Platelet Battle

As you know Dave's body is in a battle with itself and it is know as ITP. This has not been an easy fight, but the battle rages on and he presses on. I think it is mostly emotionally draining. He only feels some physical side effects of the steroids and dealing with additions to his schedule with blood draws and doctors appointments every week. His counts were up to 82,000 this last week. YEAH!!! He had another blood count draw today, so we should have another count tomorrow. The Hematologist is going to try to taper him off the steroids again. If the platelets drop then he will be considered steroid dependent and have to undergo another therapy. The doctor is talking about using Ritaxin, which is actually used as chemotherapy for Hogkins-lymphoma. I would love to know if anyone has any experience with this or feedback. I tend to be skeptical of putting chemicals in my body, so this one makes me nervous just thinking about it. After some research I feel like it is probably a good option, but it's hard to know.  There are about 13 different treatments for this but none guarantee remission for the long run. It seems that it is just by chance that people get better. I believe that God wants to heal Dave, but am having a hard time persevering through the here and nows, the day to day interruption, the naptime spent on the phone with insurance, the added stress of bills, and fact that this could be a chronic disorder with other side effects. This is such a complicated disorder. For this I ask you to pray for peace for us, for complete healing for Dave and for fear and worry to not have a hand in our lives. I will keep you posted.

A Time

 About a week ago we went back to Greenville for the most beautiful ceremony celebrating the life of Carol Childs. She is the mother of our dear friend, Bryan. It was sad because she will be greatly missed by her family and friends, but happy to know that she is with the person who ment the most to her, Jesus. The ceremoy was a reflection of how Carol was life giving because of the Savior who gave her life on earth and in eternity. It really made me think about my own life to someone else's ended so abruptly. I thought I would share part of the program for those that were not able to make it.

On the plane ride back everyone feel asleep except mommy.

Ty and his buddy Emily Childs.

Highlight of the trip was that we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Knight.

Bitter Sweet: First Day of Preschool

It is a bittersweet day today. As we celebrate an exciting milestone for Tyler we also mourn the loss of a beautiful women of God, wife, mother, grandmother, teacher and person dear to our hearts, Carol Childs. She was a close friend of our family and will be missed.
Today was Tyler's first day of preschool and it was a blessed day for that reason. He first was apprehensive about going to school, but I left him alone for a few minutes in his room and next thing I know he was dashing through my room dress and ready to go, asking me every five minutes if it was time to go. He got his backpack on, posed pleasantly for photos and we were off. Daddy met us at the school and it wasn't long before Tyler did not even notice us there. His teachers Mrs. Perth and Mrs. Fitzue greeted him and right off the bat established a routine...wash hands, puts backpack in cubby, turn in any paperwork, and free play. We exited with ease and it was a very smooth transition. He was there an hour and fifteen minutes for a first day orientation. I came back to pick him from his first day and he was gleaming. He is going to love it.
His highlights included: Seeing his friend Candace, playing with the"digger", reading a story and taking his backpack.

Entrance to his classroom

Greeted by teacher

Finding cubby

Free play with Candace

Interaction with Mrs. Perth

His classmates photos will go here

Overcoming

Whether it is overcoming illness, overcoming fears, overcoming adversities, there is nothing to hard for God. There have been situations recently where nothing else will do but to run to God, because nothing else will do. One situation...Dave's sudden onset of ITP was a scaring thing for us, but we are thankful for the support and prayers of everyone to help us through that. We are confident that God is with us through it all. He is calming our fears. Dave had another appointment this last Wednesday and it was positive. His platelets had gone up to 79,000 from 76,000 last week, which is not a larger rise, but it is still a rise and we are thankful for that. The doctor is continuing to tapper off the steroids 20mg's at a time. He is down to 40mg's. Dave being the Superstar that he is has been business as usual and hasn't let any of the extra doctors visits and ups and downs of medicines faze him. He even put two houses into escrow this past week.
We are also helping Tyler overcoming his own fears. Recently he has been scared of the dark and "noises". He is learning about being brave and overcoming his fears with prayer and talking through them. Earlier this week I lay down with his and hugged him and said, "I want to cuddle you forever, but I know you won't always let me." He look me square int he eyes and said...."Yes I will Mommy!" It melted my heart.  This Thursday he will have his first day of preschool and face his fears of being away from mommy and going to school. Hard to believe he is starting already. He will be going two half days a week. We picked out a little backpack and packed it already. We had a little back to school play-date yesterday to celebrate with some of his friends.
Angela has done some overcoming of her own....she is successfully weaned from the bottle. That is a big deal because she really enjoyed that bottle. But, she did what she always does and rolled with the punches. She also graduated into kids church at One Voice Church. She gets to be in with the big kids now.
With some inspiration from Mom Olson this past week, Mommy tackled organizing the entire garage along with making over the picture frames in the dining room. Mommy is getting ready to be a discussion group leader for MOPS this semester. Thanks Mom for coming to visit! We loved having you! Now, for some photos from this month.

