No one else get sick! Please!

It seems like the holidays have brought sickness over the past several years.

This year our dear friend Peggy Wilkinson passed away on Dec. 23. She was 80 years old and is now in a much better place, but it is a hard time of year to lose a loved one. We wish her family much peace and comfort.

Jacob got a cold and on Christmas Eve his breathing was so raspy and labored that we took him to the doctor. It sounded just like when he had pneumonia last year and was in the hospital. He then ended up on oxygen at home for two or three weeks. The doctor said that it was just croop, but he told us to watch carefully because it could easily end up as pneumonia again. Luckily he didn't get too bad. He now just has a runny nose still, but we are grateful that it didn't get any worse.

My brother Scott, has not been feeling well for the past several months. He has been to the doctor several times trying to figure out what was wrong, especially because he got a kidney transplant about eight years ago. We were concerned that there might be a problem with his kidney. He went to the hospital Christmas evening. It took two days to figure it out, but they diagnosed him with Colitis. This is an inflamation of the colon. He is being treated with medication and should be able to fully recover. His kidney is functioning well and is fine. Yea! He has been in the hospital for a few days, but should be coming home soon!

Our close friends, 7 years old daughter has been having stomach pains for a couple of months. She has been to the doctor several times. They never came up with any reason why she was in so much pain and kind of blew it off. Finally on Christmas day, as well, they took her to the emergency room. After a seven hour wait, they finally looked at her and her heart rate was so high they put a pick line into her heart to try to stabilize her heart rate. They also drained 2 quarts of puss from her stomach. They decided to fly her to Primary Children's Hospital, but the weather was too bad, so they took her by ambulance. Dr. Rebecca Meyer's (the doctor that performed Jacob's surgery) performed an exploratory surgery to try to determine what is wrong. They weren't able to detect the cause, but all of her digestive organs and stomach were filled with infections and inflammation. There was so much inflammation that they couldn't close her up the same day. She was in a sedated colma for two days so that they could let the inflammation and swelling go down enough to close her up. She is going to be up at PCMC for at least two weeks while they try to fight the infection. They still didn't detect what the cause of the infection was.


After talking to my Mom, we decided that we should just skip the holidays next year, because someone close to us always seems to have some pretty serious health problems. In the past we have also had similar experiences. So if you see us skipping Christmas next year you will know why. We don't want to try to jinx anyone else.

So, everyone stay healthy! Be grateful for your health. I will be glad that I only have a little cold. I can deal with that.

We are thinking and praying for you Scott and Brylee. Get well soon!