We found out today that Luke still has pneumonia

Here is a picture of Luke from our recent trip to the Oregon coast, before he came down with pneumonia. As you can tell by the winter coat he is wearing it was a very cold day. We hiked down a beautiful paved trail to find a new beach area to enjoy our lunch. Though it was cold and windy we all had a wonderful time.




I was surprised to hear today from the Radiologist that Luke still has pneumonia. I took him into the Dr. yesterday for a follow-up appt and x-ray, the Dr. didn't think he still had pneumonia, though he did realize from the x-ray his lungs had not completely cleared up. So he is back on an antibiotic, I'm thankful that it is only every 8 hours instead of every 6 hours, which means more sleep for me, since I don't have to stay up so late for his last dose each night.

Luke has been doing surprisingly well for having pneumonia, I guess that is why I was so shocked to hear this news today. He was at 100% oxygen level when I took off his oximeter probe this morning, though he did need a little oxygen last night. He's done great for the busy week that we've had.

On Tuesday I took the kids to the Hands on Museum in Olympia, one of my children's most favorite places to visit, Luke seemed to really enjoy himself as the children went racing around finding all sorts of fun things to do. On Wednesday he and Lily stayed home with our most wonderful babysitter Tessa, while Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Josh and I went to tour the USS Turner Joy, a Destroyer Naval Ship. Then on Thursday Luke and I were out the door by 9:45 to have his casting done for new ankle orthodics, they were hoping to get both his ankles and knees done but ended up having to do the right foot twice, so needless to say we go back again in two weeks to have his knee's done. After that appt. we met Natalie, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Lily, Yoli and Karlos at the Zoo for a few hours of fun before his follow-up Dr. appt.

Friday was busy for me again as I had to get up to take Isaiah to his Speech Therapy appt in the morning down in Olympia, after that I came home to take Luke to his OT appt in Puyallup. That appt. went rather well, since his OT has been experimenting with different switch toys for him to use to communicate with, she taped "I love Mommy" on the toy and Luke could touch it to say that he loves me. She was excited, as was I as we both saw Luke purposefully touch the button switch time and again to say that he loves me. We both saw him also use his fingers to push down. She is hoping that our insurance company will ok buying two the theses switches so that Luke can really begin to communicate with his family once again. After coming home from that appt. I left immediately to drive two hours to pick up Amy and the 10 children that went our church kids camp this past week. It ended up being a crazy busy day!

Tomorrow night we are going to be in the Torchlight parade in Seattle. We will be one of the families representing the Starlight, Starbright Children's Foundation, there motto is, "Helping seriously ill children and their families cope with pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities." They have blessed us numerous times over the past few years with gifts while Luke is in the Hospital, free shopping trips for all the toys, books and games we want from there packed warehouse, fun trips to the Sonics game and the tickets for our tour on the USS Turner Joy was complements from them. They are expecting more than 300,000 people to be watching the parade, so I'm praying that all will go smoothly for our family as we walk to the 2-3 miles through Seattle. Well I better wrap this blog up, as it is too long already!

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue