Will can crawl !

Will is mobile! I thought I'd share with you a short video capture of Will's first few forward movements. He is now very mobile and is crawling all over the place. Everything now has to be moved out of reach. Gran was very excited as she is visiting us in Hong Kong, and has witnessed a first for one of our children for the first time.

A trip to the Philippines

A while between posts thanks to a continued strenuous travel schedule. Combining work travel with ICM travel can be a bit of a challenge. Anyway, I thought you might all be interested in one of my recent trips to the Philippines working with ICM. David Sutherland (Chair of the ICM board and a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley) and I travelled to the Philippines to meet with a variety of people in a variety of places. We arrived in Manila on Thursday afternoon, and spent the evening meeting with the ICM executive team in the Philippines. It is always an interesting collision of cultures when people used to working in Investment Banks work with those serving the poor in the slums. Generally always a positive learning experience for us (in many ways), and this meeting was no exception. We were spending time before our budget meetings (coming shortley) discussing the vision for the future. How we continue to improve our programs, what things we do well, what things need to change. So many ideas, but so few that we can practically implement. On the Friday morning we met with Dylan Wilk from another NGO in the Philippines called Gawad Kalinga (GK) specialising in slum re-building. If you have time, checkout their website: http://www.gawadkalinga.org/ We were meeting with Dylan as we are doing our best to strike a partnership between ICM and GK. This partnership has great potential, but comes with great challenges. For example, GK is an organisation stemming from the Catholic organisation "Couples for Christ". From my experience a wonderful Christian group. Unfortunately co-operation between protestants (such as the ICM team) and Catholics in the Philippines can be difficult (to say the least). We believe the meeting was one further step forward in this reconciliation, and in the eventual partnership we hope to form. We are looking to completely re-build one of the worst slums in the Philippines. The slum is in Bacolod City (Google Earth directions - "Bacolod" lat=10.674907, lon=122.951934) and is across the road from the original home of ICM. If you scroll in on google earth you can see the many slum dwellings. After this meeting I met with a man who was suggested as a good contact in relation to our potential move to the Philippines. He currently sells helicopters across the Philippines, and has opened a call centre and is in the process of opening a McDonalds in Dumaguete (the most likely city we would move to). This was a very encouraging meeting for many reasons. Not the least of which was that we got some comfort that if we moved, life for the kids wouldn't be too bad as there are a number of quite good schools in that city. It was also very interesting to me as I have been considering opening a small IT development centre to provide a level of income while we live there. He was very interested in a possible partnership - so there is potential ! In the afternoon on the Friday we met with a fabulous woman, Ruth Calinta, who runs a micro-lending organisation called "the Centre for Community Transformation" (CCT). Check out their website if you're interested http://cct.org.ph/. Again the purpose of this meeting is to organise a partnership to strengthen the work of both organisations. CCT specialises in micro-loans to what are considered "the entrepenerial poor", however have rarely tried to deal with the "ultra poor". ICM deals almost entirely with the ultra poor. The ICM program selects the poorest 25 families from a community. These families join the "feeding program". This program aims to provide food and eduction (spiritual and health) for a period of 6 months. We see great change in these people. They come into the program without hope, and finish the program with hope. It is at this point that we desire to give these people opportunity to join the CCT program. Given the number of people we reach each year, we (and CCT) are very excited about the potential of this program. On the Saturday we flew down to General Santos city in Mindanao. Our goal was to meet with local government who had been assisting us with various ventures in that city. In particular we have recently opened a computer training school aimed at teaching a well recognised qualification to homeless "street kids". The mayor of General Santos was kind enough to meet with us and we better still, we had some outstanding meetings for the majority of the day with the head of the local Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). We were very encouraged by the openess of the DSWD to work with us - in particular in relation to the schools we plan to open in that area. Then on Sunday we flew from General Santos (missing out on bombings and racial troubles) to Bacolod City. We went to a local church, met with a number of the elders and then met with a local businessman (Bob) who is very involved in GK. We talked at great length about how to move the slum reconstruction program ahead. Initially, the government had committed 1 hectare of land for this purpose (which was a start - but not enough). Recently, out of nowhere, the government granted another 5 hectares for this project. Very exciting. Bob was a genuinely brilliant man, and we could see why this program was moving forward. Bob then asked us to come to dinner on the following night with the Mayor of Bacolod. While this was a short meeting, it was helpful for the foreigners (us) to demonstrate our intent and commitment to the mayor in the hope of return commitment. Its coming up to election time there and so commitments are coming thick and fast. Finally, on Monday we drove for several hours into the mountains for the formal opening of the Don Salvador Benedicto (DSB) Integrated Farming School. This is a venture targeting the rural poor with the hope of educating them to better utilise the land they have access to. The vice mayor of DSB attended the ceremony, as did many of the local town leaders (referred to as Barangay Captains). This was great as we have had problems with some of these people in the past, so a showing of support was helpful. Tuesday, we flew back to Hong Kong and went directly to work. A well deserved rest. Anyway, I thought I'd log this on the blog as it was a very exciting trip for me. Many great hopes being built of the partnerships we can achieve and therefore the help we can give to the poor. God Bless Harry

