Carver's One Year Anniversary

Yesterday Carver celebrated his happy transplant birthday.  It was especially happy for us for a few reasons.  First of all, Carver is a very healthy boy.  Outside of the Type 1 diabetes, he is much better off one year out than Granton was at that time.  Both boys are very healthy and active.  Another reason yo celebrate is last week Carver spent the night in KC and had a little surgery to remove his port.  He made it through just fine.  It in nice to pick him up now and not feel it under his skin.  He is a happy boy who is quite a chunk.  Kaylynn was always so little and Granton was ill when he was Carver's age so it is nice to have a filled out guy.  He is very happy and starting to make sounds that he thinks are words.  Anyway, we know what he means.  It mostly involves food.  Thanks for praying for the little pork chop and his brother also.  We are still praying healing of Granton's B cells and Carver's diabetes, but we are spending more time thanking God for the miracles he have us and enjoying them.

I am happy to report that I have nothing to report.  All the kids are doing just as well as they were in the last post I made.  I know many people still check in on us from time to time through this blog so I will just give a little update.  Granton just turned five.  He loved all his presents.  So did I.  He is old enough that he is finally starting to get cool stuff like GI Joes and Transformers.  We are playing together more than ever.  Kaylynn loves to dress up.  She wears one of her two Snow White dresses six days out of every seven.  Little Carver is not little.  In fact, he has earned the name Thunderbutt.  He is by far thicker than the other kids and eats anything, ANYTHING, he can get his hands on.  We really have to watch him very closely and make sure the others don't leave any food laying around.  He will eat it and spike his blood sugar the second he gets a chance.  He has been walking for at least a month now which mean he can get into a lot more trouble.  It is funny to watch him lumber around.  As for Jenni and I, we have have learned take one day at a time.  We are learning that the closer we walk with God, the easier the journey is.  Our life is not the easiest but it is by far not the hardest ether.  We know we are blessed.  After a few talks with doctors this summer, I don't think we will ever understand how blessed we are to have Granton with us as healthy as he is.  Oh yea, he and a bunch of kids his age raced the other day.  Granton won; he won big!  The track coach in me has already noticed this kid is fast and he hates to get beat at anything!

  Thank You God so much for your grace and countless blessings.

New Responsibility

Well, we have a new responsibility with Carver.  It looks like he has type 1 diabetes.  Jenni and I are dealing with this as best as we can.  We have learned how to count carbs like pros.  We have to be very careful because he is so little that he is VERY sensitive and his numbers swing around a lot.  He is happy and does not mind the constant poking.  This has been very hard for us to swallow.  Carver had been the one with the home run transplant.  Now it looks like the transplant or at least his donor was the cause for this condition.  I am still praying for Carver to be healed of this.  God has seen us through so much and I know he will carry us through this also.  On an up note his IGG numbers are doing very well and the little man stands on his own when he does not know we are watching and he is about to walk.  Thank you for continued prayers. 

Say a Prayer for Carver

Granton and Kaylynn are busy playing on 6 Henson in their favorite hospital. Carver, unfortunately, is waiting in a room for a couple days to determine whether or not he has diabetes. His glucose level was checked three times so far, and the doctors here are treating him as a diabetic patient and giving him insulin. The last glucose test was as high as 455 from 466. Actually, Granton came in for a routine check-up and a yearly endocrine appointment. He is growing very well at an average of 3 inches a year. He's fine. I am thanking the Lord that we checked Carver's labs today as we weren't expecting anything to be alarming. We were admitted right away which is also nice. I am going to find out his igg level soon. Hopefully, he won't require ivig at this time.

Jenni

Rash is gone

I just noticed I have not given an update on Carver's rash.  It is gone!  This is great because that can be a sign of Graft vs. Host disease of which he has now signs of.  They are all doing well and be are working hard to make sure they don't get sun burns.  God Bless,

Daniel

Humming along

Well, we have been just humming along this summer.  Spent some time with family in Iowa and Kansas last week after a few days of checkups at Children's mercy.  We got good reports on the boys.  They had no big worries with Carver and we learned a little more about Granton.  First, his eye is getting better, patch only four hours a day now, but we were never really concerned about that.  We have been more focused on his B cells that are not doing there job.  We spoke with a new doctor and he explained it like this:  If the common cold came around and Granton and Kaylynn both got it, they would both get over it.  However, The B cells kind of work like memory cells so if the same strand of cold came around two weeks later Kaylynn would not be affected by it (her B cells work fine) and Granton would get it all over again.  The good news is Granton's IVIG infusions make his immune system normal.  Right now, we are planning on sticking to the IVIG treatments and we hope there will be some new technology down the road that will make his B cells work on there own.  We will just keep praying and trusting in the Lord for both boys.  Actually, Carver just had a rash pop up and we are praying and trusting in the Lord about that right now because we are always aware of graft vs. host disease.  We will keep everyone posted.  Thank you for continuing to pray for the boys. 

My Bathing Beauty in Branson. A week of swimming and sun tanning was vacation indeed! The weather was a perfect treat for the springtime.