Saturday Night

Things are looking really good. The nurses have been telling us that he could be able to eat soon. We have to wait until the secretions coming from his G tube are clear for 24 hours and they have been clear today. So hopefully he can eat tomorrow!!! He looks great. Tonight he was awake and looking around for quite a while. He had to have his ostomy bag replaced because it was leaking and he made a big mess all over and the nurse had to change his bedding. So mama and daddy got to hold him for the first time since before surgery. It was great!!!! Thank you all for your prayers. God is really going to puzzle the doctors now!! Keep praying!!! Well it's late and we want to get some good rest tonight. Finally some great news which helps rejuvenate us. Thanks again.

Saturday Evening

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!

We found out this morning when we called the nurse to check how he was doing, that he was starting to poop in his ostomy bag!!!! It had been 24-36 hours after his surgery and he is already working again. The G tube that drains his stomach is showing clear fluid, which is awesome and after 24 hours of clear secretions he can start eating. He was taking to the pacifier like an old pro, so starting to feed should not be a problem. He is still taking some pain meds though, but looks a lot better today then he did yesterday. The whites of his eyes are white, not yellowish. When he was awake he did not show his painful face. And as you can see he looks great. Keep praying. We have not talked to the surgeon yet today, but we have a feeling that he is going to be pretty shocked. The Lord is revealing His glory and power through a little 1 week old baby boy.

I couldn't get all the pics I wanted on this entry, but I will upload them later tonight.

Friday Night

Well it was a slow day, compared to yesterday. Isaac slept most of the day, which is ok since he is post op. He would open his eyes a little bit every once and a while but not for long periods of time. It's good to finally have some answers and some progress toward a solution. Some other good news is that he is weighing in at a hefty 7# 10.7oz. Not bad since he was 7# 14oz when he was born, and then was down to 7# 4oz earlier this week. We are hoping that he will soon be able to start eating mama's milk. The surgeon said that we might be looking at two more weeks in the hospital with him. It just depends on how well he progresses.

Well I think there was a lot more I wanted to say, but I'm so exhausted that I can't remember it all. So, keep praying. I pray that God will blesses all of you who have been so supportive through prayer and keeping up with the blog.

Friday Evening

Well not much has happened today. We did get a call from the nurse this morning at 7:00 saying that they took his breathing tube out and that he was doing fine. When we got up to see him he was sleeping but as soon as we started talking to him he woke up and tried to look at us. He is in some pain from the surgery, so they have given him some pain meds. When he did wake up he had a squinted face like he was in pain, but not too bad and he would cry a little bit, which we have not heard much of so we were grateful to hear him.

Not much time to blog much right now, I will do more when we get home tonight.

Thursday Night

It's 9:30 and my mom, my sister and myself were just up to see Isaac. He is still doing well but as you can see from the pictures below he still has the breathing tube in. He is breathing great on his own, but they want to anesthetic to completely wear off. So it is only for support.

You are probably wondering what you are seeing all over Isaac. The tape across his face is holding in the breathing tube. The red spot just above his diaper is the ostomy. That is actual intestine, the red spot is. It is attached to a bag which is hanging off to the side. The white gauze next to the ostomy is holding in a tube that is draining what the old tube in his mouth was draining.

Right now Isaac is looking at being in the hospital in Tulsa for a least 2 more weeks. It could be that long before his digestive system gets started up. The surgeon was hopeful that it might be sooner since it was further up the intestine, yet he was still concerned with the possibility that the nerves that are there are not working right.

Please keep praying. Pray that the digestive track that has the ganglion cells will work without complication. Pray that Alisha and I will get the rest we need and the rejuvenation we need to make it through each day.

Thursday Night

It's almost 7:00. Again I'm just now getting access to the internet because we are just now getting out of the hospital.

Isaac came out of surgery around 5-5:15. Everything went great. They did not find Ganglion cells in any of the colon. They did not find any until about 20-24 cm up in the small intestine. There is enough left to do a pull through. He has an ostomy, which I can finally tell you what it is, because now I know what it is. What they did was cut the intestine at the transition point and took it out to the abdominal wall and it is sticking out of his belly just a little bit with a bag attached to it which when his system begins to work he will poop into. If all goes well in about a year that will be removed and they will then do the pull through. However, there was something with the nerves that were there that was abnormal, so they will need to keep an eye on that and make sure that the good intestine works well enough on it's own before they will remove the ostomy.

