Another Update from Grandma Cindy

We are cautiously optimistic of Porter’s progress. No seizures for the past 48 hours so the doctors’ have started to slowly taper down his medication. Hopefully the situation will hold and they can decrease it even more. Last evening as Rich and I visited, he was quite squirmy and at one point stretched his arms out, opened his eyes (first time I had seen that) and yawned as if saying: “…ah- what’s going on?”

Grandpa and Grandma Bandley came up and were able to see Porter for the first time. Brinley visited again and brought Porter a beautiful picture that she had created and sang him a little song.

Many, many tests are still pending: blood, urine, MRI, EEG etc. The pediatric neurologist told us that we may never know why these seizures started- “but we will give you our best guess after all the tests are back.”  He also said that progress is very slow- “baby-steps” were his exact words.

Several funny moments during this whole thing:

Abby and Thom hadn’t settled on the baby’s name that first day and both decided to sleep on it. They were startled in the middle of the night by Dr. Weipert’s loud knock on the door telling them in a business like fashion that their baby was in trouble and he needed to talk to them about it. Before he proceeded with the information he asked, “What is the baby’s name?” Abby responded that they were thinking about Porter or Liam but hadn’t made the decision yet. Dr. Weipert said: “Porter is a good name- I'll call him Porter.” So from that moment on, whenever he returned to their room to give them an update, he would say:

                “Porter is still not good.”

                “Porter needs to go to ICU.”

                “You need to sign this for Porter.”

So I guess we can attribute the final decision of Porter’s name to Dr. Weipert!

If you know Rich Tullis, you know that he is a go, go, go guy. If he is home for the day and every minute is not filled with some activity, task or something that mean PROGRESSION, the WHOLE day is wasted!  So here he is, day after day patiently waiting, watching, wondering, and pondering in Primary Children’s Medical Center. He is impressed with the people and the skills and is putting his trust in the medical people to take care of his little 5-day old grandson.

One evening after visiting little Porter he came out into the waiting area and said, “Is giving medicine and doing paperwork all the nurses do back there?” I answered no- then proceeded to tell them all the stuff they were doing in a 12 hour shift. After hearing this he said, “Okay, with what you just told me, now they have at least have 8 hours to go….what else do they do? I mean, c’mon, let’s get going with figuring out what is wrong with Porter.”

I explained that it takes time and that answers don’t come very fast. At this point, he is thinking and admits that yes- he is just wants things to move quicker and have answers so that Abby & Thom can take Porter home….but he still doesn’t understand what they are doing all day. Finally, I say, “Rich, what do you want them to do?” He replied, “Well- at a minimum, read him a story or something!”

Abby and Thomas are very grateful for the continued prayers and support and feel so much love from all of you.