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The Adventures of
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[ Introduction | In This Episode | The Ethan Chronicles | Hero Profile | Just the Pics | Tributes to Our Hero]
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The Adventures of
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(If you prefer you can skip my light-hearted attempt at the super-hero storyline, and jump directly to the "real world" version)
Ethan made the final escape from his enemies at 10:15 PM on Tuesday, January 4, 2000. Unfortunately, in order for him to escape he had to cut off all physical contact with his family and friends. As any true hero, he will never desert those of us who love him, but from now on he will have to communicate with us using only his powers of spiritual telepathy. Never fear, EthanMan will always be with us.
Stay tuned for more of the action-packed Adventures of EthanMan leading up to his final escape!
(I will eventually fill-in the gaps in this section again after things settle down around here.)
Monday and Tuesday, the 27th & 28th, were fairly quiet days spent at home. Wednesday the 29th however proved to be quite the opposite. Ethan said good-bye to Emma around 6:30 in the morning, before she left to go back to California. The rest of the morning, and throughout the day, Ethan had to compete with his older brother for his spot at the center of attention as Trevor generated some excitement of his own (which we won't go into here).
Not to be outdone, Ethan decided his regularly scheduled doctor visit for that afternoon was not enough. We had been having progressive trouble with leakage around the base of his G-tube for the past couple of days, so we called Dr. Adolph for an appointment to have Ethan's original tube replaced with a "button." Of course Dr. Adolph was up to his ears in scheduled surgeries at Ochsner all day, but he managed to squeeze us in. Janine and I certainly could have done without watching Dr. Adolph "yank" the old tube out and "pop" the button in, but after it was all over it was nice to have just a little cap over that space instead of a hose hanging off of his tummy.
We went from Ochsner to see Dr. Babin for Ethan's regularly scheduled six-week pediatrician visit. He was still none too happy about his G-tube being switched out, so you can imagine how much he enjoyed being stripped down and put on the cold hard scale and measuring board. After six weeks he weighed in a whole pound over his birth weight at seven pounds, nine ounces, and measured 20 1/4 inches long. Amazingly, with all the screaming Ethan did between both of his doctor visits, at the end of the day we realized that he had had no apnea spells all day long-- the first day since he started having them in the hospital.
Thursday night Ethan made his first trip to everyone's favorite restaurant, Pancho's, with his Mom & Dad, Grandma & Papa, Mamaw & Papa Jim, and Trevor. Friday brought New Year's Eve and a visit from Ethan's Aunt Cynthia, Dana & David. We all rang in the new year with a pay-per-view O(+> concert, fireworks in the front yard and, of course, champagne at midnight (Moet & Chandon, thanks to Cynthia). Ethan toasted us with the syringe from his midnight feeding. On Saturday, the first day of the last year of the second millenium, Ethan finally said good-bye to his brother, as Trevor prepared to return to California. Ethan went to church again with us on Sunday the 2nd, joining us for the first Communion of the year 2000 and for his official recognition by Brother Tom, a slightly delayed follow-up on his baptism. Later that afternoon he cruised the French Quarter with parents and both sets of grandparents, and capped off the day with dinner at Mike Anderson's in Metairie.
Over the course of the week, we increased Ethan's feeding volume to 4.5 ounces, had the aforementioned trouble with his G-tube leaking, and suffered through more sleepless nights, which may have been due to nothing more than "normal" colic.
Ethan had a particularly bad day Monday the 3rd, fussing and crying continuously throughout the whole day and night. On the morning of Tuesday the 4th, after we took his grandparents to the airport for them to fly back home to Nevada, we made a doctor's appointment for later that morning. We discovered that Ethan had good cause to be so upset the previous day, because he had an infection in both ears. The doctors prescribed Augmentin to treat the infection, and Tylenol with Codeine to ease Ethan's pain.
We began giving Ethan the medications with his noon feeding. The good news is that the medicine did ease his pain and he rested well all afternoon, free of the discomfort that had plagued him before. Unfortunately the Codeine also depressed his respiratory system, and although he had not had any apnea spells Sunday or Monday, he had 14 between 1:00 and 10:00 PM. Nevertheless we had a pleasant evening, just the three of us eating dinner and watching television. His fifteenth apnea episode began at 10:11 PM. He began to recover from it at 10:15, taking a few breaths, but stopped again and never recovered. We realized that he was not going to recover after 10 minutes of him not breathing, but waited until 10:45 to call our Hospice nurse.
We have arranged for the following schedule of services for family and friends:
| Service | Day | Time | Place |
| Wake/Visitation | Thursday, January 6, 2000 |
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (CST) |
St. Charles United Methodist Church 1905 Ormond Boulevard Destrehan, Louisiana 504-764-8292 |
| Wake/Visitation | Friday, January 7, 2000 |
10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (CST) |
St. Charles United Methodist Church 1905 Ormond Boulevard Destrehan, Louisiana 504-764-8292 |
| Funeral Service | Friday, January 7, 2000 |
11:00 AM (CST) |
St. Charles United Methodist Church 1905 Ormond Boulevard Destrehan, Louisiana 504-764-8292 |
| Burial | Friday, January 7, 2000 |
following Funeral Service |
Green Oaks Memorial Park 9595 Florida Boulevard Baton Rouge, Louisiana 225-925-5331 |
| Memorial Service | Friday, January 7, 2000 |
11:00 AM (PST) |
Almaden Hills United Methodist Church 1200 Blossom Hill Road San Jose, California 408-269-2345 |