One day i came home from work and Joy said: I found the perfect song for our next Willow video.
Spring has been really fun so far, and its not done yet. I just could not resist putting this together, so here it is, enjoy.
Well, one week ago Willow and I got rear ended on our way home from dropping Joy off at woman’s circle. We are still in some pain, and soreness, but dealing with it with proper medical care. I am sure we will be fine soon. Life goes on, and we needed a new mode of transport, so here is the result.
This past weekend Ricardo, Amy, Willow and I took a morning stroll for breakfast and a doggie walk. The video below tells the short tale.
Jan.1,2011Gratitude has been on my mind and heart a lot lately. For the past few months i have been experiencing moments of deep gratitude at totally random times. I feel tremendous gratitude for all of our family and friends that support us in so many different ways. I feel so grateful that i get to live my life every day, with intention, fun, love, resourcefulness, and excitement. The list goes on and on for all the things i am grateful for. It’s kind of blizzard to me that i am experiencing so many of these moments, I guess is just the mind trying to not feel it all 
When i stop to think about all these moments one thing is clear to me, my life and the life of my family would not be as amazing as it is without all the people who have made an impact on us.
Willow is an awesome little being, and you all have had an impact on her already.
So here is the 15 month snapshot of her life so far, i hope you enjoy it, and know that when you watch this you are watching a part of you through our little Willow.
Thanks so much, and may this year bring you unlimited gratitude and love.
We saw a second set of doctors this week. Willow’s blood counts are all in good shape.
The doctor said she is doing very well and he expect no relapse. so great news right before the holidays.
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I have been waiting a couple of months in order to do this update.
In late August when we flew to El Salvador to visit family we noticed that Willow was bruising easily. She had bruises on her legs, and her back. We first chucked it up to normal baby learning to walk and so froth, but when they kept on showing up, in conjunction with petechial bruising we knew something was not quite right.
It was now September and we took her to see her pediatrician and he immediately ordered blood work. The next 16 hours were really nuts, specially because of Joy’s history and how much we know about how really bad things exhibit themselves our minds really took us on a insane journey. The next day we got the results, which ruled out all the really bad things, cancers and other baddies.
We then got an appointment at a pediatric hematologist specialist. She quickly diagnosed her with ITP. In short Willow’s platelets had dropped below normal levels, normal is somewhere in the 50,000 to 100,000 range, Willow’s first test had her at 19,000 and her next test at 16,000. There was no treatment needed at these levels, we simply needed to make sure we didn’t expose Willow to any cuts/head bonks so that we can avoid internal bleeding and so forth.
At the end of the month her platelet count dropped to 8,000 which means that she needed an treatment right away at the hospital. We took her in so that she could get a infusion which is the recommended treatment (IVIG). It was an overnight stay, where she had to get a IV put in. Now putting in a IV into a 1 year old is quite the challenge, and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Willow wanted no part of it, and we had to hold her down while the nurses did their thing, imagine 3 adults holding Willow down, while another threads a neelde into her tiny vein.
The next morning Willow’s platelets had come back up to 56,000 so we went home and had her birthday party that weekend. The treatment is effective for about 6-8 weeks, at which point we need to start testing again to see where her platelets are at. The time has come, and her platelets have dropped and risen again. The latest test which we got results for today had her at 51,000, so we good right now, but we have to keep on testing. We are working again with our hematologist and are going to seek out a second opining at a specialty center at Stanford.
We have a treatment path laid out and we are working closely with our doctors to make sure we do all that is possible to get our baby girl back up to 100% as soon as possible. Looking at Willow you can’t tell there is anything out of order, she is as vibrant as ever, as funny as ever, and eats just as much as ever. The one thing we must keep an eye for it her hurting herself, bonking her head, so this is a challenge, since at 14 months she is just running around as much as she can.
We chose to keep this information fairly close to home this time simply because it was a lot to deal with. Now we are at place where we wanted to share it more widely.
Here are some photos of her hospital stay.
This weekend Joy completed the 65 mile (100K) Konocti Challenge with Team In Training. To say that I am proud of her is just the beginning. Seeing her ride through the finish line was one of the most moving moments of my life. This ride was hard!! Joy’s mom, Willow and I drove the length of the route stopping at all the SAG stops eagerly awaiting her arrival. I could see how exhausted she was by stop 3, in her usual self she brushed it off, picked up Willow, gave her the mommy feeding time, hydrated and kept on pedaling. As she pedaled away from us I could see her dig deep into her commitment and sheer will to finish this thing, no doubt she was beating cancer on a whole other level this weekend with each pedal stroke.
Joy I am so happy to get to share life together with you. I love you.
To all you amazing folks out there that are making and have made a huge difference through TNT, thank you for your commitment. Thank you for letting yourself come out and win.
Now here is a video I put together, and some photos.
Enjoy.
We flew down to El Salvador to visit family this August. We had a fantastic time. Mark flew down from TN to enjoy the fun as well. Here is a vidieo with some of my favorite picuters.
We had lots of fun, in the hot hot hot! weather! here are some fun photos from the trop.
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