2 weeks left

Here is Ivee with her patch "Arg" mateys. This is to help strengthen her weak muscle in her right eye. She, who would've guessed, does not like it.
Here Grandpa is putting my feet in the pool two weekends ago. Don't know if I like it.
This is me in my Amish hat that Uncle Dave and Aunt Becky gave her that weekend.
This is a pic outside Graceland, the home of the dead singer, as Ethan calls him. Cathy and Anna Presley got to come see us. It was so much fun to have them here. We ate out, watched "Hairspray" (funny) and went to Graceland. We had a lot of fun. The first night they got here, Thursday, we went out to eat, and the waitress poured a whole glass of ice water all over Emmett. The next night, we went out to eat again. This time, Brittney dropped her vanilla coke all over him on the same side. The next day, we went to supper, and made it through a whole meal with no spill, but we also forgot to pray. At the end of the meal, I said, "Look Emmett is dry. Oh! We forgot to pray." So I said a quick pray thanking God for the food we all ready ate, and for Emmett being dry and having no drinks spilt. One second later as we got up to leave, we heard the table behind us, and looked and saw that a man had knocked his drink all over his wife. I tried not to, but I couldn't stop the laughter from rising up.

Well, it was a good weekend, and we only have two weeks left (cross my fingers). We are looking forward to returning home to family, friends and Santa Fe Fajita Company.

Good night, and God bless.

Week 5 starts...17 days til home

Ivee outside in her "ride". More pics of the kids in the zoo. I always knew these two were a different species.

Ivee getting into some mischeif when she throws her toys down and tries to fall on her head to get them back.

Time is starting to catch up...so to speak. We are entering week 5 of radiation treatments. The doctor decided today that they will do 33 days of radiation instead of just 30 days. He said in the studies that he has done with babies Ivee's age (under 18 months) with these circumstances and ependymomas, the 33 days proves to be the most effective treatment to help control the tumors growth. She will have an MRI tomorrow, so I will probably have another meeting sometime this week to see what the results are as of right now. Ivee still hates physical therapy and is slightly okay with occupational therapy. She is doing well with sedation since Ms. Joan helped find the best concoction for little Ivee's stubbornness.

Ivee wants to give a special shout out to everyone who has sent us a letter or mail here. Thanks to Dave and Becky and the kids, Lacey and the gals of USA C&W for the cute card, Anna Cummins and the 5th/6th grade Sunday school class of Faith Family Fellowship, and to everyone who has posted a comment on the blog. Touches from home mean alot!

Now...specific prayer request. We hopefully will travel home on August 10th, tentatively. Pray that all goes well so that this can happen. Emmett has been working hard on the upstairs, but things are not going as well as we hoped. The things that need to be done before we can go any further are not happening. Please pray that the A/C duct work will be done this week. We can not progress any further until it is done. It is making us far behind. Also, pray that he can get the windows installed soon. He can't do it alone, and that means he can only work in the attic early in the morning and late in the evening cause of the heat. We had hoped that we could at least be at the walls, sheet rock and flooring by the time Ivee got home, but it doesn't look like it will even be that close. So, when we come home, it will not be the best environment for Ivee. When we install the fiberglass insulation, we may have to move her out for the time being. She is still very susceptible to breathing in things and having severe breathing problems. Finally, I know this is alot, pray that her MRI will be great, and she will pass her next swallowing test.
God bless you all, and I hope all this makes sense. I'll let you know more when I know more. Love to all. Hope

PS. Remember to say an extra prayer for our new St. Jude Friends.
Rachel (10): Cranial Tumor, under going radiation
Dorian (4): Ependymoma
Brett (7): Blastoma / Radiation
Johnny (3) : 2nd Ependymoma, just went home. pray for no recurrence
Kayla (8): 2nd Ependymoma, just went home, pray for no recurrence
Lori (19): Brain tumor (tough time with radiation and therapy, just had another surgery)
and many more


And still remember Jennifer Busby, my Friend from home with Sarcoma

Whew....you guys are great.

Week 4....Go!

We had a great weekend with daddy, Ethan and Papaw. We went to the Memphis Zoo on Saturday. It wasn't too hot, and it is a nice, clean zoo. The polar bears were awesome and were at the top of their game showing off.

The sea lions were very funny in there exhibition show. They did such a good job with their tricks. This one and three others are about 200 lbs. The male sea lion wasn't out there, but he weighs 500 lbs, so he would have made the ladies look like shrimps. Most of the cats were quite lazy. The lion was the first one we saw that day and they had just let him out. He walked right up to us and let out a little taunting bark as he laid down in the shade to be lazy himself.
I caught the lion later panting.

Ivee enjoyed the gigantic hippo coming out of the water, but mostly she enjoyed looking at daddy. She also enjoyed the aquarium. There were many Nemo fish in this tank. Here is papaw and the kiddos before we left the zoo. It was a nice but long day.

