May 24, 2008

We've had a pretty quiet week this week, although we did get some goals accomplished. Caitlin was able to meet with her astronomy professor on Wednesday to begin the work needed to complete this last semester she missed half of when she got sick. Her philosophy professor has emailed her an assignment that will take a little while to complete and she's still waiting on her history teacher and anthropology teacher to get assignments from those classes. Her teachers are giving her the summer to complete the work so she will be able to start the fall semester on track with where she would have been if illness had not sidelined her. Her doctor wants her to take the semester off stating that her full recovery will most likely take 6 months to a year but Caitlin has told her that she needs to take at least 12 credit hours to keep her Hope Scholarship. The doctor has relented somewhat and told her that she needs to take really easy classes and would prefer they be online classes. I'm not sure where this compromise will lead - it will be interesting to see. On Thursday, Caitlin had a blood draw and it would be Friday before the results were available. The doctor's office called yesterday to say that some of her numbers had gone back up, some were still going down but very slowly, and others had gone back down. She is so disappointed because she thought that with her dialysis catheter out the results would show much improvement. She will need to go back next Wednesday for another blood draw - the doctor will continue to monitor the results. She didn't need any medication changes but really needs to follow her low potassium diet more faithfully than she has been. All in all, her recovery continues to amaze all involved in her care and, while slow, is moving forward. We plan on spending a quiet weekend at home and getting Jordan ready for his six week adventure with the Northwest Youth Corp. I continue to have a few additional prayer requests for those who have touched our lives in different ways. Our neighbor died on Thursday evening after being ill for a bit of time, a church member lost his battle to stay alive after a car accident two weeks ago, and a fellow classmate of Brandon's in high school lost his 5 year old son when he accidentally ran him over. Such sadness in these families. We continue to appreciate and thank all of you for your support, prayers, thoughts, and love. Chris