Short Update - Subscription

All, just a short admin update. Ignore the stuff about weblogs in the previous post. I have gone 1 better. I've added a "subscribe" function to the left side of the blog. If you want to receive updates about any time we've updated the site, rather than checking on-line, then feel free to do so. Just type in your email address and press the subscribe button. Hope that helps. (btw, has anyone worked out what a FOE Christmas Message is yet?) Harry

The last few months in the lives of the Turners in HK

Long time since we've updated the blog. Sorry, a bit slack. Much has happened in the mean time, almost all of it related to our work with International Care Ministries. Before getting too far into the post, just a small administrative note. I've added the site to Weblogs (www.weblogs.com). This means that you can subscribe to a service that lets you know when we've update the blog. Saves suffering from the McCarthy fate of logging in regularly in the hope that we've updated. Ok, in order of events: 1. Julie and I (and others) prepared an annual report for International Care Ministries (ICM). To be honest quite a challenging effort. Coordinating information from across both HK and the Philippines can be quite difficult. Also quite a challenge to best describe the programs, showing their underlying Christian motive, but without being off-putting to our non-Christian supporters. The PDF is too large to post here, but I'll get it on a site, and add a link here in the future. We were trying to get this done in time for the annual fund raising banquet (on the 20th November). We got it out with time to spare (about 8 minutes, but that's not important). 2. Julie spent a very substantial amount of time and effort helping to coordinate ICM's annual fund raising banquet on the 20th November. This was a monumental amount of work for all involved (fortunately not me). It was a fabulous evening, and we raised over HKD $4M! Amazing generosity from the people of Hong Kong. While this helped to solve much of our annual fund raising requirements, it has also brought abou some new challenges. We received funding to support over 20 new Special Medical Funds (seriously increasing the scale of this part of the ministry) and to support a mind blowing 30 new schools (we had only 5 prior to the banquet). This is a great blessing of course and a great challenge. 3. A mission trip to Dumaguete, Negros Island, Philippines. 4 families (Turners, Gardners and DeGroots from Hong Kong and the Hayeses from Australia) packed up and left for the Philippines on the 15th December. The plan was to run a 4 day kids camp, targeted toward the children from the Dumaguete Childrens Shelter, the children of some of the ICM staff, and the children of some of the slum church pastors. This was the first such program we had run, and as such was a pilot program. In future, we will target kids of families who are recipients of the ICM programs. This trip was truly amazing. It was a great experience for all of us. We couldn't have imagined before going how much God would bless us on this trip. Working with children with so much energy and enthusiasm and absolutely no inhibitions to having fun was a great experience. There are many stories from this camp, truly too many to post here. Instead, I'll just add a few photos and a couple of little stories. The kids arriving at the camp in the ICM jeepney. The campsite was fabulous, a real blessing for the children who spend most of their time in a slum environment. Each morning we kicked off with a time of worship. The kids just loved it. Their energy and enthusiasm was amazing - a great inspiration. We were teaching some Colin Buchanan worship songs. They learnt them in about 3 seconds and never looked back. Dumaguete has now been Colinised !. Cleo and her friend Olivia (Livvy) dressed as shephards ready for the Nativity play. Jack and his Mark (from the ICM Children's shelter). This was the first time most (if not all) these kids had their faces painted. The kids in the orphange convincing Jack to take one of their puppies home (nb. they did manage to convince him - very easily - but weren't quite so successful with Dad).

