Josh Update

I realized after Diane's comment on my last post (thanks for reading my WHOLE blog by the way...I am super impressed), that I haven't updated everyone on Josh's health in a LONG time.

Josh is doing great. He is back to work full time. His heart is doing great and he has not set off the defibulator (spell?) thank goodness! We do not need any more drama from you mister! The doctors are very impressed with his progress and are slowly weaning him off his meds which I know he is very thankful for!

He is the one that takes many of the fab pictures of Mary Elizabeth on this site (along with Alison Bynum) and has recently really started getting more and more into photography. He recently did his first "official" photo shoot which you can check out on my sister's blog here.

So in conclusion, Josh is doing great and here's a great pic of him I stole from my sister's blog:

My Sister's Blog

Ok, so I can admit it...I am a blog snob. I barely have time to post on my own, much less read every other one that I love BUT I am trying to make that more of a priority! I didn't realize it until today that my sister has been updating her blog so in honor, I am adding her to the blogroll and putting a link to Alie's blog here. Check it out...lots of cute pics of Maggie and Dexter and a great picture that Josh just took! GOOD STUFF!

Home & Bored

Yes, Josh has officially been home 24 hours and is bored to death! He is very sore from the surgery and has pretty much been resting and just lounging around. Comcast finally came today and hooked up their cable so hopefully he will have something else to free him from boredom. Jonathan and I and all the kids stayed at their house last night "just in case" and Maggie had her best night yet. Ali had to wake her up to eat and then she slept for 7 hours. How blessed is she?

Josh has restricted movement in his left arm for the next 3 weeks. No reaching about his head, etc. simply because the leads are attached to his heart and they don't want one to come un-attached. He also goes to Vanderbilt on Tuesday for a second opinion which the doctors at Centennial actually SUGGESTED! Can you believe that? I think it is awesome that a group of doctors would be so confident in their care that they would suggest that the patient get another opinion just to see. Evidently, Josh's case is so rare that he seems to puzzle everyone. I'll keep you posted on what they find out.

Josh is coming home!

Can you tell I am excited? Josh is being released from Centennial today and will be home to sleep in his own bed tonight. The surgery went great yesterday (they did put the de-fib in) and although his is in some pain, nothing feels as good as being home in your own bed. Jonathan and I will be staying with them tonight so I will add more in the morning! PRAISE GOD!

Josh Update

8/6/07 5:14 PM

Wanted to give everyone a Monday afternoon update on Josh. I have been fighting with a migraine headache that is determined to win...hence, my delay in getting something on here earlier.

Josh is doing well...has had some pain the last few days from the biopsy but seems to get better every day. He was able to get up and get a quick shower this morning and has had a ton of doctors in today. Right now, Dr. Watterson is leaning towards something called Cardiac Sarcoidosis. They have ruled out Lupus and several other auto immune issues, so I will keep you posted on this.

As of right now, they are planning on putting in the internal defib tomorrow. We are hopeful he will get to come home on Wednesday although we definitely want to be sure he is ready to come home first. Josh is definitely getting antsy and wanting to be at home in his own bed.

Josh and Adoption Update

8/3 8:39 PM

Ok, first I am pooped so if I make some typos in this email, forgive me.

Josh is doing well. Had the artiogram at Hendersonville Hospital yesterday. Dr. said his heart looked great and very strong and did not appear to be large (we had been told several times that his heart was larger than normal)

Not long after the procedure, Sumner County EMS showed up and transported Josh to Centennial Hospital. He was loopy from his procedure but my dad got to ride with him down there and from what I hear, they are now big buddies with the EMS crew. Boy, would I have loved to be a fly on the wall in that ambulance.

