Happy Halloween!

We are enjoying Charlie's first Halloween by handing out candy and watching the Texas game. Pretty quiet, but nice. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween! Here are some pictures:

Charlie in his outfit Aunt Carrie got him:


Where's Charlie?:


There he is!:


Charlie, Jeff and Jack O'Lantern's:


Lauri and Charlie:


Family Portrait:

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to a pumpkin patch down the street at a local church. We took Charlie's pictures there. He slept through the entire thing! This may have been for the best since we could put him anywhere to get a picture.

Ballunar Fest

Yesterday we ventured out to the Ballunar Fest that NASA holds every year. They have a bunch of hot air balloons, food, booths and some entertainment. It was our first official outing with Charlie and I think he did pretty good. He slept through most of it! It got kinda cold in the evening, but he was really warm wrapped up in his blankets. We all wished we had adult sized blankets we could swaddle in too!

Other than that, we have mainly just been hanging out at the house. I'm getting better every day and Charlie is growing so fast! My mom left this morning, but Jeff has the next week and a half off of work so that should give me plenty of time to recouperate and be ready when I'm on my own all day. We might venture out some more this week (mainly to run errands), so hopefully the weather will cooperate. I would also like to take Charlie's picture in a pumpkin patch, so that is on the to do list this week as well. Anyway, here are more pictures. Can anyone tell who Charlie looks like now? Still not sure...

Due Date

Today was my official due date, but Charlie is already 3 weeks old! It's been a crazy 3 weeks, but wouldn't change any of it. He really is a great baby. Very laid back, only cries when he needs a diaper changed or is hungry. He eats really well and I'm very impressed how well he did switching from breast to bottle and back again. Couldn't have asked for anything better. I've been home from the hospital since Saturday afternoon. I've gotten my pain under control with the oral pain meds and not experiencing the nausea and vomiting that I had after my last surgery. I'm hoping that trend will continue. My mom is still here and plans on staying through the weekend. Jeff's parent's left on Monday. All of them were such a big help and we couldn't have done it without them. (Especially the cooking and stocking of our freezer!) Luckily this week we don't have any appointments so we can take it easy and rest at home. We may even venture out at the end of the week to do a little shopping! We'll see though. One day at a time. We have some new pictures of Charlie, which I'll try to put up a little later. Hope everyone has a great day!

Home

I am home. :)

Today might be the day...

I get to go home! My chest tubes were pulled this morning at 9am. I am waiting on a chest xray to see if my lungs look ok for me to go home. My epidural was capped off and now I'm on oral pain meds. This is the test to see if the pain is under control with the oral meds rather than the epidural. The rest of the tubes will be pulled out sporadically during the day till eventually I will have none. Then home for me. I'm getting really sleepy right now, so I think I will try to take a nap. Will update later on...

Day 2 Post Op

Today is Day 2 Post Op and I'm doing really well. My pain is well under control with the epidural (unlike my previous surgeries) and I'm getting up and walking around, doing my breathing exercises and my appetite is slowly coming back. I was not a happy camper when I got to my room and they told me I could only have ice chips till 6:30 the next morning! I had had nothing to eat or drink since midnight on Tuesday and couldn't get anything but ice chips till Wednesday morning! Someone needs to change these rules. That sucked! But alas, I survived. Jeff stayed with me the first night and left around lunch time to go back to the house to help his parents out with Charlie. My mom and my dad hung out with me during the day. My mom spent the night with me last night and she quickly realized that you can't get any sleep in a hospital. (She actually had it pretty good, because the night before was even worse with the interruptions). She got a nap this morning while my dad and Jeff were here. My dad left this morning, so now my mom and Jeff are alternating staying with me. It's kind of a lose/lose situation because you get no sleep in the hospital room but if you go home, you have a baby that wants to eat every 1.5-2 hours! So anyway, my chest tubes still have a slight air leak so those can't come out until the leak is gone and I drain only 300 cc's in a 24 hour period. I'm hoping they will come out tomorrow. Then I will have to get my pain under control with oral pain meds and tolerate those without any nausea/vomiting. I'm hoping for a Sunday discharge date, but we'll see. I miss my baby! I am hoping to get a short visit from him later on, but haven't heard from home to know.

