Rockstar.

So, here's the deal: Ethan is a total rockstar.  This has been the one word, used multiple times, by multiple members of Ethan's medical team to describe him up to this point.  The resilience that boy has shown over the past forty-eight hours is mind-blowing.

Mama getting six hours of sleep in said forty-eight hours is something special, too, so (once again) this is going to be a quick one.  For those of you wanting all the details (I know you're out there!), they'll come eventually.  Right now, I just want everyone reading this to know one thing:

God is good.

Of course, it's easy for me to say that as I watch Ethan, two days after intense, complicated open-heart surgery climb in and out of his bed and walk laps around the nurses' station.  But the truth of His goodness was also what I clung to while I stroked Ethan's head during hallucinations and laid myself over his beat-up body as his oxygen dropped and he was too drugged to breathe.  Through the highest of highs and lowest of lows over these past two days, the Lord is the one thing that remained constant.  His goodness and faithfulness do not fail, and I am thanking Him for that tonight.

The surgery on Wednesday was a complete success. It took much longer than we anticipated, but Dr. J did some amazing work in our boy's body.  Ethan had an echo this afternoon, so we'll hear more tomorrow about how everything looks postoperatively.  If his activity level is any indication, everything is going to look just fine!

We do have two specific concerns that we'd love for you to pray with us about.  In a way that can only be ordained by a God who cares about the details, Ethan's cardiologist, Dr. I, is on service this weekend.  He knows Ethan better than anyone at Duke and I'm confident that, with the Lord's guidance, we'll work together to get some answers over the next day or so.

#1 -- Ethan's left shoulder.  Since yesterday afternoon, Ethan has been complaining about pain in his left shoulder area.  We thought this was directly related to the chest tube, but he experienced pain in the same spot this evening, hours after the chest tube had been pulled.  It very well could be residual pain from all the trauma of surgery and the tube, but I feel uneasy about it all. Would you pray that Ethan would have relief from this pain, and that we can come to wise conclusion about what could be causing it?

#2 -- Oxygen saturations.  Ethan is still requiring a bit of oxygen to keep his saturations in the normal range. So far, we've been able to keep them 'acceptable' with some oxygen blowing towards his face from a tube, but he did require a nasal cannula earlier this afternoon.  His saturations should be improving as he becomes more active and releases more and more fluid, but we're not seeing the jump like we thought we would.  He'll have a chest x-ray in the morning to check on his lungs and we'll go from there.  Please pray that Ethan will be able to tolerate increased activity tomorrow without the need for extra support.

We are overwhelmed by the love and support we've received this week! We have read every message and listened to every voicemail.  Even though we haven't been able to return all of your messages, I hope you know how much we are encouraged by them -- THANK YOU!