Well we are going to go eat now. Keep praying for Isaac. Pray for his doctors, Dr. Rothenbach (pediatric surgeon) and Dr. Jackson. Thank you to our moms for coming down and sitting with us and special thank you to Aunt Joy for taking off work and watching the girls for us today. Thanks also to her boss for letting her. Thank you to all of you who keep up with the blog and pray for us and Isaac. Most of all Thank you to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His love and blessings and for His hand upon our lives.

Thursday Afternoon

I'm just now able to get on-line, it's 3:10. At about 12 noon, we finally got the results back from the pathologist. Still no ganglion nerve cells so it looks like Hirschsprungs Disease. Surgery was scheduled and he went down at around 1:00. They will be taking biopsies of his colon and on up the intestine track until they find good cells. They will then but in an ostomy at the point where the good cells are. The length of intestine that has no cells will determine what to do next. If it's short enough they will be able to do a pull through once they know that everything else works. If it's too long or too much of the intestine is affected, we will have to research other options, talk to other centers and doctors who have more specialized knowledge, and then see what can be done. We are waiting on word from the surgeon right now.

The surgeon and gastro doctor both told us today that the poop he has been doing does not change anything. They said that some new born babies will leave the hospital with Hirschsprungs Disease because they are pooping but later become constipated and have to come back to the doctor to have it fixed.

Isaac still has the doctors puzzled, and mom and dad going crazy with the emotional roller coaster. Please keep praying.

We are not sure how long the surgery will last it just depends on how many biopsies they have to do.

Wednesday Night

We don't know who was praying little before 6:00 pm CST, but it went through. Not just the prayer, but some poo as well. That's right you are looking at Isaac's dirty diaper. Just this evening Lish and her mom, Carol, were with Isaac while I was purchasing the fine gifts you see below with him. I returned to the hospital a little after 6 and Lish met me at the door saying that he had just pooped. She said that he had been pushing out toots and had been trying to push something out for the last hour and a half after I had left. So, last we knew a doctor had not checked on that but we think we have a huge praise. We don't know yet what exactly it means but we have never be happier to see poop. I told Isaac today that God is going to use him in a mighty way to reveal His glory and this could just be the first example of that. Thank you for all your prayers and as you can see below, they are going through.

Above: Isaac with his new OU shark eating an OSU fish. The nurse on duty did not find it very funny, so I would not be surprised if it turns up missing.

Below: Isaac and his very first monster truck. OU monster truck of course.

Wednesday Evening

It's Wednesday evening almost 5:30. Just a little over an hour ago the surgeon talked to us about the results of the biopsy. At this point we still have no answers. The pathologists want to do more stains or tests on the biopsy before making a definite decision. The test they have run so far were showing no ganglion cells (nerve cells), but again they want to be 100% sure before making a decision.

So now here is what we are looking at. Tomorrow (Thursday), hopefully, around mid morning they will have the tests done that they want to do. If it is Hirschsprungs Disease they will do surgery to determine just how much of the intestinal tract is affected. They will do that by taking biopsies all the way up the track until they find good nerves. If it is a short distance they will then do a pull through and cut out the bad colon. If more is affected they will have to do an ostomy at the point where the good intestines end. Then hopefully in a few months the ostomy can be removed and then a pull through can be done.

If it's not Hirschsprungs Disease they will have to explore with more tests but not surgery. Just doing a surgery for exploratory purposes will delay things further because just opening the abdominal cavity could shut down his digestive track for up to 10 days. So they will most likely have to get other doctors from other centers involved to figure out what is wrong. We don't know if Isaac will have to be transferred to the other centers or if they can just send the test results to them.

Again we hope for news and find that we must wait. Please keep praying! Our God is good! Chris Tomlin has a new song in which he says,

"How can I keep from singing Your praise, how can I ever say enough how amazing
is Your love. How can I keep from shouting Your name, I know I am loved by the
King and it makes my heart want to sing."

We must keep holding on the the Hand of our Father. He is the One who loves us, no matter what, unconditionally.

Wednesday Afternoon

It's Wednesday afternoon. These are a few pictures I took this morning while we were in to see Isaac. He is still going great other then his digestive system. He did have a very small amount of poo in his diaper when we got there today. We are still waiting the results of the biopsy and the surgeon was pushing to get them ASAP. An update on his weight, he is weighing 7# 4 oz now. Just 10 oz less then birth. He is getting nutrients though the PICC line (IV). As you can see in the pictures he was awake for a little while. He woke up just after we got there and started talking to him. He was also doing well at sucking on the pacifier. So we can tell that he wants to eat. Hopefully we have results this afternoon. We only got to see him for a short while this morning because they were doing surgery on another baby and had to close down the unit to visitors. We will be back in as soon as we can. Thanks again for your prayers and support.

