Heading to California

Well we are heading to Visalia in two days and it will be an interesting road trip with a baby and a cat. We are hoping to get there in in about 14 hours but with who knows how many stops with Andrew it might be 20 hours. I have been given some contacts down there for possible jobs and an opportunity for renting a house for very reasonable rent. Please continue to pray that God will lead and we will find the right job and a place to live.

Still Hunting

The job search continues with no real positive outlook but I know there is one out there for me the question is where and when. Amber and I have expanded our search and we are traveling down to Visalia California my home town to look for possible jobs down there.  If we are going to find a job outside of the Seattle area we want to be close to family and most of my family lives in the Visalia area. My parents and sister-in-law would be great support to Amber and we have a great church there that I grew up in. We are still looking up here in Seattle but leaving it up to God to see where we go. We know it would be hard leaving family here and the cool northwest but it would also be cheaper to live in central California and also have the family support there. Please keep us in your prayers that God will direct our path.

First Interview

Well the first interview by phone went great this morning. I talked to Brock who is the manager of the design team I would be working with. There are about 8 people in the team but a total of about 40 in the design department. I would be working with the team that designs the branding for companies and individuals who have their stores through Amazon. We also work with resizing and reworking product shots for their sites as well as other content that fits with their brand. This is very much an entry level position but with a company like Amazon there is a lot of room to grow in the department. When I ended the interview with Brock he said that HR would contact me in 1 to 2 weeks with an answer on whither I will go further in the process and get a job offer. Please continue to pray the God will lead us, and that if this is not the job for me that He will lead me to the right one. Thanks again for all of your prayers and support.

God Bless.

Amazon.com Job Interview!

Well at 7:00 last night I received and email from a recruiting agent at Amazon.com for a graphic design position I applied for at the beginning of this month. Specifically I would be working on graphic elements for the web and be working with a team of designers on branding for Amazon. I am scheduled for a 45 minute phone interview tomorrow morning at 10:00 and as I have heard from people I know this will be the first of many interviews if they decide to go further in the process. As all of you know Amazon is a well established company and would be great to work for and gain the job experience there which could lead to help further my career as a designer. Please pray that this would be God’s will and that I will lean on Him for wisdom and understanding in this whole situation. I will keep everyone updated on how the interview goes on this blog. If you like you can subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog and it will automatically update with the latest entry, just click on “Grab my feed” next to the orange box on the right hand side and it will place it in your bookmarks list. Thanks again for everyone who has been praying for us.

Photo Issues

Well I don’t know what happened tot he links but they are all fixed now. Click here to see Andrew’s photo album.

The beginning of new opportunities

God never seems to lead us in the wrong path no matter how difficult the path He has put us on may seem. I wish that I could say that I take that to heart every day but I don’t and that is why I have to fall to my knees in prayer and humble myself and know that He is God. I say all of this because as of late there has been large changes in our lives. Andrew has been a big part of that but just 2 weeks ago I lost my job because of cut backs needing to be made at work and at the same time Amber’s dad injured himself and lost kidney function. We are now living with Amber’s dad helping him recover and living in a rent free home for awhile until I am able to find full-time work. Lord willing I have been able to get some freelance graphic design work but we really need a job with full benefits as Andrew’s condition can send him into Children’s Hospital at the cost of $4,000 a day. We know that God is sovereign and He has and will watch over us during this bump in the road. I am using this down time to really reevaluate my career options and what I may need to do the support my family, with my last job Amber did not need to work at all and could focus on being a full-time mom. We are now faced with job possibilities that pay significantly less so we are praying about what Amber can do that could earn some extra money without taking too much time away from being mom to Andrew. We are blessed to have Amber’s Mom available to watch Andrew but we are also praying that God will provide someone that can watch Andrew when Stephanie cannot. On a very positive note Andrew is growing like a weed and is building his personality every day. He has just turned 4 months and is laughing and interacting more with people and he loves going shopping with Mom and Dad, you can see recent pictures of him here. he is a joy every day to wake up to, even when things are not going well, he will put a smile on my face and make me realize why I am here and what I can do to love my son and my wife.

People have been so generous as of late I cannot count the number of cards and gifts that we have received. It is great to know that we are a body and if a member of that body is strugling the others come along side and encourage and lift that person up. Amber and I want to thank everyone who has prayed or given a gift to us you have no idea how wonderful it is to know people care and are willing to sacrifice for you.

First Month!

