Late Night Update

Sorry to leave everyone hanging today. This morning Katie and I decided that we should head down to SLC to help out. By the time we got half way here they had decided to let Blake out because he was doing so well (and probably because they needed the bed). Also, some friends brought Aleah in so she could be with her family.

Blake seems to be doing quite well. Becky said that he is back to being Blake, smiling and laughing and just being his happy self. They let him out because they were going to be staying in town tonight. I think they are planning on staying around tell Friday, before they go back.

We still have not seen any of them. We had tickets to the BYU vs. SDSU basketball game so we talked mom into taking a break and going to the game. I think it was good for her and we really enjoyed being with her for the big win.

Tomorrow we will spend time with them and take Aleah swimming. Melissa had asked for cell phone numbers. Mom's is 775-289-9311 and Becky's is 775-293-0144. They may be sleeping in tomorrow, so you may wait to call.

They said that they will not look at his upper airway constriction issue until he has gotten over this. I still have not heard anything about what they think it may be. I don't know if they know. He has always been a raspy breather since birth, and some of the Dr's. have said that his upper airway is smaller than it should be?

I know that Becky, Chad, and all the rest of us have been so grateful for the love and support that has been shown, and for all of the prayers. I think that there are about 20 different homes that have been offered and countless thoughts, prayers and concern. We are indeed grateful to our Heavenly Father for the blessings bestowed on our family and the comfort we have felt from the Holy Ghost.

We love you all.

Good Night.

p.s. Katie got a verbal confirmation that she has been accepted into the Idaho State University Occupational Therapy Program for this fall. She has worked so hard and I am so proud of her! Here is to three more years of school...

02/24/2010 Morning Report

Blake and Becky both had a pretty rough night last night. They do his treatments then shove that tube down his throat to suck all the bad stuff out. It is pretty tough to watch. I guess that he is scared up too because they are getting chunks of blood etc. because the tube is doing damage. It is helping though. Becky said he at one around 1 am. and not another one tell 8 this morning. She did say this morning that his breaths are really good. Still no bottle yet, he will gag when he tries to drink. They have taken him off of the O2. I guess that is a good sign. The tough thing is that they have still not seen a Dr. since Monday night. They said one would be in late last night, but nothing. They are hoping that they can see one this morning. I think that it has been pretty taxing on Becky to have to watch him go through this much pain. She was sick to her stomach last night. I don’t know if it was something she ate or just all of the stress etc. To make things worse it sounds like Aleah is having a rough go in Ely. I think she is pretty nervous/scared because she doesn’t understand what is going on and why her mommy and daddy can’t come pick her up. She has been vomiting too. I don’t know if she is sick, or if it is just the anxiety that she is feeling making her nauseous.

They are still slowly decreasing the O2 they are giving him. He is doing better today. He wants to be held more today; yesterday he wanted to be left alone. He loves his balloon mom gave him and likes to hit it. He will not take a bottle, but did eat lots of peaches. His breathing is raspy. They have increased the time between breathing treatments so I guess that is a good sign. They keep telling them the Ear, Nose, Throat guy is supposed to come in, but has not come in yet. His O2 saturation is staying in the high 90’s and sometimes up in the low 100’s. Mom says he is showing very good improvement today. Last night they said he had two ear infections, but never ordered the meds. The nurse got after them this morning for not doing that and they rechecked his hears and they were ok. I am not sure how that happened?

Mom is there with him right now and Chad and Becky took a little break to get away and get some food. Mom says that with all the sickness in the hospital it seems like with Blake feeling a little better that he is kind of on the back burner.

Aleah got a call from Becky this morning, and the first thing out of her mouth was “how is my baby brother. I want to see my baby brother.” She was having a hard time understanding that Mom, Dad, and Grandma were far away and not just somewhere in town. She really misses her baby brother. I guess she has been a little bit sick to her stomach and throwing up. Not sure if it was something she ate??? Poor kids.

