My Zack

I started this blog with the intention of sharing not just our homesteading experience but our lives.  Most especially the adventures placed before us.  One of my biggest adventures has been having Zack.  Zack was born with a malformation, some of his parts did not form properly and therefore did not function properly.  Without getting too descriptive I will simply say that he could not do some of his bathroom duties.  He had surgery the day he was born, at ten months old and again at 11 months old.  He continued to have problems taking care of business but while he was in diapers it was manageable.  Toilet training opened a whole new can of worms.  When he was four he woke us up with belly pain early on a Sunday morning.  This belly pain led to emergency surgery and 9 days in the hospital.  He was very sick.  His bowel had a major blockage not due to mismanagement but due to an undiscovered and rare malformation inside.  They removed some of his intestine and discovered that his left kidney had failed.  Eight weeks later he had another surgery to remove the dead kidney.  Eight weeks later another surgery was necessary to protect the remaining kidney.  Then, a few months later, another surgery provided him with the opportunity to toilet train fully.  He was five years old.

(Zack after one of the 2008 surgeries)

During that time we were so often at the doctors in Dallas, which is a two hour drive for us, that I actually toyed with the idea of moving there but never very seriously.  Gradually the appointments got further and further apart until today when the doctor said come back in two years.  Two years!!!!!  Praise God!!!  Granted this is just one of his doctors.  He has three specialists he has been seeing regularly as well as his pediatrician and the occasional visit to the allergist.  But this doctor, today's doctor, was the doctor who dealt with most of the problems and surgeries in 2008.  This doctor has invested the most in him.  Her name is Linda Baker and she is wonderful!

I would like to take a moment to thank Dr. Linda Baker and Dr. Rinarani Sanghavi as well as the Nephrology clinic at Children's Medical Center Dallas.  They have saved my baby and helped him live a normal, or nearly normal life.  Praise the Lord for doctors like these!  I would also like to thank my family, and my church family for the many prayers, gifts and help given to us during the worst of it.  We love you all!

(This pic is a little over a year old.)