August 6, 2008

  • Vent BE GONE!!!!

    You guys are AMAZING!!!!

    I’m AMAZED by the response to The Shout OUT post and cried as I read all the comments and prayers going out for such a special little boy!!  For those of you who are just tuning in and want to know EVERYTHING, you can read all about Craig’s ordeal starting on my July 11th post and then all the posts between there and now.  This little guy is quite the trooper!!  Thank you so much for all your comments and referrals…as of a few minutes ago I had over 300+ views on the Shout Out post….just incredibly amazing!!  May each of you be blessed for your time and energy praying for Craig!!

    Now for the GOOD NEWS!!!!

    I wasn’t expecting this for yet a couple more days…but maybe cuz you all are praying so hard…Craig’s off the ventilator!!!!  YIPPEEEEEE!!!! Roxane called me about 2 hours ago to give me the good news!  He got off of it earlier this afternoon and has been doing really good since.  The medical team is continuing to monitor his CO2 stats every 6 hours as they have tended to get really high quickly in the past…please pray he keeps this level in the normal range!  Craig’s REALLY wanting a popsicle now, but because of the issues he had shortly after getting off the ventilator a week ago they are wanting him to wait to eat until tomorrow! 

    This is the moment Craiggers can’t wait for….POPSICLES!!!!   

    Craig CMH 011

    Craig is now getting both Physical AND Occupational Therapy services due to being so very weak and will probably get to sit up in a wheelchair tomorrow if it’s okayed by his doctors.

    Please continue to Pray…

    • For continued wisdom for the medical team
    • For rest, strength and provision for Craig’s parents, Rick & Roxane
    • Pray Craig continues to get stronger and healthier each day with NO BACKSLIDING this time!!  It’s time to pray this little guy home to STAY!!

    You all have blessed the SOCKS off me and Rick & Roxane!  It’s so amazing to see the Body of Christ lift this little guy and his parents up at such a critical time of need!!  May God bless you extra special today!

    Thanks for tuning in folks!  Don’t forget to send a Shout Out to Craig!!

    God bless ya!

August 5, 2008

  • Give a SHOUT OUT to my Boy, Craig!!

    Sorry for the long time between updates.  Not a whole lot has changed…Craig’s still on the vent, however they’re just now starting to turn it down.  He’s also awake and SO WANTS a popsicle, but can’t have one because of the extra tubes in his mouth.  The nurses will only allow him to have little sponges of water for his mouth and he just can’t get enough of them!!

    August 2008 002 Hugs with Mom!

    I saw him on Sunday and got some cute pictures with him and Mom!  The little guy is really weak and his arms and legs just shake when he tries to move them.  They have Physical Therapy starting with our good friend Miss Jen (Jen Owens, MY PT…what I always called her when we worked together).  She now works at Children’s Mercy and we got to visit her a couple of weeks ago…before we thought Craig would ever need PT.  I’m so glad he gets to work with someone who knows and loves him too!! (Jen & I started the Special Needs Ministry at church together…Mephibosheth Mission now called Kovenant Kids!)  Craig is so weak he’s having a hard time lifting his head off the pillow with out shaking, so Miss Jen is going to see if the Doc’s will okay him sitting in a wheelchair for little bursts throughout the day to help him get stronger. 

    August 2008 004 Smiling with Baby, Tubbs & Mom!

    I know the family has had several visitors this past week which just makes their day!  Thank you to each of you who have taken the time to go see the little guy.

    The Shout OUT!!

    During my visit I told Craig about all the people ALL OVER THE WORLD praying for him.  His eyes got SO BIG as I was telling him about it.  Craig is homeschoolled and SKIPPED Kindergarten.  I thought it would be a neat idea if everyone who’s reading state their first name and where they live by leaving a comment below.  You can forward this post on to others and see just how many people from different countries we can get on here.  Then once Craig gets home, he and Mom can have a real fun way to study geography and different countries…with a personal link to Craig. I think Craig would JUST love it! 

