Josiah’s 6th Surgery

Josiah safely got through his 6th surgery! We haven’t yet seen the doctor, so we don’t have any details, but the nurse said everything went well last night during surgery. Praise God and thank you for all who were praying!

This surgery was unexpected as we thought we were done with his last major one in December, 2017 and the again with a follow up surgery in May, 2018, for a slight correction. We found out recently that part of the surgery done in 2017 wasn’t successful and so necessitated this surgery which will hopefully be his last. 

​As with most things in Asia, nothing is as we expect it to be as Westerners. We had to be to the hospital by 2:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, for a surgery scheduled for 8:00 p.m. By 3:00 we were checked in, Josiah was hooked up to a large bag of IV fluids and we were in his room. We paid for a private child’s room so that we could stay and sleep with him overnight, so thankfully it was a really nice room with a table and couch. We past the afternoon by playing games and watched a movie to distract us the closer we got to the surgery time.

They took him back for surgery at 9:00 and we waited in his room to hear from them. At 11:15 PM they called to say he was out, everything had gone well and they would be bringing him back to his room for us to see him in two hours after recovery at 1:10 AM, which is what happened. We were told the doctor would come today to check him and give us an update. 

He slept well and has been pretty groggy all day but seems to be doing well otherwise. He’s tired of the bed already but hopefully will be able to sit in a chair or at the table soon. At Josiah’s initial visit, the doctor said he’d be here three to five days, depending on what he found once he started the surgery, so we’ll find out more about how long we’ll be here once we talk to him. Hopefully it will be a short stay!

Thank you so much for your prayers!

The doctor came in around 3:30 this afternoon. He said the surgery went well, so that was good to hear; they did 3 different repairs. Unfortunately, though, he said the stay will be at least 5 days and maybe 7. This was surprising and discouraging for all of us as we didn’t even realize that more than 5 days might be an option. In our minds 3 days isn’t too bad and 5 is no fun but doable but 7 is a serious stay! He’ll check on him again in 3 days and then have a better idea of 5 or 7. He also said he has to be on complete bed rest, so no moving to a chair tomorrow like we hoped. 

Thank you for all your prayers.

Josiah was in the hospital for 8 days before he was able to go home on the 17th. Unfortunately, the first day home on the 18th there was a problem with the surgery site and he had to return to the hospital. He’s now attached to some tubes for two weeks while his surgery site heals but is able to be at home. 

The 19th, was his 15th birthday which was kept very low-key just spending time together, after he fainted in the morning trying to navigate around his tubes. This is highly stressful for all of us, especially as we didn’t anticipate such a long and rough recovery time but thought we’d be finished with this all two weeks ago. He has one week left of being hooked up and on bed rest before being evaluated to see if he needs another two weeks or can recover normally.

Thank you for your continued prayers. 

Josiah is now recovering normally at home. He has to stay calm and not run around or do anything jarring (like wrestling his brothers) but we are glad to be getting back to a normal routine not centered around hospitals or doctor’s visits. 

Thank you to all who prayed for us during this time, his surgery and recovery. We really appreciated it.