Cats, Cops, and Critical Care

Well do we have a story to tell. Today while we were taking our cousins, Kim and Robert Jones, daughter Sarah home we stopped at a red light on a major 6 lane road. A small cat jumped out of the median in front of us trying to cross the road. We waited but the light turned green and other cars started to go. She was very frightened and ran under our car. Now we were stuck not able to move. I got out of the van to see what I could do and she jumped into my arms! I am allergic but I could not leave her there to surely die so I put her in the van. I asked Sarah to hold her (she owns a cat) but she yelled that the cat might have rabies and didn't want to touch it. Now my little ones are freaking out ( the cat was fine just frightened) and the light turned red again. I calmed the children (Sarah included) and we went to 2 animal hospitals looking for help to keep this cat off the street. Unbeknownst to us the driver on the road behind us had dialed 911 and told the police we hit the cat and it was animal cruelty. Well both hospitals were closed so we decided to find a policeman to help us and when we did we got a shock, they were looking for us! After we assured him the cat was fine he said he would lead us to the local animal shelter. As we followed him another police car followed us. Talk about your low speed chase! Hahaha When we got the the shelter they came running out and were very glad to see a healthy cat not a run over one. We took her in and signed her in and they even remembered us because our older beagle Misty got out and they brought her home when Gordon first got to Texas. When I mentioned we were the family with the old beagle that snored they said - you are the people from Nebraska. Apparently Misty made quite an impression that day. Anyway thanks to the fact we had the cat and could show she was not injured we did not face animal cruelty charges. Also we are now friends of the Sugarland police department and the animal shelter. If you are in Texas there is a pretty grey cat looking for a home. Sweet and not afraid of strangers.

Those of you that know me know that while this story may seem far fetched it is the kind of thing that happens to us all the time and now we can start to feel at home in Texas! Also in case you are wondering while my arms swelled up I did not have any breathing problems so we where blessed for helping a defenseless animal and we did eventually get Sarah home.

Now onto other news. We were supposed to close on our house Thursday but the paperwork is not finished so it may not happen till Friday morning. I will get you the address and phone next week, it may be Tuesday before the hook ups are complete. Also we had our first appointment at MD Anderson and it was great! They really knew what they were talking about and the are taking great care of us. We have an MRI on Friday and then we will be hospitalized on Tuesday for our inpatient chemo. I was really impressed that with all the questions I threw at the doctor he knew all the answers without having to look and was not worried about anything going on, just gave us a plan to handle things. I will have lots more info when we are at the hospital Tuesday but we did learn that Josh will not be going to school this year. I don't know exactly what the plan is for him, it could include homebound instruction or even online school, but we will get that all set next week. They say that it is too much for them to try to get to school with unstable counts and the weakness the chemo brings. Every cycle will be harder on his system so we will go to plan B. (this is another thing Nebraska was wrong about) Faced with the school uniform Josh was not too sad to stay home and is excited about learning on the computer. All in all things seem to be falling into place so we are excited about what happened today and are feeling better about being here. God Bless you and I am sure your prayers are making a difference so thank you and keep it up, we pray for you too.

Still Waiting

I guess I need to post something - looking at the number of people checking the site. I wish I had some answers or something good to say right now. We are in Texas, we are hoping to close on a house this Thursday. Once we are done with closing I will post our address and phone numbers. We went to church on Sunday and the ward seemed very nice and it was very good to be somewhere familar. HOWEVER,,,, we still don't have an appointment with MD Anderson. They will not even make one without the insurance. We have a number now but that will not be in the computer for 3 days and so we have to wait. I do not think we could cut this any closer. Also, poor Rachel has been very sick since Friday. She started with a 103.8 fever that would not break with Motrin or Tylenol and then got very bad diarrea. The fever is down now but not going away and she can't keep anything in her system for more than 20 minutes. I am trying to get her to a pediatrician but the other kids insurance is not ready yet either. Texas is alot harder to deal with. Even though the kids insurance is a sure thing Texas wants us to fill out a bunch of forms anyway and they mailed them so we have to wait for them to arrive and fill them out and get them back. I am hoping we can fax them. Also we got the kids registered for school and found out today that they need special clothes. It is not a uniform per say but might as well be so we have to buy all new pants and shirts. The problem is that they must be solid colored and the shirts have a collar. You would not believe it but every pair of pants Miriam has has either a pattern or design on it. And none of them has plain shirts with collars so I guess I have to shop and get new clothes.
It will be better when we are in our own home and settled in a routine but right now we are just trying to keep anyone else from getting sick and get Josh in for treatment before we are outside of the protocol margins. Everything is very different here and I just am having a hard time having a good attitude. We all know who needs to fix that! Luckily, Josh has not gotten sick and while the kids are bored they are doing ok. (they did break a window but we fixed it)