    Keep On Praying!

    Continue to pray Craig gets healthier and stronger.  The doctors still don’t totally understand what all is going on with Craig, so they too need wisdom.  Pray for rest, strength and endurance for Rick & Roxane and that God will continue to meet ALL of their needs during this time.

    God bless you all for lifting Craiggers up in prayers!  May each of you be blessed today by doing so! 

    Now don’t forget to leave a comment for your SHOUT OUT!

    If you’re not a Xanga blogger, choose the Anonymous Identity below and you can still leave a name, place and comment!  Thanks so much!!

July 30, 2008

  • Ready….Aim….FIRE!!!!

    Dumb Devil!!

    You’ll have to forgive me…but I’m just a TAD mad at the little punk the Devil!  I’d love to have him hog-tied and have each of us prayer warriors issued a bow and arrow and just go to town on the bug-eyed monster!!  UGHHHH!!!!

    Well folks, we’ve had a minor set back as Craig went back on the ventilator about 1 AM this morning.  Currently, his CO2 stats are still way too high, although they are a little lower than last night.  This is very puzzling to the medical team as he was doing pretty good for the previous 36 hours prior to this little set back.  Craig is now back in a medicated coma as the medical team figures out what to do next.  They have looked at his lungs via a scope and have gotten a culture…which will take about a week for results to show up.

    It just breaks my heart because Craig and I were talking and laughing yesterday having just a good ole time.  Things just kinda went the wrong way after the PIC line procedure.

    Craig CMH 018 Yesterday eating applesauce

    Craig CMH 0708 027   Picture taken last week…

    Back with the tubes today…but not for long!!!

    Craig is a very shallow breather which really doesn’t help matters.  So we need to pray when he does come off the vent this next time, he breathes DEEPLY as if his lungs were in his toes!!  We also need to pray for DIVINE wisdom for the medical team to help them figure out this puzzle!  I just pray what they are learning from Craig will help other children they treat as well!

    Please also pray for Rick & Roxane as well…they had been on Cloud 9 while he was off the vent.  It just all seems like some very cruel joke, so to speak.  They are VERY tired as they stayed up with Craig until 2 AM this morning.  They are tired, worn down and worried about Craig and life’s regular issues too!  They need to be lifted up, encouraged, and given a fresh breath of HOPE again!

    Craig CMH 006 Hugs with Daddy while off the vent!

    I’d also like to thank DorkyandToto for recommending my blog on for others to come aboard and help us pray for this precious little guy!  If you’re new my crazy blog and want to learn more about Craig, please scroll down to my July 11th post and read from the beginning when this mess all started.  I will warn you the pictures are not all easy to see…but they are there to help you get angrier at the dumb devil and pray even HARDER!!  Those gruesome pics also help you to better appreciate the happier ones and realize what a little treasure Craig is to all of us!

    Rick & Roxane SO appreciate all your prayers as do I!

    God bless!!

July 29, 2008

  • Satan – Stop Stealing Our JOY!!!

    Crunch time yet again!  Just got a call from Rick.  They came back from dinner and spending some time at their room at the Ronald McDonald House to find Craig still asleep.  He was slightly sedated about 4:00 pm this afternoon to get his PIC line (so he won’t have to get poked as much) and was asleep when I left at 4:40ish.  Evidently Rick & Roxane went to eat dinner and just relax a bit and came back to find Craig still “sleeping” and went to try to get him up and he was unresponsive.  Rick yelled to see if he could get Craig’s attention…and then yelled for the nurse.  Needless to say, his CO2 stats are SKY HIGH which is NOT GOOD at ALL!!!  They are currently rapidly trying breathing treatments to push off the CO2 and keep little Craig off the ventilator.  I’m typing this at 10:15 PM on Tuesday night…if you happen to read this tonight or even tomorrow morning PRAY!!!!  We want to try to keep him off the vent if at all possible and DEFINITELY keep him for where he was 19 days ago!!

