Another way to give this Holiday Season

Many of you know that the Smith family are home right now, and they are enjoying every minute of it. As soon as Coltrane is 100% better, they will be looking at heading to Oklahoma City for their next big treatment.  The stay will be anywhere from 6-8 weeks.  I am asking for anyone who is interested to send them off with a nice care package. Since the stay will be for so long, I thought gift cards would be the best. They take up little space and can be used anytime to meet their needs I have listed a few places below that are close to the Hospital (this information was taken from the Hospital's Website).
Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us (it's not close but would be fun),  Conoco, Subway, McDonalds, Starbucks, Abuelos, Taco Bell, and I-Hop.  However, I am sure that they will be able to find most fast food chains, and any gas cards would be helpful.  

Next, please email me or send me a Quote, Bible verse, prayer, or words of encouragement and I will use those to put together a small book to send with them. 

Finally, my goal is 25 gift cards. If you are interested in being one if the 25, then please email me at hogwildamber@gmail.com.   So far I have 3, just 22 to go.  There is no set amount that needs to be on the card. I know we all have different budgets and any amount will be helpful!

Thank you for all your support and prayers. 

Happy Holidays
Amber Sisemore

Back to the Hospital

Dear Friends,

Last Friday, we were so happy to be released from the hospital after 25 days. Justin and I were trained on how to care for Coltrane at home since he would be going home with a JP drain and on TPN 24 hours a day nutrition.  Coltrane is only allowed clear liquids.  Coltrane had a wonderful few days at home and we celebrated our cozy house and beds.  On Tuesday, Coltrane woke up feeling very warm and had a fever.  In situations such as Coltrane's, a fever pretty much means hospital admission, so here we are back at the hospital.  Since yesterday, Coltrane's fever is gone and he is already feeling better.  After all of the tests they run, they have found a bacteria growing in Coltrane's blood culture.  This can be treated with different antibiotics and we will be waiting for a negative blood culture before we will be able to go back home.  This felt like such a disappointment to come back to the hospital but we know that Coltrane is getting excellent care here.  We have been told to expect 3-4 more days here.  

Even though this feels like a setback, there is also good news to be told.  Coltrane's JP drain's is beginning to show a significant decrease in output.  This is moving in the right direction because we are waiting for the drain to show very little output.  This will mean that his leaks in his "ducts" are beginning to heal up and he may be able to eat again soon.  Once this happens, we will be able to move forward with Coltrane's treatment in OKC, stem cell transplant.  

Thank you for your diligent prayers for our family.  We continue to feel so much love from all of you, we cannot thank you enough for all your prayers, encouragement, and support.  You have truly inspired us to be more like you.  

Prayer requests:

Coltrane's bacterial infection will clear up quickly and we will get a negative blood culture result.

Coltrane's drain output will continue to decrease and will be completely healed on the inside.

Coltrane will be able to eat again soon without any problems.

We will be able to continue to the next step of treatment without much delay.

Love, 

Sonja, Justin, Jackson, and Coltrane the Zany

"God doesn't work on my clock"

Dear friends,

Our family is still in Tulsa.  I'm going back and forth for work and such.  Coltrane is slowly getting better and better.  The leak is still there but it seems the amount is getting lower each day.  It's supposed to be basically a powder before the drains can come out.  Coltrane must have wanted to expedite things because he pulled his own drain out himself.  We're not sure if he'll have to go back into surgery to put one in again or not.  Please pray that the remaining drain will take over for the one that was pulled (intentionally or not) out, and that he won't have to go into surgery again.

Coltrane is smiling a lot more and is working on sitting up, holding his head up, and standing.  He's doing remarkably well.

