Update. Sorry for not posting sooner. Josh's cold wasn't getting better and on Saturday his BP and Pulse was very high. Had home health come over and that is when he said his lungs didn't sound clear anymore and he should be seen. Well he wasn't breathing very well and need more and more O2, so we took him to the ER. They started him on a full 15l of O2 and was able to get him stable on 6-8l. He does have pneumonia and therefore he was admitted. Yesterday am his Pulse was getting up in the 160's it had been stable in the 130-140's. So they moved him to the ICU for better one on one care and better monitoring. Breathing treatments every 4hrs. A BiPAP available for aid in breathing. A good doctor and a jerk for a doctor.... it's all craziness. Andrew stayed with Josh and I here at the hospital last night. It was sweet. We shared the CHAIR! Who needs sleep anyway? The 3yo does and he got some. :) Because he has to get IV's replaced every so many days and new ones added the decision was made today to put in a pick line. Better access and fewer pokes. SO. Not to long after that was put in Josh was sitting up on the side which is where he is most comfortable and is able to sleep. ummm....where was I at??? OH okay so he was sitting there and actually eating a little bit of lunch (Abby's) and he was laying back some, pulled himself up where he was sitting up more and all of the sudden the nurse came in, I looked at his stats and his HR (heart rate) was 212!!! Holy moly! SO they tried to get him to self regulate...shock his heart by coughing or bearing down. It didn't work. So then they went to medication. It did work after a period of time. He was dosed up with Morphine and was able to rest a little bit. Then at around 7:30 it happened again! This time his HR was in the 190's and stayed. Didn't go down with anything aid. Crash cart was in the hall waiting for use. Weird feeling. FINALLY with medication it came down. AMEN! I think it was the pic line that was causeing the tachycardia. If the line is in to far it can tickle the right atrium and care the tachy. So the line was pulled out about 2cm. So far it hasn't happened again. He is now laying back down in bed and getting read to put the bipap/cpap mask on. Pray for a good nights rest for the both of us :) The care here and been reall good. Better then I've expected. Never judge a book by it's cover. Or by the stories you hear from other. Experience for yourself but with precautions. He did have a EKG done after the first "attack" and a Echo after the second one. His heart looks PERFECT! The just took some blood to perform a D-dimer to check to see if there is any fluid around his heart. Not that I think about it doesn't that test check for blood clots?? I asked the nurse if that would have shown up on the echo (yes) she said no. So I am not sure she knew what I was asking. Anyway. The echo was normal so no fluid around the heart. Right? We'll see what happens during the night. Wait it is during the night. No wonder I am tired. I was going to go home and sleep in my own bed ALL night tonight. Well went to dinner at Erick and Sharla's got done and got a call to come bake to my new home. I realized that today was the last day of the month and I need to goto the store and pick up some WIC for Joshy and got there and realized I had already gotten all of my WIC and the vouchers I had were actuall ones form August that I didn't use. So I picked up some of my favorite guys (Ben and Jerry) some brownie bites, snickers, chocolate milk oh and some healthy foods for my kids. :o It's been a loooong week. And now I feel like I am rambling. Night.



d dymer

Wow I don't know about any of you but I am already tired of the cough and cold season. I feel like I've been sick most of the summer. I was mostly over the yuck I had and Josh came down with it. Now I have got it back again. Not as bad as the last time but coughing and lots of mucous. Josh is pretty sick. :( The home health nurse came out on Monday and listen to his lungs and check his vitals. Another nurse is coming back out this morning to check his lungs again. His lung volume is low and so trying to get a good cough just isn't happening. Plus his ribs hurt from coughing added to the pain from the tumors on his ribs. It just isn't a pretty picture. SO. We'll see. Radiation we well in Medford last week. We had a bit of a scare Thursday night. Josh's right arm was really hurting. He said it felt like the left one did before it broke, so I called the boys in blue because I wasn't going to be the one to transport him and cause his arm to break if that is in fact what was happening. When it was all said and done everything is fine. The x-rays showed the weakening of the bone which we knew of. We came home on Friday. Friday we did get the van I was talking about in the previous blog. Wait a minute. I just realized I already told you about our Medford trip... oh well :) So about the van. We are still taking donations. There is going to be a fundraiser on I believe October 30th. I'll keep you posted on that.

Oh :) I forgot to tell you ...
We are going to Medford tomorrow evening to be there for Radiation consult and treatment on Thursday. We'll be there all day and then home Friday morning. Josh is back on his chemo and isn't doing bad. His arm is healing REALLY quick such a blessing. He has used it a little bit but not too much. He isn't using his right arm very much in hopes of protecting it from breaking. The radiation oncologist is going to radiate both arms and the left femur. I BIG dose. Because it's limbs that are recieving the radiation he shouldn't have many side effects. Hooray!

