Jack Jensen's Blog: The library

Monday, January 26, 2009

The library

Apparently the Frederick Public Library is "THE" Sunday afternoon place to be. We took Jack there yesterday and we ran into friends and the place was packed. I was a little nervous with him being in a public place but we decided to try it out and let bubble boy have a fun day out. He loved running through the aisles. We sat and colored for a while then explored. Jack kept flirting with these 2 little girls - maybe 2 & 3 years old. He followed them into the play house, was smiling and acting all shy and cute. At one point I brought him to the reading mat and he saw the girls across the room and bolted over, sat right up next to his favorite girl and stroked her leg! What a flirt! It also didn't help that he kept saying "Hey BaBe!".

Here are some photos from the library and a stroll in Jack's car. James bought me a 50mm lense for my Nikon but obviously I haven't played with it a lot because I can't figure out how to get crisp photos in lower light situations. I'll have to email our friend Jill for advice! Jack took the photo of Elmo - the best photo in the lot!

Vic

4 comments:

Dotty said...: too cute! Jack certianly is growing up, but tell him to slow down just a lil bit okay. :) hope things are going well with yall. always in our thoughts
Zach's momma
Dotty; January 26, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Unknown said...: I think Jack found his calling. Professional photog. I love the picture of Elmo, you will have to send me doubles. Love the drum set, I was going to wait until he was atleast two but Uncle George strikes again. Thats okay spring training is coming up and I will have to see if they make red sox drum heads. :)

~Catherine; January 27, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Jill Myers said...: Yay, you got the 50mm! Did you get the 1.8 or 1.4? Jack's elmo photo looks like one I would take. = ) If I'm indoors and don't want to use a flash, I'll open the F-stop up as far as it goes (1.4 on mine), set my shutter speed to 1/60 (any slower and I get camera-shake), and set my ISO at the max, which is 1600 on my camera. If it's still too dark, then you need a flash. If it's too bright, either set your shutter speed faster or lower the iso. The lower iso will reduce the digital noise, but with a moving subject like Jack I'd go with the faster shutter speed (or flash). Also keep in mind that with your aperture wide open, the depth of field is extremely shallow, so you really have to be careful with what you choose to focus on. For example, you might end up with his ears in focus and his eyes out of focus, so take a bunch to make sure you get it. Timing is everything too...wait for that brief moment of stillness! Did that make sense?; January 28, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Elizabeth said...: Too cute - Noah LOVES the Library - and is a flirt too. Currently he has a "girl friend". I told him he can't date until he is 30.

Jack looks like he had a blast!
Elizabeth; January 31, 2009 at 5:59 PM

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Jack's Diagnosis and Recovery

At our 19 week ultrasound Jack was diagnosed with CDH. One week later James and I went to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. for more extensive analysis. We had a fetal MRI and saw that his hernia was on the left side (the most common) and at that time his liver was 'up' or in his chest. His heart was pushed to the right in his chest and he had a normal sized right lung and a very small left lung (about 1/5 the normal size). Overall his CDH was classified as severe with a Lung to Head (LHR) ratio of 0.8. His echocardiogram showed that his heart was beating strong and there was no underlying congenital heart defect. His amnio was also normal. The prognosis was 20-50% chance of survival at birth. The struggle we faced with this diagnosis was that there is little correlation between prenatal diagnostic test results and outcome at birth. Some babies with mild defects do poorly and some with severe defects pull through and do very well. All we could do was try to be optimistic and hope and pray that Jack would be a strong baby and fight hard. On August 20, 2007 John Verner Jensen "Jack" was born by C-section at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. Within hours of birth he was placed on ECMO (heart-lung bypass). He had a 10 day run on ECMO and went to his hernia repair surgery on this machine. He was missing 90% of his left diaphragm, had his entire stomach, spleen, and parts of his small and large intestines and liver in his chest and he required a gortex patch. Jack came out of surgery off ECMO but with the cannulas still in place until later that night. He had a really hard night after surgery and we nearly lost him. We were later told his blood gases should have been unsurvivable and that it was pure will and not medicine that saved him. After 81 days in hospital we brought Jack home breathing room air and needing only an NG (naso-gastric) feeding tube. After 27 days home he reherniated and we had to go back for emergency surgery at Johns Hopkins. His awesome surgeons literally patched him back up and after another 16 days in hospital he returned home on Dec 21, 2007 - just in time for his first Christmas. Since then Jack has tackled his eating issues and is NG-tube free! He does not require any medication. We are extremely grateful for his incredible medical team and all his friends and family for their support, kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Jack's CarePage chronicles his day-to-day journey from diagnosis to approximately 6 months old (before we started blogging). See the link below.