Pics of the chics

Ivee on the ride up to Memphis...Sleeping Bald Beauty....My first day of radiation...I am ready!Christmas In July...Santa came to St. Jude today today and gave all the kids and their siblings presents. They said this is Joe Farris...the "real Santa Claus". I haven't looked it up, but he must be a famous Santa.? This is Ivee's first encounter with Santa and she was so good. Remember...she was only 5 days post brain surgery last Christmas, so she has never experienced a "real" Christmas yet. I was so happy that she wasn't frightened of him. Maybe if he had been wearing scrubs or a white coat it would have been different :)
Ivee is doing better with sedation this week. They are trying a later time in the day, and they are trying a different sedation medicine. She's getting hair on her head...finally. We are still making acquaintances here, and we are becoming accustomed to life here. It has rained "a whole lot" the last two days, but it is making it not so stinking hot! So we welcome it. We are missing our family, but daddy, Ethan and papaw are coming up this weekend. Ethan will stay here with us, and we will see how he does. Hopefully he and Brittney won't fight too much since they have been apart for 3 weeks. Pray for mom's sanity.

Entering Week Three

You all wouldn't believe how well Ivee is doing. Within the last two weeks, she's really starting to do some sitting on her own. When I push her in the stroller, she sits up to the front on her own. She'll begin occupational and physical therapy this week. The therapist asked what I really wanted her to achieve. My answer, or course, is that she could sit up on her own with no assistance and for a lengthy amount of time. And also, that she could get to a sitting position on her own with no help from mom and dad. Sitting leads to crawling, pulling up, and then walking. The therapist completely agreed with me, so maybe we can get closer to that before we leave here in August.
Friday... the nurse anethesist had a talk with me. She said they had a really hard time knocking Ivee out Friday for radiation. They had to give her more medicine than they would like too. You can tell they did something different, cause when she came out of sedation...she was just totally different. She was grouchy, irritable, and wouldn't be still...throwing herself all around like a greased pig. She was mean the rest of the day. So on Monday, we are going to try to sedate her later in the day, closer to nap time to see if she won't fight to stay awake. Pray this works. Well, I'm hungry...gotta go.

Not "Emmett" Sick anymore....

Update on the family....True, Daddy drove up and surprised us on Monday...about 5 pm. The front desk of the "house" called and said we had a visitor. I knew it was either Emmett, or my dad drove over from NC, or perhaps Joel and Janet found time in their vacation to drop by. It was the first. He was suppose to come up later that week, but came up on Monday instead. We are all missing Ethan very much, and he is beginning to miss us as well. Daddy will probably look at bringing him up next weekend.
Update on Ivee radiation treatments... She is still taking radiation very well. She is making new boyfriends everywhere. Dr. Bikhazi is one of her favorites. He is a funny anesthesiologist in the radiation department. You can tell he is a ladies man from the Mediterranean. I think she thinks he is a fun grandpa, since he can act alot like Ivee's real grandpa, who she is probably missing a bit right now. I know he is missing her.
Update on her test...She had a scope scan of her vocal chords. They went through her nose, and we had to hold her down. Didn't LIKE IT!!! Well, anyway, her right vocal chord is paralyzed, so she only speaks with the left one right now. Dr. Thompson who did the scan also had a vocal chord paralysis, so he knows how Ivee feels. He has a problem with aspirating when he drinks also. His will never heal, but he has alot of hope for Ivee. 1. Because of her age. 2. Cause she coughs up her secretions on her own, trying to clear her throat and make her larynx clear. 3. Cause she has already shown great improvement (according to me and Emmett) since surgery has taken place. (Recall....after surgery she could not speak or swallow AT ALL for at least a month). She has come a long way. Dr Thompson wants to do the scan again in 6 months to see if there is any progress (improvement).
We are waiting for our occupational and physical therapy visits, so I need to get of the computer. They will call any moment. I hope to hear from more of you, and are eager to come home. I miss and love all of you.

ready...set...go....week 2

We are currently in the surgery waiting room this morning. Ivee is in radiation right now, then they will transfer her upstairs and put in a subteranious port (under the skin, on the top of her chest) and take out the central line. She has responded really well to the radiation. She is feeling alot better, and you can see the physical evidence of this from her hyperactivity. She is so crazy. She has friends all over the hospital. We have meet two people so far from our "neck of the woods." Maggie, a radiation nurse, is from Theodore. Chad, I believe he is in training in sedation and radiation, is from Silverhill, and his brother has a law office in Bay Minette. Also, Aimee, one of our recovery nurses was married at the Grand Hotel and was surpirsed when I told her how much damage was done by Ivan, and how it had to be totally gutted and redone.
I must confess that Brittney and I are becoming home sick. I'm sure Ivee is too. Emmett says that I am not home sick, I am "Emmett" sick. Ha, ha.
We are finding our way around Memphis. It isn't too confussing, just really congested in some areas. And if you want to go anywhere around the hospital area to see something or eat, you have to pay for a parking garage. So, I have come to one conclusion...I do not want to live here! And I'm not sure if I want to visit here again : ) I think I will have my fill of Memphis beofre this is over.
We have now moved to the Ronald McDonald house. We have our own phone number and can receive mail there much more easily. When I get back there today, I'll post those for you on here.
I'll let you in on more later. Thanks you everyone.