    UGHHHH!!!  Dumb, dumb Devil!!  Craig is a child of the King of the Most High!  He is HEALED in the Name of Jesus!!  Now leave this little boy and his parents ALONE!  Be GONE!!!

    This is what JOY looks like:

    Craig CMH 009 Popsicle Heaven!

    Craig CMH 010 Ventilator FREE!!!

    These pictures represent LIFE!!  I declare health and healing over Craig right now Lord!  Rid his body of the excess CO2 and breathe a fresh breath of living air into his lungs!  Touch and heal every cell that doesn’t line up to the way You created Craig to be!! 

    We, those who love him, stand in agreement in prayer and fight for healing for this little guy!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I’ll give an update as soon as I hear!!  Thank you folks!!

July 28, 2008

  • Can Barely Contain the Excitement!!!

    I visited Crag last, this past Thursday.  You’ll have to forgive the tardiness in the post…but when you make it to the bottom, you’ll be SOOO glad you stuck with me!!  When I got there it there was a party going on!  Okay, maybe not a party, but Tamala (Craig’s #1 nurse from home) and her husband and kids were there!  Roxane & Tamala were already back with Craig, so they sent me on back to kick out Roxane (there’s only suppose to be 2 people with him at a time).  I got back to his room and his nurse let the 3 of us stay with Craig…YEAH!  As you can tell from the picture we had a REALLY good time!

    Craig CMH 0708 007 We wanted Craig to know we were smiling so we drew smiles on each of our masks!  Craig wanted ALL of his animals in the picture and he too is smiling…he just blinked for the picture!

    Craig was so happy to see Tamala and I – we all had such a fun time laughing at each other.  He was doing his best to break a fever and stay cool. 

    Over the last several days Craig’s had fun playing Chutes & Ladders with Mom…DSCN0137 Patiently waiting for the fun!

    DSCN0135 I think Craig is winning AGAIN!

    Rick & Roxane drove up to St. Joe for church on Sunday and everyone was so excited to see them and wanted to know how Craig was doing.  Rick showed me the above pictures of him playing games with Rox and it brought tears to my eyes!  It’s so good to see him getting better each and every day!!

    So here’s the BIG news…some stuff we all have been praying for…

    Craig is OFF the VENTILATOR!!!!!  YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

    He’s been off the vent since 1:30 pm this afternoon and is on 2 liters of oxygen via a nasal candela (tube at his nose) and tolerating it FABULOUSLY!!  Needless to say, Mom & Dad are ecstatic as they know this is one HUGE step towards going home! 

    Please pray Craig will learn to cough HARD to get the gunk up and out of his lungs and that he’ll continue getting better so he can get to go home SOON!!!

July 23, 2008

  • Smiling Eyes!

    When I went to visit little Craig earlier this week I was met with smiling eyes!  Roxane and Rick knew I was on my way, so they didn’t tell me much…they wanted me to be surprised by how alert and good Craig is doing thus far.  Oh what a blessing it was for him to see me and try to smile despite the tubes in his mouth!

    Craig CMH 0708 028 Craig doing his best to smile!

    He’s now on a IPV ventilator (one they can add his breathing treatments to directly).  And another IV machine was gone off the pole! YEAH! He’s now getting fed via a NG tube (goes down through the nose). 

    He was able to give me high fives, thumbs up, and blink to answer yes/no questions (or shake his head).  He cried when I told him I had to go…so I stayed a bit longer!! He was also able to tell me how much 2+2 and 2-1 was with his fingers…but then didn’t want to do anymore!  I can’t blame him!  He also played Candyland with Mom a couples of time…and even beat her once!!

    He still has that awful rash on his back.  Turns out it’s a mold (the doctor says like you find on bread) called Aspergillus fumigatus, which would be really bad if it was in his lungs, but it’s not, thank God!  While I was there he was able to roll from his back to his side so the nurses could wash it and then put some salve on it.

    He’s still really weak and still has a long way to go…but considering where we were 2 weekends ago…we have SOOOO MUCH to be thankful for!

