Our China Journey began just one year ago. This was the picture that stole our hearts and sent us across the ocean. Elijah ChongLi joined our family on Feb 18, 2008. We returned to America on Feb 28, 2008, and that was when the true adventure began.
Upon our return Brent was laid off from his job after ten years with Gannett. We had prayed for a change and the winds of change did come our way. Here we have Graedy, Elise, and now Elijah(who needs many medical intervention).
Elijah's special need was missing right parietal bone and left sided weakness from a stroke. So as upon our return home the appointments did begin. We began with shots, blood draws, and a consult from a neuro-surgeon and plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital in Denver. Elijah was scheduled for a cranio-plasty on May 16, 2008.
The morning of May 16th came around very quickly. In the o8:30 preop appointment they heard a heart murmur that need to be checked out before 13:00 surgery. So off to Ekg and cardiology, the cardiologist thought that he had a hole in his heart. The echo revealed a healthy heart without holes, so surgery could happen.
Dr McNatt thought the surgery would be 3-4 hours, but hour after hour we waited. Finally after 7 1/2 hours of surgery the surgeon came out. He said that Elijah's skull was not what he expected, and that he had a growing skull fracture and the brain and brain covering had bulged out through the opening in his skull. They took the left parietal bone and shaved it in half. They placed half on the left and half on the right. As they proceeded his skull on the right broke apart so they had to screw it together and use bone cement to cover the large area. They also had to scrape the brain and covering off the bone, so it created a spinal fluid leak. They said the leak would seal up on it's own in the next few days.
Once up on the neurology floor at children's his head was leaking lots of spinal fluid the next day they stapled an opening, while he was awake. The leak was sealed up, and his head started to swell up and he had a seizure. The scariest thing I have ever seen on someone that we love. This changed everything that we thought we knew about Elijah. Was he having seizures in China or was this the first from the surgery? An EEG revealed that since his brain injury he was more prone to seizures than someone without a brain injury. So he is on seizure medicine for six months then he will be evaluated by EEG to see if he needs to continue. He is also anemic and on iron.
June 12, 2008
Tooth Zone-Elijah has five cavities and needs two teeth pulled. The iron is turning his teeth gray. Graedy and Elise check out with zero cavities-yeah!!!!
Finalization of adoption in the courts of America, the paperwork is done!!!!
June 13, 2008-Friday
Brent has an interview. What a day for an interview, but hopefully the job of his dreams. We always wanted to stay connected to China and this is our chance. Sending others to China to teach and take the love of American's to the wonderful people of China. Our story will continue.
2 comments:
Please keep us updated. Sounds like a very exciting and promising job prospect. Wow! You've been through a lot already with Elijah. We still await word about Penny. You can read more on either one of our free blogs.
I just adopted a girl from Kunming who thinks this was her foster brother! I would love to talk to you about the possibility!
Xi Fan would love to talk to Wu Chongli again!!!
Amy Fathman
afathman@charter.net
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