So I guess that's about all. This surgery has been so much better than the previous ones because my epidural worked right the first time. Everything was pretty smooth after that. That's all for now. Will try to update soon!

In Recovery

I just got to see Lauri in the Post-Op Recovery room, and she is looking good. She says the epidural is working much better this time around! She is still tired from the ordeal and all the pain medications, but is doing well enough that they will be moving her to a regular room here at MD Anderson within the hour.

A note on Recovery

I forgot to mention - the Surgeon believes Lauri will remain in the hospital for the usual ~5 days or so. Removing the lower lobe should not effect her recovery time in the hospital. The fact that they worked in the same area as before (repeat surgery) is more of a factor for the extended stay in the hospital.

Out of Surgery

Lauri is out of surgery! We just talked to the Surgeon, and he reports he only found that one tumor - he didn't find anything unexpected. The surgeon removed Lauri's lower lobe in order to obtain "negative margin." He was able to save the upper lobe of Lauri's left lung (i.e. he didn't have to remove the entire left lung). Negative margin is important because it means he got the entire tumor, and didn't leave any cancer cells behind to start new tumors later. A post-op biopsy of the removed mass will be necessary to make sure the margins are negative, but the Surgeon gave Lauri the best chance for success by taking the entire lower lobe.

Lauri has shown remarkable healing from the previous surgeries, regaining very good lung function in the past. The surgeon believes that assuming she continues her good healing, she will not even notice that the lower lobe is gone.

It will take time to heal, but Lauri is headed in the right direction. Here's hoping we don't have to do this again!

In Surgery

Lauri was wheeled into the operating room this morning at 8:00 am. Surgery was scheduled to begin at 8:30. Lauri was in good spirits, all things considered. She was really missing Charlie the most. MD Anderson is the only hospital in the Houston Medical Center that is still allowing children under 12 years of age to visit, so I'm hoping to bring Charlie by to see her later this week.

Yesterday, Lauri and I made a lot of noise about how her epidurals haven't been working all too well for the past three surgeries. The Anesthesia Team got the message, and they brought one of their head Thoracic Anesthesiologists to come work with Lauri. She claims her epidurals "always work", which means this one won't (don't tell Lauri... :) ). Seriously, they will fix her up right this time, and hopefully we'll be out of the hospital soon, not to return for a long time...

Lauri's surgery is supposed to last between 2-3 hours, more towards 3+ hours since the surgeon has to work through scar tissue from the previous surgery. She should be out around lunch time...

Surgery tomorrow

My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. I have to be there at 6am. Bright and early! I think this means that I will be the first case. I'm hoping so, since I can't eat or drink anything after midnight tonight. I think I can handle the eating thing, but no water is going to be hard. Especially since I get up every 2-3 hours to feed Charlie. But I'm glad I will be there first thing. My parents and Jeff's parents have arrived, so we will have the homefront covered and the hospital covered. Jeff will be going back and forth. We met with the surgeon today and everything will be pretty much the same as last time. The tumor did not grow since my last scan a month ago, so that is good news. I'm hoping they can get the epidural in right this time (it made my entire left arm numb right after surgery and fell out on about day 3 with my chest tubes still in. Ouch!) So I've mentioned this to the team so they will not make that mistake again. Jeff will update whenever he gets a chance, so be patient. :) Here's to being cancer free...for the 4th time!

The first week...

