Home at last!

We are home from San Fran.We got here a little before midnight. Surgery went well, and they got home dilated to a little larger than the width of a pen. Small, but still progress. When he woke up, it was the best so far this time. They had Spongebob waiting on t.v for him and a yummy popsicle he was able to enjoy. They had to poke him about 8 or so times for an IV until again, getting one in the neck, but he was asleep before they gave the IV. One interesting keepsake we walked away with...a penny they found lodged in Brayton's esophagus! Yup, you heard it right! It's really common for children with his defect to get things lodged since the space there is so small. Things that children without this defect would just be able to swallow down, get stuck for some of these children. Brayton is like a little vacuum, trying to eat up everything on the ground, and I thought I was pretty dang good at catching him when he tried to sneak one by me. I missed this one!
It didn't affect him in any way and he could breathe with it just fine but it's still a little mind boggling to me!




His next surgery is next Friday at 9am.

After surgery, since Brayton was in such good spirits, and our friend came along with us and had been at the Family House the majority of the day, we decided to stop at Pier 39 before heading home. We had icecream cones, and looked at the boats, water, different shops, performers, etc. It was sunny & windy and felt good. It was a bummer that Destiny couldnt be there but every time I go to San Fran, it's either a school day and I dont want her to miss so I leave her with her dad or it's his custodial day and she can't go. Im going to upload some pics later from the surgery but right now, I'm ready for bed! Night!

We're here...

We made it to San Fran at about 10:30pm. That trip sure feels a lot longer than 5 hours. I can't believe we're going to be visiting those same roads every week! Our friend rode along with us since she has spring break from high school, and the kids love having her around. She is going to stay with Nikiya while Rick & I take Brayton to surgery in the morning. Kids aren't allowed on the pediatric floors at the hospital any more unless they are the patient, so usually Rick or I have to stay at the Family House with the other kids while the other takes baby to surgery. I'm glad we both get to be there this time.

Brayton's asleep surprigingly. I wasn't sure he would with how much he slept on the way down. I'm glad he's resting, he will have extra strength for surgery in the morning. We are heading home after surgery is over, hopefully it's not too late.

I am beat, so I'm going to hop into bed. Ah, bed. Sorry, now I have the visual in my head and my eyes just don't want to stay open. I will update you all tomorrow if I can. Thank you all so much for thinking of Brayton during his journey.

Onto another chapter

Alot has happened since my last post. Child Welfare, Brayton broke his foot, increased SF trips...pure insanity! My computer is down with a virus, so I'm using a friend's laptop so ignore the typos if I miss them, since I'm not used to the little keys.

We missed two appointments with UCSF due to Nikiya ending up with impetigo and also our car being in the shop with bad brakes and rotos, that ended up costing us $600. San Fran called and gave us a hard time about missing those appointments, and said if we missed anymore, they were calling Child welfare on us. I was irate, and insulted. We have an upcoming appointment this Friday for a dilation for Brayton, and they had told us as long as we made it, they wouldnt call them. They called them anyways and I met with the Child Welfare lady today. I was so nervous but I had nothing to worry about. Im so relieved! San Fran & CWS explained that basically they were brought into this situation to hopefully be able to help with resources in making sure we get Brayton to these surgeries. Although it's in a negative light, they aren't juding or looking at our parenting, which they expressed wasnt even in question. That made me feel a lot better. The case will be closed in a month as long as we are able to make it to all of his appointments. UCSF informed me today though, that we will now be taking Brayton for surgery every week! This is going to really be tight, but we will get through it. We have so many wonderful, supportive people in our lives! Thank you to all of my fellow FC's and all of my other friends who have supported us through everything.I am trying to figure somebody I trust to come to SF and stay with me to watch Nikiya at the Family House so I can admit Brayton to the hospital and stay with him so that we will be there for all of the dilations since they are now so frequent. Rick would have to stay here to work. The only person Im comfortable doing that with is my mom or sister, so we are trying to figure something out. It seems like the only logical thing to do financially but I'm still not sure if that is possible at this point. So, thats the recent scoop on the days of our lives ;)