Kids dressed as sheep for the Nativity play. These guys were great. They "baaadddd" loudly all through the play (narrative included).

We dressed up the kids in fancy outfits and took photos of them. As a craft activity, we then decorated picture frames that the pictures ended up in. The overall message of this activity was they God had made each one of them special and that he loved them.

I could go on and on. Perhaps some other pictures later, or even a video if I can get it sorted.

Have fun, have a great new year, hope you all had a merry christmas, etc.

Harry & the rest of the Turner family.

A big weekend in HK (and neighbouring countries) Part I

All, Attached is news (and some photo's and video's) from the HK Turner household. Its been a pretty big week all round. 1. We've moved house. Our new address is now 17A, Government Quarters, 122 Pokfulam Rd, Pokfulam, HK. Phone numbers, and other details stay the same. Jules pretty much managed this on Monday / Tuesday. 2. On Monday, one of my largest projects of the year went live (i.e. we now use a new computer system to trade on the stock exchange in Hong Kong). Quite an achievement actually, but couldn't have been more poorly timed. 3. On Wednesday, I flew to Manila (again). I met with some people in Manila on Thursday then flew to Bacolod (where one of ICM's main operations is). On Friday I visited a new training centre we have built to help provide people with a livelihood in a place called Don Salvador Benidicto (DSB for short) - can't tell there was an occupation by the Spanish for 400 years can we. This was amazing (I've got some photos). 4. I arrived back to Hong Kong this morning, and spent about an hour with Jack teaching him how to ride a bike - which he's now pretty much got the hang of. This new place has a much better area for that, and is much more conducive to him riding around. 5. In the afternoon, Cleo and Jack went in the swimming carnivale at the cricket club. It was their first competitive event. Cleo had to swim across the pool. I've got some great piccies (below). She came second. We were amazed as she was pretty much the smallest in her race. Jack came second in his freestyle race, then won his breastroke race (video included below), then he and I won the "father son" relay. A great day. 6. Tomorrow I head out for Japan. Has Josh left yet? I figured we'd overlap for time, but will struggle to meet up (lack of mobile phone coverage in Japan for his team I suspect will make it next to useless to try). Anyway, enough gab. Here's the piccies and video as promise. Here's Cleo - she was amazing. A couple of piccies required. Here she is ready to race. You can see she is the smallest kid there (in the middle in the red swimmers if you hadn't picked her) Classic dive / horsey. Made a good splash. The eventual winner got a much better start (as did many of the other girls), but Cleo was too quick in the water for most. Here she is nearing the finish line. Touch the wall - pipped at the post. Now for Jack. Here's a video of him winning the 25 metres breastroke. He starts ahead, but the kid next to him has better stroke and catches him (you can see that in the top corner of the video at about half way). Jack fights him off, and wins by a nose. Great race (can tell one Dad who was quite excited).

A big weekend in HK (and neighbouring countries) Part II

Continuing the pictures. Here's Jack's races. On the Blocks And away. Not too bad given he's not really practiced diving. He has a good stoke - long and slow, but generating good pace. After collecting their medals - they're both pretty pleased. - All the kids is quite a handful now. A bit easier with just the 1. Will obviously much bigger, and getting to be a regular baby - rolling over, etc.

A big weekend in HK (and neighbouring countries) Part III

Sorry, this machine won't let me post all the piccies I want to in 1 post. You'll note I've made the pictures smaller in the hope they won't monopolise so much space on the blog. Lucky last pictures. Here's Jack and I swimming in the relay. Woohoo, we won, and here we get the medals. Finally, my personal favourite. Will with Jules. He's had a big afternoon. Sorry again about monopolising the blog with pictures, I know you guys now how to put them on, so lets see them. H