Back to school Play-date....Someone gave us this cool jumper! Tyler loves it!

Angela in the new Tuggy Boat pool. Thank you to Grandma Olson for finding this at a yard sale nearby!

Sante Fe Dam water park. This was something we found the weekend before it closed for the summer. Look forward to going again next summer.

Peacocks in the neighborhood. Tyler and his friends, Jace and Sander enjoyed watching them.

Grandma Olson and Angela at Kidspace

I turned around for one minute and this is where Grandma and I found Angela. I guess we need to keep the chairs pushed it:)

Daddy, Tyler and Angela at Manhattan beach

On the Up and Up

It has been a week since Dave's last check up where he was told his platelet levels were 54,000. We are happy to report that his platelet levels are still on the rise. We had a visit with the hematologist today after a blood test (which will be a weekly occurrence for a while) yesterday. Doctor Wang said he is up to 76,000 platelets. Still down from the normal 140,000-400,000 but still on the up and up. Doctor even told him he can resume sports (no vigorous sports) as long as the levels stay above 50,000. Dave was relieved, as ultimate frisbee is one of his major outlets. He decide to start tapering Dave off the Prednisone steroids because they can cause side effect if you are on them too long. Only side effect that Dave has been experiencing is that he is hungry all the time. We are trusting that good health will return soon for Dave. He feels completely normal, other than the fact that he is hungry all the time. It has not effected his business/work at all. As a matter of fact he just had his biggest listing ever go into escrow this afternoon. We are thankful for everyone praying for him and supporting him. We hope this journey is short, but don't know what is around the corner.

Other good news, Grandma Olson got here today for a visit. We are looking forward to spending time with her and checking things of the list that Tyler made for them to do while she is here. Things to do...take her to his preschool that he will be starting in two weeks, go to Kidspace, swing on the swing, ride the scooter, play basketball, go to Starbucks to get her coffee and play chuga chuga choo choo.

Crash Course in ITP

These past few days have been a whirlwind to say the least. Dave went for a routine doctor's visit on Thursday afternoon, after having some follow up blood work done Tuesday to check his cholesterol. He had been bruising easily, as well. While at the appointment the doctor had good things to report about his cholesterol...it was now normal:) While looking at the report he noticed that Dave's platelet levels were Dangerously low. A normal person has a platelet level of 140,000-400,000. Dave's were 9,000. With a level of 10,000 or lower you are at high risk for spontaneous bleeding. Dave was escorted across the street to Arcadia Methodist Hospital and taken to the Emergency room where they did further testing to determine what was causing the low platelet count. At this point the doctor called me and asked me to meet Dave at the hospital and to find someone to watch the kids. We are thankful to our church family that came to the rescue and helped out tremendously!
In the emergency room he underwent a CAT scan to make sure he had no internal bleeding on his brain. That came back clear. They did another blood test and determined that he needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately for diagnosis and treatment. Upon admission to the hospital, he was diagnosed with ITP(Immune Thrombocytopinia Purpura), an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks and destroys platelet cells that play a role in blood clotting. It is not contagious and can not be passed from one person to another. No specific test can prove that you have this and there is no known cause.
ITP can be acute or chronic meaning it could be a long or short road to full recovery. It is not a life threatening condition unless his level is low and he experienced trauma of some sort.
After the diagnosis, they started the first treatment, a platelet transfusion. He underwent the treatment without any complications or side effects:) Then, they administered corticosteroids to supress the immune system to stop it from killing off the platelets. He was in the hospital for two days, so they could monitor him and make sure his platelets stayed at a safe level.  They drew his blood numerous times and determined they were at a safe level to return home. He was sent home on Saturday afternoon with an appointment for Monday morning to check the levels again.
All the while, Dave is the most positive person I know. Thursday night I said to him, "I am sorry you have to go through this Dave." He said, " It will build my empathy." His attitude has taught me so much over the years.
We are happy to report that today was the appointment and they did another test, and although it is not back to normal levels, it is increasing. It is at 54,000. The doctor was optimistic that the steroids are working, so that will be his course of treatment for now. Hopefully that is all that he needs and we will cross any other bridges as we go. For now, we ask for your prayers for a full recovery and strength in the process. We have already learned a lot in this process like don't worry until you have to:) We have felt God's assurance that He has a plan for Dave, even in the midst of a hardship like this.

We have appreciated the support and help from so many people that watched our kids, brought us food, movies and drinks in the hospital, gave advice, words of encouragement and those that prayed from afar!

