Day 2 - Mason is Doing Great!!

Today in Austin, the sun was shining outside the hospital, and inside, too! Mason was alert and this afternoon they removed the breathing tube. He was hungry and ready to chow down. They only wanted to give him small amounts, and he would get very upset when they took the bottle away from him. He was holding his own bottle, and even smiled and giggled at the red light on his toe!

His doctor checked him over, and said that he is "doing great" and should be moved out of the PICU tomorrow. The little fighter is ready to go - they have to keep tying him down to the bed because all he wants to do is turn over!

Mason's Surgery Today

Mason went through his first surgery with flying colors. It was a long, exhausting day for everyone, as they were to be at the Dell Children's Hospital at 6am, with the surgery to start at 7:30. It took longer than expected to get him ready, since he is so little, it just took a long time to get his lines in and all the IV's going. But they finally got started and made the first incision at 10am.

It was to be a 6-hour procedure, but they were completely finished in 3 hours! Everything went as planned with absolutely no problems. The doctors said that there was pressure starting to build in his little brain, and he has some drainage - but they just kept telling Allie & Justin how well he did and how good he looked. All reports are better than even they expected. An answer to all the prayers, that's for sure!!

They will keep him sedated and keep the breathing tube in for most of the night. Allie & Justin are able to stay close by in a Ronald McDonald house so that they don't have to travel too far and can have a place to rest and shower. Mason is expected to be in the hospital for 7 days. Right now he is in the PICU, and hopefully soon will be moved to a regular room as he recovers.

This picture was taken almost immediately after the surgery. It doesn't look pretty, but the doctors said he really looks great!!!

The latest report we got this evening said that he was still sedated (at 8pm), but they also had to tie him down on the bed because he kept trying to roll over! That little rascal won't let anything keep him down - he's a little fighter.

If there are any updates, I'll post them here when I can. God Bless, and thank you for your prayers and support of Mason, Allie, & Justin.

From, Mason's Aunt Jenny

Merry Christmas!

Hello all!

We send this in hopes that everyone has a wonderful and very Merry Christmas! Sorry that it has been so long since we have sent out any updates or personal emails. Time has simply gotten away from us. We are very blessed to be spending our first Christmas with Mason here at home. Originally we had been told that his first cranial surgery would be on December 16th. Then they called and changed that date to December 30th. Well, we were just informed that they needed to move his surgery again. Luckily this time it was only a day difference. So now officially he will be having his first cranial surgery on Tuesday, Dec. 29th.

While all of this date changing was going on, life has been flying by! Mason is almost 8 months old (will be on Dec. 26th) and is just full of life. He is the happiest baby we have ever seen. He will smile and laugh at everything. He is crawling (army crawling at least) all over the place! One of his favorite past times is chewing on the coffee table. He hasn’t cut any teeth yet, but we hope he does soon so he will stop flooding us out of the house with all the drool! J He is eating solid foods (when it doesn’t come up his nose) and is slowly putting on some weight. He is up to 14lbs 4oz. However his height hasn’t stopped yet. He is now 27 & ¾ inches long! He is definitely going to be a tall, skinny one.

Mason has been to his many specialists over these last few months too. This first surgery will consist of the doctors implanting 4 devices into the seams of his skull and slowly expanding his skull over several weeks. Then they will leave the devices in for about 2 months to allow his bones to grow open and out. After those few months, they will then remove the devices. This is apparently the newest technology in expanding the skull. If this procedure is successful, then Mason may not need to have another cranial surgery until he is 3 or 4 years old. Worst case scenario will be that it is not successful and they will need to repeat the surgery in a year. The orthopedic hand surgeon will be separating his first finger and pinkies on both hands sometime in February. This hand surgery will probably be done at the same time that they remove the devices from his skull. Then they plan on fixing his cleft palette sometime in this coming summer after he turns 1.

We want to also say a huge thank you to everyone for all your prayers and support, both emotional and financial! The benefit we held in November was so successful we were able to raise over $10,000. This has all gone to his medical expenses, keeping us going back and forth to all his appointments, and time off from work. We are so blessed to know that we are so loved by our family, friends, and community! We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year as well. We will keep you posted on Mason’s continued progress!

All our love,
Allison & Justin