Hello All!

I just got back from seeing Joseph this afternoon and get to type this entry from the children's library at Riley :) Joseph is doing well - although to look at him you can definitely see his body is under a lot of stress. His poor face is pretty swollen due to all the fluid they pumped through him during the surgery! (a surgery which, by the way, mom thinks took closer to 6 1/2 hrs. instead of 5. ) The little man has a million different tubes hooked up to him, but he seems to be taking it all in stride. As for side effects, he has had a fever this morning, but it's gone down a lot this afternoon. The docs also said he has some fluid in his lungs, but hopefully that will resolve itself w/time. All his incision sites seem to be healing well, and the chest x-rays he's had checked out okay.

He's slept pretty much nonstop since the actual surgery, but he does open his eyes every now and then. He managed to wave (or, rather, flop his hand around in the air) when we came in to see him, but he hasn't really been up to talking yet. Considering he's got an epidural on top of lots of pain medications, he may stay pretty lethargic possibly until Friday or Saturday. It's kind of weird to see him so out of it - for those of you know him, he's normally a VERY expressive 5 yr. old!! Mom plans to stay at the hospital with him again tonight before Dad takes over tomorrow.

For the most part we're still in a "wait-and-see" stage, it's all too recent to really tell how his body is adapting and such. He's still got quite awhile to go - they've got some testing scheduled for this Monday and he may be able to be released after that.... as long as there's no leakage. If there is, he may have to stay a few days longer. Until then, God is faithful!

~Kelly