Fighting through the Tempest

I can't believe that it has been so long since we last updated our blog. For all of you faithful followers, we apologize. Nevertheless, the adventure continues.

Matthew Jr. is still in the hospital. It has been well over 100 days now and room 3085 at Primary Children's Medical Center continues to be our home away from home. I joke that we now have an exclusive apartment in SLC that rents for about $7500 dollars a month. I wish that it was more spacious but the care is excellent. Matthew is still happy despite all of the trials he is faced with on any given day. Since we have been here matthew has had numerous PICC lines, a Broviac, two PICC line infections (one that almost killed him), blood clots, Lovenox shots twice a day for 2 months, daily diarrhea, stomach pains, knee pains, hand pains, and just about every orifice and body part probed. Its not fun to watch but amazingly he continues to be happy . . . most of the time.

I'm not sure I want to rehash the last several months but I can at least give you details on the last two weeks. To add to the stress of having a chronically ill child, Chrissy had surgery last Monday. It went better than expected but at the time we were certainly scared that something else could go wrong. We then flew to San Diego to pick up Joshua and Luke who had been spending time with their aunts and uncles there and in Arizona. We arrived Thursday but our relaxation was cut short when our parents called us Saturday night to inform us that Matthew was very ill. We got Chrissy home early on Sunday morning and I flew home with the boys. That was an adventure in itself . . .flight delays, fire detection failures on engine No 1, new planes and what should have beena 3 hours travel day turned into 12. When we arrived, Matthew Jr. was truly very ill. He developed a bad infection with a bacteria called enterococcus. They think that it came from his gut and it decided to land and grow on his central line. Dr. Everitt spoke to Chrissy and myself and told us that this could be the infection that ended up killing Matthew Jr. Thankfully, he seems to have ralied with the assistance of antibiotics. They haven't taken the line out yet, but that looks like what is going to happen this weekend.

On a brighter note, for the last little while we have been trying to arrange a meeting with our donor family. We wanted to meet them and they wanted to meet us, it has just taken a little while to go through the proper channels to make things happen. This afternoon we finally got to meet the Gonzalez family. I cannot say enough positive and appreciative words to thank them for a gift that we cannot repay. Their selflessness and willingness to donate organs has been such a blessing in our lives. They are the most amazing people. I hope that they enjoyed our meeting as much as Chrissy and I did. What an amazing family.

I wish that I was more expressive at this time. I know that now that we have remembered our password that Chrissy will probably give a much better update than I have. My head and heart are filled with emotion this Friday night. Many things I am grateful for, many other things frustrate me. I guess that such is life.

We again want to thank all of you for your kind support and love towards Matthew Jr. and our family. This part of our life could not be done without the support of all of you. Plain and simply could not be done. I pray that we make it through it. Goodnight.