Adoption - a Miracle is Needed

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/03/facing-giant.html

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Thank Goodness for Wal*Mart and Facebook

Last Friday I had a late night run to Wal*Mart to pick up a few things for Austin Kieff's first t-ball game...chairs, sunscreen, goody bags, candy...well I had a wonderful surprise in that I also ran into an old friend from high school. Julie is one of the sweetest and kindest girls I know. It was so nice to reconnect with her and I do apologize for blocking the aisle for all of those who went around us!

Julie's little boy Preston needs our prayers. The following is from Julie's post on facebook:

Julie HughesApril 15, 2010 at 8:26pm

Subject: Preston

Asking everyone to please pray for Preston today. He went back to Birmingham. He saw his gastroenterologist. He told us Preston had dropped down to the thirteenth percentile on the growth chart and wanted him to take in more calories. The nuerologist wants him to stay slim so his muscles won't tire easily. Hopefully they will consult each other soon. Preston is to continue with the same medicines, he is changing formulas and adding the abc diet to try to stop the constant diarrhea. We are trying to find the balance of enough medicine to help him be hungry but not move food through system too fast. We are so thankful for how far God has brought him. We are so happy that he is growing. He is growing at HIS pace. He saw his pulmonologist. He has a respiratory infection again. Please pray this runs it's course quickly. Preston is not feeling very well today. Thank you to everyone for every prayer that has been said on Preston's behalf.

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Please keep Preston, his parents and big sister in your prayers. You can even become a member of his facebook page: Prayers for Preston.

Blessings,

Laura

Prayer Request

Received this from my brother, please be praying:

"I just got a call from Mary Margaret this afternoon when I got back in the office. Her dad, Harry Jacobs, was at a doctor’s appointment this afternoon and the doctor did an ultrasound I believe and said that his Aorta did not look right. He has an aneurysm on his Aorta or near his aorta. Mary Margaret did not have all the details. I believe he is still in Dothan. They are going to send him home and want him to come back Thursday and will determine whether he will require a stint or surgery. Please keep him and our family in your prayers. He is going through a lot right now between caring for his wife, having Mary Margaret sick and one of his son’s is having some problems as well. It all weighs very heavy on him and is taking a toll.

I am assuming since they sent him home, that it must not be a large aneurysm or too serious, but I don’t know much about those things and Mary Margaret was a little upset on the phone so I didn’t get all the details. He will be in the hospital either way with the stint or surgery and I am not sure how we will care for her mom while he is there and recovers and get Mary Margaret to treatment and therapy. We will probably stay in Elba while he is in the hospital so that we can help with her mom at night. Mary Margaret’s mom has to be given a lot of medication every few hours and Mary Margaret’s dad usually fixes it and feeds it to her. They have a sitter during the day that helps out with changing, bathing, moving around, etc but from 4:00pm to 7:30am it is just Mary Margaret’s dad. If he is in the hospital, someone will have to care for her and make sure she gets all of her medications.

Mary Margaret is also having a much harder time with her chemo treatments than she did at first. She has been sick for a few weeks with cold, headaches and some nausea that just want go away. Nothing serious, but just nagging things that I can tell slow her down and make her feel bad. She won’t admit to it and tries very hard to not to let it show, but it is catching up to her. She only has one long chemo treatment left before she starts radiation, so we are thankful for that.

After radiation she will only go once a week for the herceptin and therapy on her hand and arm which will not make her sick anymore. She is still doing much better than the majority of people we see at treatment each week, so we are blessed in that regards.

I would like to thank everyone for their encouragement during the last two weeks as my grandfather was ill and passed away last Wednesday. I am very fortunate to work where I was able to go and spend a few days with him before he passed away. He is at peace now, but he will be greatly missed. The funeral was hard on everyone but much easier than watching him suffer over the last few months. For all my life he was more of a father than a grandfather and whenever I needed something or needed to talk to someone, I could always call him and he was there for me and for everyone else in our family with whatever we needed. I would ask that you remember his wife Maxine Boyd in your prayers as well.

They were married for over 63 years I believe. I never heard either one say a negative thing about the other one or speak an angry word about the other unless it was my grandmother telling him he was stubborn.

Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. It has been a rough few months but I have faith that things will turn around. "

Mary Margaret is definitely stronger than I could ever be. She is truly amazing...to be around her, you wouldn't even know she was fighting a battle of her own. She is definitely a source of encouragement to me.

Please keep my brother in your prayers as well. He is pretty amazing to me as well. His faith has not wavered through all the trials our family has faced. He is a source of encouragement and strength.

As for my grandfather, I am so thankful that he is not suffering. It has been so hard to watch him struggle for every breath...unable to sit up or walk...unable to feed himself...he has always been such a strong man. This loss is hard on all of us, but especially my mom.

Mary Margaret

Mary Margaret begins her treatments Monday, January 26th. Please keep her and her family in your prayers!

Mary Margaret Update

The cancer has not spread to any other area!! We are so thankful for this and so thankful for your prayers. Our Lord is truly the Great Physician!

Mary Margaret has HER2-positive breast cancer. She will have surgery next week which will be followed by 12 months of chemo/treatment. Please continue to keep her, my brother and their children in your prayers.

David Update

The feeling is coming back in David's fingers and arm. This is such a blessing! Thank you so much for your prayers.

The skin is healing very well and there are only two or three truly worrisome spots left! It looks like he may have more scarring than originally thought, but we have NO problem with that!!

Other David Update

I thought I would let everyone know that David Best is home from the hospital. The grafts on his legs and hands were successful. I will update more after David talks to him.

Trip to B'ham

Sorry I have not updated since our trip to Birmingham. We have been rather busy. Austin Kieff has been sick and not sleeping which means I have not been sleeping :).

David is doing well. The doctor in Birmingham questioned why he was not sent there to start with. We thought this was interesting since the nurse said the same thing. All in all Dr. Cross said that David's arm is healing well. Dr. Cross changed the medicine we had been using. He also told David that the nerve damage will probably go away on its own. He will reevaluate it in a couple of months. David goes back to see him on June 5. He will find out at this appointment when he can go back to work. The only negative comment involved David's range of motion. As he has burns across two joints (wrist and elbow) the skin has to be worked and stretched so that it does not heal too tightly. David has exercises to do to help prevent any further damage.

We owe a special thank you to David's parents for coming to the appointment with us. They watched Austin Kieff which was a tremendous help.

We are praying that David's arm continues to heal and that he does not get an infection.

We are so thankful for all of you and for your prayers.

David Update

David has an appointment in B'ham on Thursday at 1:30. He is eating and actually has a little color to him today. Thank you all for your prayers.

Austin Kieff and David Update

Austin Kieff is recovering quite nicely. He continues to have a fever and is just a little clingy. He is also pulling on his left ear and crying. I am hoping this is just a stress reaction like twirling one's hair. His home has definitely been turned upside down this past week.



David had his bandages changed today. The burns on his hand are 3rd degree burns. The burns on his forearm are 2nd degree and the burns up to his shoulder are a combination of 1st degree and 2nd degree burns according to Dr. Potter. His case manager called today and is going to meet us at Dr. Potter's office on Monday. She wants to see the burns for herself before giving us the information on the appointment in B'ham. I signed the medical release today so that the clinic could receive David's medical records.



I am a little nervous as I will change David's bandages tomorrow. I am going to have my mom help, but it is still a little scary for me!



On a positive note, David and I are so thankful to all of our friends and family for their prayers these past few days. The cards and calls are greatly appreciated. I would like to especially thank my mom for her help with Austin Kieff and John Wayne for taking on some of David's Water System responsibilities. We would also like to thank our new church family for their calls, emails and willingness to serve. We have not officially joined the church yet, but we already feel like part of the family.