    I asked Craig if he wanted to go out for ice cream or pizza with Miss Libby when he got home from the hospital…over the tubes, he quietly whispered, “Pizza!!”  I told him that I wouldn’t eat another piece of pizza until he came home! 

    Craig CMH 0708 026

    Keep praying Craig will continue to lose more and more tubes, medicines AND especially get rid of that yucky rash!  (It even hurts!)

July 18, 2008

  • New Development…

    Hey XangaPals and other pals tuning in for updates on little Craig!  Craig has a new development we need to pray about.  Roxane called me this afternoon to tell me to get the word out to pray about a rash which has developed on Craig’s back.  Evidentally they found it last night and it was so different they went ahead and biopsied the skin in order to determine what it was.  Turns out it’s fungal in nature…which is just weird due to the fact he’s in a sterile environment and contact isolation (meaning one has to gown, glove and mask up to enter his room).  It’s not an allergic reaction…and the medical team is a bit stumped.

    2007 January 008 Craig catching butterflies! 

    Other than that little puzzle, Craig is doing well on the ventilator and it has even been turned down some already!  YEAH!!!  His sedation meds have been turned down yet another notch…and when Rox asked him to wave his hand if he heard her HE DID!!!!  They keep his hands in a soft restraint so he won’t reach up and pull his vent tubes out of his throat.

    So an exciting day admist the latest puzzle.  Leave it to Craiggers to stump the doctors yet again!!!  I think at this point, they are ALMOST use to it!!

    Keep on praying!!

  • Bye, Bye Ossie!!!

    No, not Ozzie Osbourne!  It’s official!!!  Craig’s ossicilator has been officially kicked out of his room!  He’s now on just a plain ole ventilator.  Mind you, it’s still a ventilator, but it’s yet another blessed sign that our little guy is getting a little better day by day by day!! 

    I got to see Craig and Roxane this afternoon for a brief moment prior to heading to the airport for my flight to Little Rock, which I almost missed…but that’s a whole ‘nother story!  (I’m here for a continuing education course for work and have a SUITE room with FREE Wifi!!!!  Yippee!!!!)  Anywho…I gowned up to go see my Craiggers and told him Miss Libby was here and that I loved him.  His eyes started to open, as he’s just semi-sedated now (not in the medicated coma) and I could tell he knew I was there!  It was like a breath of fresh air seeing him respond to my voice!!  I then told him Pastor Alan, our new children’s pastor who Craig just adores, was praying for him and that everybody was praying he would get well real soon.  When I mentioned Pastor Alan, I do believe that if Craig could of gotten up and out of his bed. he would of.  He wiggled and tried to moan…and I quickly tried to calm him down. As you can tell little Craig is much more aware of his surroundings…which at times can be a little scary.  I told him his lion was near by and reminded him to stay brave and strong!

    After talking to Craig for a bit, Rox and I went down to the cafeteria for me to grab a bite prior to running to the airport!  Then off to the airport I went and BARELY made it.  I had a connection in St. Louis and then gave a little dance when my suitcase came down the conveyor belt in baggage in Little Rock!!  That was a miracle…especially when I checked it 18 minutes prior to the plane leaving in Kansas City!  Ugh!

    Rick called me after I got settled in the hotel to give me the latest about Craig being switched to the vent.  Rick was so excited he was running from Craig’s room to the Ronald McDonald house to go get Roxane so she could see it too!! 

    I’m praying that Craig will keep on progressing so that maybe just maybe sometime next week, he’ll get those tubes out and we can hear that precious little voice and laugh again!!! 

    Here’s some pictures for today…as to me to blog without having a picture to look at is ALMOST a sin.  Everybody LOVES pictures!  This one is of Craig this past Mother’s day getting dedicated.  You see he was so sick as a baby that he never got dedicated.  He got a new suit coat just for the occassion!!  Yeah, he might of been the oldest kiddo getting dedicated this go-round, but it’s never too late!  We were all pretty excited about it!!

