Oh October is my favorite month of the year, however this year it started off on bad terms. It began with my little 6 month old Gideon having a high fever of 103.6 on a Sunday, but with no symptoms. Then the following Thursday evening it got worse and Gideon was very lethargic, not eating, and vomiting into Friday. So to the doctor we go, but returned with the prognosis that he probably just has a stomach bug. Saturday morning symptoms are all the same but this time with blood in his stool so we go back to the doctor. This time around it gets more serious and they send us off to Levine’s Children Hospital for testing. Now folks if you’ve never seen a baby lethargic it’s so pitiful. When you’re used to seeing a smiling, playful child turned to rolling eyes and almost no response to you, it’s heart breaking and very worrisome to say the least. Once we arrived at the hospital they did an ultrasound and found that our little guy had what they call intusseception (the telescoping or folding of the bowels), which is a very serious matter and can lead to the bowel dying and bleeding out.
Now what I hadn’t informed you of yet is that I had a short wedding out of town on Saturday and I felt it was more stress to find a replacement for me. Thankfully I had my second shooter, Angela, on the job! So once I found out about what he had I had to dart and get on the road for the wedding hoping and praying that they could fix it with just an small procedure or that I could return before they would even do a serious procedure. Not the case. We had shot two hours into the wedding coverage and it was exactly 5 minutes before the bride was to walk down the isle that I received the news Gideon was needing surgery! Talk about stress!!! I went to tell my bride about the news and when I found her she was in tears so all I could do was put my camera in front of my face and start shooting, holding back my very own tears. My second shooter and good friend, Angela, motioned for me to leave knowing I only had 1.5-2 hours before my little guy entered the OR room so I had to just walk out of the ceremony. (Now I should inform you that the bride and her family were aware of my son’s situation and they are good friends of the family and completely understood and agreed that family comes first. I don’t just walk out of weddings for no reason!) I grew up across the street from this wonderful family and my mom happens to still live there and was attending the wedding herself. So her and I left together and heading to Charlotte, while Angela stayed to document the wedding. I literally made it to the hospital about 15 minutes before Gideon was wheeled off to surgery. God’s perfect timing!
The lapriscopic surgery was about 2 hours and when the surgeon returned to the waiting room he informed us it was a more difficult procedure than he’d hoped. Apparently Gideon’s intestines were really kinked and one of the worse that the doc had seen. There was one section that he thought he’d have to cut and remove, but he pulled it outside of Gideon’s belly, gave it warmth and time and the blood started pumping back into it and he was able to revive it. A couple tears were found in the bowels, but that was the worst. Praise the Lord it didn’t have to be removed. We had a lot of people praying for that little guy!! We ended up staying in the hospital 3 days to make sure the little man could eat and relieve himself like normal again. He is now 10 days post surgery and doing great!
I just want to personally say thank you again to all those who prayed, sat with us in the surgery waiting room, came to visit, and provided meals. You all touched our family in some wonderful way!
So here are a few images from our hospital stay.
