Pray For Jonah

Jonah is a trooper! We are so thankful for Jonah and the the huge blessing he is in our life. His surgery went well and everything is looking good. Fortunately the only thing that was wrong was the catheter not working, and that is now fixed. We still have to be cautious that his shunt doesn’t get infected after the surgery so Jonah still needs prayer! : ) The average shunt revision is four every ten years.

Our NS told us to basically get use to this, and that this is going to be our life. She wants us to be prepared. But it is still very scary. Doing any kind of brain surgery is never just a routine procedure. I don’t know if this will ever get any easier for us to wrap our heads around. But I do know that we will continue to invite God into our lives during the good times and the hard times. God doesn’t promise a life with out pain and hardship but He does promise to be with us, to walk alongside of us during these difficult times. God also calls us to be him in the flesh by offering support and love to the people around us. And we want to thank all the people who have been there for us and walked alongside of us during all of this. For showing Jesus to us and reminding us that he is right here with us.

This is going to be a lifelong journey and we will continue to reach out and ask for prayers for Jonah and our family. But we want to share our prayers and support as well. We will be opening prayforjonah.com up for others with needs for support and prayer. We get a decent amount of traffic from people searching on the internet for prayer and support and people also looking for a need to pray about.

Surgery went well! The catheter that goes into the brain from the shunt wasn’t working. Everything else looks  good. They replaced the catheter and Jonah is doing great! 2 Brain surgeries in your first 7 months of life has to be a little rough. Jonah is a trooper. Thank you Jesus for Jonah and the blessing he is to us! Thank you to everyone who lifted Jonah up in prayer. We are extremely blessed to be surrounded by such great people.

Jonah is still coming out of anesthesia and can still use prayer. His is sitting in his moms arms and you can see the peace on his face.

Last night was a really long night! Jonah went to sleep around 9am and woke up every 30 minutes or less crying. We thought it could be him teething and or a belly ache but his eyes also seem to be a little lazy. It is possible that it could be his shunt. The more we talked about it this morning, we decided that were better to play it safe and talk to the NS. She wants us to bring him in for a scan. The other problem is that Jonahs Neurosurgeon is on bed rest because she is due to have a baby and she has high blood pressure. We really like her and we don’t want anyone else doing a shunt revision besides her.

All that to say this is all a little unnerving for us and we would really appreciate your prayers!! So would Jonah!

Wow! We are so blessed! We went to the doctors for Jonahs CT scan today and the appointment could not have been better! The day Jonah was born, they did an ultra sound and saw that there was no brain mass because of the fluid build up. Well today, the CT scan showed a fully developed brain. We can not express how grateful we are for everyone’s prayer and support! We had thousands of people praying for Jonah from all over the world and we know that God has heard our prayer and made our son whole! Thank you Jesus!

Love, Patrick and Kelsey!

The pictures below are not from Jonah, but they show exactly the difference in what Jonahs brain looked like the day he was born, and today! If you look at the ultra sound you can see how large to ventricles are becasue of the amount of fluid in them, which means the fluid is there and not the brain.

On August 17th around 9:30am Jonah Patrick Allen came into this world kicking and screaming weighing 6lbs 7ounces. Let me tell you, the first time you hear your sweet baby cry it will melt your heart. That was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard.
After we got to hold him for just a brief moment, Jonah was taken off to the NICU, and not much later taken into surgery. He ended up spending over 3 weeks in the hospital. The biggest issue we had while we were in the hospital was getting him to eat on his own, in retrospect that was the least of our worries considering all of the fears we were facing during the pregnancy. At about 3 weeks Jonahs eating light bulb turned on and he started eating everything on his own. Two days later we were able to take him home.

The doctors said that while they can not be 100% certain, he will most likely NOT have any long term disabilities, which is very different from the first diagnosis we received in the beginning (that Doctor made it sound like a death sentence).

Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH for all of your prayers! I think we all made a loud noise in heaven! besides being tired from having a newborn baby we are all doing very well at home. We are very paranoid at any and every little thing he does or doesn’t do, I mean who can blame us? but over all Jonah is a healthy little baby boy and he is our proof the God still performs miracles, the odds were against him but God never let go of him or us. He has answered our prayers!

<3 Kelsey, Patrick & Jonah

We were nervous about the shunt and fluid leaking out but it turns out, that it nothing to be worried about. Some shunts take a little bit of time to create a good seal which will be formed through scar tissue and such. The NS said it is nothing to be worried about but to keep an eye on it.

Thanks for everyone’s prayers!

Jonah has been here for almost two weeks. He is still in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit until he can take all of his feedings through breast feeding or a bottle. He still is needing a little over half of his feedings through a tube that goes through his nose to his stomach. The nurses tell us, that most babies have a light turn on and they just start taking all of there food.

He is  our little miracle baby. Things are going very well for him. He will have his check up with the nuero surgeon in a few weeks and than he will have an MRI in a few months to see how his brain is developing. Please continue to pray for Jonah. Thank you so much for you continued prayers for our little baby!

What a last few days these have been! Being able to hold Jonah and feed him and watch him laying in Kelsey’s arms has been one of the most rewarding times in my life. Jonah is doing well. He’s pooping, peeing, breathing. He has been put in the graduate nursery which is super great. The shunt that was put in is really helping with the extra fluid in his head. He still needs some care. We can not take him home until he is gaining weight and he is holding his own temperature up and his Jaundice is gone. Yes, I didn’t mention that yet, but yeah he has Jaundice, which if your not familiar with it, it is not a big deal.

We are very blessed to have Jonah in our lives and the staff at the hospital taking care of him. And we have been very blessed by the amazing support we have recieved from everyone.

There was a little boy in NICU that came in that is 24 weeks gestation. He is so tiny. Kelsey and  I have been praying for this little boy named Landon and his family when we pray Jonah and we wanted to ask people to be praying for this little boy and his mom and dad and the rest of the family. And please continue to pray for Jonah and Kelsey. Pray for a speedy and healthy recovery for Kelsey and Jonah, they both had very serious surgery. Please continue to pray for Jonahs overall healing and health and development. And please add Landon to the list! Thank you all for your support and prayers!

If any of this does not make sense I apologize, I haven’t slept in the last four days but a wink here and there so I’m a little delirious. But I wanted to give an update.

Patrick