Jack Jensen's Blog: Jack's first "real" haircut and visit with Santa

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Jack's first "real" haircut and visit with Santa

Jack is totally exhausted from the excitement.

Jack has had a great few days. His grandparents (Jim & Stacy) from N.H. came to visit and celebrate Thanksgiving with us. We had a great feast on Thursday and James cooked the most amazing dinner. Today Grandpa Jim and I took Jack to get his first 'real' haircut at the barber. I've cut his hair 4 or 5 times but wanted him to have a proper haircut. He actually got the same guy that cuts his daddy's hair. Barber John was so nice and patient. Poor Jack HATED the whole ordeal. He's always good when I cut his hair. I think he was confused and thought the barber was a doctor. By the time we left Jack was happy because he had a lollipop and poor Jim and I were totally sweated through our shirts from being so frantic trying to get Jack through the haircutting process!

After a nap we all took Jack to the mall to see Santa. Thankfully there was no line so we were in and out. I was a bit nervous bringing him to a public place like that during cold/flu season but the mall wasn't any more crowded then normal. I guess it must be because of the economy? Anyway, I was worried Jack would cry but he was completely unimpressed with Santa. Last year Santa came to Jack in the isolation room of the PICU (when he reherniated and had surgery). I think he was annoyed that he had to get dressed up to see Santa and this time there were no presents. Haha. Jack has the best smile (OK - I'm biased) but he didn't want to smile all day today. He has several molars coming in and has been fairly miserable the past week. No smiles around here. He never had trouble with his other 6 teeth but I think molars are a whole new ball of wax.

Hope you like the pictures of the haircut (really, he got over it as soon as the lollipop came out) and Santa.

5 comments:

Aep said...: Happy Thanksgiving!! I am sure Marco would have the same reaction at the Barber's. Glad he got to see Santa :)
Hugs,
Ana and Marco; November 29, 2008 at 7:29 PM
Fer said...: Awww. I loved the photos!
Fer; November 29, 2008 at 8:39 PM
*super dude and super dog* said...: Love the haircut! I don't think we've ever seen Jack without a smile on his face, but I am sure that frown didn't last long. :); November 30, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Jill Myers said...: I think maybe Jack just wanted to grow his hair out. That is the style with boys these days...his dreams of becoming a boy band heart-throb are ruined!; December 2, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Unknown said...: these pictures are great! I haven't left a comment in a long time and I just had to say the pics of the haircut are priceless i love his little help me look in the 4th picture.. and that wasn't a bad looking santa! glad jack got to see santa!he looked adorable in his little sweater and jeans!; December 3, 2008 at 10:52 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.