feedings. Instead of 45 minutes, they now last one hour and 45 minutes. Since the feedings occur every three hours, Loki is on the pump the majority of the time. And the feedings were switched to Pedialyte, and then gradually the proportion of milk or formula was increased (or decreased) as Loki improved (or worsened). But in the process, he lost over a pound, and that is noticeable. He is now getting half and half for his feedings.

While I had a good time on my trip, I had a lot on my mind. I was worried about Mom and Loki, and I was worried about picking up germs while camping with thirty thousand people from all over the country. I was careful, and upon returning I kept my distance from Mom and Loki. But on Wednesday, I learned that a couple people whom I saw on my trip had recently (one of them) and currently (the other) had a flu that was likely H1N1. Because of their irresponsibility, I left home for a few days to wait out the incubation period, which the US government reports as probably one to four days but may be up to seven days. Furthermore, I had minor symptoms of something. Although the nurses and doctors and nurses initially said that I should wait out the full seven days, by Friday (Day 5), they said that the benefits of my presence at home (such as cheering up Loki) outweighed the disadvantages--as long as I was careful. Thus, I have been wearing a face mask and sleeping on the couch.

Fortunately, both Mom and I yesterday were able to get our H1N1 immunity shots from the county department of public health. Unfortunately, I was convinced to take the nasal spray, which contains some live virus. I woke up today feeling quite bad, although I don't expect this to last long.

Loki is now crawling quite well. And as Mom predicted, once he was finally able to achieve this goal, much other development would occur. For example, he can now pull himself up to standing, and can stand for quite some time (while holding to something with one hand, of course).

Tomorrow, Loki goes for his evaluation for feeding therapy. Hopefully he will pass (or fail, depending on how you look at it), and our insurance will begin coverage.

Tonight, Mom and our friend Christine (who now lives in our apartment complex) will go out to see some music at the refurbished and beautiful Fox Theater, which happens to be across the street. She deserves the break!

And tomorrow, Oma Heleen leaves to return to the old country. We will certainly miss her!

We don't have recent photos, as I accidentally ran our camera through the laundry. But here are a few leftovers:

A couple weekends ago, Loki went to the forest for first time:


He liked to look up into the canopy as we walked:


Dad and Dude:


Happy Mom and Happy Loki: