Day 20 today, I can't believe Jeremy has been in the hospital 3 weeks tomorrow!

Jeremy slept most of the morning but woke up feeling very nauseated. He is taking 3 different anti-nausea meds to keep it under control. Wasn't able to eat much today, but he did have a couple Ensure's-he is still on the nutrition iv though.

His kidney function was the same as yesterday, filtrating about 60%. The Dr. wants it to be at least 80% before they do the ct scan. Dr. Perez, the Infectious Disease Dr, wants him to have a ct scan so they can get a clear picture of what's going on, instead of just the ultra sound.

His hemoglobin levels were up yesterday but today they dropped again. The nurse said for his age, he should be at a 14 and he is at 8.5. His other levels were down a little today.

Today, Jeremy could get a new cell phone because his plan was up. So I got him the one he has been talking about and he was sooo excited. It was great to see him so happy, boys and their toys, haha!:)

God is good!
Love, Cindy

The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed
and restore him from his bed of illness.
Psalm 41:3

November 29, 2009. Day 19. Another great day!

Jeremy's wbc is in the normal range!
Yesterday he told me he wants some home made cooking and asked if
I could make him a tuna sandwich, of all things:) You would have thought I brought him a filet mignon the way he was drooling over it! haha! I am so glad he actually has an appetite. Tomorrow he wants an egg salad sandwich!

Three of his Dr.s came in today and they were all very pleased with his decreasing levels and that the abscess is still draining. They are talking about just doing an ultra sound instead of a ct scan so he won't have to have the contrast that damages his kidneys. It will depend on what the ultra sound shows though.

He was actually able to sleep some last night. His legs are sore but we did another 9 laps today! His thrush is a lot better and his rash is better but it is still bad on his arms and legs. He wanted me to take a picture to show you:)


Pastor Brad Ormonde came today. He prayed and visited with us. One thing he said that really hit me was the verse that says, "be still and know that I am God." God is on the throne and He is in control, that gives me such a peace. In the mornings Jeremy and I have a time of devotions and I read to him, it is such a precious time with each other and the Lord. Today we were reminded that we go through trials to either bring us back to the Lord or to strengthen our faith. Like Jon Courson said, "...He's using it to make your life into a beautiful trophy of His grace." That is our prayer. Jeremy said that because of this trial he is so much more grateful for the the suffering Jesus endured because of his intense love for us, and that he died so we can have eternal life. "But God demonstrates his own lovefor us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8.

God is good!

"The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

November 28, 2009. Day 18. Jeremy had an amazing day today! Thank you for your prayers!
He walked 13 laps, yes 13, he said that he'll do whatever it takes
to get out of here:) Oh, and he did all that before noon! I couldn't
stop him, he was a walking machine! Needless to say he was
wiped out after that and his legs were pretty sore tonight. I am
so proud of him though, he did so great today:)

The next step in all this is to get his kidney function down to normal
so he can have another ct scan to check the abscesses in his liver
and see if they need to put in another drain. Normal creatinine level
is about 1.0, his is 1.6 today(and yesterday). His highest was 3.2.
So we wait, not fun. All his other levels were down today though:)

I knew our Jeremy was coming back when I heard him singing in
the bathroom, for those of you that don't know him well, that is a
normal occurrence!

His rash is starting to go away!

The reality of everything that has happened and how long he has been
in the hospital hit him today. He was sad and felt bad that he made
you all worry:) I told him to focus on all that the Lord has done and how
He is healing him and that he has people all over the world praying for
him. He wanted me to thank you all again and that he feels truly blessed!


When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul.
Psalm 94:19



November 27, 2009. Day 17. Today was a roller coaster of a day.

Jeremy could not sleep last night and early this morning his hands
started shaking really bad then his face started twitching, they paged the
Dr. and from the labs they found that he was low on potassium and magnesium
and started him on an iv of those to get him back in balance.

Jeremy's wbc and platelets are up but his kidney function is down.
The Dr. of infectious disease came this morning and checked his rash,
it was worse and spreading. After talking about the different meds he's on
and when he started them we think we figured out which one is causing
the allergic reaction. So, the Dr took him off of that and put him on another.
It seemed as though tonight the rash looked a little better.

