UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

How awesome is our Ethan? Super ultra mega awesome! Ethan is doing fabulous on the ventalator and completely off paraletics. Still under heavy sedation. He has opened his eyes a lot today and has been moving his little arms and legs. It will take sometime to wean him off the ventalator but all in all he is doing an amazing job. So amazed with and proud of our little man. Still no answers as to why this happened or a diagnosis. We do know that he will not leave this hospital without a treatment as this is guaranteed to happen again without one. Tomorrow there should be some tests back so we might have answers but will definately have ruled some things out. Keep thinking of Ethan and our family!

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

Today has been a good day. No test results back yet but... ETHAN IS OFF THE OSCILLATOR! He has been moved to a traditional ventalator and is completely off paraletics. The still have him completely sedated but he has started moving and opening his eyes. Possibly tomorrow they will ease up on sedation and let him really start working with the machine. Keep cheering our boy on! He is such a tough kid. Today was a big step in the right direction.

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

The name of the game was slow & steady. Not taking a step backwards is taking a step forward sometimes. No huge developments. Waiting for tests to come back. His stats, blood gases, and glucose stayed regular. Ethan seems a lot more calm today and although a little scary I think it is a good thing he is allowing the machines to work for him. There was talk of moving him over to the traditional ventilator but have decided Ethan will need a little more time. No news is good news here.

Ethan's "Wall of Wishes" has grown today. You all are so awesome & sweet. Thanks for thinking of him & sending him positive energy. It is definately helping, please keep it up!

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

Thank you everyone for the wonderful cards, stuffed animals, and gifts. Most importantly thank you for your support. We have been very touched and overwhelmed with the out pour of support. You all are so amazing.

Thursday, May 28th... We finally feel like we are making progress, even though it is very small. The first 4 days felt like one very long day to me, but today felt like a new day.

Today his vitals, blood gases, and hemoglobin/hemocrit levels have stayed stable/normal. We moved him from the oscillator to the ventalator for about 4 hours. He did well but not as awesome as they would like or as he does on the oscillator so they moved him back. I did not think he would stay on the ventalator so this was no surprise. He just did not seem ready, but still did really great. While he was on the ventalator the hemotologists were able to get the bone marrow samples they wanted. This is very exciting as they are finally able to truly look at his red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. These tests will take a few days and should offer some answers.

Ethan is looking more like himself every single day. He is still completely on life support, completely sedated, and completely paralized. They have up'd the sedative & paraletic as he was "breaking through" and on his support machine he really needs to stay out of it so he does not fight the machine. Today Ethan seems very calm & comfortable.

His stay in the PICU is still looking like a total of 2 weeks, 9 more days. Then I imagine we will be staying in the hospital for some time. Our little Ethan is so so strong. Michael & I could not be more pleased with the progress he is making as he is making it at the pace that is best for him. Ethan does a wonderful job of letting us know what he needs in his own way.

UPDATE - Ethan in the PICU

Today has been full of baby steps forward with a few backward. This is what most days will be looking like as long as we are in the PICU. We will probably remain in the PICU for a couple weeks.

His lungs are looking better and we are still making progress toward weaning him off his current respiratory machine, an oscillator, onto a more conventional machine, a ventalator. The current machine he is on is keeping his lungs open while pushing the oxygen he needs in and then he naturally pushes the air out. This causes our already snotty mcgee son to continue to be snotty mcgee.

He finally has his feeding tube in. Although, they are not yet giving him nurtition through the feeding tube because his IV fluids are enough.

His vitals have fluctuated througout the day and have now stabalized.

Ethan continues to be a fighter. Having opened his eyes a few times and sparatically moving arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, and shoulders. As I write this he is squeezing my finger. He is still under sidation & a paraletic. The doctors & nurses are not concerned about this activity as it is not affecting his progress, him being on the machine, and is actually good for him.

Our families & friends are amazing. Everyone's prayers & positive energy is definately helping, keep it up. All of the Grandparents are on "shifts" so Ethan & I are always have company. Michael & I get to talk numerous times through out the day since Ethan arrived at Primary's. He of course is worried and is anxious to get home on the 6th. We have made the decison since Ethan is in what the PICU calls a "critically stable" position that it is not necessary for him to rush home and he is going to finish this last week of WOCS.

Thank you for all your support. We have a long journey ahead of us.

Ethan in the PICU

Sunday night I took Ethan into Primary Childrens ER because his breathing sounded irregular. He was rushed into Trauma as soon as we entered the ER, and then quickly taken to the PICU. The first 8 hours the doctors worked very hard to keep Ethan alive,we were prepared by doctors for the worst. As you all know Ethan is a tough guy and kept with us!!! He even tried to fight the doctors.