We had a pretty busy first week home, hence the no new postings here. We got home on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday, all our family had left. On Monday morning we had an appointment with our pediatrician. Charlie's bilirubin (jaundice level) had been mod/high when we left on Saturday, so we had it checked again Mon. We got a phone call around 3pm saying that his bilirubin level was too high and he needed to be admitted to the hospital to receive phototherapy (lights the babies are put under to get rid of the bilirubin). This was unexpected and not what we wanted to do in our limited time we had together until my surgery, but it needed to be done. So off we went to the hospital. They put him under the lights all night and fortunately his level came down enough that we were able to go home the next afternoon (Tues). On Wed we had an appointment with our OB in Pearland so we used that opportunity to drop by Jeff's grandparents house so they could see their first great-grandchild. We also got to see 4 of Jeff's aunt's while we were there, so it was a big day! Thursday we stayed home and Friday I had appointments at MD Anderson all day, so Jeff stayed home with Charlie while I went to the hospital. We all survived! Saturday we relaxed at home and watched football all day. It was bittersweet since Texas won, but LSU did not. But we had fun dressing Charlie up in his different paraphenalia! He looked pretty cute. We have another appointment with the pedi tomorrow morning and my mom will be coming into town. Tues I have my pre-op appointments at MD Anderson and Jeff's parents and my dad will be coming in to town. Then Wed is my surgery. I should be in the hospital for 5-7 days. Not sure if Charlie will be able to come visit, but I'm hoping he can for at least a little bit. We will see. So anyway, last week was hectic and this coming week is no exception. But it should get better after that. Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes, food and visits. We really appreciate it! Now here are some pictures:

Click here:

Finally Home!

Just a quick post to say that Lauri, Charlie, and I returned home from the hospital at around 4:30pm today. Everybody's doing great! I'm just glad to not be "sleeping" in the hospital. While I know I won't be doing much of it right now at home, the little I get will be SO much better on a real bed. Those contraptions they call guest beds in the hospital are terrible!

Glad to be home!

One Day Old

The family continues to do very well. Charlie has been taking to breastfeeding like a seasoned veteran. He's been very well behaved, and has been resting up after his big day yesterday.

Lauri is feeling good and moving around well. We got to see the Pediatrician today, who reports that Charlie is in good health. He gets a hearing test later tonight. We should be heading home tomorrow.

We added a few more pictures to the online library linked in yesterday's post (below, click on the slideshow). He's so cute!

It's a Boy!

He's here! Charles "Charlie" Robert Mauldin made his debut today at 6:25 pm, October 1, 2009. He is a handsome little man, weighing in at 6 lbs 9 oz, and is 18.5 inches long.

Lauri did an outstanding job getting him to make his grand entrance. Lauri was started on Pitocin at 2:10pm to kick off the contractions that would eventually lead to delivery. At the time, she was a tight 2 cm dialated. The doctor broke her water around 3:15 pm.

By 4:15, the contractions had become intense enough that Lauri chose to get an epidural for the pain. The epidural was recommended for multiple reasons, but the biggest was to allow Lauri to rest a bit before the big pushing later on. The epidural was also going to help her relax from the intense contractions. The epidural was started at 4:45pm (30 min procedure). By the time I returned to the room (5:15pm), Lauri was already at 6-7cm dialated and things were moving very fast! She got the epidural just in time!

By 5:55pm, Lauri was at 10 cm dialated, and began pushing. Charlie moved through really well, and Lauri delivered him into this world at 6:25. What a day!

Mother, Father, and Baby are all resting in the post-partem room here at Clear Lake Regional. We are hoping to get home in time to give Charlie his first glimpse of college football on Saturday. We live in Texas, best to get him started early!!

Baby Status - 3pm

Lauri was started on the drug Pitocin at 2:10pm today. Progress is expected to be slow as she dialates to 4 cm. Then from 4 cm to 10 cm, progress is expected to increase. Still many hours away at this point! Lauri is hanging in there just fine. We'll keep posting as best we can later today with more updates...and hopefully some pictures later tonight!!

Finally in a Room

Lauri and I finally got a room at the Inn this morning around 1:45am. The nurses started her on a drug called Cervadil at 3:30am this morning with the goal of softening and ripening the cervix for labor.

It turned out our OB was also at the hospital last night delivering another baby, so she stopped by around 3:00am to say hello. She returned at 8:30am and decided to remove the Cervadil and go with another drug that basically does the same thing, just quicker. Things are pressing just fine, just a long way to go.

Lauri is doing great. Her greatest obstacle has been lack of sleep so far - no painful contractions yet...

Still aiming to have the baby today, but it may slip to tomorrow due to the late arrival at the hospital.