Working Lunch

I'm on lunch break right now up at my office so come on in, pull up a chair, and I'll get you caught up on everything that's been happening since we last talked. There's coffee in the break room if you want something to drink but keep your hands off the leftover Christmas candy. I've already counted it all so I'll know if one piece goes missing.

Your faithfulness in prayer has been rewarded as Benjamin continues to grow stronger each day. I thought about listing all of the countries where people are praying for us, but I soon figured out that it would be much easier to list the countries that I haven't heard from yet. If you have family in Antarctica or Guam, please fill them in on what God has been doing during the last week.

Yesterday afternoon a surgeon came in to visit Ben and perform a Bronchoscopy, which basically means they put a tiny camera down Ben's throat to see what's going on. Originally, they thought Ben had a rare condition called laryngotracheo-esophageal cleft (LTEC), aka improperly formed trachea and esophagus. After looking around Ben's trachea, however, the doctor believes that Ben does not have LTEC but something called a laryngeal cyst.

In keeping with our theme of mixing amazing medical technology with caveman technology, I now present to you the drawing our surgeon made for us after he completed the procedure. After looking at his drawing style, I have determined that he must have attended the same art school that I did. I have added labels to his picture for clarity.


From what the doctor can tell, Ben's trachea and esophagus are formed correctly. There's just a huge cyst blocking almost all of his airway. The cyst was so large that he was not able to see what what the trachea looked like between the cyst and the tracheotomy incision, but he does not believe that there are any other defects further on down past the cyst. This is still a serious condition, but not as bad as the doctor's had originally thought.

The doctor wants Ben to get bigger and stronger before he performs the surgery to remove the cyst so it could be many months before that happens. We are so grateful that it doesn't look like the massive reconstruction surgery that they thought it was going to be. There is a possibility of damage to Ben's vocal cords, but it's also possible that they could be totally unaffected by the cyst.

That leaves one more big unknown for us to pray about. Early tests on Ben's brain function have been encouraging, but it will still be a while before the scans can be done to determine if damage has been done. I'm hopeful that God has healed Ben's mind as well as his body, but we try to wait patiently for God and subject ourselves to his decisions.

For the first time yesterday, Adrienne was able to hold Ben in her hands while the nurses changed his sheets. I just watched in pleased silence as she gave him kisses on his little swollen head. Because the tracheotomy site is healing well, they are able to put Ben on his side for the first time. This should allow some of the fluid to start draining from his head, but for now he looks like a little bulldog as the built up fluid moves into his face. Mom doesn't seem to care though, since they have finally taken the tubes out of his mouth and nose.

All these events have made me think of a story from the book of John. The disciples of Jesus saw a man blind from birth, and they asked Jesus, "Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him." Thank you for being our fellow witnesses as we see the mercy and works of God displayed in our little son.

Do it all for the glory of God,
Whit, Adrienne, and Benjamin