Recovery with family

Welcome to the continued story of Alexander Michael Zarzana. A five year old boy who endured brain surgery to remove two Arterio Venous Malformations from the right frontal lobe. This is the fourth of seven posts on this blog written in the form of a letter to my son Alex. I pray they encourage you. If you are reading this blog for the first time, I encourage you to start on the first posting of the series so that you can enjoy the story from the beginning. This blog series is being written for four reasons:

1. To strengthen the faith of my young son Alexander on the day that he is able to read this blog for himself. We serve a God who does great things.

2. To encourage parents who may go through the same type of struggle that Joanne and I did. 

3. To give due thanks for the nurses, doctors, and surgeons that took amazing care of our little Alex.

4. To give glory, honor and thanks to the Lord who brought our son back home to us.

Alexander the Brave One

July 4th

The nurse entered the room of the ICU around 9am. She had come in a number of times during the night to check your vitals. Mommy still lay in the chair by your bedside with her head resting on her shoulder. It must have been an uncomfortable position but she did not care. She wanted to be the first face you saw when waking. 

My eyes were blurred and tired as I tried to open them. I noticed the nurse was getting ready to wake you, which motivated me to get up. I came by your mothers side. "I think we should wake Alex up now and see how he is doing" the nurse said. Joanne and I agreed.

Mommy gently placed her right hand on your left arm and began to call out to you. "Alex, Alex, it is time to wake up sweetheart." Daddy joined in with mommy. "Alex, it's time to wake up son." You took a deep  breath and slowly began to open your eyes. I paid attention to your left side to see if you would stretch your arm or leg out but I didn't see any movement. The doctor entered the room to assess you. I stepped  off to the side but mommy stayed near. The doctor asked you a few questions to which you answered correctly. I counted the blessing of hearing your voice respond to him. Next the doctor asked if you could move your left arm. I began to internally pray as he asked, "Lord, please let it happen. Let my son move his left side." You lifted your left arm with some ease. Mommy smiled deeply and spoke out, "Great job Alex. Yaaaay". She laughed with tears of relief coming out of her eyes, I sighed in relief as well. Thank you Lord, thank you, I said internally. The doctor then lifted the blanket to check the movement of your left leg. Here is a video showing how well you did.

Alex's responses to the doctor

When I saw the smile on your face, my heart elated. Your smile is one of the best things about you. You are wild at heart son and your joy is an inspiration to so many, perhaps to none more than me. After seeing that you were doing well we got you breakfast. You were allowed to order any item off the menu. Your first selection was of course bacon and eggs. You also ordered some strawberries and yogurt. After eating a full meal, I asked how you were doing. "I feel good Dad" you said with a smile. But then you frowned and asked, "Where is my brother?" My heart broke as you asked for Christian, but it was mixed with joy in seeing how well you were recovering. Praise the Lord for that, praise Him. I asked you to give a thumbs up so I could take a picture and send it to everyone praying for you.

Alex giving a thumbs up

I wouldn't be surprised if over a thousand were lifting you up during this time. I need to make notable mention to Bob Collins, Russ Baley, and the Chapel staff and parishioners at McChord AFB (among others). Those people alone helped start a massive prayer chain that reached more people than we can know. 

As the morning went along, mommy and daddy wanted  to cuddle up with you in your bed, but we were not allowed to because of all the IV's that you still had. Mommy stayed seated on your left side and I was on your right. We watched some episodes of "Scooby Doo" and waited to get word that you would be moved from the ICU to immediate Care. Grandma Karen called and made plans to come and visit. I asked her to bring the Nintendo 3ds so that we could play "Super Mario Bros. 2" together. 

She showed up around 1pm with a smile on her face. You had fallen asleep again, but when she came in mommy and daddy woke you up. You were very happy to see her and grandma shared the same joy with you. You sure do mean a lot to that woman. Soon after grandma had arrived, we got word that you would be moved into Immediate Care. The nurses came in to remove any unnecessary IV's. It was painful for you but you were very brave about it.  Grandma stayed for a couple hours to love and comfort you before having to get back to work. She was sad that she had to go, but extremely happy to see how well you were doing. 

After moving you to Immediate Care, Grandma Sue showed up in the early evening. You were joyful to see her but even more elated when you saw your brother walk in. "Hi Alex", Christian said. "Christian!" you shouted. It was the loudest and strongest you had spoken since the surgery. Christian came over and leaned over your bed to give you a hug. You began to cry as you grabbed a hold of him. "I missed you so much brother." As the tears fell from your eyes, my heart swelled to see the love shared between you and your brother. You two did not let go of your hug for a good ten seconds. It was truly a heart felt moment that will cling to me forever.

We got permission from your nurse to travel to the play room in the Immediate Care area. Your brother tried to get you involved in an imagination game of building blocks, but you just weren't feeling up to it. You sat up on a small couch with mommy's support and rested your head on her arm. I asked Christian if he could help me tell you an imagination story. He was happy to help. We spotted some plastic toy dinosaurs. There was a  brontosaurus, pterodactyl and T-Rex involved in the story. The story went like this:

The poor brontosaurus was very hungry for some food but couldn't find any. His friend Pterodactyl showed up and decided to help brontosaurus. While flying around to find his friend food, T-Rex showed up and discovered the problem as well. T-Rex and brontosaurus were not friends, but T-Rex wanted to help anyway. Before pterodactyl came back with food, T-Rex found some first, but he had brought meat to brontosaurus. "I can't eat that" the brontosaurus said. Brontosaurus had to explain to T-Rex that he was a vegetarian. After finishing his explanation to T-Rex, pterodactyl showed up and told brontosaurus that he had found food. Brontosaurus and T-Rex followed pterodactyl to the trees where food for brontosaurus waited. Brontosaurus had his fill. Pterodactyl was happy to help his friend and T-Rex was happy to learn how he could help his friend brontosaurus. It was a great story, until I told you that T-Rex then ate Brontosaurus because he had become hungry from the adventure. You then told me that the story didn't end that way and created your own ending where brontosaurus, pterodactyl and T-Rex all remained friends.

After telling you the story, we traveled over to the sky bridge to watch some fireworks. Grandma Sue stayed with us after visiting hours to watch the show. We looked over the Willamette River and viewed multiple explosions of color along the landscape. It was a beautiful sight, but I spent most of my time looking down on you in your wheelchair and thanking God that you were still alive and recovering well. That was the most beautiful sight for me. 

We watched the celebration of freedom on the sky bridge for 15 minutes before travelling back to your room. We read the Bible together and said a prayer of thanks to God and His keeping our family together. It is by His hand that we remain one. Daddy got to cuddle up in the bed with you and sleep through the night. Mommy slept on the small bed in the back corner. 

The next day was an important one because your surgery would be assessed with an angiogram to ensure all of the growth was removed. Dr. Baird is one of the best brain surgeons in the U.S., so I was optimistically confident that no other surgeries would have to occur. But whether or not that was true would have to wait and be seen in the morning.

To Be Continued September 8, 2014

Interested in supporting the author of this blog? You can do so by purchasing his book, "The Son Who Chases the Father" found at chasethefather.com 

Joshua Zarzana can also be found on Facebook or Twitter

Thank you for reading.