Surgery results

The surgery went well, actually taking less time than they thought and he immediately came off the ventilator without complications. He will be having his routine ultrasounds today and then will resume eating and will be up to full feeds in a few days. Keep praying! Hopefully we'll be coming home soon!

Teresa

Reminder

Remember, Elijah's surgery is today! Please be praying for him.

Bountiful blessings

Hello everyone! Many of you have heard by now my son is in Arkansas Children's Hospital. He has been there 3 months now and will have a visual impairment. I have created a website with lots of pictures to raise money for him. If you can donate, wonderful! Please include your name and address if you donate so I can thank you! If not, please just go look at the pictures. Especially send it to everyone on your email list. That's what I did! You may not even know me, but please give anyway according to how God leads.

Thank you,
Teresa Ryan

Surgery rescheduled

To update: We are home for a few days because they postponed his surgery until NEXT Tuesday. Keep Praying!!

Teresa

Surgery scheduled

Elijah is doing well, but has continued to spit up. So that he can eat and grow properly, they are going to do surgery to correct this. He will be getting a G tube, a temporary feeding tube that will go directly to his stomach, and had a valve you "plug" into to feed him. In addition, he will have a Nissen fundoplication which will take the top part of his stomach and wrap it around his esophagus so he will not be able to vomit. We will probably be going home about a week after the surgery. The surgery will be done on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. We are still waiting to get a time. Please pray for him during the surgery, however, it is a common surgery with low risk. This will make teaching him to take a bottle quicker and easier and we can do it at home instead of in the hospital. Continue praying for us.

Thank you,
Teresa

Photo!

Here's Elijah, doing much better. Enjoy!

Continued progress

Elijah is taking his bottle better now. He is allowed to bottle feed every other feed and is taking the whole amount. His sucking is much stronger now. Yesterday he spit up after every feed, but today they switched him to Alimentum and he took the whole thing and so far no spit up! His head ultrasound was stable without change. Keep praying we can come home soon. All we are waiting on is him to eat. Nothing else is keeping him here.

On the fund raising home front...We will have a booth at the French Camp May Day festival/Pioneer day where we will be selling special necklaces we made to represent his visual impairment and will be accepting donations. We have faith that God "will supply our need acording to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

To the lady who commented about the CNA certification: Could I have some more info? I am interested in doing that.

Teresa

Back in Little Rock

We have been back in Little Rock since Monday. He is looking great and it is wonderful to see him. He seems to like the visual therepy and appears to be able to see more than doctors originally thought. Most of the info we found is from teachers and parents, so the doctors are not as optimistic as we are. He seems to be able to see me and colors and lights. Some days it is like he can see almost everything. He is still taking his bottle well. He gets a bottle three times a day. When he takes all of it all three times, they will take him up to four times. I get to give it to him twice a day and the nurse gives him the other at 2:00 am.

Please continue to pray for us and Elijah's physical state, and also, we will be able to raise the money to add an addition to our home. We have one bedroom for all three children but now that he has special needs, we need a room just for him so we can homeschool him. We will have to set it up like a school for the blind would with minimal visual stimulation. He cannot share a room because in addition to needing an unstimulating visual environment, he also needs quiet to learn visually. (Pray we will get out of here soon because the hospital is NOT quiet!) Also, there are some environmental concerns in our home such as asbestos and lead paint, that while they are covered, will not remain safe indefinitly. We had intentions of doing these renovations anyway, but Elijah helped move the deadline up a little bit. We have some money to go towards it, but not enough. We are under conviction to do it debt-free, so we are praying that God provides. If you have any suggestions or idea s, let us know. Our email is theweirryans@aol.com. We check it almost daily.

Both of the benefits in our honor raised a lot of money and would like to thank everyone who came out to support us. It is amazing to watch God's people take care of each other and bear one another's burdens.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and may God bless you as much as He has blessed us.

Teresa

Vision impairment information

We have done more research concerning his vision impairment. What Elijah has is cortical visual impairment. His brain does not efficiently process what he sees, however, this does not mean he is completely blind or will be so for the rest of his life. There are therapies that can be done using color and light that can improve the vision he has. It has been described as seeing through swiss cheese, and the swiss cheese moves from day to day. There are tests I can do to see what vision he has and what I can work with. Pray for us as we learn how to help Elijah. Chances are slim he can regain all of his sight, but our God is powerful and He has brought us this far. Also, pray that he will be able to avoid some or all of the neurological problems that often accompany CVI. We know he has esophogeal reflux that is related to it, but often it comes with other problems as well. Thank you everyone for all your prayers so far and keep it up!

Teresa

Update

He is doing great on his feeds, he is taking an hour's worth at a feeding. They are going to try to increase that. The EEG did not show seizure activity in the brain, so they will soon stop the Phenibarb. The bad news... He is probably blind. His eye structures are fine, but the part of the brain that processes what he sees is not working. There is no surgery that can fix it. Please continue praying for us and the challenges we face ahead.

Teresa Ryan