Some final photo's

Harry has pretty much signed off and many people will have stopped checking on Will's progress now that he's home but I thought I'd add a few more photos and a final word. We have really enjoyed Will's first three days at home. He is a typical third child, being dragged from pillar to post having already attended a gymnastic class, gone to the movies, joined us at Care Group (Bible Study), gone out for dinner and then lunch the next day, finally made it to church and laid by the pool. It is so great to have him as part of the family. The kids are proudly showing him off to all and sundry, asking anyone who passes by if they would like to touch their brother. Will has been coping with all of this quite well, he is feeding and sleeping through it all and looking cute to boot. So the photos are: "look Mum, no catheter!!" Happy to say goodbye to Ward K10S at Queen Mary Hospital. They have been marvelous but it's time to move on. Back home with Jack and Cleo, lying on Will's handmade quilted floor play rug - thank you Deanna. Finally, thanks so much to everyone for their prayers, love and support. The old saying goes "a problem shared is a problem halved" and I have to say it feels like you've all taken a portion of our "problem" and we have been left with the smallest amount. Harry and I then gave this remnant to God so really you and He have taken the load for us both. It's been a busy, demanding and tiring 6 weeks but Will's life and your love have been just two of the excellent things to come of it. We've also seen the arrival of Tom, Katie, Toby and Jacob - 5 babies in 6 weeks, stop drinking the water people! I will hopefully get to sending out "birth announcements/thank you cards" but for those who have sent comments anonymously and for those of you whose email I don't have, thank you and please forgive the lack of personal correspondence. Please continue to pray for babies Isaac and Toby as they fight on to be released from ICU to go to their homes. Well, until the next adventure in the Turner 5's lives, good bye and loads of love, Jules.

Home at last

Great news. Will is now home for keeps. And he seems to be sleeping through the night without much problem (or at least he's not waking up loudly enough to wake Dad from his slumber). Its just amazing to remove the hospital routine, and to have a baby that can be stuck in a pram or a car seat and taken places. Jules was able to take the kids to gymanstics (although Will did sleep through it entirely - lazy little fella), and we were both able to go to our care group (Bible study) - Will included. So life is back to normal for us (although of course somewhat different given we've now 3 kids to deal with). We have truly had an amazing experience over the past 6 weeks. A lesson to trust in God, and a lesson that God's plans and our plans may not be in line. Last night at care group we read John 14. In John 14:1 Jesus says "Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God; trust also in me" (Colin Buchanan fans are fogiven for trying to sing this bit). This was said in the leadup to Jesus death (for us) on a cross. The listeners at that time had absolutely no idea how Jesus being captured and crucified could be for good (put yourself in their shoes for a minute) - yet it turned out to be the most amazing sacrifice of all time and the reason we can all have confidence in our salvation. A terrible event being in line with (and in fact totally required for) God's plan. So the lesson, Trust in God; Trust also in Jesus. REGARDLESS of the circumstance. God's plans are much bigger than ours. Sometimes we cannot understand them, but that doesn't make them wrong - that just means we need to trust that God has our best interest in mind. Thankfully God's plan has been to give us Will back. Not sure if there will be any further updates on the blog. Perhaps a few pictures. Now that Will is home, please thank God for his kindness. As you know we have also been asking you to pray for Isaac. Please continue to do this as he has a much longer road to travel than it turned out will did. His site is www.soniaandjong.blogspot.com Further, another very good friend of ours (Esther) is about to have a baby who has CDH - due 5th July. His name will be Toby, and they have also setup a blog. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you prayed for them also. http://baby-toby.blogspot.com Thank you all again for your wonderful support. A fantastic picture to us of what heaven will be like.

His bladder looks to be working well - coming home tomorrow

His bladder seems to be working well. Unfortunately his nappy (daiper for all you Americans) is not. This afternoon I experienced first hand how well his bladder is working. While nursing (not to be confused with breast feeding) him he decided to prove that the Huggies were no match for his stream. Great news (although I perhaps ended up a tad warmer and wetter than I'd hoped to be). Julie suggested its revenge for the fact that I (apparantly) "refuse" to change his nappy. Complete rubbish of course. Its fair to say I ALWAYS get the bad ones - so not really sure where Jules is coming from. We also had an update today from the Doctor on the results of the ultrasound he had on Tuesday. In short, everything looks to be fine. No indication of abnormal distention of the bladder, no indication of problems with the spine etc. There was one slightly concerning result from the ultrasound in that they found some evidence of calcification in the kidneys. They don't seem at all worried about that, and have suggested that he needs a further ultrasound in 2 or 3 months to see how its going. So tomorrow he comes home. I was planning to go with Jules to the hospital for the big day, however, they are yet to make their minds up as to what time they will finish writing the "discharge" report (nothing to do with the stream I'm told). So Jules will get that joy on her own (I will particularly miss the bit where you line up for hours to pay the bill). We are overjoyed with thanks to God for his great blessing to us. It is now becoming something of a blur as to what happened. The concerns and stresses of just a few weeks ago are now completely gone. God is great indeed. Things haven't necessarily gone as planned (and even now I'm feeling just a tad enthusiastic about Will coming home tomorrow - hoping that this time I manage to line up with God's timing), but we have learnt a lot about trusting God - in particular that sometimes (perhaps often) we have to trust that Gods plans for us are better than our own. A hard lesson indeed. More on this tomorrow - all going well, one of our last posts to this blog.

