Yesterday morning, at 9:15 am changed our day completly. Our adoption agency contact (I'll refer to as Madison) in Colombia and her helper arrived at our apartment around this time. She arrived and said unfortunately she doesn't have good news. She had found out that around 3 am Cruz had an excessive amount of fluids due to an infection near his pancreas that they needed to drain. At this moment we were left with some very challenging decisions that we were going to have to make. And with some answers unknown, and communication with the local hospital lacking, we prayed for some additional direction. It's so sad, because they said as of Friday Cruz was still dancing to music and always carried the birthday card we sent him, and our family book with photos, and showed it to everyone that he met, showing them, "This is my dad and mom and my family".
We needed to get some food for our family, so we visited a local super market and was going to visit a local market with Madison. It was fun exploring the different fruits and cultured food as the kids evaluated what they would try or not attempt to eat :) During our visit to the supermarket, Madison was in communication with the nurse from the orphanage who was going in to visit with Cruz at the hospital. She left us know Cruz was being transferred and thought we could probably have communication with the Doctor if we arrived at the hospital.
Instead of going to the market, we took our food home to our apartment and we left to go to the hospital. In Colombia, there are public hospitals and private hospitals. If we would need assistance in Colombia we would go to a private hospital as they are much better and more similar to the hospitals in the United States. The hospital that Cruz is in, is a public hospital which isn't very good or clean. We arrive at the front door of the hospital around 11:30 am of where are son currently resides in the ICU (normal visiting hours is from 11am - 12 noon and from 4pm- 5 pm) . The security guards at the front doors say we are not allowed to go in the hospital unless he has instructions from the doctor in the hospital to do so. We were in touch with the nurse from the orphanage who was in the hospital and she said the Doctor was not able to give permission yet as Cruz has just arrived in the ICU and he was in working on evaluating him. So the nurse said to stay near by and she will try to catch the Doctor on the way out from the room. It continued to become very emotional as we didn't know if it would be a couple minutes or several hours, but knowing that we traveled all this and were only a few steps away from Cruz was becoming very real.
We decided to walk and visit a local coffee shop. We waited and still no word from the hospital to allow us to come in. The nurse from the orphanage left Cruz and the hospital and came out to visit us at the Coffee shop. She gave us an update that Cruz was some what stable but not doing very well. He has been sedated for a while and they needed to intubate Cruz to assist with his breathing so that his body can heal and that he doesn't feel the pain or become stressed. They say His pancreas is very unstable and needs time to heal.
We were not able to get into the hospital at this time, but they said if we come back at 4 pm we could meet with the doctor for an update. So we schedule to have CHOP doctor from PA on a conference call during this time. We went back to the apartment to get some food and I was going to stay back at the apartment with the kids and Kate and Madison would just return to the hospital at 4pm.
Kate traveled back to the hospital and was able to get into the hospital and go up to he 5th floor which is the level Cruz was on. The Doctor was very nice and was a Christian and said he is praying for our little guy but they only received a brief minute update of the information we already had and didn't have time to call our doctor at CHOP, but they said they could give another update at 5 pm. The doctor did inform Kate that Cruz had necrotizing pancreatitis, and he is very concerned for him. At ultimate health and if all goes well, Cruz will need to be sedated for another 10 days and will need at least 3 - 4 weeks to recover bearing he does not get any other infection during his healing process.
Now Kate is only a few feet away from Cruz's door but due to some legal reasons with the adoption, we were advised not to see him in person. This was truly heartbreaking for Kate, as all she wanted to do was go lay her hands on our little guy, and pray for him, just as any mother or parent would want to do. So as she stood in the hospital hallway, and viewed the dirty floors, broken moldings and pealing paint, she prayed for Cruz. Madison was able to go into Cruz's room to visit him and pray for him. Being sedated he is obviously sleeping however, she said he looked peaceful but was very cold as they continued to sanitize his current tubes and machines from the area he just came from. Within a few minutes, they requested Madison to come back out and said that visit was long enough. 5:15 pm came and we did not receive any additional update from the Doctors.
As we discuss our plans and pray about the decisions we have to make, we are advised by Madison and the orphanage to return home until Cruz becomes more stable.
So as of last night, we are preparing a flight home back home, as we are leaving a part of our heart in Bogota. At this moment we realize, there is nothing we can do or change for Cruz, other than continue to pray for him for a strong recovery.
Today, we have a meeting scheduled with the orphanage. We are planning to go to the orphanage and meet with the care givers and orphanage owner so we can see where Cruz's orphanage is and meet the people. We will keep you posted as things progress.
Thanks to everyone for all there prayers and support during this difficult time!
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