Saturday, November 29, 2008

MUCH To Be Thankful For!

This is the better news post I was hoping to write!
As you all know, we had a terrible scare on Wed. the 26th. Zed's liver functions were skyrocketing each day and he was in terrible pain all night Tues. When the Dr's came in to discuss his case they were pretty grim to say the least. The liver specialist was quite blunt and to the point, saying that if his counts continued on this trend, his other organs could follow and the inevitable would happen. After he left I looked at the nurse and said "what do I do with that?"
She just sort of looked sad and gave me a hug and told me she was sorry.
I was also sort of getting mixed signals from the oncology team, who were saying that even though his counts were going up, he wasn't in liver failure yet and his counts could remain high for days before that happened. Then I ran into the Dr who was on hospital rounds this week,(each week the Dr changes) and asked him point blank, should I get my children here? His answer was, "probably, I'm sorry."
So at that point, I knew I needed to act fast because of the approaching holiday travel rush. My first thought was that I would just ask Kory to come, but then I knew Brady had been having a difficult time being without his dad, so one thing lead to another and everyone made arrangements to come. Walmart was generous enough to pay for 1 flight under the circumstances, and Kory had some sky miles, so he, Brady, and Chelsi flew from Utah. Kristy and Jason changed their plans as they were going out the door to Wyoming and drove with Kristie and Parker here instead. Melissa had to drive to Billings and fly to Denver with a 3 hr layover and arrived here at midnight. I hated to take that step, but didn't want to look back and regret that I waited too long.
It was a very stressful and terrifying experience, not knowing how this would all play out. The arrival of the kids helped soo much!
I talked to the High Priest Group Leader ( Bro. Ed Smith) and asked him if maybe he could bring the kids from my hotel after the shuttle brought them from the airport, and he said "no, let me go get them." He and his wife took 2 cars, gave one to Kory and led him to the hospital, where they decided to spend the night with me. Kory drove back to the airport at midnight and got Melissa. The Smith's also insisted we use their daughters house who was out of town, it's about 10 min from the hospital. Then they wanted to know if we needed them to cook us a Thanksgiving dinner as well. What amazing people!!
We were'nt sure we would have much to be thankful for on Thurs. morning, but one count had come down slightly and the other rose slightly. So we said, "hey we'll take what we can get!"
I also forgot to mention that they had decided to give him 2 bags of platelets and go for the liver biopsy on Wed. also. They were able to go down through his jugular vein and had little bleeding.
Zed responded well to seeing the kids and one of the liver specialists said later, "my team tells me that you guys had a lot to do with these counts coming down." Friday morning one of the counts had come down over 1000 points, after going up more because of the biopsy-it sort of aggravates the liver-the other count came down about 200 points. We were thrilled to say the least. This morning, one count is at 432 and normal range is between 8-48, highest level had been 2618. The other count is at 554 with normal range between 7-55, highest level had been 994. So he is definitely moving in the right direction! He still has a ways to go, he is still putting on water weight, but they said that is to be expected, they may try to remove some of the fluid in his abdomen next week if needed, but only if his platelets will allow.
He is resting much more comfortably and will talk with the kids a little. He also has been able to hold a little food down, his food of choice is lemon italian ice. They did let him say hi to Parker and Boston briefly, which was very nice. The staff has been so awesome! They have tried to accomadate our family in whatever way they can-letting 4 kids spend the night here Wed. It makes you feel good when several of the nurses have let me know how worried they were and have been praying for him, also tells me how sick he was!

Sorry, I didn't intend for this to be a novel. But now last but not least, our family wants to thank everyone who might read this for all of the faith, prayers and fasting on our behalf!!! I know what a miracle has happened and how it happened! We have been amazed at how many people told us they were fasting and praying for him. Our bishop at home called a special ward fast, Roice was inspired to call a family fast, my dear friend Colleen called old friends in Riverdale, Zed's family, the Smith's and Kristie's family also. It was so comforting to know that so many people were helping us. What would we do without the gospel and our faith? Kory rallied my kids and has been such a rock and it has helped so much to have them all here, I hate to see them leave, but know they have jobs they need to get back to.
He still has a ways to go, but is definitely doing better. He is resting much better and trying to eat so that is so nice to see. Again, thanks so much! We love all of you and appreciate your concern for this dear, sweet man.
Love Lannis

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zed and Lannis,
I'm thankful that things are looking up. You know i don't go to church but i do have faith and i do believe, i have been praying for you and your family.
you and your family are in my prayers.
much love
Melanie

Trisha said...

I am SOOO happy for you Lannis! We'll still keep you in our prayers though!

JeRrY aNd MeLiSsA said...

It was so great to be there and see you guys! We do have much to be thankful for! Glad to hear that his numbers have come down even more since yesterday. Love you guys! We'll see ya soon!!!!

lizzo said...

I am so happy to hear of Zed's progress. You guys are like family to me and I've been so worried but Kristy has been positive all along knowing her dad is strong and could make it through this.

I've been thinking so much about the two of you and I hope everything continues to get better and that you can come home soon!

I will be in AZ at the end of the month and I'd love to be able to come see you. I'll get your number from Kristy and see if we can make those arrangements.

Anonymous said...

Lannis and Zed,
We are so glad to hear things are getting better! We are praying for you and hope to see you both home soon, safe and well! Our love to you!