A wee bit of progress

Jules and I both made it to the hospital this afternoon. It was really unbelievable to see will without any wires, tubes, pipes etc. attached to him. Its the first time I've seen that in person, so I was quite pleased. Jules fed him for about 45 minutes. One of the nurses had mistakenly defrosted a bottle of milk for Will, so after the 45 minute feed we decided to see if he'd take any of the bottle as a supplement. He wolfed down an 80ml bottle! Clearly nothing wrong with the appetite. This is the second time he's done this in the last couple of days, so Jules has gone out and bought some formula as a reserve and is planning on calling the Chinese herbal breast feeding person to try to help increase capacity (so to speak). Just as we were leaving the nurse decided to change Will's nappy (thanks to a wopper of a poo that I had politely ignored). She was going to place a little bag on him to catch the wee (test the volume or something). As she opened up the nappy he decided to demonstrate how strong his stream was. Jules and I were both pretty happy to see this as it gave us comfort that its definately getting better. When we asked the nurse whether this constituted a strong stream, she answered that it was ok, but that it turned to a dribble at the end. Hmmm. I couldn't help but say "that's the way it works isn't it?". I wondered if these nurses had in fact ever seen a boy do a wee before. Have they never wondered how those drips get on the toilet floor? I guess they're not going to teach him to shake are they? Anyway, the latest news is that if the stream continues to be ok he will be discharged from hospital on Thursday - 1 day before his initial due date.

Stream or no Stream.... The answer

Julie promised a short post about now to let you know whether or not Will's bladder is now working. The answer? A seamingly healthy stream. Jules turned up to find him off the cathetor, but in a nappy. She asked how they were assessing his stream if he had a nappy on and they told her that there was no need to keep assessing as he had wee'd on one of them while changing the nappy. When can he come home? Too hard. One of those questions that noone in the hospital seems to know the answer to. Praise God 'eh.

Praise God for small mercies

While Will continues his quest to come home, we can praise God for small mercies. Imagine if, while going through these current difficulties, he also had to watch Australia get robbed by a terrible refereeing decision last night in the game against Italy! Anyway, somewhat bleary eyed this morning (and totally disenfranchised by Soccer / Football) I have added the photo's as noted by Julie. She's taking some amazing closeup photo's. Every day a little closer. I might encourage her to stop soon as I'm not sure anyone's interested in a closeup of the small freckle on his left cheek.....

Take 4!

Tomorrow , Tuesday, 6am Hong Kong time, will be the fourth time Will’s catheter will be removed.  We are praying that the past few days of bladder control training has paid off and Will has a strong, steady, straw-coloured stream!  Wanting to be prepared, I asked the nurse what was the next step if he was still ‘dribbling” and she just smiled.  Quizzically I asked again and she told me the doctor thinks that this will work and we won’t need to do anything else.  Although I am not getting my hopes up it is the first time this doctor hasn’t covered all his bases and kept his cards close to his chest (can I use any more metaphors?).  Maybe she wasn’t supposed to let his optimism slip!

I took some lovely photos today. Will’s face is getting chubby, in my opinion, and his ears are also a little fatter.  “Fat ears?” I hear you say.  Fat in that they are no longer at one with his skull.  However, as Harry is not home you will have to wait for the photos and for tomorrow’s good news.  I won’t say bad news as even if we don’t get good news tomorrow there will come a day when we will, it just means waiting a little longer.