The past four days or so Sonja and I have been very depressed and down.  It's been very hard to be in the hospital for this long.  It's our new record, 19 days in a row.  Eating out is not a treat anymore, it's a hassle financially and isn't great for our health.  We're trying to balance things out in different ways.  We've been clouded by the fact that we don't know when we will be going home.  And if we do, it will only be for a very short time due to the fact that the stem cell transplant will be soon after his recovery.  Someone asked me how Coltrane was doing.  I told them that he had his big surgery and they got all the visible tumor out, his bone marrow is clean from any cancer, the pathology from the tumors came back most likely all necrosis (dead tumor).  And that the surgery went really well over the six plus hours it took.  I told them that even though they had to take a lot more organs and parts than we expected, that we asked God to give the surgeons wisdom so we were glad that they had that intuition and knowledge to do that.  I was saying all of this to lead up to the fact we weren't coming home for a long time and it might screw up the timing for the stem cell harvest and everything.  But before I could say that last bit I caught myself.  I realized after all of the good things I was saying, that this lady was saying "Praise God."  "Praise God."  "Oh, praise God."  It suddenly hit me that I was getting so down about this one little yet annoying problem that was really only a timing issue.  And God doesn't work on my clock or the doctor's clock.  I realized that everything had gone so well with the surgery and everything but I was being attacked over this leaky duct.  Satan is like a komodo dragon sometimes.  He takes a poisonous bite out of you and waits and waits until you get a little more weak.  Then he takes another little venomous bite, and waits again until you slump over so he can devour you due to your weakened, dying state.  Satan was using that little bite to ruin our joy and thankfulness to God for all the good that He's doing.  God is working in our lives in a wonderful way.  He is healing our son.  Coltrane is doing so good and Jack too.  Sonja and I are doing well also, although more date nights would be nice.  I'm not going to worry over this timing issue.  I will trust my God who is omniscient.  I will strive to be patient in this tribulation.  I will strive to seek joy everyday for "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."  James 4:14

Please continue to pray for us.

Pray for Coltrane's duct to heal very quickly, like today.  :)

For strength and endurance, patience too

For when we are down and depressed

For us to be great witnesses

For Coltrane to gain the desire to eat and drink his clear liquids

For Sonja and I to bond stronger and stronger throughout this time 

For us to be consistent and loving parents 

For God's will to be done

For God to give the doctors and nurses supreme wisdom and insight

For the timing to be perfect for the stem cell transplant

For occupational guidance.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Love,

Justin,

Sonja,

Jackson,

and Coltrane the Yearning (to get better and go home)

Two steps forward one step back.

Dearest friends,

We are so thankful that Coltrane is doing so much better.  Everyday he gets better and better.  We have had a setback today that downed our spirits quite a bit.  We saw evidence that he has a "chylothorax" and some of the proteins from the formula we've been giving him has been leaking into his drains instead of being absorbed into his body.  If it was worse or get worse we could spend up to weeks or even months in the hospital clearing it up.  So far, his drains have been improving greatly.  Please pray for Coltrane to heal up quickly and that we can go home soon.  And also be able to have our regular schedule for the stem cell transplant and such.  Thanks so much!

Today was a difficult day for us.  We were both pretty down from having yet more turbulence in the course of our path.  We spent time outside, got to see our son Jack, and we exercised to release tension.  What kept coming to my mind was "Trust me."  So I will.  It's hard to just do that and make it a verb your life.  But it is an action.  It must be done.  Sometimes I wonder if all this didn't happen with Coltrane, would I be so willing to trust as he expects us to?  In the end, it was a good day.  Bad start, good ending.  And tomorrow is a new day!  (very dramatic interpretation of Gone with the Wind.  P.S. I really despise overacting, but I make fun of it because I like hating it so much.)  Hee hee.  :)

Good news:  Coltrane has been weaned off the high flow cannula and is on a regular oxygen cannula.  His next step is to breathe normal air.  Yay!  And we've caught some great smiles from him.  He's enjoying grape popsicles and ice chips....immensely so.

Please keep praying for our son and our family.  Thanks with all our hearts!

Love,

Justin,

Sonja,

Jack,

and Coltrane the Xboba (he is known to be an "old soul" seems to understand things beyond his years.