Casey and Colin Oneal

Collin

Bethany

I'm so sorry it has taken me SO long to update Bethany's Site. She was put on homebound and I have been really busy with her. She has had a lot of sicknesses during this time. She had a kidney stone, and two bouts of Bronchitis, a bad ear infection. She does have bronchitis right now, but does seem to be doing better overall. She is supposed to be going back to school on Tuesday but still has not finished her hours from last semester. Her teacher has only been to the house one time. It's took a long time to get it set up because of the Thanksgiving holidays, and now with Christmas. I'm praying she is going to be able to be back in school fulltime, just for her. She just seems to sink into a depression while she is not in regular school. I guess she just misses her friends, she is 15 now. And 15 year old's normally just want to be with their friends and boyfriend. I would like to thank all of you so much for the cards and gifts Bethany has received during the holiday and for all the prayers for our whole family. She just did a skit for Christmas and was the main character. She was SO good at it. They did the Everything Skit by Lifehouse. You can see the skit on youtube, but its not our youth group. We were unable to tape it, but we're hoping to do it again real soon and we do have a video camera now. She is still playing her guitar and leading her band. They have slowed down playing during the holidays but will be back playing again now. I'll try to post some Christmas pictures soon. Thanks again for all your prayers. Gregg found a job in November with a temporary agency. It's really hard work, not much pay, but it's a job. He has two possibilities of a job this month, so please keep that in your prayers. We love you all so much and thank you for being our support system, who we count on in our time of need. Hope you all have a very blessed and happy new year!!! Love, Michelle (Bethany's Mom)

Dennis

Waiting on update.

Emma Rose

Hailey

Hailey is doing great! still 100% donor. a few colds here and there but overall she is good.

Jeremy

Waiting on Update

Jason

Waiting on update.

Kaitlyn

Waiting on update.

Katia

Yep, today is 6 years since Katia had her cord blood transplant. This is a big milestone. Every day is a miracle day for Katia in our eyes but these yearly anniversaries are big events and a reminder of all the steps it took to get Katia the care she needed and everyone involved. I was reading over the journal history back in 2002, 2003, 2004, etc. So much has gone on in Katia's life and so many people were involved in Katia's care. So many people came forward when Katia relapsed to try to help find her a marrow match. It was overwhelming really. The thought of those mothers that donate their baby's umbilical cord for someone they don't even know is just so heartwarming and again, I want to say THANKYOU! I always want to say thank you to everyone that donates blood products because by doing so, you are an active part of saving lives. For those that are unable to donate blood due to health problems, please let others know about the need. Also the need for marrow/umbilical cord donation. For more info, you can visit www.marrow.org I want to thank each of you for visiting this site and following Katia's journey. Her journey is continuing. So, we have the brain MRI out of the way. No results yet but when those are in, the next step should be starting the growth hormones. We have changed over from the Pentamindine Infusions to Septra 3 days a week also so a few things are changing. PLUS, we had our first visits into the new All Children's Hospital in St. Pete! It is really fabulous! What a beautiful hospital! Hope you never have to be a patient there but it really is fantastic. They have thought of everything it seems. Katia was giving everything 2 thumbs up! I want to thank each of you for your birthday cards for Katia. So sweet! She really enjoyed the mail! Hope everyone has a great weekend:) Love, Tracy

Megan

Megan will be celebrating her 5th birthday tomorrow. Shes defied the odds and is still with us 4 1/2 years after diagnosis.

Nicolas

Cancer Free (Yeah)

Nate

Waiting on Update

Maxwell

Of course Max was starting to fall asleep while I was there so we didn't do much. He did try and stay awake for me and talk to me. I was having him Make different sounds for me and he actually copied my sounds. His lips where a movin' and I said "Max, your lips a just moving away there, I know some day your going to say something, you just have to move your tongue and I made this blah, blah, blah sound and asked him to do so and he made the same sound but with his "uhs". He dragged his "Uhs" like my sound. I made some other sounds and he did mimick me. I told him he was very smart doing so. We didn't make it to his appts this last week other then his Dr.'s appt. The van's ramp quite working on us while down in St. Paul so Jim and I had to lift Max and his chair into the van. But we had a good nuero appt. Dr. Wical was so happy to see Max awake and he showed her that he does pay attention to whoever is talking. She commented on his facial expression and his eye movements. Saying that Max really knows what going on around him. We talked about Max's eating and the things he does to show that he doesn't want to eat anymore (looking down to the right) We told her about when one of the other kids at Sugar Lake crys out that Max gets this worried look (eyebrows crease down) and he looks around to see where the sound is coming from. So she got to see Max finally as we see him. He's usually sleeping at her appts. She said his weight is fine for him and that he is not on the skinny side. Joanne and I talked that they should make a growth chart for kids like Max cuz even though he's only in the 25th percent tile for weight to height he looks fine. If he was any heavier he'd look to chunky. Oh we also talked about his getting that diastate before thanksgiving and thought Max's seizure were better after that for a few days after. So we are trying a dose of valium on Thurs eve and Sunday eve to see what happens. So far today they said Max slept through the night but when waked in am he threw up, had tons of seizures and was sleeping again by 10 am. Now we don't know if he's getting sick like everyone else has been or if it was the valuim. I guess we'll try it again Sunday night and see what happens Mon. morning. We are to give it 2 weeks and see if we see any changes and decide if it's working or not. I also asked her about Ambien (that sleeping drug) that I've heard has been waking brain injured people up at different stages. I know some of the ponds parents I've talked to have tried it on their children and it's shown to have given them some improvment. I just didn't think our Dr.s would go for it but to our surprise Dr. Wical had said she had heard of it helping people out and she said if it can give some kind of miracle to them in anyway why not give it a try. So if the valuim does or doesn't work in a couple weeks we'll try the Ambien. She also upped some of his seizure meds to help with his seizures. I also was playing with Max with some neon colored cards with "X's" and smiley faces on them. I asked him to look at a specific one out of the two I was holding up and he looked at exactly the one I had asked him to look at. He did it consistantly too so I of course gave him bunches of kisses for that. I was going to go out there today but he's sleeping and I slept in late cuz I've been working til midnight the last couple of nights and I'm just beat. Jim was out there last night but I haven't talked with him to find out how things went for him. I hope the pictures went through. They don't always work like I would hope they would for some reason. Ok, have a warm weekend. I'm so sick of this cold weather. I can't wait for spring. Lisa

Marshall and Amelia (siblings)

Amelia:

Waiting for Update