Wednesday Morning

Good morning. We talked with Isaac's nurse again this morning and he had a good night. His vital signs are looking good still and he is still on room air doing good.

I realized this morning that I have not mentioned where he is in Tulsa. He is at Saint Francis Hospital in the Eastern Oklahoma Perinatal Center or EOPC.

We are now waiting on results from the biopsy and we will then have more information as to what will happen next. Keep checking in to the blog and I will keep it updated as much as possible. Thanks again for all your prayers.

Tuesday Night

Just a little while ago I talked to Isaac's nurse and she said that he was doing well. He had come out of the anesthetic and was doing well. He had been on a ventilator during the biopsy because of the anesthetic and at 8:30 he was taken off of it and was breathing on his own. His heart rate rose a little and so the doctor gave him a little bit of pain medicine and now he is doing fine.

For those of you who have medical backgounds please forgive my misspellings.

Tuesday afternoon

Well it's Tuesday afternoon and here is what we know right now.

The pediatric surgeon finally did the biopsy. Isaac still had not passed the barium, but they did not want to wait anymore. They did the rectal biopsy this afternoon. He was back by 2:30. The doctor said that he did great and they were able to get an adequate sample. Now we wait for the results which won't be in until sometime Wednesday.

They are now concerned that all three areas on the abdominal cavity, large & small intestines and the stomach, may not be working.

We have no definite answers, but the good news is that they were able to take the next step with the biopsy. Hopefully tomorrow we we have better answers.

Keep praying. The doctors are puzzled by his situation. Pray that God would further puzzle them by correcting what's wrong. Pray that God would protect our family from the ill affects of fatigue, frustration and emotional exhaustion. Pray that we would continue to hold on to the Hand that is reaching out to hold on to us.

Here are some pictures we were able to get today while he was awake.

Here are the updated pics of Isaac. It's Tuesday morning and there is no new news. We will keep this updated as best as possible. Just keep praying.


Hold on son!
This is how we feel. Isaac is holding on to his daddy. We are also holding on to our Daddy! Thank you Lord!!

Well it's very late Monday night, actually early Tuesday morning. We have again returned home hoping to get some better rest. We still do not have any definate answers as to what is causing Isaac's bowl troubles. They have again ruled out what is called a mal-rotation of the intestines, which would have occurred during development in the womb and would also be causing him to be very sick right now. They have also pretty much ruled out marconium ilius which causes marconium plugs, which would have stopped up the intestines. This is good because marconium ilius is a symptom of cistic fibrosis. What is now at the top of their list is what is called Hirschsprung's Disease. This is basically where the nerve cells at the end of the colon are not working or not there at all to make the colon push the poop on out. This can be treated with surgery. They are waiting for Isaac to pass all the barium in his digestive tract before doing a rectal biopsy, which will then tell us if he has Hirschsprung's or not. The barium was used for the upper GI that was performed and is passing slowly out of his system.
Please be praying that this will pass quicker so we can get to the bottom, no pun intended, of all of this. The poor little guy has been poked and stuck all over from top to bottom and in just about every hole. I tried to get some pictures loaded up of him from today(Monday) but was unable to. I will get them on as soon as I can.

Thank you very much for your prayers and please keep praying! Please pray for Isaac to be an example of God's glory with a quick recovery. Please pray for strength for mom and dad. It is begining to take a toll on us emotionally, wanting to be with him, yet knowing that we also have two girls that need us as well. And we just want our baby home.

Please be praying for baby Isaac! He was born healthy and well but was not eating or pooping after 24 hours. He was life flighted down to Tulsa, not for emergency sake but because the crew was able to make it up and back between storms. They are looking for the problem. So far they have eliminated the most serious problem they have talked about, but had not completely ruled out the possibility of surgery. We have already seen the power of many people's prayers because we have been receiving good news from the doctors and nurses. He has started have some small bowl movements on his own and some with enemas. His vital signs are great, he looks great (thanks to his mom) and everything else works fine, he is just having trouble pooping. So please keep him in your prayers and hopefully he can come home soon.

Random Pics of Isaac Mathew

Daddy, Faith and Isaac
Billy Shay (Daddy's boss) and Isaac
Danna Shay (Bartlesville's Extreme Makeover winner and Billy's wife) and Isaac

Here sisters Faith and Grace teach baby Isaac "funny faces!"

This is Mimi Jager and baby Isaac

This is Dawn Marie (our pastor's wife and our adopted mom/grandma) and baby Isaac!

This is Kyle (guitar player/redneck/co-worker/friend) and baby Isaac