Feeding Tube Issue

Gerald woke up this morning and his feeding tube was not in placed. So, I literally took it off see if he can manage to drink milk in a straw through out the day. Fortunately, he did well drinking fluids through a straw. Then later tonight, he refused to drink milk. His father cleaned up his tube and showed it to him or more accurate to say is that Ralph gave Garald choices . If he want the tube placed in or drink milk. For the first attempt it works. He picked the milk rather than the feeding tube. When the time came to put Gerald in bed, I told Ralph to feed him before bed so that he wont be hungry later and my plans was to wake him up tomorrow morning to give meds and feed him again, but he refused to drink. Therefore, he got the tube back in his nose. It was not a big deal to put the tube back in his nose, but the uncomfortable sensation when it pass through his throat was his complain. He cried a little bit but that was about it. He did well the whole day anyway. Big improvement every day. Thanks to the Almighty Father in heaven.

Rose, inspiring woman with good advise

This was a forwarded email to my husband. I read it and I said it is worth sharing. Have a wonderful day!

On the first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?"

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze.

"Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked.

She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids..."

"No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesme rized listening to thi s "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose."

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

Hypo plastic Left Herat Syndrome

Gerald at two years old

Hi Everybody, Everyone probably wondered why my son have a feeding tube in his nose, and some are afraid to ask. well, I can tell you why... here's the story........... I was five to six months pregnant when my baby in my womb diagnose with the heart defect. I've gone through a lot of test just to figure out what was going on with him . I've been in the hospital almost every week when I was pregnant, and some doctors predicted that he's not gonna make it. I was not happy to heard those kind of news; however, I just lift it all to the Almighty God. My OBGYNE referred me to the the specialist. I met a lot of doctors and specialist before I had the baby. I was also referred to the cardiologist, Neonatologist, and surgeon. March of 2006 after my ECHO cardiogram exam they told me the name of the heart defect and its called HYPOPLASTIC LEFT HEART SYNDROME. I never heard that kind of heart defect before. It means that the left ventricle did not develop properly. And in order for the baby to live he have to have the three stages of surgery or a heart transplant. My husband and I was really worried about our unborn child he even go to the Church with me to pray for him. Before I was due everything were set. I went to the best hospital in town at St. Joseph Hospital here in Phoenix. My angel born in June 6th, 2006 w/c they said the evil number because of 666. He was born th ru CS and put right away in the Neonatal ICU. The next day he was transferred to Pediatric ICU. Seven days later he had his first surgery called Nor wood Procedure. It was a major open heart surgery. After 49 days of hospitalization Gerald came home. We were very excited about him being home. In the hospital they work him about his feeding because he cannot drink the whole 90cc of milk which is just 3 oz of fluid. When he was home before the second surgery, he did very well. He had doctors appointment every week, but he conquers everything that are very susceptible to his immune system. He is on his feeding tube all the time because he can't drink milk by his mouth. After three months of recovery from the first surgery, he was back to the hospital again for his second surgery. He had his second surgery(Glenn procedure) in October 25th, 2006. The surgery itself went well. However, the surgery had complications and put him to stay in the hospital much longer than we expected. He have fluid built in between his chest cavity and the lining of his lungs. He had 5 chest tubes ( one of them he pulled it out by his foot). He didn't recover from that very well , so they did the heart catheterization to see what is the problem in his heart of why creating this problem in his body. Still did not helped him at all. The last procedure that they did is what they called pleural de sis. which means that a surgical procedure to drain fluid from the chest cavity. Gerald went back to ICU five times within 49 days in the hospital. We were blessed that we came home before Christmas of 2006. In this particular event in my life I can say that the healing power of God is really work in saving my son's life. He's still going have one more surgery in about two years. Please help us to pray for him. Right now he is very active and adorable. He have some late developments, but I hope he will catch up pretty soon. The photos above was taken in the hospital while we are waiting for him to bring in the operating room. The surgery lasted 6 hours. Thanks and hope I don't bore your day, and you have a wonderful day.

Neurologist good visit

My son playing with his new toy.

Today, Gerald Jay had a follow up check to Neurologist at Children's Rehabilitative Services (CRS) clinic. It was one of the good visit with the doctor, because we finally got a result from his MRI that took months ago. The doctor was really please to inform us that Gerald has only a slight differences between his left and right hemisphere of his brain compared to the previous diagnosis. I even saw the picture of his brain(aw yaks). He explained to me what went wrong and he assured that he will be alright as he grow up. As he grow up his brain also will get bigger and the slight problem in his brain will be filled and he'll be fine and grow normal. So, that was a good thing:)

Afterwards, we went to Target store and bought him a toy that he can use to write on. Picture above was the evidence:) I hope he can use that for long time and not to get bored:) I hope.

Summer I is finally over

Today was my last day for my summer class. I took Math 142 college mathematics. I thought it was a hard class to take during summer , because it has tons of chapters to finish each week. However, it was an alright class I don't have to take the finals because I have more points than I needed, so that was very exciting. Anyway, life seems work that way.

Poster

A year a ago my reading teacher asked me if they can take a photo of me and my son for a poster in reading department. I said , "yes why not". Gerald was just six months old or maybe 8 months olds I can't really remember the exact date this picture was taken. But anyway, we did and last semester as I was visiting my former teacher in H building at Phoenix College I was so surprised that they already made the posters along with some other posters taken at the same day. I was just there waiting for her in the lobby when I spotted this poster of me and Gerald. It was a while before I took a picture of this because I always forgot my camera. The best thing that they like of this picture is Gerald was holding the book. They encourage student to read books to build up their vocabularies and reading comprehension. as for me...I don't like reading everyday...I am not a reader at all. But I tried :-). I should do more reading everyday.