Hold Fast to the Lord...

"But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now." --Joshua 23:8

October 6, 2008

Mahalo nui loa for continuing to stand in prayer with us for Chance.

It's been a daily walk with Jesus and settling into a routine.

Today, Monday, around 4-5pm time Chance will go into surgery to have a gastric tube placed into his abdomen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeding_tube]. The feeding tube he has been fed by since coming to the hospital needs to be removed (through his nose into his stomach). It is a temporary solution and not meant to be in a patient for extended periods of time.

Chance is continuing to improve! He is still smiling and laughing. He started to track voices with his eyes and move his neck to follow the voices as well. This week they will be ramping up the Physical Therapy, Occupational therapy and Speech Therapy to prepare Chance to be moved to Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific. Chance needs to be able to go through 3 hours a day of PT/OT/ST. Not three hours straight....just throughout the day broken down into smaller segments depending on his progress.

He is trying to communicate with us. He get grunts to let us know when he needs to be changed and when he is uncomfortable. We are starting to pick up on his clues, cues and needs. He started eating a little bit of baby food. Yesterday, he had five whole spoonfuls. He is learning how to eat all over again. Not sure he likes the baby food, he kinda grimaces when he is eating it. Once the feeding tube is out of his nose we hope it will help him to eat better through his mouth. The feeding tubes can be very uncomfortable and slow down his progress with feeding by mouth.

The other day his cousin Seanelle, Tanya and I were in the room with him. He was resting and then woke up and we had him laughing so hard his shoulder was shaking. Chance really likes Selena's music, during physical therapy they played one of her CD's and he was smiling really big! The PT asked him to tap his foot and he was tapping with the music!

Each day there has been a little blessing from the Lord for Chance. Continue to pray for Chance and his family as we settle into a routine and move down the road of progress.

Each of your prayers have meant so much to Chance. The Lord is hearing them and we are being sustained by them daily. You are a blessing to us. Thank you for continuing on this journey with us.

Pray for:

• Today sometime between 4-5pm Chance will be in surgery in have the gastric tube placed.
• His continued healing
• Great success with all the Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy that he is doing.
• Pray for the finances and the medical bills they are mounting
• Wisdom and discernment for Tanya and Randy in all decisions that need to be made for Chance's medical care.
  

Pray for others:

• Maddie's surgery went well and they are flying back to Maui today. They will need to come back to Oahu for a one-day procedure Oct 15, 2008. Please pray that will go smoothly too!
• Michael in his continuing battle with Leukemia at Kaiser Moanalua
  
• Brittany as she is now at St. Francis Hospital
• Samantha for continued progress in healing from her stomach infection
• Pray for all the Doctors, Nurses and staff at Kapiolani Hospital--they have been wonderful.

"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings." -Malachi 4:2