Landon's Long Day

Saying, I'm ok guys!

Miracle Man

Landon had one LONG day. He was supposed to have a simple surgery Friday at 10am that combined placing a Gastrointestinal Tube (G-tube) his stomach and repairing his Inguinal hernias to help him come home faster. His hernia's needed to be repaired before discharge and he was taking longer than he should to bottle feed. We figured, might as well have him go down just once. Of course like most surgery days his surgery was delayed for a couple of hours. Around 2 in the afternoon we finally took Landon down for his surgery. Jen and I said our prayers with Landon, told him we loved him and went back to the NICU as he went to surgery...well we thought he went. They took him down, intubated him then there was a delay. His surgery then took longer than expected and around 8:45pm the surgeon came to the waiting room looking for "Landon's family." We were having a good conversation with the other families, so answered, "yep, that's us!" But we saw his demeanor and he asked if there was someplace we could talk. First of all surgeons never give any hint about how well the surgery went, until they actually speak the words. I think they actually go to school for how to worry the family after surgery! We went out in the hallway very nervous. He said everything was ok, but he had several complications along the way. Instead of two hernias, they only found 1 and one hydrocele, which was good news. They don't have to operate on hydroceles. However, the hernia he had was more complicated than they thought and it took 2 surgeons, a massive microscope, and over 2 hours to repair just the hernia! Then everytime they filled his belly with air to put his g-tube in, he would desat and they would have to stop and wait for him. The doctor said several times that he had to stop and start. But like always Landon does not do anything the conventional way! Right now he's on the vent - medium settings but is improving bit by bit. They're using the Gtube for meds now and hopefully will start it with feeds on Monday. The surgeons told us that they don't want to see another Pollak baby because they are took much work and never follow the rules. They actually told Brooklyn to not listen to her brothers.

It will probably take Landon a while to recover but since we did both surgeries together he may get home a lot sooner. He is a sweet boy and I can't wait to have him sleep in his own crib, get mad because his little sister wont stop crying, laugh when his older sister is making funny noises, and bond with his brother who is also a little conquering hero in his own right. We are so close to finally be home, our home together. We pray for our little men all the time that they will know how much they are loved by their mom, dad, sister, family and friends who span the whole world. It's hard for us to be with one while the other is alone at another hospital. They are the most brave babies I have every seen and I can only hope that I can met the challenge of being their parents!

God has blessed us, allowing us to witness miracles with these babies! Tuesday the doctors told Nich that after reviewing the neuro-visual test Landon had done and looking at the cranial ultrasound pics, Landon would most likely be blind, deaf and unable to walk. Apparently just outside the ventricles in the brain, lies your pathways to your legs, eyes & ears. His Grade 4 hemorrhage bled over these areas, causing damage to the brain tissue. We were devastated. How were we going to take care of these babies with such difficult needs?! God, we didn't ask for 4, let alone 23 weekers! After we regrouped, gained strength and realized we can do all things through Christ (after all, some days we have no idea how we get up and do this everyday!) we regained our focus. Our family. We vowed no matter how difficult, Landon's our son and he's survived so much, it was our job to help reach his fullest potential, whatever that is. Wednesday I got a text from Nich saying Landon could hear!!! He passed the BEARS hearing test! That's the easy one that all babies are tested on! We though to ourselves, wow we are so lucky to be Landon's parents! I have not personally witnessed so many obvious miracles! Landon's also been looking at things and even went cross eyed the other day looking at his bottle. All the time GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!