Jonathan's Surgery

First, dear friends & family, I want to say thank you for all the kind comments, encouragement, prayers,  and support, especially regarding little Jonathan.  It means so much to us that you would think of us.  We are so blessed to know and associate with so many wonderful people!!

As a matter of update, Jonathan's surgery is tomorrow morning (super early! 6:15am-- first patient of the day, I think).  It is an Eye Muscle (Strabismus) Surgery, which, for those curious, involves stuff like this.  It's a 45-minute outpatient surgery with a one hour recovery (not bad, right?)  As I mentioned before, apparently it's a pretty minor and routine-type of surgery and Jonathan's doctor is very confident it will fix his cross-eyes (Whether he will still need the patch or not, we'll have to wait and see.  His glasses are definitely here to stay).  I must admit, when I look at the list of potential "complications"-- as unlikely as they might be-- as a parent, it's still a bit scary (death??? by anesthesia???).  The part I'm dreading most is when they wheel him away for 45 minutes while they operate.  I've heard it may be harder to see doctors operate on your child, but relinquishing total control and having to put absolute trust into professional hands... that will be hard.  I am grateful, though, we live in a day-and-age where we have such advanced, efficient, and generally low-risk medical treatments available.  Both Dustin and I see this surgery as a blessing, even if we do feel a degree of apprehension (so please do remember our little one in your prayers, if you would... risks are risks either way...  thank you, thank you!!).  It is a blessing as the surgery is meant to improve our sweet son's vision and remove a potential handicap (now and for the future), and, hopefully, will also help him not to feel quite so frustrated with life.

Thank you for your love, interest, support, prayers, and encouragement.  We feel the wonderful effects of your help and strength.  Wish us "luck" tomorrow! ;)  I'll post an update on how it goes ASAP-- little Jonathan with straight eyes! :)

PS: For those sweet, thoughtful people wondering where Benjamin will be or if I'm doing this on my own--- Benjamin will be safe and happy with his preschool friends and enjoying the morning on a field trip to the fire station.  (Thank you SO much ladies, for watching out for him!  It means a LOT!).  Dustin was able to get the WHOLE DAY off (man, I LOVE this rotation!!  If I meet his preceptor, I will hug her), so both of us with be with Jonathan before and after the surgery.  Again, we are so blessed with amazing friends and family and just good people in our path.  We couldn't do it without you! 

Who's Got Glasses, Too?

Benjamin!

Yes, it's true. Both my boys are now four-eyes. :) We took Jonathan in for his follow-up eye-doctor appointment earlier this month. We decided to take Benjamin in, too, just for a precautionary visit (thanks to some encouragement from friends). We didn't expect anything to come of it, but when he did the "routine" eye exam (pictures instead of letters), he didn't do so hot with the smallest pictures. The doctor dialated his eyes for a good look inside, and lo-and-behold, he has pretty bad astigmatism (plus some farsightedness in one eye and nearsightedness in the other. Strange.). The poor kid couldn't see so well and we didn't even know it! He never complained and had no obvious "symptoms"-- he didn't even squint to see things far away. I guess he just figured that's the way the world looked. Soon after the appointment, we got his glasses, and now he knows there's individual leaves on the trees. :) He is very proud of his glasses and, for the most part, loves wearing them. I think he looks incredibly handsome. And I'm so grateful we caught it now! Thanks again to my thoughtful friends for the encouragement and advice. :)

As for Jonathan... the glasses didn't improve his "lazy" eye at all. Which pretty much means he'll need eye-muscle surgery. Apparently, it's not a big deal-- a fairly routine surgery of detaching and re-attaching the eye-muscle-- but for a parent, the word "surgery" is always a bit scary, especially since he will need to be "put under" during it. I'm sure it will be fine... it's scheduled for the end of this month. But, naturally, I am a bit nervous.
Till then, we are trying patching his "good" eye to strengthen the "lazy" eye as much as possible to minimize the surgery. Jonathan is such an amazing kid. He was VERY resistant at first, but eventually learned to trust me that wearing the silly thing was important. Now, he wears it perfectly fine for the half-day he's supposed to. Honestly, it's a little miracle. I'm so proud of him. We have a pre-op appointment the week before the surgery to see if the patch has helped at all--- but so far, it hasn't seemed to help.
Despite all, I'm very grateful things are as good as they are. I'll certainly take vision issues over many other problems. And, again, I'm so grateful we can take essential steps to correcting their vision/eye problems now while they are both so trusting, adaptable, and not at all self-conscious. ;)

Our Month Away

We had an awesome Christmas break with my whole famiy-- and then we stayed for another month. :) Dustin did an Internal Medicine rotation at one of the local hospitals (we are hoping to eventually do Dustin's residency in Missouri) and I got to hang out with my mom and sis 24/7 (with a little bit of Cody and Grampa mixed in there). My mom totally spoiled me and I enjoyed a wonderful break from "life". We plan to go back for a few more rotations and we're excited to be with our family again.

Oh, also, we bought a new SLR camera for Christmas and LOVE it! I was able to spend some quailty time playing around with it over my "break". I'm excited to learn more about my camera and photography (I've always wanted to become a good photographer...). I created a blog so I can organize what I learn and my thoughts on it all, as well as share my pictures.
Here's the link, if you're interested. :) Feedback and advice/suggestions are most appreciated, I must say! ;)

And, here's a montage of our month-- same tip goes for captions. ;)

I'd like to make a quick shout-out to Cody's sweet girlfriend, MaKenna & her mom, Melanie. They visited for a few days while we were there and I'm so glad we got to meet them!

Our Two Cuties

I just think the boys are too cute in their traditional Christmas Eve matching jammies. :)

Have a wonderful week!!

A New Post! Finally. ;)

Christmas is such old news, but still GOOD news! :)

Even 2 months later, Christmastime deserves a post--- Here's to you, our wonderful Whiting family! We are so grateful we could ALL be together during that special time.

PS: Captions pop up when you put the mouse arrow on the slideshow. ;) Then you can know what some of the goofy pictures mean...