Shortly after the Dr left Jeremy got sick again, it's been three mornings in
a row. They think it might be from another med he's on so we're going to
keep an eye on it. They upped his dose of anti nausea med. and that seemed
to help. He wasn't able to eat all day but tonight he had three spoon fulls of
tomato soup and a half of an applesauce.

His spirits were kind of low today, he said he was asking God to heal him and
didn't know why He allowed this to happen. I told him that I didn't know but
through all of this God will be glorified and he said, "To God be the glory!" We
don't know what the future holds but we know who holds the future and we rest
in the fact that the Lord is in control!

We took four walks around the floor today and while we were walking Jeremy
asked me how long he'd been in the hospital and I told him 17 days. He said,
"I want to get out of here!" and started another lap around:) That was the first time
I heard him say that, so that is a good sign! He had a renewed determination to
get better so he could go home and that was great to see.

He was having some pain where the drain to his liver is, he hadn't had pain there for a few days so that was strange. I noticed though that it started draining again!That was probably why it was hurting him. Hopefully that means he won't need another drain put in cause it's all coming out!

God is good!

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1

November 26, 2009. Day 16. Happy Thanksgiving!

I truly have a lot to be thankful for, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
wonderfully caring family and friends and Jeremy, who has been going
through the most awful things and yet is still an amazing godly man.
I absolutely admire him.

Jeremy's nausea made him sick again today. I talked to the Dr. and
they are checking him for antibiotic induced colitis. He was not able
to eat today, and very little yesterday, so they put him back on TPN.
That is a nutrition iv connected to his pick line. He was already
malnourished and not being able to eat was not good.

His rash was worse again today so they started him on a steroid cream.
We should get the results from the biopsy on Sunday.

His kidney levels were down today:) but his wbc and platelets were up.

It was so nice to see a lot of family today, we all decided we'll celebrate
thanksgiving together when Jeremy gets out of the hospital. And he can
actually eat!:) I did have the turkey dinner at the cafeteria and it was
really good! A great buy for $4! :)

God is good!

"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."
Psalm 54:4



November 25, 2009. Day 15. Another jump down on all Jeremy's levels today! Yeah!!!
His hemoglobin is low though:(

Last night and today he has really been struggling
with nausea. This morning after his cereal he got sick
in the bathroom, so I had the nurse page the Dr. and we got
one of his meds switched to one that doesn't have a side effect
of nausea. He was wiped out after that and slept a lot. It got better but
then tonight it started getting bad again, even after the anti-nausea med.
Please pray for no more nausea!

His rash is still bad so they called in the dermatologist to look at it and
he did a biopsy. He was pretty sure it is from the medicine Jeremy is
taking but he's been on so many that it makes it difficult. This Dr. was
extremely eccentric, I seriously thought we were on candid camera or something!
I kept checking his name tag to make sure it matched with his picture and the
name on his coat! This guy was out there, but he knew what he was doing-I think!:)

The ultrasound showed that the liver abscess is still there, smaller but there. It is toward the back side of the liver. Dr.s thinking that he'll need another drain put in:( We won't know for sure til he can have a ct scan after his kidney's improve more.
So, we wait. And pray:)

I cannot thank you all enough for your encouraging words and prayers.
I pray the Lords blessing on you for coming along side us and helping us through.

Have a 'thankful' Thanksgiving!!

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 118:1

November 23, 2009. Good news! Jeremy's wbc, kidney and platelets levels have improved
just a hair today!!! Going in the right direction!

He has been feeling very nauseated all day today, the nurse said his
pain medicine can cause that side effect. It's like one medicine helps
one thing but causes ten more problems:/

Dr. Ismael ordered a chest xray to check the lungs and the pick line.
He could not get any medicine til the results from the xray came back
and he was 3 hours over due for his pain meds-not fun-but I read to him
from the book of Psalms and that really helped keep him focused
on the Lord instead of his pain. It was a precious time. The nurse finally
got the ok that the pick line looked good and gave him his meds.

The surgeon thinks that the liver abscess is not draining all the way, so when his kidneys are at an acceptable level they will do another ct scan. We don't know how long that will take though.

His rash is even worse today and Dr. Perez said that high platelet levels can cause
the rash, hopefully that will be gone soon.