The level of care for Josh as soon as he arrived was AMAZING compared to Hendersonville....honestly, I felt like it would be but WOW! The doctors came in this morning and basically said NO INTERNAL DEFIBULATOR TODAY because they wanted to make absolute sure he needed it before putting it in. Dr. Bailey felt that they should put as much importance on finding the cause of the cardiac arrest instead of just slapping in the defibulator. He had an echocardiogram this morning (to be honest, I am assuming this looked fine as I never heard the report on this) and then they ended up doing a biopsy on the tissue surrounding his heart (I think this is right). Evidently, everyone has about a 1" area that they can go in to do biopsies, etc. without having to actually open you up. The doctor found the fluid around his heart to be low (which is GREAT...it has been high) and that he did in fact have the periocarditis. The biopsy showed that this was caused by a viral infection, not bacterial. They put in a drain for any excess fluid and told him he will be uncomfortable for a few days (OUCH!). Based on the findings thus far, there is talk of going ahead and putting in the internal de-fib on Monday but as you can see, things change on a moment's notice so I will keep you posted.

Justin (Josh's brother) and his wife, Lori, and best friend Ryan headed home today and from what I have seen and heard, they did an amazing job getting Josh and Ali's house unpacked and cleaned up. Josh's parents arrived back down here again today. Jerry (Josh's dad) will be staying at Centennial tonight with Josh and Pam will be staying at home with Alison and Maggie. Maggie is still the BEST baby, but having more issues at night sleeping. She is not going to bed until about 1 am but sleeping 6-6.5 hours once she finally goes down. She went back to the doctor on Thursday and had gained 4 ounces in 2 days!!

Keep on praying...God is GOOD and again, I want Josh to see how much the Lord loves him. I can't begin to thank everyone for their love and support....special thanks to Jason Smith for taking off Ali and Josh's trash and delivering a piece of furniture, Beckie and Jason Kabler to dinner last night, Kim and Chris Thomas for keeping Anna all day today and tonight, and ALL THE PRAYERS! We feel them...the fact that we are all staying healthy and rested is amazing!

ADOPTION UPDATE:
We DID send in our profile but it's very different this time. I am completely at peace and find that I barely think about it. Probably because I have plenty to think about, but I just KNOW God is in control so nothing to worry about! We did set up the nursery tonight and I LOVE IT! We hung up clothes in the closet, assembled the crib, and put baby stuff in the changing table. Jonathan, Isaac, Luke and I had so much fun and made some great memories. I can't wait to see Anna's face when she gets home tomorrow and sees it!

Josh Update

8/1/07 9:11 pm

THANKS KIM for the last update....

Josh is resting with my dad at his side again tonight. Alison/Maggie have gone home with JuJu and we have just arrived at our new house to start to unpack boxes. The kids are being so GOOD, Anna even slept in her new room in the basement last night!!! She is getting so big!

Wanted to give some more thanks to all the people who have called/come by/prayed. THANKS to Brenda Head for bringing lunch today and to Patti & Ronnie Rogers and Danny & LJ Stults for bringing YUMMY Panera for dinner tonight.

Josh's brother, Justin, and his wife, Lori, and 4 month old daughter Sophie arrived today from Indiana. Ryan (Josh's childhood best friend) also came down with them. They will be staying at Josh and Ali's house until they leave (either tomorrow or Friday) Josh was very excited to see them. Josh's parents went home last night so I am sure that he was glad to have some more family come in (although he doesn't remember seeing his parents the last two days). The short term memory is still a challenge for him, but he is getting better day by day.

Josh was finally told today what actually happened to him. The cardiologist felt it was time to tell him simply because Josh was really wanting to go home and wanting to know why that wasn't possible. Josh actually took it surprisingly well...one of the first questions he asked was who performed CPR! He understands the best he can what the procedures will consist of the next two days and the only time he seemed apprehensive today was when the cardiologist told him that worst case, he would be out of work for 2 months. Josh LOVES his job and works for a small computer programming company so I think he was worried about what they would do without him, but we all assured him that his boss will be fine (he is a wonderful man) and that work was the LAST THING he needed to worry with.

GOD IS GOOD, keep praying....and I will post more about what the procedure tomorrow evening.

Josh Update

8/1/07 10:28 am

Sorry for the delay in another update. Our forgot that in a move you have to move your computer and comcast has their own schedule....although the man they sent was wonderful.

Josh was moved to a regular room yesterday afternoon. THANKS to my best friend Kim Thomas for lunch and Susan Harris for dinner last night at the hospital. The fact that they don't have to leave to eat means so much.