The view from our hotel....I mean hospital room. Dave said, at that point he would have rather been playing golf across the street at that course than sitting in the room. That says a lot...he is not a huge fan of playing golf:)

Dave's Hemotologist that will be helping us through this. We are comforted knowing he is one of the top doctors in his field in our area. Thankful for that!

Tour de Midwest take 3

Each year we venture to the midwest for quality time with family and friends, mid-western hospitality and lots of fun and relaxation! This year presented nothing less than that. It was another great trip. This year we started the trip in the Great Lakes State, Michigan at the Olson casa and traveled on to the Noll casa and ended our journey at the Knight's casa. We did so many things this trip I am not going to even try to artistically write it all down. I will just list the highlights of our time in each town/city:)

Burbank Airport on our way!!

Michigan: Grandpa and Grandma Olson's
-Saw Brad, Lindsay, Breana, Laney, and my new nephew, Trey.
-Ty went fishing, caught and scaled a fish in the backyard with daddy and Grandpa O.
- Visited with 4 Great Grandparents, Jackson's and Olson's
- Ty learned to swim under the water to get rings.
-Angela went down the slide into the pool and successfully held her breath under when when she rolled off a floating animal that Grandma had her on.
- Met two great friends baby boys, Lindsay Adams (Charlie) and Meghan Mahardy (Colin).
-Got to see our great friends Adam and Rebecca Carpenter and their girls Sophia and Elise who live/work in Wuhan, China.
-Visited Grandma and Grandpa's new church, The First Church of the Nazarene.
-Pizza at the Beach Bar (mommy's favorite)
-Toured Spring Arbor University and visited some of our friends in Student Development, Ron, Kim, Bobby, Damon, etc.)
 -Drank Espresso Gallery Chai
-Went shopping at TJ Maxx.
-Went Kayaking at Lime Lake

Grandma and Grandpa with the littles- 5 under 5

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The Knights, The Noll's and The Olson's all together...missing Lucus and Ally:(

Ty and Baby Trey

Great Grandparents- The Olson's

The Kids favorite...Wyatt.

Great Grandpa Jackson at the huge missions sale in Spring Arbor.

Bonfire in Gpa and Gma's backyard

Great Grandpa's Famous Garden

Great Grandpa and Grandma Jackson

 Lindsay and Charlie Adams..........Ty caught his first fish

 Adam and Rebecca Carpenter and their girls Sophia and Elise who live in Wuhan, China. We are lucky to see them once or this year twice a year:)

Meg and her boy Colin came to visit. She is an Army wife and her hubby is in Afghanistan so she was in Michigan with her parents. I hadn't seen her in six years:(

Baby Trey! He stole my heart!

Indiana: Uncle Brad and Aunt Lindsay's
- Played in the pool
- Visited mommies cousin who had a baby three days old, Jonathan Barchus.
- Ate Biaggies and Yoyo's
- Spent time with the cousins playing in the kiddy pool and on the swing set
-Went to a cupcake store that was out of cupcakes:( Still don't know how that can happen.

Illinois: Grandpa and Grandma Knight
-Fisher Price swing master 500X that Grandpa Knight put up for the kids(Young and old) in the back yard.
-Seeing Aunt Christy, Uncle Tony, and Carter.
-Meeting our niece/cousin, Kendall.
-Spending time with 3 Great Grandparents, Grandma Aten and Grandpa and Grandma Knight
-Bond County Fair, where we rode rides, saw the animals, ate fair food and watched a tractor pull.
-Supporting Grandpa at the Bond County Parade, where we encouraged people to vote yes to retain him as Circuit Judge for another term.
-Mario's pizza (daddy's favorite), Nick's shaved Ice and Dairy queen
-Visiting with the Krober family, Kyle, Miriam, Rachel, Sandy, Becca and all there adorable kids.
-Seeing Jackie Koonce, Mary Young, "the man and his wife" the Gillards as Tyler refers to them.
-Riding the scooters around town. The boys loved riding with Grandpa to Moto "Motor" mart as Ty refers to it as.
-Blowing bubbles, riding the mini-motorcycle and playing in the sprinkler.

Grandma getting ready to line up for the parade.

Judges that are running for retention with Grandpa Knight.

Kids in Support of Grandpa for the upcoming election!

One of Angela's new favorite words, Bubbles!

 Playing in the pool and homemade ice cream...what more could two boys ask for!

Tubby time with Grandpa. He would give them their baths in the wash tub in the basement:) They loved it!

 What would our Tour be without a Knight family photo!

 Fun at the Bond County Fair...Giant slide, Tractor pull, Funnel cake and lemonade:)

Knight and Krober kids at church.

Ty's first time water skiing.

Fisher price swingmaster 500X- We asked Grandpa to put up as swing and this is what he came up with. The kids and adults loved it!

 Well, that about sums it up in a nut shell:) Great times with Great people!