We were at the beach for 4 days (see post below) and came back on Monday. Wednesday, Jake was having his 3rd (& hopefully final!!!) surgery at Children's Hospital in Nashville, so we decided to just extend our little vacation and pack in as much fun for Jake as we could. When we were going to his annual checkup in Nashville this summer, we passed through Huntsville and saw the rocket they have at the welcome center from the interstate. Jake was so excited to see the rocket once we found out Jake's surgery would be in September, we decided for our next trip to Nashville, let's stop by the Rocket & Space Museum. So we headed to Nashville on Tuesday, so we could stop by the museum on our way.
Thankfully, because we are members of the McWane Center, our admission to the museum was free. If not, it would have cost $70 for the 3 of us to go. Jake had a great time, but he didn't have $70 worth of fun. There were a lot of things that were over his head and he wasn't interested in, but for it to be free, it was totally worth it and there was plenty that Jake was super excited about.
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| Token family vacation picture outside museum |
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| Jake insisted I take his picture with this |
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| Catching something?? in the black hole |
What was Jake's favorite part? An iPad station that basically had a knockoff of Angry Birds except they used rockets & planets. He would have stayed there all day playing it.
We spent a few hours at the museum and then headed on up to Nashville. We took Jake to see Despicable Me 2 (which he loved!) and then let him pick out a toy for the next day. It's always fun to be at the hospital bright & early!
I cannot say enough great things about the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville. That is the hospital Jake's surgeon is based out of, and when we were living in Chattanooga, he was the closest specialist. He has been Jake's specialist since he was born. When we moved to Birmingham, Birmingham has a brand new Children's Hospital which I'm sure is amazing and of course is much much closer. But after talking with our pediatrician, others and just listening to our gut, we knew that we would never want to switch from Dr. Adams. He has treated Jake since he was born & did his prior 2 surgeries. It is worth the drive for us. Everyone at Children's is so great. From the person checking you in, to the nurses, doctors, anesthesiologist and all around, we've had such a wonderful experience at Vanderbilt. As always, when we are there, it is scary. But you look around that waiting room and see kids who are facing surgeries the rest of their lives or they are having surgery just to prolong their lives. Surgeries for them that are life or death. When you sit in a waiting room for 5 hours, you can't help but ease drop to pass time. There were 2 groups there each wearing matching t-shirts to support a child that I assume was having surgery that day too. I figured if you have shirts made, you are facing something very serious. I made a mental note of the children's names and I've prayed everyday since for them, their parents, their families, and their doctors. Thankfully, our surgery is not life or death. We didn't have to spend the night in the hospital and we are so near closing this chapter that started when I was 28 weeks pregnant with Jake. But there are so many children that have spent more nights in a hospital than their home, this is life or death for them, what their parents would give for just one normal day without worry. Please pray for them. Please pray for their families, their doctors and most of all for these children and their little bodies that shouldn't have to go through so much at such a young age. I pray that they feel the Lord's peace, His comfort and His love.
We are at home now, Jake is recovering like a champ and the hardest thing is just trying to convince a 4-year-old to rest and take it easy. They had warned us that the all the medication would probably make Jake drowsy & sleep a lot. Um, no. It did the opposite. It made him so wired, we finally on day 3, cut some of his dosages in half. That has helped, but we'll all be ready for things to just be back to normal.
Our Savior has carried us through this journey the last five years, and I give Him all of the glory.
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