Our New Home!

August 6th, 2009 we will be the proud Alabama home owners! We love our new house and cannot wait to move in!

Farewell Michael Clive Thayer

Friday, June 26th, 2009 my Brother, Michael Thayer, passed away at his home surrounded by his family. Since October 2008 he has put up the fight of his life against colon cancer and he fought until the very last moment. Michael is an amazing man, father, husband, son, brother, and uncle. He left lasting impressions on every life he touched and made friends with everyone he met. His sincerity and zest for life will be incredibly missed. We are thankful that since he was no longer able to receive treatment that he did not suffer for long although his passing feels too soon. Please keep our family, especially his wife & two kids in your thoughts and prayers.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/michaelthayer

Family Pictures

Before we made our big move to AL we did family pictures with my Sister & Mom. Here is a sneak peek. There are a lot more really great ones of Mike & Ethan and of our family that I will share as soon as I get the cd. Enjoy!

Mike & Ali are ENGAGED!

Tonight Mike, Ethan, Ace, & I went on our usual evening walk. There is this cool lake near where we are living that Mike said he wanted to walk to so off we went. Nothing out of the usual. We walked around the lake to this little pier and let Ethan look over at the water. Next thing I know... Mike is on one knee!! He said the sweetest words about how much he loves Ethan & I and how happy I make him. He said we should get married & I agreed! Happiest Day Ever!

Come on Doc!

Last week during our long 2 hours wait for the Hematologist Ethan & I had some camera fun :)

Good-bye Mike, Ali, Ethan, & Ace :(

Last week Amy had us all up at her for a good-bye party potluck. It was a lot of fun. Although, that is when it hit me that we will not be able to attend these family gatherings as often as I would like. The past 5 months I have spent a lot of time with both our families and we will miss them tons.

Brian & Rachelle's Wedding!

Last night we went to the wedding of Brian & Rachelle. They are such an awesome couple and we were so thrilled to be apart of their big day. Michael gave a fantastic toast & I got to meet a lot of the people Michael went to college with. The Sigma Chi boys sang the bride a song and each gave her a rose, it was a super sweet tradition.

All my boys are home!

Needless to say I have been a little distracted since my boys have both been home. Our poor blog has been neglected.

Update: Ethan is in great health, he has more blood work tomorrow to confirm that he is doing well. As long as everything is good we are headed to Alabama on Tuesday! We are really looking forward to our new adventure. Michael is loving being home, although we have been very busy trying to load up & see all of our friends & family.

Hope everyone is doing well. Cheers!

Ethan is home!

Ethan & I broke out of the hospital Friday afternoon, with doctors permission of course. He has made a miraculous recovery. Doctors have called him a "miracle" and a "medical mystery." We have learned he has iron defiency anemia but that alone would not be the cause for him going into respirtory failure. All his tests come back normal or negative. He is on an iron supplement and will see a rheumatologist & hemotologist every week for at least the next 3 month. They will monitor his hemoglobin/hemadicrit very closely. Should he start to go down hill again they will take care of it before he gets back to where he was 2 weeks ago. There is no medical explanations for his quick recovery, all I can say are the prayers & positive energy worked! Thank you!

Ethan just didn't want to miss Dad's homecoming this afternoon ;)

UPDATE - Ethan out of the PICU

Good morning! Yesterday evening Ethan was moved out of the PICU onto the floor, woo woo! Big step. He no longer has any of what they call "lines" which are similar to IVs but go deeper into the vein and/or artery. He is no longer getting oxygen. All he is connected to is a feeding tube & has an IV so they can adminster medicine, although he is taking most his meds orally now. They are allowing him to eat so hopefully we can get that feeding tube out asap. Ethan started his physical therapy yesterday and did very well. It is not that he has forgot how to sit up, roll over, crawl, walk, etc. it is that he is very weak from being under paraletics & sedatives for so long. The Physical Therapist was very pleased with what she saw for his first day and has no concerns. Still waiting on the blood work results and this morning I will learn what the plan is from here.

Last night I went home and slept, which was the best possible thing I could do for everyone involved. Yesterday I had hit my limit and the lack of sleep had caught up with me. Only 2 more days and Michael will be home, which we can now be excited about for all the right reasons.

Amazing how 12 days ago the doctors were preparing us for the absolute worst. We knew our baby and he is one strong tough little guy. He really put a good fight & won. There is still a long road to recovery and a lot of unanswered questions. The important thing is that he is still here with usm getting healthier every day, and can continue to do amazing things.

LOVE YOU ETHAN WILLIAM!

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

Good Day for Ethan! ETHAN IS OFF THE VENTILATOR! So amazingly fantastic that Ethan is off the ventilator. He is so super awesome. It was the best feeling ever to be able to hold him after a long 10 days of not being allowed to. Pretty sure Ethan loved it just as much as I did.

Some bone marrow tests are back and he has iron defiency anemia. Not sure why. What they are thinking is that the body is not absorbing the iron he is taking in through his normal diet. Without iron your body cannot create healthy red blood cells. Which then leaves us confused because he now is making healthy red blood cells. One of two things is happening; 1) The blood tranfusion gave him the iron he needed to create the healthy red blood cells or 2) What happened is not just because he has iron anemia but something else, something temporary, triggered him to go over the edge. They are doing tests to find out either way. They are testing his blood for things like lead, copper, the list really goes on and on. Anything that might explain this further. He will be visiting a Hemotologist twice a week so they can ensure his hemoglobin is stays stable. Hemoglobin is basically his red blood cells, red blodo cells carry oxygen throughout the body. When Ethan arrived at Primary's his hemoglobin was a 2, a nornal hemoglobin for a child is 11-13. If his body is just not obsorbing the iron then he will need to have iron given to him regularly through an IV or MV (which I guess an MV is the same as an IV but through the muscle). That is all I know and I am not a medical professional so I might have it all wrong. One mystery that still remains is Ethan obviously lost about 80% of his blood, which is why he had to have 2 blood transfusions in the first 24 hours. Where did that blood go? It was not in his lungs as we initially thought. His lungs were simply full of fluid because of the whatelse was going on in his body. If I understand it right the fluid in his lungs is a result of whatever else was going on, similar to a runny nose being the result of a cold.

Thinking we will be on the floor by Friday! Just to get out of the PICU is another big step.

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

So excited could not wait another second to tell everyone. Ethan could possibly be off the ventalator today! He is doing really awesome. No test results yet, but the docs are going to apply some pressure to get those today. Keep your fingers crossed! Woo Woo for Ethan!

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

Today has been another good day. Ethan is doing fantastic on the ventalator and is slowly coming off meds. He is still a bit out of it but we can definately see his cute self shining through. It is completely heart breaking to not be able to hold him yet and to see the sad or confused looks on his face. It won't be long though before he is off the ventalator and can move a lot more freely. Optimistically it will be Wednesday when he is off the ventalator and hopefully Friday when we are moved out of the PICU and onto the floor.

Bone marrow tests are not yet back but some preliminary tests confirm that Ethan does not have cancer. This was pretty low on the list of things so we were not too concerned but it is nice to have it confirmed. We may never have all the whys, whats, hows answered and we may not know how to treat whatever has and is happening. There are still a lot of unknowns. The fact Ethan has got through this episode we are optimistic we will be able to prevent it from getting to this critical level in the future. We are also confident and optimistic that we will get some answer. Like I said there are just a lot of unknowns.

Keep thinking of Ethan! He is so stinkin amazing!