Happy Halloween!

Owen has had a wonderful Halloween. Since Mommy and Daddy have been Ketchup and Mustard for a long time, they decided to finally complete the meal with a yummy, little Hot dog!

He is by far the cutest hot dog around!

His chubby cheeks were just perfect for his costume!

Couldn't you just eat him up?!

After about 10mins of pictures, Owen was finished!

Best Halloween yet!

Owen is doing great. We have finally transitioned to the cycler and are one step closer to coming home! We've only been on the cycler for a few days so they are trying to work out the kinks as far as how much fluid Owen needs to remove through dialysis per cycling period. We started off with not enough, now a little too much. So hopefully soon we will be just perfect! The doctors are hoping to send us home in a couple of weeks with an 8 hour break per day from dialysis.

We are just so blessed by our sweet boy. Nothing can bring tears to your eyes faster than hearing his sweet voice and watching him smile. He is nothing short of a miracle and we are daily praising God for this gift. We pray that those who know Owen's story will continue to see the Glory of God through his progression. God has been so good to us and Owen is a testament to His great love. Thank you all for your prayers and continued support. We are so grateful for all the encouraging words and know that our time of suffering will be rewarded and we will see the goodness of The Lord in the land of the living!

A Great Weekend!

We had a great weekend up here in Cincy, with Cincinnati Walks for Kids and some very special visitors!

Thanks to all who walked and/or contributed to our walk. It was a great success and we can't wait to take our little man next year!

Team Owen ready to walk!

Our shirts were a big hit!

Owen also had some very special visitors this weekend. Uncle Will finally got to hold our little guy! Will met Owen the day he was born, but has not been able to see him since then.

Owen loved being held by Uncle Will...so much he was snoring!

Owen is doing great with dialysis and has recovered remarkably well from surgery. He is eating well and taking at least half of his feeds by bottle. He is currently up to 110ml on dialysis. Doctors are hoping to get up to 160-180ml before we can go home. At that time he should be on a 12 hour schedule. So when we go home he will only need dialysis at night and we can unhook him during the day! I can't wait to be able to hold Owen and actually walk around with no tubes hanging around!

Continue to pray for Owen's progress. Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support. We still have a long road ahead of us, but The Lord is faithful and we see His blessings each day in the eyes of our sweet boy!

Cincy Walks For Kids!

Hello Team Owen!

If you are planning on walking, the event will be held this Saturday, Oct 16. 

Registration is from 8:30-10 AM, and there is an area specially made for teams to meet up. 

For directions, FAQs, and other stuff, visit: http://giving.cincinnatichildrens.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=973

I do know that every child and infant must also be registered (for free), and that can be done on Saturday as well.

Please e-mail me at Michael.daugherty@uky.edu if you plan on coming so we can have a proper head count.  And you can also call 270-314-5927 (tyler's number) on Saturday if its hard to find us.

Team Owen shirts will be there too if you ordered one!  Hope to see everyone there!

Post-OP update



Resting back in the RCNIC after surgery



Owen did great from his operation, although it was quite a long surgery.   They didn't take him back to the OR until about 5:00 PM ET, and I believe it was after 8:00 before they were finished.   The urologist had good things to say about his surgery, but he did voice concern about an additional valve constriction more distal in the urethra (closer to the opening of the penis.) While this isn't too concerning right now, it may have ramifications to how well Owen can urinate without the aid of a catheter in the future.   He came back to us on the ventilator, which wasn't an easy sight to see.  We had gone 6 weeks since the last surgery, so it had been awhile since Owen had to be put under general anesthesia.   He was ultimately left on the ventilator to help sleep through the initial shock of post-op pain, and to help give us time to restart dialysis again.  He is scheduled to be extubated (ventilator tube removed) sometime this weekend.



An IV was actually started on top of Owen's head! (don't worry its pretty common)



Recap on the procedures:

1) Valve ablation: The PUV (the thing that caused all of this mess to begin with) was finally cut.  While this won't reverse any of the urological tract damage that is already present, it will help lower infection risk and further blockage. I can assure you Owen is happy to finally say goodbye to this particular part of his anatomy.

