SamBeller.org

Monday, April 10, 2000

Sam Is Happy to be HOME!

Dear Sam’s Fan Club,

This is the message we’ve been so looking forward to posting ... at 10:30 AM Monday morning, Sam arrived home with a giant grin on his face!!! Sam made it home in just under 2 weeks. We’d predicted 2-3 weeks… we are thrilled!

Yesterday, Jacob kept saying, “Slam home! Slam home!” Tevah was ready for to play with him again and Simone just smiled big when she saw him this morning.

Dr. Bobechko looked at the incision on Sunday to inspect where it “blew out”. He just added more sterile tape over the site and said it should be fine. We’ll take Sam into his office on Friday to have him check it out again.

Our home health agency was able to staff us for 18 hours each day starting Monday morning.

Sam came home on portable Oxygen and we had a nurse here waiting for him and his room all ready to go. The car ride stressed him out a little (I’m sure the bumps were painful). He required quite a bit of Oxygen when he got home. After settling in a while and getting some Tylenol with Codeine, Sam was actually able to breath without Oxygen for about an hour and a half. Then the pain started up again, and he needed Oxygen and more pain meds. He just doesn’t take deep breaths when in pain - his rib cage expanding hurts from the surgery. However, it was just a miracle to see him breath without any assistance at all. It gives us hope and a reminder that his need for supplemental Oxygen won’t go on for ever!

It is so wonderful to have our big guy home in his own bed on our schedule.

David’s mother, Janie, left yesterday. Ursula, our regular sitter, will help us through the week until Kelly’s sister, Saphire and her daughter, Melynda, arrive Thursday evening for a 5-day stay. Plus, we still have an assortment of reserves from our church scheduled for this week. Ursula is still changing from hospital nights to days ... so we may use some of these reserves as needed.

And, thankfully, meals from the church are still coming in. And, dirty laundry is still being taken away by the laundry elves!

Sam’s webmaster, Chris, is out of town right now for a few days. However, Chris’ friend, Scott Levy, jumped in to keep things rolling. Sam’s circle of friends just keeps growing. Many thanks to Scott. We had no idea the website would be such a wonderful communication tool during this time. Chris gave such a wonderful gift by putting this site together for us.

The next 6-10 weeks will still require a lot of healing to take place. The bone fusion actually takes a full year to complete. We know Sam will still need to take it slow and won’t make it back for the remainder of first grade. However, before school ends in May, we hope he can go make a short visit to see the kids in his class that have been sending cards and praying so diligently for him. The prayers of a child for another child are so meaningful and full of a perspective that the rest of us just don’t have.

We will continue to send updates every few days as Sam recovers.

Thanks to everyone involved for carrying us through the storm. May God greatly bless each of you for the love and concern you have shown to Sam and our family.

Much Love and Admiration For You All,
Kelly & David