Thanksgiving 2010 Update

This is a pretty typical sight around our house...even though this was at a park in New Braunfels last Saturday. Carissa enjoys life and most often is very quick to flash a big toothy smile. Last week she took on climbing up the stairs in our house with a determination that said she had been training for that moment her entire life. What a huge victory laugh and celebration she had at the top!

We did find out last week that Carissa has a big challenge with an immuno deficiency. She does not seem to produce antibodies that are necessary to keep her from re-catching any of the illnesses she has already been through or potentially help keep her from getting very sick from an illness progressing further than it normally would. We will be doing additional tests in the upcoming weeks. Please understand if we go even more conservative with getting her out in crowds.

What a great time of the year to make sure we focus on how incredibly richly blessed we are. I hope and pray each of you take time to recognize how blessed you are. We are certainly all very thankful for each of your prayers that you have lifted up for Carissa.

• Please thank God for our miraculous little 19 month old Carissa and give Him the glory for her amazing progress.
• Please pray that reasonable solutions will be found to improve her immunity.
• Please pray Carissa will continue to grow and develop and that her body will fend off the anemia.

Thank y'all so much for your prayers and have a Great Thanksgiving!

Terry

9/8 followup

Carissa was allowed to go home from the doctor's office late this afternoon without going to Texas Children's Hospital. After running a fever all day she actually was fever free this evening and was eating pretty well. She was able to go to sleep around 9:30 and will hopefully sleep well tonight.

Strangely, even with Carissa's hemoglobin count being so low and a preliminary discussion that sounded like we were headed to TCH for a transfusion, we were told to make an appointment with hematology around 9/21. We are faced with some big challenges that need to be overcome or Carissa will be asked to undergo more invasive testing. If her weight does not show improvement the gastroenterologists are planning on scoping her lower GI tract. If her anemia is not better by the 9/21 date they have told us that they will need to test her bone marrow. Both of these would require anesthesia.

Thanks for your continued prayers. We are so thankful for those as well as the full provision of The Great Physician. Today was very trying (and tiring since it all started around 1 am), but it also was another example of God's hand on Carissa's life.

Please thank God for the 17 months (Pamela checked into St. Luke's on 4/9/09 and Carissa was born 4/17/09) of overcoming challenges that are huge to us but nothing to Him.
Please pray for Carissa's continued strengthening and that she would be able to properly absorb the calories and nutrients she needs to be able to grow and develop.
Please pray that Carissa will be able to produce and maintain the needed blood components and that her anemia will dissipate.
Please pray for timely improvement on her weight and anemia so that she will be able to avoid the invasive procedures lurking on the horizon.
Attached are a couple of pictures from the weekend trip. Second one is actually with a self-timer where Colt dove at precisely the correct moment to give the thumbs up before crashing into the stone table and ground. Reminded me of something Kris Chapman told me years ago while skiing and hitting jumps. Don't worry about the landing...everybody remembers how far and how high you flew...not how you landed. BTW, I still remember how Kris landed...but those were some AMAZING jumps.

Yours and His,
Terry

11/7/10 Update

I guess I know I am not sending enough updates when I feel the need to apologize at the beginning. The only way I know to make up for it is to include a picture or 4. Luke turned 3 on 10/16 and got a battery powered John Deere Gator for his birthday. Since it was not charged then, He and Carissa took turns "driving" it. Since then Luke has made dozens of trips around the yard and back and forth from the barn to the yard hauling stuff around and just generally speeding around.
You can see from the pictures that Carissa has made huge strides physically. She has been in occupational therapy for a few months (I didn't even know she had a job) and started physical therapy a couple of months ago. After the physical therapist said that if we worked really hard we might see Carissa crawl by Christmas, Carissa surprised us all by starting to crawl some around a month ago. She is also pulling up and standing up while holding on like you see in the pictures above. The "Texas Tough" shirt Carissa is wearing is actually the first non-hospital issue item she ever wore. What a reminder of how far she has come.

We have been blessed in that Carissa has continually come up negative for any genetic defects. This past week she showed growth in both weight and height over the past month or so and her doctors were encouraged by that. Unfortunately her anemia was pretty severe so she had a transfusion on Friday for the first time since 6/25/09. We are very thankful that Dave Walton, Trendmaker's Director of Purchasing, made time to donate some of his blood last week during a crazy busy week for us at Trendmaker. Therefore, Carissa was able to use his blood that was also used in her last couple of transfusions. That was a very comforting detail during a challenging time.

Carissa's doctors decided on the transfusion because they want her strength up for proposed upper and lower GI tests on this Tuesday. Although we really didn't want to do these tests since they will require Carissa to be under anesthesia, the severity of the anemia shows that she may have something going on that needs to be found and to be dealt with to help keep her from having setbacks. Thanks in advance for your prayers for Carissa's safety and healing. Carissa has been fighting a cold for several days now. She needs to clear up on that to avoid going through all the nasty prep for the endoscopy and colonoscopy only to be told to not have the tests on Tuesday. We definitely do not want to have to repeat that prep. I will update this week after we have heard back from the doctors.

• Please thank God for everything He has brought our little "Texas Tough" Carissa through
• Please pray Carissa will be well enough to undergo the tests
• Please pray that the prep goes as well as it can and that we can keep her very sensitive bottom from getting torn up during the forced diarrhea
• Please pray for the anesthesiologist and that Carissa gets through the procedures and recovery with no challenges
• Please pray for wisdom on our part and the doctors on knowing what to do with the results of the tests.
• Please pray that Carissa can produce and maintain all the correct blood components and that the anemia improves and disappears.

Yours and His,

Terry

9/8 Update

Just a fairly quick note. I apologize for not updating more frequently on some amazing things that Carissa has once again tested negative for that could have meant some very severe potential problems. We never ceased to be amazed at God's faithfulness!

We do have a pretty urgent prayer request I wanted to get out to y'all. Carissa has been fighting a fever for around 11 days now. She generally has been acting like she felt pretty well. We took her to the doctor last Thursday since she had had the fever a few days and were told that she seemed fine and that it was probably just a virus. Her anemia has been pretty severe all summer but has not really gotten worse, but her hemaglobin was down some last Thursday. She actually did go up some on weight to an all time high for her so we were very thankful for that. Carissa appeared to get over the fever Friday so we went out of town but wound up coming back early because her fever flared up again on Saturday afternoon.

She has continued to run the low grade fever but had done very well since we got home. Pamela and I were remarking last night that she was making a lot of progress, eating well, and really starting to play more with better motor skills and showing a little more strength, even with the anemia. Then, around midnight Carissa started vomiting and was up most of the night with that.

Pamela is still at the doctor with her right now. Her fever is up to 102 and her anemia is worse that it has been since she was in the hospital after birth. She also has lost about a pound, which is a significant weight loss for her. We are waiting to hear right now if we are going to have to go to Texas Children's Hospital for a transfusion today.

Please lift Carissa up in your prayers.
Pray that the source of the fever and any potential infection is found and for wisdom for the doctors to know how to treat.
Pray that Carissa's body will produce and maintain the correct blood components.
Pray that we will have wisdom on asking questions and making decisions on how she is treated immediately and long term.
Pray that Carissa will be able to regain the lost weight and that she will be able to properly absorb the nutrients she needs and that she seems to struggle with because she has become a pretty good eater.
Thank y'all for your continued prayers. We are so thankful for how amazingly God has brought Carissa to this point and know that He has an amazing plan for her.

Yours and His,
Terry