Jaxon and Hayden's Medical Story

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

If you noticed....


If you noticed, I posted a vacation ticker yesterday, saying there were so many days until our trip to Disney World. Well, this is why I put that on.... almost 2 years ago, I got a random phone call, asking if I knew anyone who would benefit from a "Make a Wish". Of course, at that time it was right around when both boys were just diagnosed, and so, I said I have 2 who would love something like that! We got referred to the Sunshine Foundation, and Jaxon was approved for his wish in Feb. of 08'. We were told that there would be a 1 to 2 year wait, and the letter came yesterday in the mail, saying it was time! We are so excited, but it doesn't seem real yet! We spent a lot of time yesterday evening, looking online at all of the parks and attractions, the boys couldn't even sit still! Hayden already has been saying which toys he is going to bring on the trip! Jaxon has been carrying the letter around everywhere, and had to call all his grandparents last night to let them know! With all of the hard days he has been having these last couple of months, this is something wonderful for him to look forward to! He deserves this, with all he has to deal with everyday!
The trip includes everything! Round trip tickets for all 5 of us, lodging, a rental vehicle, three one day passes to the parks, money for food, luggage fees and gas $! The Sunshine foundation owns an area close to Disney World called the "Dream Village". It is a bunch of cottages, swimming pool and even a mini golf course, all handicap accessible and ready for our family! Plus it's just 10 min. from the parks, so it's perfect! You can see what it looks like @ www.sunshinefoundation.com. It is such a cool program, and we are so blessed to be apart of it! It is different than "Make a Wish", because it gives kids wishes who don't necessarily have a life threatening illness. I just can't believe that we get to go! God is so good, He has really been giving us a ton of positives lately! Even though the everyday ups and downs get overwhelming sometimes, God doesn't forget and He wants to bless. Jaxon is always such a light for us, hardly ever complaining and always smiling, this is really exciting for us to watch him receive (it's pretty cool that the rest of us get in on it)! His brother's are going to have such a blast, they have been through a ton too, in their own way!
We are going to be going sometime in August, so we don't have to plan something fun to do this summer, which is a bonus! As you can see by our ticker at the top, we have a little over 3 months to go, but it will fly by I'm sure!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Wheaton friends!

I had a great group of Bible study friends, from Wheaton, that decided to come and visit us in Fergus the other day! They were going to come and see our new house, but I forgot we were getting the pour for the driveway that day and couldn't get into our house, so we met in Fergus, at Applebee's instead. It was so nice of them to take the time to visit, and was so much fun to catch up! We got a couple of hours together, which was really good, considering there were 4 little kids there! The kids did wonderful, and we had a great time! Thanks ladies for coming to see us!
The whole crew!
Just the kids!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Our new purchase!




We purchased a van today!! We have been looking for a little while, found this great deal, and decided to go for it! It is a 2006 Kia Sedona, and we love it! We have been wanting to do this for awhile, because of Jaxon. He has had a really rough couple of months, and it has been really hard to be in the cramped car, right next to his brothers!! He has no room to move around and stretch when he needs to. It is hard to get in and out of the car, and really hard to buckle them up too! Now they each have their own spot, which will be nice for all of them, plus they can actually see out! Jaxon was really excited when we told him we were thinking of doing this! And they were so excited to get it today, it came to us actually! Hayden was not feeling good at all today, he was throwing up and couldn't drive to Perham, where we purchased it. So they were really nice and delivered it to our house! They had our old car to drive back in, because we traded that in for the van.

The Driveway....

Before the house got a driveway....
before the driveway, @ the front door...

After we got our driveway on Tuesday....
It's bigger than we thought it would be!
They did a great job on the pour! We stayed in Fergus the night they poured, because we couldn't get in and out. So, it was a big change when we got home on Wednesday, the boys were pretty excited to be able to walk and run on it! They will be able ride bikes soon! We can't drive on it for awhile, or we would crack it, but is still an exciting thing!! They also worked on the yard too, they will be able to lay the sod soon, then our house will almost be complete!

The boys at play....



This post is a little late, as far as the dates these pics were taken, but I saw these when I was going through pictures for my other posts, and thought I would post them anyway!
Jaxon got his walker in the mail the other week and it came in a huge box. They had such a blast that day playing in the box! I don't think we should buy another toy, just get them a big box once and awhile!! There was also a ton of plastic poppers that the boys ran on, they ran on it and into the box where there was more. It was a loud afternoon, but a ton of fun for them!

Friday, April 17, 2009

The last few weeks....

Well, it has been awhile since I have posted anything, so I thought I'd better get you all up to date! Not that there has been a lot you have missed, but some of you would want to know how we have been doing! I will try to keep this up better so that you all know what is going on at least week be week!
The reason I haven't written this earlier is really because of Jaxon. He has had a tough couple of weeks, and I haven't had any energy to do anything. Easter week and weekend were the worst he has been in a long time! He stayed home from school on Thursday, and hardly moved a muscle all day! I had to help him change positions every few minutes cause he would get uncomfortable, but couldn't move himself. He was like that all night Wed./Thurs. morning, and it lasted until about 3pm Thrusday. He did want to go to church that night with his wheel chair, so that was good! We had a nice dinner at church, then our service, and dessert at the end. After the service he really started to get bad again, you could see it all over his face! We, meaning Jax and I, hardly slept that night either, he had a high fever(which is part of his JRA) and was really hurting and uncomfortable again. He has been having weekends like this now for over a month. It seems like he can try to make it through the school week, but then has no energy for the weekend!
He did have a better week this week, which was relieving! He was sore and stiff most mornings but wanted to go to school! He has been having Phys. Ed outside this week, playing baseball, so that was a good motivator. Sometimes he needs things like that to get him going, otherwise it is just too hard! He also had another change this week, we talked to his Dr. about the frequent pain that he has been having, and they decided to up his Kineret shot. He was only getting half of an adult dose, so we just added a little to that. He doesn't have to get two shots, we just don't have to waste so much of the shot! We usually squirt out half of the liquid to get him the right amount, now it's just a little! We are hoping that this will help his pain so that we can stay down where we are at on his steroids. He has been down pretty far on those now for about a month, so we are hoping that he can start growing!
He had a rough night last night again, he tossed and turned, needed help getting to the bathroom, and just moaned and groaned all night! He woke up needing dad to carry him out to the couch where he was until he could take a nap! He did come outside, in his wheelchair for little bit, while we cleaned and organized our garage! We will see how he is feeling after his snooze here, sometimes that helps!
Otherwise there isn't that much else going on around here. That is enough though, it seems, cause Jeremy and I seem to always be tired! It is hard to have the roller coaster feeling with Jaxon everyday, never knowing what the next day will bring! We have to remind each other, and Jaxon, that we can't handle it all by ourselves, but need to lean on Him. Otherwise we would never be able to make it through these kind of weeks! God is always there, even when it seems impossible! We can see it often in the way Jaxon reacts to these hard days, he really never complains and usually has a smile on his face, which can only be God! I know that if I was in the amount of pain Jaxon is in, it would be really hard for me to have a good attitude! I really believe that we see God giving Jaxon and us extra grace, and strength, even in these hard times!
One good piece of information for you though, is that we are getting our driveway poured this Tuesday!! I am so excited! It has been fine without it, but annoying at the same time! We can't get into our garage, with the cars, so if Jaxon has a hard day we have to carry him up our bridge (as the boys call it). It will be so nice when we can just drive in so he can get out and into the house without walking very far!
So that's the low down, and I will try to get better at posting more often so that you don't have to read a book all at once!