Erk, Erk and Double Erk!! I'm wishing I would of blogged sooner when I had good news to share, because now it's not good!

I am kicking myself for not posting earlier, because I desperately wanted to tell you about the great reports we heard at the Dr. appointments that Luke went to a few weeks ago. From his rehab Dr. we heard, "wow, I can't believe how alert Luke is today," and "he is looking great." You could tell that this Dr. was totally amazed at the fact that taking Luke off baclafen his muscle relaxant had a huge impact on Luke life, he is now so much more alert, stays awake all day long instead of taking naps all day long and his muscle tone issues have not changed at all if anything perhaps it is a little better.

Luke got to see Santa at the Mary Bridge Clinic before his rehab Dr. appointment

I then wanted to share with you the good news that we heard from his pulmonologist, things like "his lungs sound great today" and "he's looking really good." I can't remember the last time I've heard a Dr. say his lungs sound great!
And last but not least it was exciting to hear his PT say, "I heard Dr. C say, "Luke is looking really good" and "he is so much more alert", music to my ears.

Then on December 17th Luke made it through his first night since July 1st without needing any extra oxygen at night time, we were shouting hallelujah that day. But alas this didn't last long the next night he was back to needing a little bit once again. And as the month progressed Luke seemed to be getting sick again, I really wanted to take him to see Santa feed the sharks at our local Zoo, but thankfully decided at the last minute that wouldn't be good for him, that was definitely the right decision as it was freezing cold out that night and it was so crowded it would of been nerve wracking to think of all the germs that he would of been exposed to that night.

We then thought that he was getting sick on December 23rd, but was thinking perhaps he had just caught the nasty cold/flu that Lily and Isaiah were sharing with each other, the sickness that had me take Lily to Urgent Care on Christmas Eve because she was crying that her ears were hurting so bad. Sure enough she had her first ear infection, the Dr. that night told me it looked so bad that if an adult had that same infection they would of been calling an ambulance to come pick them up because the pain would of been horrible. Luke had another rough night, that night though it was a tiny bit better than the previous one, therefore I thought whew he seems to be getting better, but no it was just God's gift to me and our family to allow him to be ok on Christmas day.

I debated about taking him into Urgent care all day on Monday, but decided that he didn't seem sick enough to warrant a long day spent there so I decided to give him one more day. That night was a nightmare night filled with constant suctioning and no sleep for me. The next day I once again thought I would take him into the Dr. but once again he seemed to be doing better through out the day, it wasn't until that night after once again I got no sleep except for a few winks sleeping on his floor that I decided we better call the Dr. immediately to get him in, I took him in at 3:00 and the Dr. said that it didn't sound like pneumonia, but definitely thought he probably had bronchitis. I took him to get blood work done and found out the medication he needed was at the pharmacy downtown, so I ran him home to Gordy and went downtown to pick up his medication.

Once again it was a night of no sleep for me and I found out shortly after I woke up this morning that the results from his blood work was not good, in fact it was horrible his White Blood Count was through the roof. His pediatrician called his pulmonologist and they decided that I could either take him into the hospital for IV antibiotics or I could go pick up one more antibiotics and give him one more day to get a bit better. Tonight has once again been a rough night, though perhaps a tiny bit better. Here I sit at 4:45 am about ready to pass out knowing that I needed to get this blog post off my shoulders, knowing that once I go to bed I will not be able to wake up for at least a few hours therefore Gordy will have to take over the alarm patrol.

Please pray for Luke to make a huge improvement today, I really don't want to go into the Hospital, I was hoping to not have to chalk up another holiday in the hospital, since we've already been there on Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, July 4th weekend, etc. . . We were hoping to go to Eastern Washington to visit my two sisters and their families this upcoming weekend, but there is no way we can do that now:-( I was telling Gordy that he could still take the kids over since they were so disappointed to hear they weren't going, but Gordy is nervous about leaving me here with Luke being this sick. Ah, such is life with Luker man.

Love in Christ,
Luke's Mommy Sue

PS Once again I want to let you know that I update my status on facebook often, especially when Luke is not doing good, so if you want more up to date information about Luke just ask to be my friend, though please tell me who you are so that I will except your friendship request:-)

Our Wonderful, Great, Refreshing, Amazing, Awesome Trip in Pictures

Getting Ready to board our Carnival Cruise with our good friends Juan and Yoli

Saying goodbye to Miami, FL

Christmas in Cozumel

We had a great time doing the Cozumel Amazing Race and though we didn't come in first place we didn't come in last place either. We got to see so much of the city and would definitely say it was a highlight on our trip.

Here's Gordy getting ready to get his henna tattoo, one of the clues we needed for the race

Riding the ferry across a small river in Belize to get to the Mayan Ruins

The Mayan Ruins were absolutely amazing

We climbed to the very top of the tallest structure, yes it was a bit freaky up there. We were able to see both Belize and Guatemala up on the top.

Here's Gordy going down one of the many narrow passage ways.

I think we walked over a 1,000 steps to get up to the top and then down again.

We were blessed to meet Pastor Zacharias from England. It was definitely a highlight of our week visiting and praying with him, he has a healing ministry in England and was so burdened to pray for Luke during the week, what a gift from God to allow our paths to cross on that HUGE ship.

Here we are getting ready to go swimming at the bay in Roatan, Honduras. We had a wonderful time and the water was just right.

Our last night on the ship, we had so much fun dressing up for some of the delicious dinners on the ship. Now we are working extra hard to burn off those few pounds we gained:-(

After getting off the ship we went straight to the Everglades National Park to see the alligators and wild life. At first I didn't think the alligators were real because you could just about go right up to them and touch them. Don't worry we stayed away.

We walked about a mile down this path and saw 5 alligators down and back.

We then went on a boat ride through the swamps and saw more alligators it was so much fun.

We then drove out to Key Largo to spend the night at these condo's so that we could drive out the Key West our last full day in Florida.

We drove out to Key West, to say it was beautiful is a huge understatement, the water was so blue!

I was so excited to go to the southernmost point in the USA.

Everything about our last full day of vacation was spectacular, just as our whole vacation had been. The sunset was the icing on top of this amazing day.

Our last morning before flying home I figured I get in one more walk in the nice warm 80 degree weather. Now I'm back to walking in the freezing cold, it was 35 degrees here yesterday.

We got home late Tuesday night to a sick Lukie boy. I just had to keep telling myself as I was up most of the night to his alarms that I had to be thankful for our amazing time away. It really was the most awesome time, a time of uninterrupted sleep each night, a time to concentrate on Gordy and I's marriage, a time of fun, a time of no stress, a time of no appointments, a time of no alarms, a time of no medications, a time of HUGE blessings from GOD. Wednesday I took Luke up to Children's Hospital in Seattle for his first of many appointments during our first week back from vacation. I promise to update how Luke is doing in my next post, but I really wanted this one to be all about the gift of our vacation from our wonderful Father God.

Love in Christ,
Gordy's wife Sue