The Month of Janet. . .

Around here we refer to February as “the Month of Janet” because of the three special dates that occur in that month: Valentine’s Day on the 14th, our wedding anniversary on the 24th, and the most special day of all – Janet’s Birthday on the 28th. (Way to make life difficult for yourself, there, Mark.)

In 2008, however, the annual month-long celebration fell far short of our expectations. Brain surgery and hanging out in Vanderbilt hospital are not our idea of a fun time, despite what you might have heard. Life has been crazy, but we’re still thankful for many things. So, for the sake of reflection and remembrance, we’d like to review some of the highlights/lowlights for the month. Maybe next year when we look back with more perspective we’ll be able to see why M-of-J ’08 had to be the way it was.

Jan 28 – Craniotomy. We kicked off the celebration of Month of Janet early with a marathon brain surgery lasting about 12 hours – from 7:30am to 7:00pm – at Vanderbilt Univ Hospital (VUH). What a long day! The first half was spent doing a complicated test of the blood flow in J’s head to determine whether or not her aneurysm could be safely clipped. After that was checked off the list, the surgeon (Dr. Mericle) removed a piece of J’s skull, navigated his instruments carefully to the aneurysm site, clipped the little bugger, tested the blood flow again, and closed things up. End result: No more aneurysm! I guess that really is worth celebrating.

Feb 1 – First Trip Home. After a difficult week recovering in the ICU (lots of pain and swelling), Janet was released from VUH on Friday. She was still a bit “out of it”. For example, she fell asleep on the drive home while talking to her sister on the phone. The first week back at home was hard because Janet’s pill schedule was like a nightmare.

Feb 7 – First Trip Back to VUH. Janet went back to the hospital via an overflowing ER. She felt miserable because “post-operative aseptic meningitis” or inflammation of the cerebro-spinal fluid was causing pain and stiffness in her head and neck. It took two and a half days to confirm that diagnosis, but on the Friday 8th we were headed home again with two weeks of steroids to knock out the inflammation. They also simplified her pill schedule which allowed us to get more sleep and have a much less cranky week.

Feb 14 – For Valentine’s Day, some friends offered to bring us food from any restaurant we wanted. The winner was broccoli cheese soup from Jason’s Deli.

Feb 16-17 – First Nice Weekend in a while. Janet actually felt pretty good this weekend. She even drove with Mark to Starbucks, DQ, and Wal-Mart. What more could you ask for!

Feb 20 – Second Trip Back to VUH. Janet’s incision had gotten infected, so she was admitted to VUH for IV antibiotics and an MRI. Half of the doctors on Mericle’s team thought the antibiotics would do the trick, but the other half felt that surgery would be necessary to clean out the incision. Thankfully, Dr. Mericle broke the tie in favor of antibiotics only. To enhance the drama of it all he waited to see Janet and give us his opinion until 8:15 the night before we thought she was going to have surgery. We were doing cartwheels around the room after he told us the good news, which was quite a feat since Janet was still hooked up to an IV pole. We finally got to come home again on Friday the 22nd.

Feb 24 – Happy 7th Anniversary!! We were both exhausted so we slept through church and exchanged cards later that day.

Feb 28 – Happy 30th Birthday, Janet! We celebrated at midnight with a vancomycin (or was it cefapime) infusion and two pieces of chocolate pie. Janet got a nice bracelet that has birthstones of all the members of her family: amethyst for herself, topaz for Spencer, diamond (cz J) for Eli, and emerald for Nathan (and Mark).

Feb 29 – Leap Day. Woo hoo, it’s Friday! Janet has gotten the hang of administering the IV antibiotics although it takes most of her time. Hopefully one more week of this will clear up the infection and March can be hospital free!

Happy Valentine's Day

It's amazing the simple things we take for granted. Janet went to Kroger with Mark's mom today, just to take a short field trip on a sunny day. She enjoyed it but it was exhausting. Staying awake for an entire hour-long show is also surprisingly hard post-surgery. Even so, today was a pretty good day, despite the incessant barking of the neighbor's dog and having to start weaning herself off the pain meds even though she doesn't feel ready.

Both of our mothers have been a huge help this week. Mark's mom (Mary Ann) usually stays with Janet during the day to make sure she is OK and takes her meds on time. She is also helps with laundry, dishes, and special projects that Janet can't do by herself. Janet's mom (Linda) comes by every morning before work to massage her sore neck--she has the 'special touch'. She also goes to the store as many times as we come up with a special request. Janet's Aunt Nancy has filled in occasionally to give Mary Ann a break. We've also enjoyed some wonderful meals from friends three times already this week. Not to mention the care-basket full of chocolate, nail polish, and a very soft bunny from the ladies at church.

We can't say how much we appreciate everyone's help and ongoing prayers. To say we are blessed doesn't even touch it. Our main requests currently are for toleration of pain as Janet reduces her pain meds, for the steroids to keep knocking out the inflammation in her spinal fluid, and for patience to realize it is still going to be a while before Janet feels 100% normal.

