This & That...And a little about our future.



I thought I would put in a couple pictures of our daily life for you to enjoy...

With summer in full swing, the kids have been taking advantage of play time!  Micah and Silas are having some "football" time...although Micah seems to be taking it a bit seriously!

We had a rodeo tournament in full swing!  Beth was a wild horse as Callie tried to stay on!

Next was Silas...he did good but I think he held on too tight as you can tell from the next picture!

 

 

Summer will be over in just a short, few weeks.  We have already ordered Silas' K5 materials.  He will be starting school along with Beth and Brenna this year.  Kami has always taught the younger ones for kindergarten and that is her goal for this year...although I am wondering if her health will allow her to.  We are holding off on purchasing the girls' curriculum for now until we get a better picture of what our 'future' holds.

 

I have had the opportunity to fill-in teaching Sunday school and our kids are still working in the bus ministry, choir and Joshua has also filled-in teaching Sunday school classes.

 

We have an appointment to meet with our mission board on August 20th to discuss our future.  Kami is not much better, although there are times when she has more strength and energy than she did before.  We are awaiting another blood test which the doctor is ordering.  She feels that Kami may also have a parasitic infection called Babesia which can be found along with Lyme disease.  This would be the reason for the severe chest pressure/pain and difficulty breathing.

 

We have been traveling to Kami's doctor each week (3-hour trip one-way) since the beginning of June.  This week, the doctor may once again switch medications if she does not see some definite improvements.  This would be the 5th "switch".  The idea is to get the right combination of antibiotics that will work together against the Lyme bacteria.

 

The doctor informed us that Kami will be on IV antibiotics for at least another 5 weeks minimum.  If there is still no improvement, she will continue longer.  When the IV antibiotics have shown dramatic improvements, she will then be switched to oral antibiotics. 

 

Please continue to pray with us about all of our decisions for our future that lay ahead in the next 2 weeks.  Either way, our lives will be dramatically affected...

Tropical Update...

Kami's appointment last Friday was another "trial & error" appointment.

After the last visit, we had to rush Kami to the ER due to a very bad reaction to the new medication.  After the ER visit, we went back to the doctor's office and they immediately gave her another medication in place of the one that caused the bad reaction.  

(As it turns out, even though the meds had such a negative reaction for Kami, the next 2 days were incredible!  Her pain was almost all gone for the first time in over 1 1/2 years!  The doctor had a feeling that this medication would have been the one to actually help her, but they cannot give it to her again due to the severe reaction that she had.  Apparently, other patients have had immediate relief from their symptoms as well over the following couple of days after the initial treatment, but had severe reactions to the meds when they were given.)

So after a week of the replacement meds, her medication was switched again this past Friday in hopes that this new one would work.  So far...no change.

It's OFFICIAL....Joshua has his plane ticket to leave for college on September 1st!  We sure are going to miss this boy!

3 Weeks...3 Trips to the ER!

Although Kami is seeing some improvement (ie: no more fatigue, her memory and ability to think has returned, and she is able to take less pain meds) we have still faced some setbacks in her treatment.

About 3 weeks ago, her PICC line began to bleed and was causing a lot of pain in her arm.  The doctor's office sent us to the hospital to have an ultrasound of her arm to rule out a blood clot.  All came back negative and the pain and bleeding subsided.

Then, 2 weeks ago, her PICC line began to bleed again.  When I went to flush the line before starting her IV antibiotics, her bandage began to fill up with blood and IV fluid.  We knew she had a break in the PICC line so we rushed her to the ER.  The PICC team immediately removed the PICC line and after much "health-care politics", they finally had permission from supervisors to place a new PICC line. 

(The bruises on her arm are from the "failed" PICC line attempts! When she took our 2 little ones to the doctor's office on Wednesday, the doctor kept glancing at the bruises on her arms...Of course Kami never said what they were from, she just let her think that she was a drug user or something!  I just hope she didn't make that face at the doctor's office! )

During this visit to the ER, we were able to talk to a nurse about church services.  He and his wife both came to our Tuesday Nights of Great Preaching service!  Amen!

Then yesterday, at Kami's doctor visit, the doctor ordered a new "stronger" antibiotic.  This came with a warning of the possible allergic reactions that this drug is prone to give.  Her first dose of this medication had to be done in the office so they could monitor her reaction.  The first bag went well but the 2nd bag began to cause her to itch.  Benadryl was given and then the treatment was started again.  Once finished, we started off for home and made it 20 minutes down the road when Kami doubled over in extreme pain and became red.  We rushed her to the ER with what they deemed as a serious adverse/allergic reaction. 

Upon returning to the doctor's office after the ER visit, they gave us a new medication to replace the bad one!  This came along with the warning to never take the other medication again...did they really need to tell us that?  It has been an eventful few weeks so say the least!

Until next time...

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Last Friday, we celebrated Josh's 18th birthday!  He was born on June 27, 1996 on Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.  If you had asked me at that time what I thought Joshua would grow up to be, I would never have said, "A preacher who loves the Lord."  (As a baby Christian myself at that time, being a preacher would never have crossed my mind!)

But here he is today, 2 months away from leaving home to attend Golden State Baptist College.  He has many dreams and has always had a heart for children and teenagers.  He has even talked about the idea of opening a boys' home/ranch to help troubled youth and also of being a youth pastor.  He is excited about this next step for the Lord!

We left on Thursday for Kami's doctor appointment which is 3-hours away.  We left the 3 younger ones with grandparents and took Joshua, Elisabeth, and Brenna with us.  We stopped by Disney Quest in Orlando to celebrate Joshua's birthday and spent the night in Brooksville.  Then on Friday, after Kami's appointment, we drove back and then celebrated with family and friends!

We decided to open up his presents from us before the "party" actually began.  Do you notice Kami on the right?

 

She celebrated while getting her antibiotic treatments via the hanging IV in the picture!

 

We are not sure where the Lord is taking our family in the near future, especially with Kami's treatment.  However, we fully understand that where ever the Lord leads us, we will be working with one less family member as Joshua attends college.  It will be different as he has been a strength and worker in every ministry we have served in, but we know that God will bless him and the next ministry in which Joshua will be serving.