Another update on Joel...

My brother, Joel, is still struggling with his health. He is continually receiving blood transfusions to battle the constant anemia that is part of living with ulcerative colitis. But he seems to be encouraged by his 2nd round of Remicade. At this moment he has been admitted to the hospital, but just for overnight to receive blood and then hopefully come home in the morning. It is his birthday tomorrow, so please pray that he will get to come home! This has been a long, rough road for my parents, and of course, Joel. He's had a rough year, if you remember in the fall he had an injury that took him out of most of his junior year of soccer.

Evan is doing wonderfully! I'll write more about him later! I have a great picture to post!

Update on Joel

Joel is home, feeling well. He came home last week, after 2 1/2 weeks down at Riley. He is continuing treatments on Remicade, a med to suppress his immune system, which is a fairly common treatment for UC. Anyhow, he's home, going to school sometime this week, but still very tired and possibly battling some ongoing anemia.

Our digital camera needs new batteries, so there haven't been any new pictures to post. And since I'm lucky to remember to brush my teeth in a given day, the new batteries have yet to be purchased.
Procrastinators of America...UNITE! Next week. Or maybe even the next.

Joel

Hey everyone,
Joel is still at Riley hospital, and we don't know now when he could be coming home. The bleeding still hasn't stopped, he's had his 4th or 5th blood transfusion, and the steriod that we thought was working so well has slowed way down. They're giving him until Tuesday to show significant improvement. The doctors keep telling him that he's showing improvement, but the symptoms that have been giving him so much trouble are still present. He's not eating. They want to put him on TPN (IV nutrition) but he refused to be hooked up to one more thing. My parents are so weary.
Please just keep praying, for Joel and my parents as well.
Thanks,
Misty

More Christmas Time Pictures

Landon and Evan from behind. They are the same size, except you can see that Landon has a lot more weight on Evan! Look at the difference in their arms...my little skinny mini will probably never be a body builder, but we'll get over it!

I caught Evan picking on Daisy while she was trying to take a nap.

I love this picture! Davin was interested in Evan's new bongos from his Uncle Matt, and Evan was patiently looking over his shoulder.

Just a quick note...

Hello,
An update on Joel...
He is rapidly improving on a different steriod, and may be out by the end of the week. Keep praying!!


Evan and Lucas are playing in the other room right now, and they are so cute together. Yesterday, Evan was crawling away from Lucas, laughing and turning around to see if he was still coming, because Lucas kept trying to eat his toes! And today, they are playing with the toys and Evan keeps yelling "Ma" and Lucas is laughing. Evan absolutely loves to play with him. Though, he does sometimes clock him over the head with a maraca or drumstick. It's okay though, because Lucas gets him back by kicking him in the head. He kicks everything.

I'll try to post some pictures that you might enjoy as well.

Joel

Hey everybody,
My brother Joel is still at Riley and will be until at least next week. He is improving though, and is in good spirits most of the time. I'm pretty sure I already explained a little bit, but he has a GI disease that has resulted in lots of bleeding, and has been at Riley since late Sunday night. He was severely anemic and S.Bend Memorial wanted him down at Riley to better control his symptoms, as his doctor, the only pediatric GI doctor around, practices down there. He was diagnosed with this last July, but has been suffering a severe flare-up for a few weeks, and it has come to this. But, as I said, it is improving! Hopefully we'll see him coming home next week.

Please pray for him,
Misty

Happy New Year!!!

He loves to play in his crib in the mornings.
This was Evan and Landon after we tried FOREVER to get a nice picture of the two of them together.

Misty, Evan, Gavin, Shannon, Sam, Becca, and Landon.

We got to spend a few hours together while we were in town.

Evan and Davin, his cousin and best bud.

Evan thoroughly enjoyed fingerpainting some gifts.

Happy New Year to everyone! We continue to thank the Lord for the healthy little boy we have, and know that this year will be even better than the last. Though last year we spent the holidays in the hospital with Evan, we have found ourselves celebrating this holiday season as his first. It just feels that way to us, since he didn't come home until Jan. 12th.

We had an awesome Christmas last week. Evan has more toys than he could ever play with in a week. He also received an Evan-sized armchair and a toybox. You know, now that I think about it, he really didn't receive a massive amount of toys. It was just the right amount to keep him busy, and for me to cycle in and out of the mix so that he doesn't stay bored with what he's already got. We also got to spend some time with Becca and Shannon and their families. Shannon's kids are Gavin and Samantha (Sam) and they are almost 5 and 2 1/2. Becca had Landon Jan. 25th, which was the due date that she and I shared. So, Evan technically should be similar in size to Landon and doing similar things. And he is! It is so exciting. Evan is possibly a little taller, too. But Landon has about three or four pounds on Evan, and is walking. But it was so nice to see that for his adjusted age, Evan is right on track! Praise the Lord.

I'd like to ask you for your prayers for my little brother. I don't want to say too much, but just to say that he is having some health issues and is at Riley Hospital right now until they are under control. He's been having these same health issues for a year, and was taken to the hospital Sunday evening in South Bend, then transported to Riley to get them under control. He's still there, and possibly will be through the weekend.