Emergency Surgery & Hospital Stay

Many of you know that Easton had a cyst in his brain. We have a great pediatrician that sent Easton to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for a CT scan because his head kept increasing in circumference (at a more than average rate). His CT scan came back positive for fluid in his ventricles. He had to have an MRI which showed he had a cyst in his brain.
CHOP is an amazing hospital and each section of the hospital had beautiful mosaics. This is the mosaic that was outside the PICU.
We had a 5 day stay in the PICU. Here is one of the only times that we could get Easton to smile. He went through so much. He had 2 CT scans, 2 MRIs, 1 neurosurgery, 1 seizure, many blood tests, and 3 intubations.
He did sleep a lot because of the ordeal and all his intubations.
The casts were covering his IVs, so that he did not pull them out.
We tried to keep him entertained with toys, and a Philadelphia radio station had a girl that made rounds singing and playing her guitar. I thought that was such a great idea!
This picture shows how tired & stressed I was for the 5 hospital days, but I included it because we love this picture of Easton.
Easton moves around so much and he constantly pulled out his cords and heart monitors.
He only has a scar that is an inch and a half long. The neurosurgeon cut a hole in his soft spot, then he cut a hole at the top and bottom of his cyst to drain it. Since the cyst is in his brain, they cannot remove it, but we are hoping that the draining worked and that the cyst will not come back.
Here is Easton with his favorite nurse, Melissa. She had two 12 hour shifts with him. We loved her! She took great care of him!
By the last day Easton was ready to go home, as you can see in the picture above.

Easton is such a blessing in our lives and we feel so grateful to our Heavenly Father that his surgery was successful and that he is recovering nicely.

New England

My friend Kelly is from New Hampshire and she wanted to drive home and visit her family, so me and Easton drove with her and her two kids. Also, another family we are friends with met us in New Hampshire and we all enjoyed a week together. Here we are in front of a lighthouse at York Beach, Maine.

It struck me instantly how much bluer the water was here than the other beaches I've seen it the Northeast. The camera doesn't do it justice.

Me, Kelly, Sarah, and our kids.

Another day we went to a beach off a lake in New Hampshire. We kayaked and enjoyed the view! There were many nice homes surrounding the lake.

Here is Easton at his favorite spot in Kelly's house. There was a busy road out front and Easton loved to watch all the cars go by from this window.

We went to this adorable little town in New Hampshire called Portsmouth. It had beautiful historic homes and fun shops and restaurants.

We ate at a hippy type place that had crazy menu items and even crazier decorations!

The food was unique, but really good.

We went to an outdoor play that was right on the water. If you look closely you can see Peter Pan flying through the air.

Here is a beach in Salisbury, Massachusetts. Another beautiful beach! By beach day three Easton was really loving the ocean!

Relaxing on the beach!

Easton was so tan after this trip! A lot more tan than I got.

We had a great trip! Thanks Kelly and the Kanes!