I’ll phone Harry at midday tomorrow (after I’ve seen Will) and he will update the blog then.  If you’re a blog addict, as several people have confessed to being, then log on then to find out the “stream report”.  Again, thanks for your prayers, I look forward to the day when we can joke with a teenage Will and tell him half the world was praying for his bladder and his “stream”!

Love Jules.

Dissappointment - the Cathetor is back

Well, fair to say Jules and I are a bit dissappointed this morning. After monitoring Will's "stream" last night, they determined that his bladder pretty much isn't working, and the wee was just leaking out. As a result, they've decided to put the cathetor back in. Their plan is to try to "train" the bladder. They will clamp the cathetor for 2 hours, then release it for an hour, then clamp it, etc. Trying to get the bladder used to filling and contracting etc. This will go until at least Tuesday next week, at which point they'll try to take the Cathetor out again and monitor his progress. If that doesn't work, there is potential that he has damaged his a nerve or his spine or somthing that tells the bladder when to contract and when not to. I pray that this is not the case because I can't get my head around what comes next if that is the case. So for us it's back to tag teaming at the hospital. Julie's back to pumping rather than breast feeding, and the kids are back to missing out on seeing Will again. Things just aren't easy are they. God has his plans for us, and we need to learn to live with them and trust in God's goodness for us.

Some Photo's as promised - No More Wires!!

As Julie promised yesterday, here are some photos of the kids interacting with Will. It has been great to have him home this week. He's back in the hospital, and its a tad weird. We're now constantly behaving as if he's here, trying to be quite in the bedroom, listening for him crying, even stressing over forgetting to give him his medicine. Yesterday at 3pm they took Will's final tube out. The cathetor is now gone. We're finally finished with a wired up baby. The plan was revised slightly yesterday. Will's going to nude it up in the humidy crib while they watch to see "quality of stream". If his wee is a constant dribble, there's probably something wrong with his bladder. If its a decent stream, then his bladder is working. Great fun fo Will, but can't imagine its the best part of a nurses job. I believe that if he has a decent stream, we may get him home sooner rather than later. I'm hopeful (and praying for) today, but who can tell.

Back to Bed 21

I guess I should start by apologizing for the lack of updates this week.  The reason for our tardiness is good though because with Will in the house I am suddenly a mother of three in action and there is no time to be sitting at the computer, or drinking a cup of tea, or sleeping more than two hours at a time, or watching a movie in its entirety!  And I am delighted!!  

 

Today Will has returned to hospital to have his catheter removed, hence I’m back in the saddle and doing my emailing and blog updating.  Will and I dropped Harry off to Jack’s school at 8.30am on our way to the hospital and as I collected Harry at 10.30am he asked if Will was in the car (you can’t see in the car seat from the front seat).  I said “You must be dreaming!” because of course we need to have him assessed by all and sundry and observed for many hours before that would be possible.  It is great that the team are so conscientious, I just need to be more patient!  Would you believe I met another Dr Chan this morning – this time a woman.  She was very helpful and explained all the procedures Will still had to have and why. 

 

What are they?  OK, first he had his temperature taken – not too high, therefore no infection. Second, they collected a urine sample which they will test for bacteria.  Third, they will take some blood to check his kidney function.  Fourth, he will have an injection of antibiotics (super strength on top of his oral Antibiotics) before fifth, Dr Chan (the pediatric surgeon) will remove the catheter.  Then we play the waiting game.  Will’s nappies/diapers will be weighed and assessed against his regular urination ability (which is well charted – even on his home leave stints we had to document it every four hours).  They are keen to know whether he can wee and whether it is dribbling out (that is, with no bladder control) or whether he can allow the bladder to fill and then use the bladder to contract and pass a wee properly.  They will then do the “tap” test (imagine John Cleese in “Fawlty Towers” checking the walls for hollow sounds) to see whether the bladder is empty (sounds hollow) or full (sounds hard).  If Will is fine after 1, 2, 3, x, y, z number of days, he can come home.  If not, further tests will be done, like another contrast or an ultrasound.  Problems could be due to swelling after surgery, dodgy bladder after the blockage in the urethra made it overfill and then leak or burst or something, or debris from the zapping of the valve in the urethra.  All of this info was given to me by Dr Chan (the woman) in less than 3 minutes – fantastic.  I make no comment on the ability of men vs women to pass on vital information!