Ethan's lungs & heart were working very hard, too hard a matter of fact. What doctors think what happened is related to the Acute Hemorragic Edema he was diagnosed with (@ Primarys) in March. The bleeding that we usually see show it's self on the outside of his body in the form of "spots" was happening internally as well. For how long we do not know, but this internal bleeding was going into his lungs. Causing fluid (blood) in his lungs as well as a rapid decrease in red blood cells. The fluid in his lungs made it very hard for him to breath and the lack of blood made his heart go into overtime to produce more red blood cells.

Currently Ethan is still in the PICU and will be for some time. He is on complete life support. Over the past 32 hours we have had big scares but are currently taking some baby steps towards improvement, of course not without a few bumps along the way. We are anticipating a couple weeks in the PICU and then some more time in the hospital. Our main focus is getting his stable & healing what has happened. Then of course what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and then how to prevent & care for it.

I will do my best to keep the blog updated.

PLEASE KEEP ETHAN & OUR FAMILY IN YOUR PRAYERS AND SEND POSITIVE ENERGY.

GD Cancer!

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

About 8 months ago I blogged about my brother Michael who was beginning his journey and the fight of his life against colon cancer. A lot has happened since then, many highs and lows. Without going into too much detail I want to ask everyone to keep him, his wife, their two kids, and every cancer patient in your prayers. Send every ounce of positive energy you have in his direction.

My brother is one of the strongest, smartest, caring, sincere, and amazing people I know. What he has had to go through is not fair and undeserving, but who ever said life would be fair right. Throughout all of this his spirit stays high and he has a smile on his face.

Love you Michael & God Bless.

Sicky McGee

If it isn't one thing it is another. Ethan has Croup, ick! We have 7 days of antibiotics and he should be good as new. I thought he was acting weird when we were in the hospital in March, he is acting far worse now. Poor little guy just hung out on the couch all day.

Swimming! Hello Beautiful Weather!

We went swimming this past weekend and it was so much fun. Once we got out of the pool Ethan was shivering. He loved swimming and splashing. I am sure we will be spending lots of time @ the pool during the hot southern summer.

Rent the Layton House!

Basement Apartment:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=475&ad=6526924&cat=276

Main House:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=475&ad=6526796&cat=278

Beautiful home, updated space, nice neigborhood! Check it out!

Marathon here we come!!

So, the past couple weeks I have been training for a marathon on December 13th in Alabama, the Rockey City Marathon. I have been waiting to post about it to see how dedicated I was going to be the first couple weeks of training and oh boy it is tough but I am loving it. My friend Emily, whose boyfriend is in the Army with Mike, is training right along side me. Feeling super motivated and looking forward to accomplishing this life goal. Feel free to cheer me on anytime, we have 7 months of hard work ahead of me. Thanksgiving weekend we are going to run a half marathon, this will give us that last umph to keep training!

I am really excited about this and wanted to share with everyone!

Goodbye Kiki, it's been real.

Kiki has found a new home! She is a great cat & we will miss her. I won't miss her walking on my face in the middle of the night or meowing at 6:00 in the morning. I will however miss the awesome snuggles, her cute snobby attitude, and how she can push Ace around. Hope Kiki loves her new home & is an awesome cat for her new family.

Amigo is for sale!

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=6443004&cat=402&lpid

For a Good Cause!

This weekend has been titled my "for a good cause" weekend & I think I should really do more of this. I had two opportunities present themselves where I can do something that may make a difference in someone's life.

Friday my sister, Kristina, held a blood drive at her office. I went and donated one pint of blood, which my body was hesitant to give up.

Saturday I participated in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. I ran a 5k in support of the battle against breast cancer. I was surprised by my reaction as I reached the finish line and the overwhelming cheers of complete strangers excited for each person crossing that pink line. Overhearing the stories of those who won and lost their battles with breast cancer brought tears to my eyes.

Stay tuned for more feel good moments & ways we can all show our support or make a difference!

Is that a tree on my house??

BEFORE: Thursday night about midnight I went to make sure the back door was locked to find a tree was trying to get inside our house! Very odd for this non windy spring evening. Didn't even hear the branches breaking.So I guess this answers that age old philosophical riddle, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" No, it does not!

AFTER: Thank you Kama & KJ for coming over & cleaning up the unwelcomed guest. What we thought was just one tree branched turned out to be 3 large tree branches. This turned out to be a large project that consumed their entire Saturday morning. They are awesome!

The Aquarium

Friday Ethan & I went to the Aquarium with Uncle NoNo & Cousin Maddi Grace. We had a lot of fun & got to see some awesome stuff. Maddi G has been before so she was our own personal tour guide. We are going to try and hit the Zoo next week & we are looking forward to it.