I have been waiting for weeks to share this news on our blog, and now we finally have a date on the calendar. Monday, November 23rd (Thanksgiving week), Austin will be having spinal surgery to correct a birth defect that we have recently been made aware of called a
Tethered Cord.
You can click on the words "Tethered Cord" in the preceding sentence to be directed to a website for a description of the condition. Basically, the surgeon has to cut a fatty string that is tying Austin's spinal cord down when it is suppose to be free moving at the bottom. They have to correct this now before it causes him serious problems as he grows. He will be in the hospital for a few days after the surgery and will need to rest for a few weeks after he comes home; however, he should be fine once the surgery is completed. I will post more details as I receive them from the surgeon's office. For now, you can pray for these specific things:
1. For the surgery itself, that the surgeon will be successful and that Austin will recover completely.
2. For Joseph and me, as we make preparations and as Joseph wraps up the semester at Southern.
3. For the pregnancy, that the baby and I will stay healthy through this time.
If you have any questions or would like additional details, feel free to contact me at mrsjgould@hotmail.com.
Austin is growing up so much lately. His vocabulary is very extensive, and he surprises us with some of the things he says. It is pretty entertaining to hear him make up phrases, one of which is "last- morning." (in reference to sometime yesterday)
He is learning the concept of time and constantly tells us, "one second!" especially when he is stalling for bedtime or potty time or anything else that would interrupt his activity at the moment.
As far as the surgery is concerned, Austin seems pretty matter-of-fact about the whole thing. We've explained it to him in simple terms, and we will be meeting with a child life specialist at the children's hospital later this week. They will give all three of us a tour of the pre-op area, an inpatient room, and they will do some medical play with Austin to help him understand what is going to happen before, during and after the surgery.
One thing that Austin is looking forward to is watching TV after the surgery. We told him that he would have to lay flat on his back in the hospital and then he would come home and watch TV. He was pretty excited about the idea of having extra TV time.
