JACK JOHNSON CONCERT

Last Friday Dan's sister called us up and asked if we wanted to go with them to the Jack Johnson Concert.....so we DID. The end. (Just kidding - If you want to see photographic evidence you have to go look at my SIL's blog; CRASH TEST DUMMIES. The link is on the side bar. :)

Canada - Photographic evidence

OH Canada!

Havin' a great time with my little sister Jami and her family. Photographic evidence is yet to come..................................................as soon as I figure out how to download stuff on her computer. See ya all later, EH!

Soooo the good news....

Update on Noah:

The Good News: Today we took Noah in for an ultrasound to check the progress on his IVC Thrombosis and there has actually been some progress. He now has some flow through his inferior vena cava where there previously was none.

The Bad News: Last night Noah started vomiting alot, so after he had his ultrasound today, Dr. Bhonsack did his assessment and sent us back down to ultrasound to look at his appendix. Long story short - Noah just got out of surgery for an appendicitis. Originally when I found out, I thought maybe it was a good thing. Maybe this has been going on for months now and was causing some of the weird symptoms he's had. Unfortunately, the surgeon does not agree. She said his appendicitis was a stage 2 and has probably only been there for a day or two. Anyway, we are at Primary Childrens again, hopefully just for a couple of days.

Update on NOAH!

It's been awhile since I've given an update...so here it is. A few weeks ago, Noah woke up with a 104 degree fever and a large puffy lump on his face. We took him to the ER and they thought perhaps it was an abcessed tooth. We treated him with antibiotics and the fever and swelling went away. That week while he was on antibiotics he felt GREAT. (Had energy, overall swelling went down, etc.) BTW: We(Dr. Bhonsack and me) don't think he actually had an abcessed tooth. Not really sure what it was.

Anyway, last week we had labs re-drawn to check sed rate and crp (which had been going back up since stopping steriods). They are both back to normal. AWESOME.

We also re-checked the labs for Antiphospholipid Syndrome. Remember this is the "soft" diagnosis they gave him but had to recheck later and have a positive result to confirm diagnosis. Well, guess what ... the results were NEGATIVE. So the originally "soft" diagnosis for this is now more like "ooozy goozy runny - not really likely at all" diagnosis. Big suprise! ;)

So, this weeks labs were MOSTLY normal. However, his White Blood Cell count this week is low. (WBC:3.0, should be between 5-10ish) What does this mean, you ask? I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE !$#^@!&^#%$ THAT MEANS. NOBODY DOES! We just have to keep waiting and seeing. :(

So how is Noah feeling... Sometimes he seems okay. But alot of the time lately he seems VERY TIRED, DECREASED APPETITE, AND HE LOOKS LIKE THE ANEMIA MIGHT BE COMING BACK (PALE SKIN AND LIPS).

I talked to his doctor a couple days ago and we are going to move up the next ultrasound to look at the clot again. So that will most likely be next Tuesday.

So, How am I doing, you ask?
I am very very close to completely LOSING IT! Maybe it's because of the "Noah" thing, OR the not working anymore thing, OR maybe it's my marriage, OR could it be the NO money and lots of bills thing, OR maybe my current "lack of faith" thing. I'm not sure, I just can't seem to put my finger on it. Whatever it is, just know that asking me how I'm doing, may open up a BIG 'OLE can of gummy worms that you just were not expecting. So proceed with caution. :)

Workin' up a sweat!

The boys have been doing odd jobs around the neighborhood for the last couple weeks to earn money for SCOUT CAMP. It's probably wrong of me to get such pleasure out of seeing them work so hard...but I just can't help it. I LOVE to see them sweat. Hunter and Jacob left today for camp for the whole week. (I'm not sure how their "Mommy" is going to make it without them.)

CON"GRADUATIONS" HUNTER

Hunter Graduated from Elementary school today. Hunter was voted "Best Friend" by his classmates.


Hunter with his best friend and Noah. Hunters best friend was the valedictorian and gave a great speech.


Hunter and Mom.


Grandma made Hunter this awesome candy lei. (That I have already starting begging Hunter to share with me.) :)

GOING TO DISTRICT!

JAKE IS DETERMINED TO HELP ME GET THE VACATION I'VE BEEN DREAMING OF FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. HE SAID HE WAS GOING TO WIN THE 800 METER DASH AT THE HERSHEY TRACK MEET AND GO ALL THE WAY TO NATIONALS SO I WOULD HAVE TO TAKE HIM TO HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA. WELL, HE'S OFF TO A GOOD START. HE IS GOING TO DISTRICTS, SO ALREADY HE HAS WON ME A TRIP TO .... I'M NOT SURE REALLY, EITHER SPANISH FORK OR PROVO. WHOOHOOO JAKE, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK.

Cookie Biz!

Noah's in the cookie biz. He has decided he has way too much time on his hands now that he's not in school and can't really go outside and play much. So he made up some fliers and sent them around the neighborhood and waaalaaa, cookie biz. He's lovin' it. He sold a bunch of cookies on his first day (yesterday). Although he likes the actually cookie making, I think his FAVORITE part is putting all the numbers into the excel spreadsheet he made. Like father, like son I guess. :)

HOME AGAIN - HOME AGAIN

Let's see... where to begin. We brought Noah home from the hospital on Tuesday the 13th. We were excitedly apprehensive. We still had no clues about what caused the clotting, and he was not really feeling any better than when we took him in on the 2nd.

A few days before we left the hospital his headaches started up again and got much worse the first day we got home. Dr. Bhonsack, the doctor everyone said was super smart, was not aware that we had been sent home and called as soon as he found out to see how we were doing. I told him that Noahs headaches were getting worse and he suggested that we should take him to the ER at Primary's if they got any worse. The concern was that if the original clot in his brain had caused the initial headaches, then maybe he was having more clotting in his brain with the presence of more headaches. (I'm typing fast so let me know if I'm losing anyone.) Of course, this was very concerning to me, so the next day when his headaches became worse and his face started swelling more, I took him back to the hospital. They kept us overnight and did a CT angio of his brain as well as an MRI. They found no evidence of new clots so they felt comfortable letting us take Noah back home.

At this point, all of the test results are in and the verdict is...... well, there is no clear verdict. However, they did get a positive test result. One of the initial tests they ran is called a venom viper test. This test is for ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID SYNDROME. This test result came back slightly abnormal(not really abnormal, just a hint of abnormal). Since they didn't find much else to hang their hats on, they ran some further tests to consider the possibility of ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID SYNDROME. Several secondary tests were run. Of these, one test result WAS positive. Sounds great right. Well not really. The one positive test result has a disclaimer. If this lab test, HEXAGONAL PHOSPHOLIPID NEUTRALIZATION, is done on a blood sample of a pt who is within the therapeutic range for heparin (which Noah was on the day the test was drawn), then the possibility of a FALSE POSITIVE is GREAT. (According to the literature the doctor gave me.)

So what does this mean for Noah. It means the Rheumatologists decided to start treating him with immunosuppressant drugs (steroids for now). Although I believe they are treating him for the wrong thing, the drugs really seem to be working well. This is probably because his body was having some kind of ACUTE INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE and corticosteroids are an anti-inflammatory.

I know this probably all sounds like a bunch of rambling. I just need to get it all off my chest, and this is my way to process it. I do have a new theory.... not sure I should say or not, but really, what the heck. My new theory is....no, I'm not going to say. But I am going to ask the doctor about it on Tuesday.

Long story short. WE ARE HAPPY TO BE HOME AND ECSTATIC THAT NOAH IS FEELING A BIT MORE LIKE HIS HAPPY CHEERFUL SELF.