From the ER to Church on Sunday....

We had made it back from the Mayo Clinic on Wednesday evening and tried to get back to some sense of "normal" family life.  The older kids got back to school and the younger ones got to spend some time with mommy after not seeing her for 4 days.

Then Friday started out with a Doctor's appointment for me.  I am finally giving-in to the pain in my back and was directed by Kami that I should get to a doctor.  When we made it home from the doctor's office, we ate a quick lunch and Kami went to lay down.

After about an hour, she was in so much pain that we needed to take her to the ER.  We didn't know if they would be able to figure anything out about her "mystery" illness, but we needed to get her out of pain.  The ER staff were great and they treated us with extra-special care when they found out we were missionaries.   The ER doctor ran more blood tests and ordered a CT scan of her head but reported that he didn't know what else to do.  His exact words were, "I don't know what else to do. The doctors at the Mayo Clinic are a whole lot smarter than I am.  But at least we can get you out of pain."

So with that, they gave Kami some pain medication through her IV.   The medication worked quickly and it was good to see some of the pain leave her countenance and she even closed her eyes and took a snooze.  We spent 6 hours in the ER and made it back 'home' at about 7 p.m., a little bit discouraged, extremely tired, but thankful that Kami was able to have some relief from the pain for a while.

Today:
The kids rode/worked on the bus route this morning for church.  Then Josh worked in the Junior Church as well.  And the greatest part of church today was that Kami was able to attend the Sunday school and main services!  She is officially worn out and in pain, but she was so excited to be in the services today. 

Please keep praying for our family, we know that God has our answers just around the corner...

The numbers 38 & 164...What do they mean?

Well, we are once again at the Mayo Clinic.  I love being with Kami and taking care of her.  I wouldn't have it any other way! 

We do have one problem...she carries a huge, pink purse/bag thing that looks like alligator skin.  She loves it because it is "girly" and it can carry all of her medical records.  The problem has been that during a couple of her appointments, I have had to sit out in the waiting room with the big pink hand bag!  To make things worse, on two occasions, the nurses had me run over to another part of the hospital to either update paperwork or register Kami for additional appointments....yes, I ended up having to carry that big pink purse through the hospital!!!

One nurse shouted from across the waiting room, "Nice purse!  I love the color!"  Then another announced that I needed to color coordinate my attire to match the pink.  Navy blue doesn't match hot pink?

Here Are The Numbers:

38 - is the amount of vials of blood they took at Kami's lab appointment yesterday.  To be more clear, they took 34 vials and 4 bottles of blood for testing!  It took over an hour to get it done by two nurses!

164 - is the number of blood tests that they are accomplishing with those 38 vials of blood! 


Some people pray not to find anything on their medical tests....we are asking for folks to pray that something will be found! 

Off We Go....

This past Sunday, I was able to teach a Sunday school class at our home church and I enjoyed every minute of it.    Josh, Elisabeth & Brenna have been working on a bus route and have also filled-in on several occasions for singing specials in church.  They will also be heading out on 'Teen Visitation' this coming Saturday and Josh will also be preaching in the King's Kids program on the 26th. 

Having the opportunities to stay busy in the ministry amidst the chaos of medical appointments has been such a blessing to our family...especially the kids.  It gives them a chance to get their minds off of Kami's medical issues for just a bit.  They love church, love preaching and love serving!  Their high-light of each day is actually taking their school up to the church and working in one of the Sunday school classrooms.  It gives them a chance to see their Pastor and Youth Pastor through-out the day and they enjoy being up at the church so much!

As for the sick children: Micah has a double ear-infection, Callie is still coughing and sniffling, Silas has a bad cough and sniffles, and Brenna is down with a fever/cold.  Josh & Elisabeth on the other hand have gotten over their fevers/colds and were even able to do school today!

As for Kami, she had a rough past two days.  Rough enough that we almost took her to the ER.  We will be leaving on Sunday to head back up the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.  Her next round of appointments start at 7 a.m. on Monday morning. 

They will be checking out her heart again and will undergo another round of blood tests.  She has appointments Monday - Wednesday and then we will then come back on Wednesday afternoon after her last morning appointment. 

Please keep praying for her...

Sicko's everywhere!

While Kami and I were at the Mayo Clinic (6-hours away), we received a call from Grandma that Micah was running a fever.  Then it spread to Callie, then to Silas, and then to Elisabeth.

Kami and I finally made it back in to Ft. Myers on Saturday around 10:30 a.m.  We gathered up the kids and came back to the prophet's chamber and put the kids down for a nap (Kami included!). 
We went to the pharmacy and bought vitamins C, vitamins, fever reducers, cough medicines and Vick's Chest Rub!  Now we have snotty noses, fevers and coughs running around the house and a sick momma trying to take care of it all...but she wouldn't have it any other way.  She sure does handle a snotty nose better than I do!!!

Joshua left this morning to attend a preachers' conference and the rest of us are getting laundry done, bills figured out, and are in the process of scheduling another 15 appointments at the Mayo Clinic for Kami....yes, I said another 15.

She will be undergoing some more TB tests and meeting with a TB nurse as well.  Her new doctor that we met with last week said that she is not convinced that cancer has been totally ruled out as a possible problem.  Especially since something came back "high-lighted" from her PET scan.  She seems worried about a possible "occult cancer"...one that is hidden.

This new doctor wants to investigate this new finding from the PET Scan and also wants to do a scope into her lungs to investigate the nodules found in her lungs to see what exactly they are.  There will be more heart exams and several more ultrasounds. 

We will probably be heading back on Wednesday of this week or the beginning of next week.  So please keep praying for Kami.

Until next time...