~A YEAR AGO ~

A year ago,( tomorrow (March 1st)), this picture was taken early morning,  before Ethan's major surgery. We were on maybe 3 hours of sleep getting ready to take our baby across the street to Riley Hospital so that they could help our son.  We had to put all of our trust into God and the great physicians at Riley Hospital.  I think our shirts said it all, Nathan and I wore "Faith" and Ethan wore "Blessed".  This is how we felt, we needed to have faith for our sweet little blessing. We have been through surgery before  and many procedures with Ethan, but nothing compared to this long 10 hour surgery. When it was all said and done we were waiting for over 14 hours after they took our son back to the operating room. It was one of the hardest days to go through, but we did it, we ALL did it. Ethan was a fighter the entire time. As each hour passed during surgery, Ethan's nurse, would report to us with updates. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. I would cry each time they told me he was doing okay. We had so many thoughts, feelings, and emotions running through us. We said prayer after prayer. I did not want my baby hurting, I did not want the thoughts of something going wrong, I wanted my baby in my arms.

Ethan had an abdominoplasty to help firm up his abdomen to help with his urinary issues. In addition , he had his ureter shortened and re implanted to help with his reflux in his left kidney. Ethan also had his diverticulum removed. After surgery Ethan faced a very hard recovery back in his hospital room. Ethan had to be on oxygen for many days , breathing treatments, and chest CP's every four hours. The treatments were to keep the fluids from settling into Ethan's lungs and turning into pneumonia. Poor Ethan also had to have a NG  tube inserted down his throat to suction out all of the bile that was sitting in his stomach because his intestines were taking along time to "awake".  He began vomiting a little to much so this tube saved him from scary situations.
 If you know Ethan very well, you will know he has a some-what -mild case of Prune Belly Syndrome. Sadly, even the mild cases are not fun.

{The incidence of prune belly syndrome is about 1 in 40,000 births; 95% of cases occur in males. The major prognostic factor is the degree of dilation of the urinary tract; 20% of patients are stillborn, 30% die of renal failure or urosepsis within the first two years of life, and the remaining 50% have varying degrees of urinary pathology. ( information from http://www.prunebelly.org/ }

Two months after Ethan's surgery, we had a huge scare. Ethan completely stopped peeing on his own.  Unfortunately, this slowed down his recovery tremendously. We were at Riley Hospital doing procedure after procedure to help find answers. We did know that at this point their was a possibility Ethan's surgery was unsuccessful. This is when Ethan had to have another surgery where a nephrostomy tube inserted into his left kidney in order to give his ureter and kidney some rest. After a couple days in the hospital we headed home to care for Ethan. Our spare bedroom turned into a medical room from almost 2 months. For those long months we spent our days doing dressing changes and giving Ethan many medications to get him better. The hardest part for Ethan was not being able to be in water. This meant no pool, no bathtub, nothing.
One more issue happened before Ethan would get better. We were just a week away from Ethan's second Birthday. Ethan developed a very scary bacterial infection from the tube.  After treating this infection, Ethan's tube came out.  This is when Ethan's recovery started to head in the right direction. We were so thankful and happy for this, Ethan needed a break.

Since then, other then a few small issues, THANKFULLY, Ethan has been doing so good. He continues to beat all odds, and gets stronger as each day passes by.
Nathan and I thought it would be a good idea to celebrate  Ethan today. It has been a year since his big surgery. The surgery that was extremely  important for Ethan to live a healthier life. We were so scared for this surgery, but very thankful at the same time. They were helping our son. Thank God there are procedures that can help this rare condition!  We celebrated with cupcakes and candles of course!
Our hearts want to explode with LOVE for Ethan. How did we get so lucky? Each day gets better and better with him. Ethan is the most perfect, special, strongest, cutest, this- list -could -go -on- forever, little boy in the entire world.!
 I want to thank our family, doctors, and friends for the constant love and support with everything from the beginning.  We truly are thankful for it all. After a long break, we go back to Riley Hospital  in a couple of weeks. Wish us the best of luck.

Ethan was saying " me number one Mommy and Daddy".