Travis and I took Ryan to Children’s today to see the pediatric surgeon about putting in a cecostomy. I talked about this a few posts back, but for those of you who missed it, here is a quick overview again. Ryan has had a very hard time stooling for quite some time, and it seems to be getting worse even though we’ve been playing around with medications to try to make things easier. The GI doctor thinks because his skeletal muscles are getting weaker that his smooth muscles are following suit which is normal. That simply means the peristalsis in his intestines is not working anymore. So…we are having this simple surgical procedure done. It is like a car wash for the colon where we will flush fluid into the tube every night and as a result it will wash everything out of his colon in a 10-20 minute period. This will give Ryan better quality of life so he doesn’t have pain when trying to stool anymore which happened frequently even when his stools are very soft. It will also allow us to take him off some medications and keep him comfortable.

His surgery will be on Wednesday, July 23rd at Children’s, and he will spend the night. It will be laparoscopic so hopefully everything will go smoothly. I worry every time he goes under general anesthesia because he is very prone to bowel obstructions, but he is in the Lord’s hands and I’m not going to spend my time thinking about the what if’s. Travis and I are both doing just fine because this isn’t major surgery and is being done to improve his quality of life so it’s worth it. I think we both dealt with the fact Ryan is getting weaker and this is just another thing failing him. As I always say, this is our new normal, and the cecostomy will simply be a part of that. I can’t do anything about where we are so I’ll choose to be thankful for everything that is going right and not focus on the negatives.

On a sad note, early this morning I found out one of Brad’s friends died in a car accident late last night. Blake and Brad went to school together since kindergarten but are at different high schools. He isn’t one of Brad’s close friends, but that really doesn’t matter as some of Blake’s best friends are also some of Brad’s best friends. He died in a single vehicle accident and his family and friends need a lot of prayer. I’m certain the days and weeks and months ahead will be very tough. There are no words to make sense of this tragedy, but ultimately there is no choice but to trust God’s divine plan. This has been a really tough reminder to give my kids a hug and make sure we are on good terms before they leave the house. No one knows when it will be the final goodbye here on earth. My heart hurts for this family. Please pray for them as God brings them to mind.

Have a blessed day! Much love to each of you.