New Casting date

Shriner's hospital called me yesterday to tell me that they want to reschedule Russell's 4th casting date for Feb 21.  That's right-4 days before his EMG at Primary Children's hospital.  I talked to the anesthesiologist, and she said that he'd be fine to have two procedures that require anesthesia that close together.  This has me cheering Yea! Only ONE trip to Utah in February, and NO trips down there this month.  We've gone down there every month since last February, I think.  It's so nice to have that extra time at home.   Yea  yea yea!  I know I shouldn't complain about going down there-we have a LOT of family down there that we get to see everytime, and they help us out SO much.  I wouldn't change that for the world.  So many people don't live as close as we do to both family, and the medical help we need, and I'm truly grateful that we do live so close. 
But I don't enjoy traveling, and I enjoy packing even less.  So I'll take this month off of that drive (and the packing!), and just enjoy being home as a family.

marathon

Russell has been stuffing his face with all food in sight pretty much nonstop since 9am this morning.  It's now 11:30am.  I've never ever seen him do this before.  Ha ha...the power of prayer! Thanks everyone!

things are looking better

Russell is doing better.  No fever, no throwing up for almost two days now, and the breathing is much better too.  Now we just have to help him regain the weight lost and his strength.  He's just weak after being so sick.  Of course, we are not getting a new cast next week anymore.  We'll give him some more time to recuperate.  We're also going to quarantine our family a bit.  The dr says his immune system is really weak, due to all the stuff he's going through, and the myopathy may just make him weaker still, and that we need to keep him away from large groups of people.  So we're still sending Tyler and Emalyn to school, and Krysta to preschool, but Russell will not be going anywhere (thank goodness Tyler is such a great babysitter!!!) other than sacrament meeting.  So I'm not helping out at the school anymore and I'm doing my best to cut out some of our activities, just until flu season is over.  Then I think we can resume normal life.  I'm not going to be frantic about this, I'm just going to cut out what we can and not worry about what we can't.
Thank you all for your support.  I think it's amazing how we can reach out to eachother through social media, and feel so much love in return.  This would be so much harder without everyone who reads and responds, both here and in email or phone. 

sick...

Russell is very sick.  Yesterday, we took him to the dr and found out he has influenza.  Today, we grew concerned that he wasn't breathing well and took him in again, and he tested positive for strep.  He's been throwing up, and has a temperature, and keeps choking on everything except drinks.  I'm sure the muscle weakness in his throat, plus all the swelling due to both illnesses is causing the choking.  Please keep him in your prayers.  I'm confident that he will be ok, and that now that he's on a steroid (to soothe his swollen tonsils and help him eat and breathe better), tamiflu, and an antibiotic, he will get better.  I'm concerned also because he has been losing weight and now is unable to eat much and not keeping it down.  I think his immune system is weaker due to all the casting and the myopathy.  Thank you for your support and your prayers.  I'm sure he'll get past all this, but oh man would I like to be on that side of it now! Ah well, we all go through these things, don't we?  I'm so grateful for the blessing of prayer.  You are all such a great support to us.

more rescheduling

We had to cancel Russell's EMG at PCMC next Monday, because he's got a really bad cold with a cough.  He seems to be doing better today, but the last couple of days got me a little worked up because he coughed so much.  He actually slept through the night last night though, and today seems to have more energy.

The new date for the EMG is Feb 25.  That's really good, because he's going in for his next cast at Shriner's in just a few weeks, Jan 29.  (Yes, we finally got that rescheduled too.  Yea! :) )  I am glad he won't be getting the two anesthesia procedures closer than that.  Now if we can just get him healthy, and keep it that way...