Well Andrew is now 5 weeks old! And of his 36 days of life, he’s only been at home for 6 of them. We’re thinking of changing our address to Children’s Hospital! So we originally went home on January 4th. Everything was great, he was eating more, pooping and peeing up a storm, and aside from having no routine whatsoever was overall a happy baby. Well by the 10th he was definitely straining to go poop, and even fart, and even though we started dilations on the 10th to help stretch his scar, by the 13th he really couldn’t poop at all and his appetite was decreasing. On the 14th he was unusually fussy in that he needed to be held constantly, (normally he’s a very content baby and although he loves to be held he doesn’t need it 24/7) and by noon he had lost his appetite completely. We asked our pediatrician how long we should let him go before getting worried and she said at 7 hours call Children’s. Needless to say he didn’t want to eat, and spit up the little bit that we’d convinced him to take. So we called Children’s and they told us to come in because of his history. We got to the ER at 10, and by 3am we were checked in to stay overnight. The next morning they put a rectal tube in because he was extremely distended from not being able to poop and get gas out, and started him on antibiotics. We were told he had developed entercolitis, meaning his colon was infected. We were supposed to go home on the 19th when the round of antibiotics was done, but when he still had problems getting the gas out we started our now daily routine of irrigations every 6hrs (rectal tube in, water up, water poop and gas out), x ray every morning, and then a visit from his doctors and surgeon saying if he eats enough and stays decompressed he can go home tomorrow.

We’ll “tomorrow” still hasn’t come yet, as this started on the 19th and we’re still here, it’s now the 25th. Today we came close to escaping, I mean going home, they even had the discharge orders given and his IV out (they had started antibiotics again), and then once we got packed up his surgeon came in and said “Oh actually…we decided you have to stay.” AAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Basically they’re not happy with how fast the gas is building up and how little the irrigations are helping. So now when we do the irrigations we leave the tube in for 20 minutes. If this doesn’t work and we’re still here on Monday (the 28th) one of the options is a botox injection in his sphincter. From what we understand his sphincter and the scar from the surgery are the problem, so the botox would help that relax and let the gas and poop out. The problem is it would also cause him to lose complete control for several months. We don’t really see the problem in that, we’re changing tons of diapers anyways so what does it matter if he can hold it in or let it flow. Maybe it’s more complicated, but honestly it sounds better than him getting basically an enema every 6 hours. The botox is still just an idea right now, it’s sort of their last resort. Right now we’re trying the leaving the tube in for 20 minutes after every irrigation. Pray that it works and we can go home tomorrow or Sunday! You know you’ve been in the hospital when the nurses come back for their next shift and say “Oh, you’re still here?” and the people handing out the meal vouchers know your last name and are looking for it when you walk up.

We knew when we left the first time that we’d be back, it’s very common for Hirschsprung’s babies to get entercolitis, we just didn’t think it’d be a week later and we certainly didn’t think it’d land us in the hospital for another 2 weeks. Although technically the entercolitis only kept us here for a week, the rest of the time is a mechanical problem we didn’t realize he had until we came here.

On the good side his appetite is finally starting to increase because he wants it to, not because the doctors are forcing it on him. He’s gaining weight, I don’t know if it’s what he’s supposed to be gaining but he is gaining. He’s much more alert now and has really good head control, and his cheeks are getting nice and big and kissable! He’s starting to coo, not a lot but every once in a while, and he’s even starting to make faces. His favorite is the “oh” face. We’ve even gotten two smiles that seemed genuine and not a reflex! He’s settled in to a three sneeze pattern, two quick and then a delayed one. Before sometimes he’d have anywhere from two to five, now it’s pretty regularly three. We didn’t realize how much he’d changed in the last month until we looked back at the pictures! It happens to fast! And yes, I know, all you parents are laughing right now, saying “I told you so!” Well we’re newbies so we’re allowed to say it too! It’s so fun to see him change and do new things, but it’s sad too. Every once in a while either Derek or I will look at him and wonder how he ever fit inside me, and just realize what a miracle he is!

Introducing Andrew John Damko

It’s been a very eventful two weeks. I’ll start at the beginning, Wednesday December 19. Amber and I had delayed our usual Tuesday grocery shopping until Wednesday. We unloaded groceries, I left for home, and Amber made herself lunch. About a half hour later, she called me, telling me she’d got a call from the hospital saying they had an opening for her to come in one day ahead of schedule. Not expecting her to go in on Wednesday, Derek had gone to work. I quickly went to their apartment, gathered up her and her stuff, and we headed to the hospital. Derek made it there before they had the room set up, so he didn’t really miss anything.

