10/17 Update

We went to UNC on Wednesday and Finn's levels had dropped to a HGB level of 7.4 so Dr. Gold thought it would be best to go ahead with a transfusion. As you can see, it went well. Nothing else really to report other than Finn is 50% in both Height and Weight, so we know he is at least growing well. Craig is going out of town next week because her dad is getting an award for saving the world, so it should be interesting to have all three alone! I may need a transfusion afterwards as well! Wish me luck.

Beau and Craig

Good news for once!

We are fortunate that last week went very well! We arrived at UNC with the full expectation that Finn would require a transfusion. His body had been on a pretty regular pace of 3 weeks in which he was breaking apart his red blood cells to a point where his hemoglobin levels (6-7) would require a transfusion. We figured his levels would be somewhere in that range. Miraculously they were at 8.6! So no transfusion and we got to go home early. What does that mean?...we have no idea. We are scheduled to go back tomorrow and we will see where he is 4 weeks post transfusion. His color has been a little off the past few days, so if I had to guess, we would need to get a transfusion tomorrow. It is still encouraging to get some good news for once! We will know a whole lot more when we see tomorrows levels. Hopefully a miracle is taking place and his body is starting to correct itself. That's the small chance that we have been praying for all along. As my brother-in-law Dr. Michael always says, "sick children look sick, and Finn just does not look sick!". As you can see from the picture in the post, which was generously taken and given to us by Flashes of Hope at UNC. I promise I will post the results of tomorrow in a timely fashion, sorry for keeping people waiting on updates. Speaking of which here are two more: even though we didn't have the transfusion, we did go ahead with the tubes in his ears last Friday. The procedure went great and Dr. Byers told Craig that a bunch of fluid was released. Also the dates for the honorary Give Thanks for Finn Blood Drive are Nov. 19-20th (Mon & Tues of Thanksgiving). We will send out an email and will post on Facebook the directions on how Greensboro friends and family can participate. As always, thanks for everyone's continued prayers and support!

B&C

Lots going on next week

We had our first trip to Moses Cone last week with a fever and it went very smoothly. Finn had a double ear infection which was causing the fever, but children with a central line have to go to the hospital to have a blood culture done and to get a dose of IV antibiotics. This is to make sure there is not an infection in the line itself, because it would spread to his heart and then throughout the body. Dr. Melissa had called ahead and we were in and out without having to wait around. ER's aren't the most sterile places in the world and you don't want to pick up something worse than what you had when you came in!

Because of the ear infections and the past history with Adelaide and Fletcher (both have tubes), we have decided to go ahead and have tubes put in Finn's ears. That way it will hopefully cut down on the possible future visits to the ER. We were all ready set to have a transfusion in Chapel Hill this Wednesday, so Dr. Byers thought it would be best to do his ears on Friday when his hemoglobin is high. The procedure has to be done at Cone because of his line, but other than that should be pretty standard.

The big kids are looking forward to going Green and Gold Day tomorrow at GDS. Adelaide and I baked a cake for the bake sale, but unfortunately it was eaten before it could get delivered. Things are as normal as they can be with three children that have green stuff flowing from their noses.

We are shooting for having the honorary blood drive the Mon/Tues before Thanksgiving but will keep everyone posted on the details and on next week as it unfolds. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

B&C