From Becky:
The doctors say that he has RSV and then something called Human Metapneumovirus. There is quite a bit of information on both via the internet. Apparently, both being viruses are not easily treated and take time. I just stepped out of the room for a little bit (they have internet available to parents here) but he has had a great night so far and seems to be maintaining his oxygen levels with less oxygen assistance than before. After being suctioned a couple of times (not something I would wish on my worst enemy) he seems to be significantly clearer and capable of drinking a bottle without sounding like he is drowning. We feel awfully blessed by yesterday’s events and are so grateful for everyone's prayers. It all depends on if he can keep a wet diaper, not run a fever and maintain consistent levels of oxygen with assistance before we can bring him home. Regardless of what happens it sounds like he will still be sick for about 4-6 weeks. It was so sad to go in to the ER here is Salt Lake yesterday and see all of the people waiting to get their little ones in to see doctors. With us coming in the life flight, we did not have to wait the approximately 4 hours that everyone did and were able to begin receiving care more quickly. Ok, I guess that is all of the babble I have for now. Bear in mind I have been a bit sleep deprived so my thoughts may be a bit scattered.
We love you!

I guess we will know more today. I included some links below that you can click on to learn more about the viruses. Becky told me that the sickness kind of hits you on a bell shaped curve, and that days 3, 4, 5 are the worst. She thinks that Sat, Sun, Mon, were his 3, 4, 5 days. Last night and this morning showed signs of getting better. The Dr. had not been in yet to comment on his progress. I am sure we will learn a lot more today and I will pass it all on as I get it.
RSV
http://www.cdc.gov/RSV/
http://www.rsvinfo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_respiratory_syncytial_virus

Metapneumovirus
http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hb_hMPV.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol8no9/02-0084.htm
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec14/ch188/ch188f.html
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/237691-overview

Blake Update

Chad and Blake should be in SLC by now and at the hospital. I do not know if they are taking him to University or Primary Children's? Mom and Becky will be there in around 7 MST I would think.

Right now we are not sure what the problem is. They said that this may be a birth defect that he has always had. I don't know if it is getting worse now because he is growing or what.

Dad said that Chad gave him a very good blessing and felt good about Blake when he was leaving.

Katie and I have been so caught up in our house stuff and have had so many problems. I have been feeling like things have been pretty rough for us. This had helped me to see how small my problems are and put a lot of things into perspective.

I will keep emailing and updating this to help everyone be informed. I am sorry if some of my information is hard to understand or ends up being a little off. I am sure that a few things are getting jumbled in the phone process, but I will do my best to get up-to-date info out for everyone.

We are all so thankful for the thoughts and prayers.

Baby Blake

As you all know I am not much of a blogger, but I try to be a good informer. I will try to keep everyone updated on Blake's condition.

My sister's baby, Blake, had been having some breathing issues. They were going to take him into see a Dr. in SLC, but were told by their family Dr. in Ely that he was ok and there was no need to take him to Utah.

This morning Becky took him into the hospital in Ely. He was having more problems. They told her that he would need to be life flighted to SLC because they did not have the equipment to handle him there.

Then they found out a Dr. from University Hospital in SLC was in Ely doing some tests and had a bunch of heart equipment. They ran some tests and found that Blake's breathing tube is shutting down. From his Adams apple down it is good, but the other way is shrinking down and could totally shut off. If it does I guess they could put a trake in and keep him breathing. I think everyone is pretty stressed and scared.

They are now going to fly him and Becky in. That is the last I heard. I will update this often. Please keep them in your prayers.

Thank you,

Jared

It's Back On

We finally heard back today from the seller, and he has signed the papers and going through with our deal. I guess this is good news. I just hate that we have wasted a week on getting things done. We are going down in the morning to check our traps and start cleaning. Even though we are going to replace all the flooring, I want to get it cleaned up so it is somewhat pleasant being in there. We also want to have it ready to go as soon as we close so we can do the upgrades and get moved out of the town home so we can put it on the market. I also need to make some makeshift fixes so the place will qualify for the loan we are doing. We both have Monday off, so it looks like this will be a real romantic Valentine weekend cleaning the house...

Update...

So, liked I feared, I may have jinxed us. I will not get into everything, but right now the home sale is on hold. It has to do with the home owner and incompetent Realtors. I was pretty fired up Friday afternoon. I decided that we had done all we could so I shouldn't let it ruin my weekend. We will see what happens this week...