Overall, a good day! God is good!

O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.
Psalm 30:2


November 24, 2009. After 2 weeks Jeremy has taken a turn for the better!

All his levels have gone down a few points today!
The Dr. took him off one antibiotic, he is still on two.
Started him on a less powerful/scary pain med. and switched
his anti nausea med. it makes him very sleepy. Hopefully he
can get off of all this stuff really soon.

He still has his rash and if it gets any worse the dermatologist
will do a biopsy on it.

He had another ultrasound on his liver today (get results tomorrow),
this is the third one and it takes the transport people forever to get him to and
from his room. They were supposed to get him at 1pm and got
him at about 3pm. It wouldn't be so bad but he couldn't eat or drink
anything before hand. So we finally get down to the basement level
and he gets the ultrasound and we're supposed to wait for the transport
to bring him back up to his room on the fourth floor. I told Jeremy we
were not going to wait and I would take him back, he didn't want us to
get in trouble but we did it anyway! As we snuck back to his room he
said, "we're fugitives on the run!" We got some strange looks but we didn't
get "in trouble":) What an adventure it was!

Thank you all for your continued prayers! God is good!

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything."
James 1:2-4

P.S. This pic is of me making sure Jeremy is drinking his water:)
Doesn't he look thrilled?

November 22, 2009. Today was Jeremy's 12th day of being in the hospital. He went from the Emergency room to the CCU to the 2nd floor and is now on the surgical floor, it's been quite a journey for sure!

Dr. Perez came this morning and they were able to identify the strep that is in his liver. It started as a normal bacteria that was in his mucus and it got trapped in his appendix(only 10% of ppl that get appendicitis get it from that) creating a blockage and it turned into appendicitis. From there the bacteria traveled to the liver creating the abscesses. Jeremy is on three antibiotics and the Dr. said 2 out of the 3 are already treating that bacteria, so that is good.

At 5am his wbc was 21,000 and his platelets were 1.2 mil. At 11am they went down to 17,600 and 1 mil. He started taking aspirin last night because the platelets were too high and that causes blood clotting.

His kidney are still not doing good. The kidney Dr. said they will monitor his levels and to drink plenty of fluid is the mean time. Hopefully tomorrow there will be improvement and he won't have to have dialysis.

The Dr. said he does not have pneumonia but he has fluid around his lungs(caused by the infection in his liver) and if his wbc goes up or he starts getting fevers again they'll have to put a needle in the drain the fluid.

This morning when Jeremy got back in bed after a walk he asked me to plug his "boots" back in(those are the things that go on his legs to keep the circulation going) and he started singing "these boots are made for walking" haha!! It's so good to hear him singing again:)

New prayer request: Yesterday Jeremy started getting a rash on his back, thighs and feet. Today it was worse and spreading. Dr. does not think it is from the antibiotics because it would be welts that really itched. They did some lab work and we will know more tomorrow.

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him.
Psalm 28:7

November 19, 2009. Today was Jeremy's 9th day in the hospital and it was a great day! He had amazing nurses! He slept most of the day, he really needed to just sleep. Tonight he was able to walk around the floor, hasn't walked since he's been in there! White blood cell count is down to 16,000! His kidney function is low so they will keep an eye on that. Overall a good day:)

November 20, 2009. Crazy day today. Dr. said the good news is that the pneumonia in his right lung is looking better, bad news is that it has infultrated the left lung. Did an ultrasound on his liver, will get results tomorrow. Kidney Dr. said his kidneys are getting worse and may have to put him on temporary dialysis.
Jeremy doing his walking with his buddy:)

November 21, 2009. We saw five different Dr.s today, the Infectious disease Dr, Internal medicine Dr, Kidney Dr, Blood Dr and Surgeon . Jeremy's kidneys are getting worse, his platelets are high(not good)and his white blood count is up to 17,000. They changed his meds and took him off the nutritional iv to help the kidneys start working better. His liver sample started growing bacteria today and it is some kind of strep, they'll know more tomorrow. Jeremy has been in excruciating pain since he had the liver and appendix procedure on Tuesday and the only thing that helps him is dilaudid ever three hours, found out from the nurse that is 1000 times stronger than morphine! Yikes! Now for some good news...He went to have another drain put in his liver (he wasn't too thrilled about that), they go through his ribs and it is very painful. They had to drain the other abscesses and after doing a ct scan(with no contrast to hurt his kidneys)there were no other pockets to drain!!! Praise the Lord! They just had to flush the drain he had!:)

