With Papa and Grandma Akin

Cade Has A Chin!

and hopefully his pins will come out this week...

Cade with Great Grandpa Dutch

Our Little Chipmunk

He is pretty swollen so it is hard to see the progress that his jaw has made. So far we have moved it 9mm. He gets mad if his pain medicine isn't on time and he isn't sleeping very well but other than that, he is active and happy.

Cade After Surgery

Cade is feeling much better today and is happy to be home. He is slowly getting used to the new hardware on his face. However it is much more work for mom. Two weeks can not go by fast enough.

Cade Loves His Cousin Marissa

I don't know what I would do without my assistant...

Cade Update

Cade's surgery today went well. He had no problems getting off of the ventilator and the doctor didn't find anything unusual. However the pins had to come out of the front because his jaw was so high, if they had gone to the back, they would have been in his ears. So he has two large and thick bars sticking out of his chin. It looks very painful but he is being kept comfortable with lots of pain medication. He is pretty swollen and he hasn't woke up much today. We will be staying the night at the hospital tonight and hopefully going home tomorrow. He has a couple of rough weeks ahead but he is tough. I will put up some pictures tomorrow. i just want to warn you that he looks pretty bad.

Getting Ready For Surgery

He Doesn't Like The Ice and Cold

But He Loves His Big Coat!

Cade Hard at Work at Krug Construction

Before Jaw Surgery

This Friday at 11:30 Cade will be having jaw surgery (distraction osteogenesis). The doctor is planning to make two incisions in his neck and then cut apart his jaw on both side. Then a device will be placed inside that separates the two pieces. There will be a pin placed on the device that will stick out behind his ears on both sides of his face. He will look a little like Frankenstein. His hospital stay should be about 1-2 days depending on his ability to get off of the ventilator (we are not anticipating any problems.) He will have the pins out of his face for two weeks and Shane and I will turn them twice a day to push his jaw forward. After two weeks, the jaw should be where the doctor wants it and we will remove the pins. The device will remain in his mouth for two months while we wait for the new bone to harden. Then he will have surgery again to remove the device. The doctor said that we will be surprised about how little pain there is. It is very likely that a short time after his second surgery, he will get his trach out. But there are no promises. I wanted to include a before picture because he will look drastically different. Please be thinking and praying for Cade Friday morning!

He Loves it When You Say Cheese

Finally A Cold Day!

Cade has Always Loved Harley

At One Year

At Five Months

At One Month

Alamo Bowl

We have grown up cheering for the Hawkeyes and Texas. Travis went to Iowa and I go to Texas so we were very excited to see that they would be playing in the Alamo Bowl. Of course my whole family reverts back to Iowa when something like this happens. Logan and some of his friends came down for the game too. We had a great time and it didn't hurt that the Horns pulled it out...

Cade is feeling really good after his surgery!