Hi everyone!

Our little superman did such a great job today during his procedure. Of course he couldn’t have done it without the amazing staff of the University Hospital here in Monterrey, Mexico. Dr. Consuelo Mancias (pictured to the left of me in the blue scrubs) and her team of hematologists did such a wonderful job. This experience has taught Ken and I about so many things. First and foremost, we learned how strong our little boy really is. Since he was born 10 weeks ago, he continues to show us how resilient he is and through his strength, he continues to teach us how strong we are as well. We also learned how loving and professional the medical staff is down here. Dr. Mancias sat and talked to us for 2 hours in between the 2 procedures and provided us with total piece of mind. After the procedure, she came in to let us know how he was doing and mentioned that his skin was really dry in a couple of areas (not from the procedure) and she wanted to have one of the hospital’s dermatologists take a look. The next thing we knew, the dermatologist was there to examine him and he made a few recommendations and even offered us his cell # in case we had any questions. If that took place in the U.S, that doctor would have sent us a bill for 7 minutes of their time and wouldn’t dream of offering us their personal cell #. We are still getting bills from Julien’s stay in the NICU from every doctor that had any interaction with him at all. Our patient care coordinator, Abad, stayed with us the entire day to help us with anything that we needed. He helped us translate what my “spanglish” couldn’t and he got us food so that we didn’t have to miss anything with Julien. In the haste of getting a newborn ready first thing in the morning, I forgot a couple of important things at the apartment. Uli, our driver went back to the apartment to grab them for us and he delivered them to us at the hospital! The goal was for Ken and I to remain focused on JULIEN rather than anything else…they even picked up Julien’s post-op medications and brought them to the apartment for us! I honestly can’t say enough about this team and how much easier they made this process for us.

Regarding Julien, he is doing great and has slept most of the day since we got back to the apartment. His stem cells were extracted from the tibia on both legs so he has little bandages with pain gel on them which he has spent the last hour trying to kick off. The next 48 hours will be very important because this is when the pain meds will wear off and we have to maintain his pain management. We have to keep an eye out for a fever and any vomiting but after 48 hours he will be in the clear for the most part. Everyone here is looking for a restful night’s sleep….wish us luck!

Kenneth, Patricia & Julien (our super hero)