This morning, his best time of the day, Jeremy and I did 4 laps around the floor and he was singing the oldies song "'Cause I'm a wanderer, yeah I'm a wanderer
I roam around around around around" Lol!!
Jeremy wanted to make sure that I tell everyone thank you for your thoughts and prayers! They mean so much to him, and me:)

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!
Psalm 27:14

November 18, 2009. Today was Jeremy's 8th day of being in the hospital. The first half of the day he had to stay in the recovery room because there wasn't a room available on the floor the surgeon wanted him to stay. He was doing so good! He was smiling and joking:) His nurses in the recovery were so attentive and caring, they took very good care of him. In the early afternoon they moved him to the 4th floor, room 4116.

His nurse was Rosa on the 4th floor, she was also great. When the shift change started his care from the nurses went down hill fast. He had to use the rest room and we called the nurse twice and no one came(he also had two nurses aids) I had to unplug his iv's from the wall and help him. His pain level was going up and we kept calling the nurse and even went to the nurses station for help. Finally his night shift nurse came and gave him his pain meds. Tom and I were upset and so was Jeremy. We need him to get better and not have to worry if his nurse is going to take care of him or not, good thing one of us is with him around the clock. When I got home tonight I called the hospital and talked to the floor manager and told her my concerns, she apologized and said she would take care of it and if we needed anything else to let a charge nurse know. 15 minutes later we got a text from Tom saying the charge nurse just came in to make sure all his needs were being met. I hope he will get good care now. If not, I will definitely talk to the charge nurse tomorrow. Please pray he gets good care from his nurses, he has gone through so much already.

Looking forward to a good day tomorrow! :)

A 5th Anniversary to Remember

Took Jeremy to Urgent Care and they think he has H1N1:( Well, happy 5th anniversary baby! You're amazing even with the swine flu!:)
November 6 at 3:42pm

Took Jeremy to the Dr. today, he has pneunomia and was super dehydrated. Gave him an IV and 3 liters of fluids...8 hours later he is home and doing ok. Thank you Lord!November 9 at 7:04pm

Please pray for my husband, had to take him to the ER last night and they admitted him to the hospital
November 12 at 11:38am

Thank you all for the prayers. Jeremy has pnuemonia and really high white blood cell count of 24,000, normal is between 4,000 and 11,000. He is now in the critical care unit. His fever spiked again to 103. He's on a lot of meds. Please keep the prayers coming!
November 12 at 11:00pm

Jeremy is very slowly but surely getting better. His white blood count came down just a little today. He was able to eat a little. Now he just needs to be able to sleep. God is good! By the way, he is at the Fontana Kaiser
November 13 at 10:53pm

I wish I had more good news...Jeremy's white blood count is back up to 24,500. He spiked another 102.8 temp. Updated prayer request: wisdom for the doctors to find out where his infection is and the best meds to fix it. Thank you all!
November 14 at 10:44pm

For the most part Jeremy had a good day today. He was able to shower and felt great after that! Dr. said he thinks it's a viral pneumonia but now he is saying he's not ruling out h1n1. Did another chest xray but haven't gotten the results back yet. He spiked another 102 temp tonight. He was in good spirits today though:)
November 15 at 8:15pm

Jeremy had a ct scan today to see if they could figure out what is going on...he has appendicitis and an infection in his liver, on top of pneumonia! They almost did the surgery tonight but will wait til tomorrow. At least we now know what is wrong.
November 16 at 11:25pm ·

Today was a very rough day. Jeremy had the procedure to put a drain in his liver, they went thru his ribs. He was in so much pain, on a scale of 1-10 he was at a 10 most of the day and just kept moaning. Pain meds were not working.He had his appendix removed tonight, I was preparing myself for the worst when I went to see him in recovery but he looked amazing! Praise God! He actually had color in his cheeks and wasn't in horrible pain! I hope that continues tomorrow!
November 17 at 1:30am