I brought Alison home last night about 7pm as she is mentally just zapped (as you can imagine) She got a decent nights sleep and is at home right now getting cleaned up and geared up for the day ahead.

As soon as I get her to the hospital, she plans to call the heart doctor at Centennial to get his recommendations for Josh. I feel pretty confident he will be moved unless everyone that says they are coming magically appear at Hendersonville and the level of care go way up. Brea's opinion: I feel that now that he is stable they just don't seem to feel this is as critical as it was (which is true is some degree) but WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT CAUSED THIS. Seizures and cardiac arrest don't typically happen for no reason.

Josh is doing great...he is still cycling to some degree (tells you his tongue is numb about 4 billion times...he bit it (we think during the seizure) and therefore, it is swollen up pretty good. That is to be expected as his brain is probably overwhelmed and underrested. We have determined the last thing he remembers is last Friday (the day before they came home with Maggie). Right now he does not know how critical he was simply b/c he would worry himself to death about it. He cried for an hour yesterday b/c he couldn't understand why he didn't remember Maggie being at home (we put the picture in his room of Maggie on the ottoman) He had a bath this morning so I am sure he is feeling much better. Someone is staying with him around the clock until we figure out where he is going simply because at this point, they are only checking vitals every 4 hours and we just don't feel comfortable leaving him alone. My dad spent the night last night.

I will post more later. GOD IS GOOD. Keep praying!

Josh update

7/30 11:21 pm

Sorry for the late delay....we got a few minutes of rest and Ms. Maggie is sitting here nursing like a champ (pray for Ali's boobs....seriously!)

Neurologist did a full assessment and easiest way to say it is that he felt Josh was very responsive but that he did notice that he was having some short term memory issues (repetitive cycles and yet couldn't remember those cycles a few minutes later)but that could be many different things, especially considering how early we are in this ball game. He felt that with as far as Josh has come today and his age, he should make a nice recovery. They will be doing some tests either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning on his brain and I will do an update first thing in the morning.

Mom and dad will be here at 7am to take Ali to the hospital as we prepare for our movers at 9am. We went and walked through the house tonight and although it is a bit dirty, cleaning can come later!

Alison told me to tell this wonderful group of people that she loves you so much, is so thankful for your thoughts and prayers and especially to the members of Long Hollow....the people who have shown up tonight who don't even know them and yet have loved them. THANK YOU! They have only been visiting our church and yet you have made her and Josh feel loved and supported more than you will ever know.

Pray for that restful sleep....Alison has decided she doesn't want us to move but we told her she can shack up in the prayer pit til her man gets home!!! For those of you that don't know, we have a full finished basement in the new house and we have decided that it is the greatest room for having prayer time for each other. My best friend Angie wants it to the be the scrapbooking pit, but hey, there is plenty of room for all of that right!?!?!?

GOD IS SO GOOD!

Josh update

7/30 7:34pm

As I told many of you today, I will do my absolute best to keep this site updated with any news, changes of Josh's condition. Jonathan and I just came home as Dad and Mom decided to stay with Alison and Maggie until the last visitation in the ICU is over (9-11pm) Rachel (Alison's friend) brought dinner for all of us which was wonderful. Josh was able to sit up in a chair and the nurse even got a wheelchair and brought Josh out of the ICU to see Maggie. He was so happy to see her, but Alison said he had trouble remembering it a few minutes later. Right now, they are just wanting to keep him stable and we are all hoping he and Alison can both get a decent night's sleep. They plan to do another CT scan first thing Tuesday morning to see if they can get a better idea of what caused this. They are also hoping to get the reads from the box that shocked Josh's heart. I can't remember what this is called, but it is the newer version of the paddles you see in the movies except this box actually can sense what is going on in Josh's body based on the leads they hooked him up to while he was here at home. Right now we are waiting for word from the brain doctor (sorry I don't have the fancy name for him, I am tired) but other than that the other doctors have made their rounds for tonight. Once I hear word from this doctor, I will post again tonight and then do an update post first thing in the morning. Don't stop praying OR believing in miracles!!! We witnessed one today!