Catch Us If You Can

Ok, the last comment on the blog was about something I haven't posted yet! Things are wacky and I need to catch up. Lets see,,,,,,Oh yea, We sold our house in Nebraska. 4 days on the market and 2 showings. It is a miracle and we can't wait to be together again. The trick to the sale is that we have to be out by next weekend. SO off we go and on to Texas. Before you ask, we do not have a home there yet and are still looking. We will keep you posted as it unfolds. Now, on to more important matters, Josh. He is struggling right now. He is well but for some reason he just can't keep his numbers up. His count is 340 - even with the shots we have started. I give him a shot in his thigh every evening to help his body produce white blood cells but so far it is not good. His count was 1350 when we started the shots so the fact that it fell is disappointing. Also we have a new problem. His Hemocrit (I have no idea if that is spelled right) has dropped to 8. That is very dangerous and so yesterday they gave him a pint of blood. The doctors say this is fairly normal but the truth is it scared me to death. It was frightening to see him hooked up to the blood. Normally when he is on an IV I help if it beeps but I didn't even want to touch it. (eventually I did) I think that most days I fool myself into thinking he is ok and not that sick but seeing him like that means I can't avoid the truth. Also he is very weak and tired at home and I feel bad for him. We tried to go swimming but he could not make it across the pool to earn a wristband to get to go down the slide and was very sad about it. Also he is not able to gain any weight and is so thin he can't maintain his body temp so he was cold in the water and we had to leave. (please do not give suggestions for how to help him eat - we are already doing everything we can) I just do not know if he will make it to school this fall. If he doesn't it will be a blow to him. Also, I feel so bad for the other kids. Our world is small now, we used to go out and do things but now we just sit at home. I felt so bad telling them to get out of the pool 15 minutes after we got in so we could take him home. They are very good to him and never make him feel bad but that doesn't mean it is easy for them. We used to go on walks alot but that doesn't happen either. We are going back to the doctor on Monday to check his counts again. Please pray they are up, the doctors think they might be and they have to be or I don't know how we are going to travel. I wish I could be excited about this move but everything worries me now and I am just praying we get there in one piece.
Before I go I should list the things I am glad about so here it goes:

1. We are all healthy (you know what I mean)

2. Our house sold here in Nebraska

3. We will be together soon.

4. Josh did get to go to camp and enjoyed it.

5. Miriam and Teddy went to day camp for a week each.

6. Rachel is potty trained (not at night)

7. My vegetable garden is over grown with vegetables.

8. Our friends always seem to know when we need them (ok that isn't so great - we are leaving them)

9. Gordon and I have been bowling this summer and our team is in 2nd place.

10. Texas will be better for Joshua. ( and hopefully good for the rest of us!)


As Always, you are in our prayers. Pray for good counts and a safe journey................Thank you all.

Summer Fun

Here is a photo journal of Joshua's Camp CoHoLo:
Josh's group (He is in the back, middle)

Being silly !

Joshua in the red swim trunks.

Ready for the dance. This was his favorite part and the older girls thought he was something else asking him to dance.

With his nurse from the hospital.

Off the high dive! With a lot of coaxing, he refused to get down once he climbed the stairs, he did it.

Summer fun!