They put Amber on the Cervadil overnight. She went into natural labor by morning, but when she grew too tired to walk around, they also gave her petocin to keep labor going. After a long day, she was fully dilated and ready to push by shortly before 1:00am Friday morning. Ever the photographer, Amber spent a few of the earlier brief periods between pushing discussing ISO settings with her sister and Derek. Because of an elevated temperature, they brought the neonatal team in, ready to examine Andrew as soon as he was born. She pushed like a champ, and after about an hour and a half, Andrew arrived into the world at 2:06am, December 21, 2007. He weighed in at 9 lbs even measuring 21.5 inches tall. Derek got to cut the cord before the nurse handed him over to the neonatal team. Other than an initially elevated temperature (because of Amber’s high temp), he was fine and they shortly left. Present at the birth were Derek (of course), me (Amber’s Mom, Andrew’s Mimi), Amber’s sister Diane, and friends Kelsey and Erin. Trevor (Amber’s Dad), Mark (Amber’s step-Dad), and another friend Sarah waited outside until shortly after Andrew’s birth. Derek got to hold Andrew first, after the neonatal team was done with him. After a few moments, Amber was able to hold him.

The joy of welcoming Andrew into the world turned to concern by Saturday morning. He still had not had a bowel movement, was spitting up green fluid, had a distended abdomen, and was in obvious discomfort. X-rays showed no air in his rectum, a sign of intestinal blockage, and he was rushed to Children’s Hospital, just about a mile up the road from University of Washington (where Amber delivered). The diagnosis - Hirschsrpung’s Disease. In a nutshell, it means the nerves in the lower part of his colon didn’t develop, meaning that part of the colon was nonfunctional. Without those nerve endings, the colon collapses and fecal matter backs up, resulting in blockage. The only option was surgery to remove the affected portion of the colon. Derek’s parents, Ken and Karen, flew up on Christmas Day to be here for the surgery. After some delays, surgery took place on Friday, a week after Andrew’s birth. The surgeon was very happy with how the surgery went. They removed about a fifth of his colon, roughly seven to eight inches. We hope that Amber and Derek will be able to take him home later this week.

Throughout all the things that have been done to him (IVs, tube up his nose, multiple flushes of the bowels), Andrew takes it all in stride. He rarely cries, and settles down quickly. Funny enough, the thing most likely to upset him is a wet diaper! He doesn’t like that. He should be started on bottle feeding tomorrow, and transition to nursing shortly thereafter. Once he’s eating well, somewhat healed up, and they are confident that he’s passing everything through his system without any problems, he can go home and get down to the business of just being a baby.

Almost over!

So unless I randomly go into labor beforehand, I’m scheduled to go in to Labor and Delivery on Thursday to be induced. They don’t know yet what time or for sure that I’ll get in Thursday, I have to call in the morning and depending on how busy it is they’ll tell me when to come in. Even if they’re super busy I shouldn’t get bumped back past Friday. Most likely they’ll put me on cervadil to soften the cervix and get me to dilate some more, and since I’ll most likely be going in in the late afternoon/evening they’ll keep me on it overnight and start the petocin in the morning. I heard the average labor while on petocin is at least 12 hrs so I’m pretty sure I won’t have him before Friday evening at the earliest.

Nothing else to report, not even a contraction! It’s like I hit 38 weeks and he said “Eh, never mind, I’m pretty comfy in here, I’ll just wait till they kick me out!” Oh well, maybe that means he’ll be a calm baby later on! : )

So Mom and I do our grocery shopping every Tuesday. Since we go at the same time every week a few of the checkers there know us and are counting down with us to the delivery. Well they knew my due date was Saturday so when we came in this morning and they saw I was still pregnant the lady that was checking us out just smiled, chuckled, and shook her head. And at my doctor’s office all the front desk people know us so when we checked in yesterday they were like “What are you still doing here??” and the nurse was giving me a hard time too. Then when I was waiting by the lab to take the pee test even the lab techs were joking, but I can’t remember what they said (pregnancy brain strikes again!). It’s pretty funny when pretty much the staff knows you by name and jokes around with you. What’s horrible is even with all of our trips there I can’t remember any of their names!!! Not even the nurse who always takes care of us! Oh well.

I’m just glad I have a good doctor and the clinic staff is so nice, it hardly feels like going to the doctor anymore. Too bad she won’t be the one delivering Andrew! And not only will she not be delivering him but because the UW is a teaching hospital it’ll be a resident nurse and doctor and then the doctor from the clinic that our doc works with, and then a staff nurse as well! It’s gonna be a zoo! I’m told I won’t care when the time comes, but it is kind of frustrating that I can’t have everyone I want in there because they’re all gonna be crammed in there! They don’t need that many people!

Well time for lunch. I really hope they’ll at least let me eat while I’m on the cervadil so I only have to go all of Friday without eating instead of Thursday and Friday!

One more week at most

My doctor was able to get me on the list to be induced on the 20th if Andrew hasn’t made his appearance by then. It still may get bumped back, voluntary inductions are back of the line, but hopefully it’ll be a calm day. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he’ll come on his own before then, but if not, I only have one more week of being pregnant at most!!!

And even better, the cancer didn’t spread! So Derek is home free!!!!