On the adoption front, we got some good news about the process moving along for Nathan in Guatemala. His DNA test has been completed to verify that he is the son of his birthmom. Additionally, his case is in the first stage of the court process (family court). These are just some of the early milestones in the process, but it's good to know he is gradually moving closer to coming home. We miss him. He is just so stinkin' cute.

Finally, in 10 days we will be celebrating our 7 year anniversary. We can't believe how quickly those years have gone by, but at the same time we feel like we've been married for decades. Either way we're grateful that we're closer now than we could have dreamed possible when we first got married.

Happy Valentine's Day,
Mark & Janet

Janet had a pretty good day yesterday (2/4) which was a big relief since that was not the case Sunday. Her pain was much much worse Sunday--the meds didn't seem to be helping at all. But yesterday the pain has been more bearable. Mark went back to school and to work today, and various family members are staying with Janet during the day. They have been such a blessing to just hang out and tell her when to take he meds. Keep praying for continued pain relief and for patience & strength for all of us. And some good rest at night.
Pray also for Janet's Granddad. He is still in ICU and the tests determined some small blood "leaks" (basically bleeding internally).

Aneurysm: the other "A" word

Janet's arteriogram went well yesterday even though it got started late. She is pretty sore and has to take it easy this weekend, but generally she's OK. As far as the results, the doctor’s first words were "it's complicated". She does have an aneurysm, but it is a different kind and in a different location than what was expected based on the MRI. The aneurysm is located on a smaller connecting artery where it joins a bigger one. Monday beginning at 7:30 and lasting most of the day Janet will have a "craniotomy". Her surgeon will remove a small part of her skull and go into the brain to clamp off the aneurysm. She will spend the first night (at least) in ICU, and her total stay is supposed to last 3-5 days. Mark will be able to stay with her overnight, even when she's in ICU.
Although surgery and recovery are never fun, we are glad to know exactly what the problem is and that the surgery will be over soon. Thanks again for your continued prayers.

God is crazy but good!

Translation . . .

God is trying to get our attention and help us trust that He is in control (even when life seems to be falling apart).

You may already know that we've experienced a roller coaster ride of emotions over the past two weeks, but right now we're feeling great because we just found out who our son from Russia is!

This is Spencer Reid Carlton.

He is 14 1/2 months old (born November 2, 2006), which makes him 7 months older than Nathan Daniel. His medical report (from two months ago) said that he is "calm, active, sits up on his own, and stands with something to hold onto".

Now to explain the crazy circumstances of how we learned about him. Many of you know that Janet found out on Tuesday (1/8) that she might have an aneurysm. She is having an arteriogram this week (1/24) to see whether or not she really does, and whether or not she will need surgery to fix it. Obviously we were a bit shaken up after learning this.

And then it got crazier ...

On Wednesday (1/9) we got a call from our adoption agency telling us they had a referral for us. Normally when you accept a referral from Russia they tell you to book a flight to meet your child in 2-3 weeks, but Janet might not be able to fly for several weeks if she has surgery. So we had to say No to this referral, which was VERY difficult. It had come sooner than we had dreamed possible, which made it feel like torture to say no. It didn't make sense, but we just had to hope that God was going to work things out somehow. Our agency told us to call them when we were ready to accept a new referral.

God, however, had better plans.

On Wednesday (1/16), we got another call from our agency. We thought at first that they were calling to tell us we had been denied completely because of the possible health problem. Instead, they told us they had spoken with their counterparts in Russia about our situation, and they agreed to do something they've never done before. They are letting us accept this same referral we had to turn down last week, but we won't have to travel until we are ready--whether that is in 2-3 weeks (if Janet doesn't need surgery) or 7-9 weeks (if she does). We just have to tell them when we are ready, and they'll set it up. WOW! This has God's sovereignty written all over it, because no one has ever been given this kind of concession before. We feel very grateful for getting this emotional boost that we really needed.

We still don't know if Janet will need the surgery, but we will let you know what we find out Thursday.

Stay tuned!

A Christmas Miracle

No, we aren't going to pick up Nathan yet, but we did get new pictures tonight!

We call that our Christmas miracle. We are so pleased that he is wearing one of the outfits we sent him in a care package several weeks ago.

He looks healthy, happy, and ready to get out of that chair!

Nathan Daniel Carlton

While you and your families are celebrating the birth of our Savior, we have some joyful news to share with you about our family. We would like to introduce to you our son whom we are adopting from Guatemala:

Nathan Daniel Carlton!

We first found out about Nathan in late September. After Eli passed away we told our adoption agency that we wanted to adopt again from Guatemala. Almost immediately they told us that there was a little boy who had been born on May 30, 2007, but had not yet found a forever family. We could see that God had been planning all along to bring him into our family. Nathan is almost 7 months old now, and, as you can see in this picture, he is growing up fast. We hope you will join us in eagerly anticipating and praying for his quick homecoming, hopefully sometime next fall.

Merry Christmas!