What a week

As you might have read, we went to UCLA on Wed. for Sammy's appt. We left earlier in the day to get down and beat the crazy traffic. Thankfully we were very lucky to not get stuck in an ounce of it down or back home! We spent 4 hours with the Dr. He took a very detailed health history and gave him this super charged flu shot. We also had to get 7 vials of blood drawn, man I had no idea he had that much. The xrays were the hardest part of the whole day. Sammy screamed and cried so much. He hated the small room and the 3 men that were busy about their xray business around him, it was awful. We go back for results of the blood studies and xrays at the end of the month, so now we just wait. We are getting pretty good at that.

The next we went on quite an adventure. We set out to Steve's sister Beth's house to watch her 3 kids while her, her husband and their son went to New York for Tyler to play at Carnegie Hall. So cool huh? Sammy and I flew out to catch up with Steve's other sister Wendy, who was already there. I totally forgot my cellphone charger and realized how reliant I am on my phone, kinda silly really. Throughout the week we played at the many parks in the area. There was a dinosaur park with an excavation sand pit, and a butterfly park that had butterfly shaped awnings to keep the sun away and make it quite cool.

UCLA Here We Come....

Well in just shy of a week we have gotten an appointment with the immunologist at UCLA. I think it is starting to set in. It had been quite easy to almost forget that Sammy had health problems. I mean of course his allergies have always been an issue but it hardly affects us anymore. I guess the problem with his issues being internal is it fools us into thinking that there really isn't anything wrong. It first hit hard when the DR. had called on Sat evening and again on Sun saying he wants to see Sammy this Wednesday. I was ecstatic that it had taken less than a week to get him in to see some of the most amazing Dr's in our country, but on the other hand, how bad is this really that he has called us personally for the past two evenings and left his personal #. We have gone through many emotions over the past couple of days. Steve who has been such a rock has started to crack, I quite frequently find myself in a puddle of tears crying out to the Lord. He is our strength right now, but sometimes we get caught up in the circumstances. We forget just how Big our God is. Sometimes I feel as if I am drowning and just can't get away. I have found much comfort in a simple reminder... "I'm sustained oh Lord, when your love surrounds me the world goes away..." This Wednesday holds a lot of unknowns, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, I do know however that whatever gets thrown our way that we won't be handling it on our own.

Please pray for Sammy.

-Pray that he will be such a good boy when they do all the tests and draw all the blood that they need to.
- Pray that it won't hurt. He is such a good boy. I truly think he does better than I do when I get my blood drawn.
- Pray that Steve and I will trust in the Lord.
- Pray for wisdom for the DR.'s and for us.
-Pray that we will get answers and that we would remember them

IGG Update

Yesterday was our appointment to determine yes transfusions or no transfusions. Unfortunately Sammy's Igg levels are still down, very down. The good news is that he isn't showing a lot of the respiratory symptoms that many people with his disorder do. The whole situation is kinda stumping our Dr. therefore he is going to have us go and see a immunologist Dr. down at UCLA Medical Center. I guess this guy has written the text books on immunology ands our Dr. feels like the immunologist can give us a better answer. The other good but I guess a littler bad news is Sammy's Igg Levels have nothing to do with his allergies, therefore we really need to figure out where this came from, or was he born with it. We are both excited and a bit fearful. I am excited about Sammy being able to be treated by the best of the best and getting answers or at least clarification. But the fact of the transfusions still being a pretty good possibility really make me anxious. So as we wait for the insurance to hopefully approve going to UCLA (thank God for a PPO) we are monitoring his health much more closely and just getting on with life. Thankfully our sweet boy acts as if there is nothing wrong.
Please pray for us for strength, that there will be no problem with the referral, and that we will be able to get an appt fast, hopefully before our summer starts.

Sammy is now 2

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy. We were blessed to be able to spend Sammy's second birthday at Disneyland. He dressed up like Buzz Lightyear. He was super cute, and he just loved all the attention he got.

Happy Birthday Kristy!!

On Tuesday we woke up super early and headed to Hollywood for a taping of Dr. Phil. It was for my dear friend Kristy’s Birthday- she’s the biggest Dr. Phil fan ever! On the way down our car started having transmission issues, but thankfully we got down and back up without any trouble.
We are so funny and were kind of expecting a little more glamour to the whole thing. Instead we sat in an alley outside the studio for hours and just waited. Once we got in it was exciting, everyone had so much energy. The taping went quite fast and we were done before we knew it. Hopefully we will be on TV, a camera sat right in front of us the whole time filming what we thought was us- I know so vain.
Why is Hollywood such a glamorous place? It is so dirty and trashy and really just not appealing. I never quite understood what the appeal of it all was. After our quick sightseeing of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, El Capitan, Kodak Theatre, and a few stars that were on that block, we were done, and ready to get out of the city.

Sammy is sick again!

Right after Sammy got his flu shot in Oct., I felt like a free bird. It had been so long since we'd gone a month with no ear infections or runny nose. It seemed as if the shot did exactly what the Dr wanted it to- help him to rebuild his weak immune system. But of course as like all things our sickless time has come to and end- actually a screaming halt! Sammy has pneumonia. The crazy thing is it didn't start with a little cold and then turn into it, it just was boom there. Sammy completed his antibiotics today and seems to be getting a little bit better, but I still appreciate your prayers. Also, please keep it in prayer about his Igg results appt on Mar. 24, that's when we get word if we need transfusions or not!

Family Reunion Cruise

A couple of weekends ago the three of us packed up our bags and headed out for a Family Reunion/Birthday Bash for my Gramma's 70th birthday. It was a great opportunity to catch up with family I hadn't seen for years, some of them it had been 16 years. It was so funny to be greeted "little jacqui" but it really just had been that long :)

At the blowhole La Bufadora. We got to do some bargaining and got to eat some delicious authentic Churros. The ocean view was amazing.

The evening after we got back from Ensenada we had our formal dinner. The boys looked so handsome. Thankfully we took our picture when we did, because as we had finished dinner and were leaving the dining room, poor Sam got sick and threw up all over himself and Daddy, and even managed to get some in Steve's mouth-yucko

Our day at sea. Steve and Danielle climbed the wall that overlooked the ocean- it was really neat.

On the way home- We were POOPED!!!!