I will try to post more tomorrow or Monday...

Austin Kieff and David Update

Austin Kieff did very well today. He even received a t-shirt! He is still a little out of it. He hates the saline drops for his nose and says "no ear drops please momma" when I put the drops in his ears.

We are still waiting on David's appointment. Hopefully we will find out about it in the morning. He has been in quite a bit of pain today. He has also been nauseous most of the day. I am hoping this is all a part of the healing process.

Thank you for your prayers.

David Update

For those of you concerned about David not having seen a burn specialist, we received a call today from his nurse. She is going to call me tomorrow with details regarding an appointment.

As for David Best, my David was told that he may only need skin grafts on his hand. His burns are very serious, but he is doing well.

Thank you gain for your emails and prayers. We are ever thankful.

David Update

We have returned home from the doctor. David is very lucky...and very stubborn! The doctor is going to change his bandages daily for the next several days. He is even going to meet us at the surgical center in Enterprise tomorrow at 6:15 a.m. to change his bandages. That is when Austin Kieff is scheduled to be there. We will continue the dressing changes and if Dr. Potter believes that the burns are not healing as they should, David will see a specialist in B'ham.

Thank you for your emails and your prayers.

love,

david, laura and austin kieff

David

My husband David was in a small explosion at work today. He has suffered severe burns on his right side including his hand, forearm, shoulder, face, temple and ear. Thankfully he is doing much better than his co-worker who was air-lifted to UAB this afternoon. He has severe burns on the upper 25% of his body. His name is David Best.

My David has an appointment with an orthopedic doctor tomorrow and PT afterwards. He will have the debris and skin removed from his burns at this time. We may be looking at a two-three week period of him being out of work. He is not a very good patient…a little stubborn and not much on taking it easy. Please remember him and David Best in your prayers.

Austin's surgery is still scheduled for Thursday morning. The procedures should not take more than an hour.

Thank you in advance for keeping our family in your prayers. We will be posting praises soon, I am sure of it!

Prayer Request Update

David's cousin Cassidy Maddux has started her chemo treatments. Please keep her in your prayers. She is currently in ICU at Children's in B'ham because her sodium levels dropped causing her to seizure. Hopefully she will be removed from ICU soon and be able to continue her treatments.

Thank you!

Special Prayer Request

David has a ten year old cousin, Cassidy Maddux, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Because the tumor is flat instead of round, it is inoperable. The tumor is affixed to her optic nerve. She will begin treatment soon and we will update as we receive more information. Please remember her in your prayers.

Sick Again?

Austin Kieff started running a fever around 3:00 this morning. He seemed fine this morning, but spiked another fever this afternoon and has been very clingy and tired tonight. He is a mild cough and has been wheezing, but that is not anything out of the ordinary. Please keep him in your prayers.

Austin Kieff Update

If you read our previous post, you know that Austin Kieff is sick again. After a trip to the doctor and a few tests later we know that he has another bacterial infection. We also learned that his body is not fighting the infection. His white blood cells were barely in the normal range. Apparently his body compensates for this with high fevers. We are on two weeks of a strong antibiotic. Because of the effect of the infection in his respiratory system we are also adding albuterol every 2-4 hours and orapred twice a day in addition to his pulmicort treatments. Three days into the antibiotics and we are seeing some improvement. His fever finally broke on Saturday and has not been higher than 102 since.

Right now he is climbing up into my lap so I am going to try and get this little guy to bed. The one thing we hate about the albuterol treatments is that they interfere with his sleeping!

Thanks for keeping him in your prayers!

20 Day Streak...OVER

Austin Kieff's 20 day streak of being healthy is officially over. I came home to a 105.3 fever. A call to the on-call doctor. His response was that it sounds like flu and to have him at the office first thing in the morning. We are maxing the doses on Tylenol and Motrin every six hours. Please keep him in your prayers.