I have been sick again for the last week. Started with a sore throat and then the cough started hours later. I've hacked all week. Thank goodness for Albuterol breating treatments! Finally went to the doc and everything.... x-ray, blood work, lungs all look/sound good. Finally I yesterday I started feeling like a human again. So good in fact I rearranged my living room....followed by a breathing treatment. :) Today a little better. Now the boys both have a runny nose and Andrew is coughing. Poor guys! Josh praise Jesus has not gotten this yukcy bug.
Andrew is having a great time at school. This morning he told me that he just needed to take a BIG rest before he could goto school. And last week he told me he was sick and couldn't go. HUH we still have 13years to go! Once he gets there he is fine. After I took him this morning I came home and told Josh that we are very blessed with a 3yo who gets to school gives his mom a hug and I can say see ya in a while and he's like ok buy mom. Instead of the little boy who is begging his mom to take him home crying not to leave him. I am lucky I am not that mom. I'd be like ok honey we'll go home. :) Have a very blessed day!

We are asking for your help! Josh and I have come to the conclusion that instead of buying a car it makes the most sense for our situation to get a conversion van. Josh's mom and dad have done all of the work and found a van here in town that would be perfect for us.

Wheelchair Conversion Van - $22000 (Access Conversion, Klamath Falls, OR)

"03 Chrysler T&C Van, with the conversions for wheelchair accessibility and transfer to driver seat. Color: Fire Red. Mileage: 51,500 Engine: 3.8 V6 Automatic All Options included: Leather Interior, heated seats, 5-disk changer, power seats, 3zone heat & air, cruise, steering wheel controls, auto headlight system, electric doors, roof rack, dual side sliding doors, passenger side air bags, power mirrors, low profile tires, IMS conversion, drop floor, in floor ramp, kneel system, magnetic entry, automatic 4 pt restraint with sure lock/manual tie down, transfer drivers seat, hand controls (can be removed or driven like regular) back up camera in rear view mirror, automatic start, set of tire chains, no spare tire mount. Very clean less than normal wear. This is a private sale but Vehicle is in Klamath Falls.

As you can see the price of this van is a lot! But when you talk about all the money it takes to make it wheelchair accessable it makes sense. However Shelly has talked to the owner and she is willing to drop the price to 16,000. Perfect! This is where you all come in. We NEED help in purchasing this van. If God lays it upon your heart to help out, even if it's something small. you can make any contributions to our church; Living Faith Fellowship in Klamath Falls and recieve a tax right off. Thanks you for all of your prays over the last few months. Even over the last year. I realized that a year ago today was the day my doctor told me I had to stop working untill Joshuah was born. I can't believe it's been almost a year since I went into the hospital. God has been so gracious and blessed us with so much. This is just another blessing in our lives!

After I read the last post I realized that it was in third person.... Josh posted it and wrote it like I wrote it! SO just so you are all aware he is the one the took the time to update you all. We all have a different perspective on the situation but Josh put it pretty good. Lots of prayers. God is good all the time!!! And he will keep carrying us through these rough times.

The bone scan showed another tumor in Josh's right arm almost in the same spot as the one that broke in his left arm. this tumor is not as bad as the other arm. it has not weakened the arm as much, but it could still break easily. Josh has a brace he wears on it to hopefully help keep it more safe and he cant use his arm like before, so its immobile a lot of the time.

Meanwhile his other arm continues to heal, and he is moving it more all the time. he has it sling most of the time, and then loosens it so he can move it around. it swells and then the swelling goes down with use, but overall the swelling is going down. We work hard to keep it safe and hurt free when we move in bed, or get out of bed.

We have a lift the we used today for the first time. It work pretty good to lift josh out of his bed and set him in his chair. We are thinking about other ways to use it for his benefit.

The bone scan also revealed another tumor in the bone of the left femur that has the capacity to weaken the bone, but it will have to grow pretty good and hard before it would be a problem.

In conclusion, the biggest problem he faces is the medical field, the doctors are starting to want to fight josh on what they will do for him. They keep wanting him to dope up on high morphine, lay in bed, catch a cold , and die. His body is in bad shape, but not bad enough to do what they want.
As sick as he is we believe we have a long time to go before it gets to that point.

Today has been a busy day. Josh's pain isn't as bad as it was yesterday. They have decreased the amount of morphine he is allowed to have, and keeping it under control. He had a bone scan this afternoon to see if there is any bone weakening anywhere else. They will be looking to see if there are any areas that need to be stabilized before another break happens. I was able to be in while they did the test. It was very fascinating. One of the most interesting test I have seen. I was able to see the cancer through out his body. Once the radiologist reads the scan and lets us know I'll post another blog to let you know what it showed. Radiation will be done on his left arm where the surgery was. The radiation oncologist said that he would only need one treatment and it can be done here in K. Falls instead of driving to Medford. Amen! The radiation will kill the cancer cells that are still in the area. Killing the cells will aid in the healing of the bone. It seems that if Josh does the exercises he has been given his arm will recover nicely with full use. Hooray!