 

So, that’s about it.  When Harry gets home tonight we will put some pictures of his home leave on the blog.  The kids had a great time with Will, Jack read him books and Cleo sang him songs.  Both were very helpful running and getting me things when I had my hands full.  AND, Jack managed to get out of being held in at recess time (because I hadn’t signed off his homework) by thinking quick and saying it was because I was so busy now Will was home for a few days that I had no time for such things.  His teacher fell for it, and it’s true I did forget but good on Jack for coming up with the excuse!

 

OK, I’m off to be patient, will know more this afternoon so do check in later!  Love Jules.

Please pray for Isaac now

Here is a note from Sonia regarding the time for Isaac's operation. Please pray for him, his operation is coming up in the next half an hour (from when I posted this of course). Don't forget you can always go www.soniaandjong.blogspot.com for updates. Dear all, Just a quick update on the start time of Isaac's surgery. We confirmed that his surgery will start from 9:30 am to 10:00 am Tokyo time tomorrow, which is:-10:30 am to 11:00 am Sydney time- 8:30 am to 9:00 am Hong Kong time- 8:30 pm to 9:00 pm Wednesday Eastern Standard timeYou can also check the time conversion on here - http://www.worldtimeserver.com/time_converter.aspx?f=JP We don't know how long the entire procedure will take but it might take up to 4 or more hours. Also, we have been told that so long as Isaac is stable, we can spend a lot more time with him than usual because its his day of surgery so we might be in NICU for a while and may not be able to update promptly or receive calls while we are in there. But we should be able to post something before we are allowed into NICU for the long visit.Isaac's CRP/infectious score was 0.1 today, which basically equals zero - praise the Lord! However, his eye check up today confirmed that he has Stage 2 ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). Isaac will get another eye check up next week to see if he needs laser surgery for his ROP. Laser surgery is a much, much simpler surgery than the heart surgery Isaac is getting tomorrow so we are not overly worried. But please do pray for his vision and his eyes as well.We have a very early start tomorrow so I will sign off for now. We really appreciate all of your prayers!God bless,Sonia

Home for a week - and then.....

After the successful operation on Friday, Will is at home on his second stint of 'home leave'. The current plan is for him to return to hospital on Friday to have the catheter out, then.... Well our prayer is that he will come straight home. However, at this stage, there may be a yet to be determined period of time while they keep him in on observation to ensure everythings functioning ok before they let him come home for good. We cannot wait. The catheter has been a right pain in the bottom. He pretty much has to stay at home while he has it in, which makes it difficult for Jules. Its also a little stressful always trying to make sure we don't bump it in the wrong way, keep the kids away from it, etc. In one sense it was actually a tad easier when he was in the hospital - however we're very happy to cope with the minor discomforts to have him home. We're still continuing to pray for baby Isaac (and for his parents Sonia and Jong). He is to undergo quite serious surgery on Thursday 22nd June. www.soniaandjong.blogspot.com

Found it

We've just spoken to Dr Chan following Will's surgery. His opening remark to us was "he won't be going home on Monday". Its fair to say that we weren't really sure how to take a comment like that. Anyway, after a little further conversation we determined that Will was in fact ok. The prognosis is that they did indeed find evidence of a valve in the Urethra. They used an electrofied cathetor to burn this evidence away. They also analysed the bladder and found evidence of previous trauma, but no evidence of a hole. Given the nature of the operation, Dr Chan wants to keep Will in hospital for 1 more week with a cathetor in to allow the area repaired to recover. On a little further questioning, it would appear that we may be able to take him home next week sometime for further home leave. In terms of longer term, there may be future problems with things like toilet training given the prior damage to the bladder. Given they are unable to completely cut out the valve, there may also be a future requirement to do further work, dependant on how he goes in the next few months / years. The very good news is that, despite some earlier concerns, Will is able to breathe on his own. No need for a ventilator. So I guess we finally have an answer as to what caused the problem. No idea why a valve developed and when, but at least we know what the problem was, perhaps a little peace of mind. Thank God for his goodness to us in providing such highly skilled Doctors in a very high quality hospital to look after Will. We are now looking forward to a speedy recovery, and a permanant trip home. We're now sitting in the elevator well waiting for Will to come out of recovery. They could do with some chairs as the window sills aren't the most comfortable