Happy Memorial Day!

Ryan and I got up early and went down to Meridian State Park to go "hiking". Hiking in Texas is very different than hiking in the west, because it so flat. There are very few places in Texas that you can go that I would consider to really be a hike, and they are many hours from here. But still, the parks call their trails hiking trails. Meridian is at the top of the hill country – neither of us had ever been there so we figured if it was hilly it would seem to be more like hiking. Well, it wasn't too hilly, but there was a ton of vegetation, you were almost always in the shade, so you felt more like you were in a foresty mountain wilderness than just walking through the desert like it has felt at other state parks here. I really liked it actually. We saw some wildflowers we have never seen before (I should have taken pictures of all of them – but unfortunately didn’t). We also had several fun animal encounters. We saw a tree full of vultures, a mosquito hawk bouncing in mid-air (we couldn’t figure out what it was doing or how it was doing it, but then we saw another one doing the same things so maybe it is normal behavior for them – my best guess is that it is some kind of mating act), we saw a big bunny, a turtle crossing our trail, and a long black snake with yellow strips down its length.

Luke Update

A couple days ago my brother in-law Mark sent out the following email expalining Luke's story:

Luke David Earl Nelson has arrived.
He weighed in at 7 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long.

He came early. Not that Emily went into labor, but we had to have an emergency C section yesterday.
I am keeping this as the short version of the story. It is one that is a miracle though.

Emily had an ultra sound yesterday and the tech saw something in the heart that she did not think looked right. So the doctor came in and looked. Then an hour later a pediatric cardiologists came to look at the heart. He saw something right away. We went from that office to Summerlin hospital at about 1 pm. We were then put in for a C section at 6:30. They would have done it sooner but Em had eaten some lunch.

Luke was born and looking pretty good. They took him immediately from the OR to the NICU. They did some tests and we now know he is a problem called pulmonary hypertension disorder. Basically there is to much pressure coming from the lungs and not getting enough blood to flow from the heart to get oxygen and then spread it to the rest of the body. The lungs were put under distress when Luke was still inside of Emily. So the lungs are staying constricted which is making it so there is to much pressure. We need Luke to have the lungs relax so the heart.

Luke is sedated. He is on a ventilator with a treatment that is designed for this exact case. He is going to have a couple of hard days. We are hoping that all will go well and he will recover.
We are not sure of when or how long. It will be a bit of roller coaster. 2 steps forward 1 step back.
You can see in the pictures he is so cute. Two of the pictures are from last night at about 11 pm. This was before he started going down hill and was put on all the machines.
He is really sick.

Emily is recuperating well. So that is good. We just need our little baby Luke to get better.

We feel that we have had the best team of doctors and nurses that we needed so far at each stage. They have been really good.

The huge miracle is that Em had an ultra sound and the tech saw something and said something. Our first nurse last night named Jill has been an NICU nurse for 21 years and has never had a case like this one. The reason why is that the baby would have died inside the mother at the end. Or been born and then have lots of problems and it would be to late to do anything about it.
It all had to do with the little flap in the heart that usually closes up as soon as the baby is born was closing up or was closed up before he came out. This is what caused a problem with some other duct and the tricuspid valve in the heart.

So Luke is here. Please pray for him to recover quickly.
We are at Summerlin Hospital. We had to go to a level 3 NICU center and a hospital that Emily's OB delivered at.


Here are 2 of the pictures of him that Mark sent.




As of today, Luke is doing much better than he was before. He is down to being on only one ventilator (he was on 2 before). He is no longer in a state of induced paralysis, he is on a decreased level of medications, they can touch him a tiny bit, his lungs are healing and his heart is doing quite well. Emily has to leave the hospital tomorrow, so this will be quite difficult for both her and Mark as they live at least a half hours drive fro the hospital and the very soonest Luke could get out would be Wednesday. We are all praying that he will be well enough by Wednesday that htey can take him home, that he will be free of all machines, eating on his own, and all that good stuff. Thanks for all your prayers!

Aunt Again!

Yep, that's right, #23 arrived last night. Luke David Earl Nelson arrived last night, weighing in around 7 1/2 pounds. But even though he is a good-sized boy, he is almost a month ahead of schedule. My sister had just gone in for a regularly scheduled appointment and because of his size the doctor decided to do an ultrasound. While doing so he found that Luke had a heart problem and ordered an emergency c-section. A few hours later he was born. He is still in the NICU. We would be so appreciative of any prayers on his behalf. His heart is not doing great, and neither are his lungs so he is not getting enough oxygen. Prayers for his parents, Mark and Emily, would be great too. Thanks so much. As soon as I get pictures of my newest nephew I will post them!