     Lib's Camera Feb July 08 042

    Can you tell Craig was pretty excited too??  Tee hee hee!

    Lib's Camera Feb July 08 046

    Keep praying folks!

July 16, 2008

  • Praises & Prayers

    PRAISES

    My dear hubby took me to see Craig and his mom and dad on my way home from my doctor’s appointment yesterday (everything is a-okay for me!).  Craig’s mom Roxane was happy to see me and give me the latest update.

    Many good things are happening!  Thus far Craig is tolerating the slow gradual decreases in his medications…in fact, instead of the dozen plus IV machines he had on Saturday, he’s down to 6-7!!  And it was so nice to see that they had removed the line of syringes from the foot of his bed that they want instantly on hand in case of him coding!!  Just another sign that progress is being made!

    Craig CMH 0708 003

    This is all the IV machines he had at the beginning…the pole with 6, now has just 3!!  The big unit behind the Lion is the ossicilator…it’s getting it’s eviction notice soon!

    They are going to try to get Craig off the ossicilator and onto the regular vent in the next day or two…of course taking everything VERY slowly.  They’ve bumped the ossicilator down several times and he appears to tolerating that just fine!

    The medical team is wanting Craig to start to wiggle his hands and feet a bit, so they have decreased some of the sedation medication…but not to the point where he’s opening his eyes yet.

    So overall, good things are happening!  Hopefully very soon we’ll see this little happy face again!

    PICT0004

    Prayers Still Needed

    We need to pray for the health of little Craig’s organs.  His body and especially his organs (liver, kidneys, etc.) have been through a great deal of stress.  We need to pray that each one will line up back to the way God created it! 

    Continue to pray that he handles each of the decreases in medications and on the ossicilator/vent well and without further complications.

    Also, keep Rick & Roxane in your prayers.  Life’s little stresses on top of Craig’s illness is a lot.  Pray God gives them strength and endurance and show that He’ll continue to provide for ALL of their needs!

    A Big Thank YOU!!!

    Rick & Roxane wanted me to thank each of you for all your prayer support thus far and for adding him to all the prayer chains.  They know there’s quite an Army out there praying for their little boy and they couldn’t thank you enough! 

July 13, 2008

  • Hang tough!

     Craig has continued to be stable since 1 AM Saturday morning so we’re about 1 day and 18 hours steady now! PTL!!  It was so good to see people at church and have them stop me and ask how he’s doing and see all your comments, etc.  I just feel the love for this precious little guy and his family!  I even got a precious note from on of the youth leaders for PowerHouse saying she was praying before bed last night and then dreamt of Craig running and playing around PowerHouse (children’s church!)!  Brought tears to my eyes!  I have that dream too!

    Here’s a picture of Craig and his Dad, Rick, in the garb you have to wear to currently see the little guy!

    Lib's Camera Feb July 08 059

    The doctors are now trying to slowly decrease some of the meds, such as those supporting his blood pressure, etc.  Thus far Craig is handling those little baby steps and his ossicilator came down some notches too!

    Rick & Roxane now have a room at the Ronald McDonald House, so they don’t have to lug there stuff with them everywhere (the room they had on the PICU floor they had to check out of every morning!).  So they are just across the street from the hospital and can also get a good night’s rest…which they are VERY thankful for, and get meals and snacks!  What a blessing!

    Roxane’s mom came down from Iowa with one of Rox’s brothers.  It was pretty tough on G’ma to see her grandbaby in such a condition!  Needless to say, her next trip she’s decided will be when he is home again and healthy!!  They also had another WOLC family drive down to see them too!

    So…continue praying!  I will try to update at least every day or every other day or so as this process is probably going to take awhile.  Don’t worry…if we need prayer, Xanga will be the FIRST place I hit after making the necessary phone calls so subscribe to my blog so that you can get email updates straight to your inbox.

    God bless you all!  Your prayers are like precious treasures to Rick & Roxane and of course me!