Camp and Packing

Well, things are settling down. Rachel's foot is almost healed. Dorothy ended up with Fifth's disease and it is gone now. Josh is off at camp and hopefully having alot of fun He will be back on Wednesday and my next post will have all his adventures. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we are busy putting everything we own into boxes. I make boxes and fill boxes and then seal boxes. When they are done Gordon moves the boxes into the garage. It is a working, if not old, system. We are having a yard sale on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and selling everything we can. Some things are sad but we have to cut back to fit on one truck this time. We are selling our air hockey table and our patio furniture and yes, the piano. It is older and these moves are really hard on it so we decided it would not make the trip this time. Last time we moved it was fun, kind of an adventure, but this time it is more sad and hard to let go of these things but I keep telling the kids, it is just stuff and we are going to be fine. Gordon's job is a for sure and he has to start work on the 4th of August. That means the kids and I will be on our own till the house sells so pray that is quickly. We have very aggressive realestate agents and have priced it low so we are very hopeful. Anyway, I promised I would post when things got better but since I am not sure when that will actually be I figured I had better let you know that the kids are ok and we are moving forward. (no pun intended) We are praying your families are doing well............

I Am Not Sure What to Call This!

Well, I am not sure what to say. Joshua is home and sore and tired but ok for now. His hemoglobin is very low and they are going to check it on Monday. If it isn't better they will give him a transfusion. I don't know if I should be worried or not. Right now we are more worried about Rachel. She has a bug bite that is infected. We took her to the emergency room and they drew a line around the infection about 1/4 of an inch away from it. They said if the infection reached the line to start antibiotics. Well by morning it was 1/4 of an inch past the line and we started the antibiotics. If it does not improve we will have to take her in for IV antibiotics and be in the hospital. Also Dorothy isrunning a fever and I don't even know what that is. So for now we are just holding on and trying to keep together. I will post when things get better...............

Caught by Surprise!

Well things are going as usual here. Last night Josh had emergency surgery. He is doing ok this morning so let me tell you what happened.......Joshua's counts have been very low, that means that he can not fight infection and we need to watch him closely. These kids get fever and they have to put them on antibiotics so we have to watch for signs. Yesterday Josh was droopy and seemed down. I checked his temp after lunch and it was ok but I kept an eye on him. After that he told me his tummy hurt, but not anything specific. By about 5pm he started throwing up and he had a temp of 99.5. I called the doctor and they said take him in to get his counts and a culture to see if he needed antibiotics. We got to the emergency room and the doctor felt his abdomen and ordered a liver panel. That alarmed me a little but we waited for the labs and got an xray. Then the doctor came in and said his labs were good but he was concerned about is appendix in the xray and ordered a ct scan with contrast. Well things happened fast after that. They brought in a surgeon and he felt his tummy and said he needed surgery now. He started him on antibiotics because he was afraid it had already burst. I told him Gordon was on the way (I had left him home with the little ones) and he said he had better hurry, we would be in the operating room in 30 minutes. Gordon got there on time and Josh had a blessing and they wisked him away. The surgery took about an hour and the surgeon came out and said they got it before it burst! He even gave us pictures to give to Josh. All in all we were blessed, if he had not had low counts I would not have taken him in for such general symptoms and it could have been much worse. Also, when we got the counts they were up! So the oncologist said this was a great time if it had to happen.
I have been waiting to post in hope of having answers about our future, but I guess the present is all we can handle!!!! Today he is very sore and can't talk. The intubation irritated his throat and we will have to let it settle down. He should be doing better by his birthday on the 15th. Now that I have your sympathy I will make a shameless plug for his Bday. Send gifts! Itunes gift cards, webkins, or movie passes are the top on his list of things to ask for. Gift cards to purchase movies he can't get to the movies to see would be good too. There is not much else he wants but he is pretty down right now. He had been trapped at home for several weeks due to the counts and now they are up but he will be home for another week to recover. The nurse said she didn't know of another kid with a hot appendix on top of cancer. When the doctor told him he had to have surgery he said, "why does it have to be tonight?" As always what we need most is prayers. It seems the moment we feel secure with him something else collapses. I will post as soon as I know about Gordon's job, it looks like things are happening but we are still waiting. Thanks for always listening and caring about us and our sweet boy. Bless you.