We did have a good weekend, for the most part. We went down EARLY Saturday morning to Mindy's house. I watched the boys so Katie and Mindy could go to a session at the temple. Then that afternoon we when to my aunt and uncle's house to watch the BYU basketball game. I don't have much to say about that. Awesome game if you are a dirty rebel. On Sunday we had a few friends over to watch the Super Bowl. Another outcome that I wasn't hopping for, but we had a good time visiting.

I put up a few more pics from the past few months.

SHORT SALE!!!

I haven't posted anything about this because I have been afraid of jinxing us. Back in NOVEMBER we put an offer on a three bedroom one bath short sale home in Iona. It is exactly seven miles from my office, and where Katie will be catching the bus for ISU in the fall. It is about four to five miles from family and friends. It is on one acre of flood irrigated land (water rights), and is surrounded by fields on three sides. It is an older (main home in the early 1900's) home that has been updated. They have put a few additions on it, the most recent was in the mid 90's. They added on almost 300 square feet, put up vinal siding, metal roof, new upgraded romex wiring, updated all the plumbing, and probably flooring at that time. It is a cute little home in the country and perfact for us. It has been abused and will need a little TLC, but it is the kind of stuff we can do like paint, flooring, and a lot of clean up around the property.

Over the past two months I learned that there is nothing short about a short sale. We had pretty much given up hope on the home and were starting to look at other homes. Last Tuesday I told the realtor that we were done and that I wanted my earnest money back. The very next day Bank of America assigned a negociator. Then this Tuesday they accepted our offer minus 1000 dollars of closing and they would not cover the well and septic inspection we had requested. I still felt we were getting a pretty good deal.

Yesterday the home inspector went through and didn't find anything that was a deal breaker. A couple things we were not aware of that might cost a little, but all in all it is in pretty good shape structurally. We will need to replace the flooring (saturated with pet urin, let me know if you have any hint on getting it out of the sub floor) paint the walls, and replace some wall heaters that are recalled. We are looking for a used gas stove/fireplace because it is already piped for a corner unit. We are hoping the appriasil comes in quite a bit higher than our offer so we can borrow a little more for carpet and tile.

We are trying to get closed on the 23rd, but we will see how that turns out. We need to be closed no later than March 2nd for our deal with the bank. I am just hoping that everything from here on out goes smoothly, but I am prepared for it not to as things often times are more difficult than you plan.

I know I have spent well over 100 hours looking at home on the Internet, researching short sales, and learning about first time home buying. I really hope that it all pays off. I have a tendency to take everything on myself at times because I don't want to have two of us stressed out, but Katie has done so much to help out (I may be a little bit of a control freak???).

It is exciting and scary at the same time. It is quite a commitment as most of you know. We have had a lot of highs and lows during the process, but we both acknowledge the blessings we have received this past year. Our families and friends have been so supportive and helpful, and Heavenly Father has blessed us in so many ways. There is still a chance that things could fall through or the house could end up being a money pit of problems, but I know that we will get through the future trials we have ahead of ourselves.

On another note, Katie graduated from BYU-I with her Bachelors in December. She worked so hard and got almost all A's in her final four semesters. She has her application in to ISU for the Occupational Therapy Program that starts in the fall. She has completed all of the requirements so she should be a shoe in. We were worried about how the bus ride from Idaho Falls to Pocatello would be fore her everyday. Katie was able to talk to a gal that is finishing the program right now and she said that it should be no problem and would be a great time to get a lot of reading done. This gal had to take a year off because of an unexpected pregnancy. They were really good about working with her. It is a really small program and it sounds like the professors really care about the success of those that try. I know that it wont be easy, but I do know that Katie will do really well. Every OT that she has shadowed had given her great reviews and some have even said they would hire her out of grad school.

A few other updates, we were able to make it to the BYU win over utah in football, spent time with family over Christmas, Katie shot her first, second, and third goose (one right after the other, her last shot was 65 plus yards and dropped it out of the sky, I was so proud), we made it to a basket ball game where BYU killed CSU, and I was able to do some ice fishing last week and we caught over 20 fish.