2)Bilateral Orchiopexy:  Testicles originate in the abdomen and usually spontaneously descend through the inguinal canal into the scotum.  Owen's, as with many premature babies, didn't get a chance to do this in the womb, so this procedure is done to manually move them down. 

3) Bilateral Inguinal Canal closure: The main reason for surgery. The canal had to be closed to prevent any more dialysis fluid from filling up the scrotum (creating whats called a hydrocele). Also if the canal isn't closed, there is a chance that a portion of the small intestine may herniate through the canal, possibly causing an emeregent situation if blood supply is blocked.

Since Owen was such a good patient during the surgery, Tyler and I made Owen's first "Build A Bear" yesterday.  Meet "Brother," the newest addition to our family and medical team:


 

He specializes in interventional radiology, pediatric urology and hugs.

 While this hasn't been an easy few days, we really believe that this is the turning point for Owen's homecoming!  All we have left is to get Owen caught up on his feeds and dialysis before being sent home.  While that will still take about a month or so, we are thankful that the major interventions are behind us leading up to discharge. 

Thanks again for the prayers, and look soon for an update about the Cincy Walk for Kids coming up on Oct. 16.

Surgery is Scheduled

Owen's surgery has been scheduled for THIS Thursday, Oct.7. The surgery will consist of pulling the testicles down into the scrotum and closing the tunnel that has remained open. We will have to back off dialysis for a bit, and go up slowly once we can restart. Hopefully we will be on the home stretch again once we get going!

Please pray for our surgeon. Pray that the Lord is anointing his hands, as well as the nurses accompanying the surgery. As you can imagine, it's very difficult to send your 2 month old son into surgery. This will be his 3rd major operation since birth, on his 2 month birthday.

Pray that Owen will not be in a lot of pain after surgery and will be able to be taken on the ventilator quickly. Please pray that he will not face any complications during surgery and will recover wonderfully!

Although we appreciate all our doctors and nurses, our faith and hope remain in the Lord. He holds all power to heal Owen. We know that the success of this surgery will attributed to the work of the Lord through our doctors.

The surgery is set for 3:30PM, Cincinnati Time.

Thanks for all your prayers, we know the Lord will protect Owen.

A Road Block...

So it looks like we won't be going home October 25 after all. We aren't for sure when we will leave, it will likely be sometime mid November.

The reason why? Surgery.

Yes, Owen must endure yet another surgery.

When Owen was born his testicles had not dropped into his scrotum. (Common for premature boys.) The doctors had hoped that they would descend on their own. Well, they haven't and they're causing some problems.

Basically, there is a tunnel that leads from the abdomen down to the scrotum, in which the testicles show fall down and then the tunnel closes. Well, Owen's testicles are still in his abdomen and the tunnel is still open. Dialysis consists of letting large amounts of fluid flow into the abdomen area, sit a while, and then drain out. This is where our problem is. The fluid keeps going down into his scrotum, causing a lot of swelling and making our dialysis somewhat ineffective.

The urology team does not want to do the surgery until November 5. They would prefer Owen to be a bit bigger and they are also giving him hormones now that could help the testicles drop. If not, then they will go in, pull his testicles down and close the tunnel. Sounds easy, right? Well, as with any surgery there are risks. Risks of infection, damage to the testicles, and of course the fact that Owen will have to be placed on the ventilator again.

We had a meeting today Becca's the kidney doctors are hoping to schedule the surgery a little sooner than November 5.

So ultimately, we don't know when we're going home. What we do know is that right now Owen is doing well and the doctors are working hard to find the best solution to this problem.

Please be in prayer not only for Owen's healing, but for our nurses and doctors here. Pray that God will grant them wisdom in making decisions for Owen and pray that He anoints their hands with His healing touch.

We will keep you updated as we find out more information. Right now we are waiting until Monday to hear back from urology to see if the surgery date has been changed.

We are so thankful for the care Owen is receiving here, but we are even more grateful knowing that he is being held by the Lord's mighty hand!

Question: How much does Owen love baths?

Answer: Not a whole lot...