Jensen's cannon

I told you I would talk about this yesterday; and my plan was to post last night, but our power went out. Well, you see his feeding tube in the picture; he was just fed and all of a sudden he belched. Amazingly enough, his stomach contents shot out the tube (cannon) and went 4' high between Wanda and I, over the bed rail, onto the floor! We all jumped, but at least it missed us. Not a drop hit the bed.

Jensen had an echo of his heart yesterday, and they said it all looked good. Both sides of his heart are functioning as expected. He continues to bottle feed well. They did talk about him coming home Friday. More details yet today on that I am sure.

How much does Jensen weigh?

9 pounds and 3 ounces.

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Last evening and the bottle

Hi all, I promised you more detail this morning. Jensen is now in the Cardiac unit at Riley. This unit has people from infants to, as the nurse put it last night "in their 50's". Once you are a patient at Riley, you can always go back no matter how old you are. Anyway, Jensen is in a private room which is very spacious and includes a fold out couch and bath. He has a nurse each shift that has two patients which is not unlike the NICU. What is unlike the NICU is that the NICU has ten patients and at least 5 nurses and other staff all in the same room. So, Jensen doesn't have as much contact with people, as a matter of fact, if he wakes up he might be alone. Jeff has been spending the nights there and Anna the days. Both Jeff and Anna are working; Anna part time in the evenings, Jeff almost full time days. They have been trying to cover Jensen with their presence and now their two and a half year old daughter Sophia has been able to go up too.





Last evening Anna asked us to go up so if he woke up, someone would be there until Jeff arrived. The Cardiac unit is visitor controlled, and an authorized person has to have a code to get in. Wanda and I have been authorized to enter, and have been since the beginning (Riley's policy learned through the years). We know that it is a privilege to be able to help out Jeff and Anna as these are difficult times. Even family and friends while only having the best of intentions, can become trying on the parents in trying to coordinate visits. That is also one of the reasons I write this blog to keep people updated, saving Jeff and Anna time. I also write this to keep your loving prayers focused on Jensen's needs.




Back to last evening. When we got there he was sleeping so we just hung out for awhile. Then the nurse had to do her assessment which woke him up. Then after going back to sleep for a half hour, he woke up for feeding. They started yesterday to give him a bottle for the first time. Just a little bottle with only 25ml of milk in it. Both Wanda and I got to hold him and give it to him. How truly wonderful that was. He got about 15 ml down with minimal effort, and then the rest was given to him in his tube. So that is great that he can suck, swallow and breathe at the same time. That is answer to prayer. Anna got to feed him earlier in the day too.

This is a long enough post for this morning. Later I will write one on "Jensen's Cannon", so check back often! God Bless you all and keep the whole family lifted up in prayer.

Bottle today

Jensen is doing good. He had some milk today in a bottle. Wanda and I spent some time with him this evening, and just got home. I will put up some pictures and more detail tomorrow morning.

It's my birthday, great present.

Yes, it is my birthday, and I am 54 in case you are wondering. Anyway, for the man that has everything, Anna gave me a great present; she texted the picture above! Cool scar...every scar has a story...Jensen's is a good story...no end yet...but glorious already!

Update for prayer

God is good, and I continue to thank him for how far he has brought Jensen. I thank the doctors, nurses, hospital staff and all people who have made a difference in his short life. Our Pastor, Doug, was talking this sunday about John 15 and how we are grafted into the vine. One thing he said was that Jesus is the root stock, and we are the branches, which are the working end of the vine. Without branches, there is no fruit, nor any need for the root for that matter. We are connected to God, and through Him to each other. That's a loose paraphrase of what he said. (You said it better Doug).

None of us are without prayer needs, and that still goes for Jensen too. He has some arrythmias, which are to be expected they say. He is on a beta blocker medicine, which usually calms the nervous system down including the heart contractions. In this case, the doctor said they have found that the drug actually helps develop the beta receptors in the heart, so that in the future, it will do better on it's own. Jensen is getting another scan of his heart of some kind this week, either an echo or an x-ray, I forget which one. He still needs his heart to grow smaller and his body to grow bigger.

I wish I knew and could tell you all the people who read this blog for updates and the number of people and groups that let us know they have been following Jensen and praying for him. All over the country, people have been lifting Jensen up to the Lord. Glory be to Jesus, the one true God.