June 2008

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for your continual care and prayers. Our family is enjoying the West coast. We are blessed Steven was able to stay home on a humanitarian reassignment instead of being deployed. He works in the mail room on base from 7am - 2pm and he can get off for most appointments. Which is awesome! I am also blessed to be able to work with an Integrative Medicine LPN at the hospital. I have always been interested in learning more about this aspect of care. We've been changing our lifestyle with better nutrition, household goods, supplements (researched on ALL patients), exercise, etc. (One of my favorite cookbooks is Deceptively Delicious) Working with Jeanine, I have been a sponge. She's started a program at Rady's Children's, I hope others begin. For instance, weekly Pilates, yoga, massage therapy, acupuncture, cooking classes, pony therapy (working on the grant), aromatherapy, classes for parents on nutrition and life after chemotherapy, etc for patients and their families.

Gabriel is doing GREAT! No hospitalizations in over a year now. He's growing in weight and height. He's made lots of progress in physical therapy, he goes to weekly. When we began, Gabriel could not ride a bike because his left foot is weaker than the right. This caused his left foot to drop while pedaling. He is also excessively flat footed. Now he rides his bike to the park. Our next goal is to get him to ride home too. He could only stand on one foot for 1-3 seconds; he is now up to 8-10 seconds. He walks up stairs without problem, whereas before he'd tire and lay on the steps crying. Physical Therapy has helped strengthen and build his endurance. I have even noticed a difference in how he tolerates the neuropathy.

With all his achievements (BLESSINGS!!) we continue to pray for his total healing. Recently Gabriel was diagnosed with arthritis, JRA. Gabriel has complained of leg pain since January 2006 due to his chemo. For the last year he's complained of pain with some inflammation in the knees. Recently, every morning he awoke with knee pain, swelling and warmth of the joint. This concerned me a lot. We watched him for a few weeks with Hem/Onc and Physical Therapist. I took him to see his rheumatologist three weeks ago. Our plan is to inject his knees with cortizol(or it may be cortisone). This will help with his pain and inflammation. Giving us a chance to strengthen his legs without the presence of pain. It is very important to me to do what a can to strengthen and (try to) offset the effects the chemo will have on him in the future. He now needs to see an Ophthalmologist every three months for standard exams to make sure he doesn't get arthritis in the eye. He'll also be seeing a neurologist next month. As his doctor told me, "You are covering all your bases." We will soon have seen every specialist there is…haha.

In previous emails I'd mentioned two concerns. First the rash Gabe had which would not go away. It was not eczema and dermatologist biopsy results were inconclusive. Basically I was told it was most likely a reaction to the chemotherapy, being that he needs the chemo we’d just have to monitor him to see if it got worst. Reading up on JRA, one symptom is a rash. Very interesting. His rash comes and goes, but with this information I am better able to watch the flares. Second the cough which is a nuisance. We still haven't figured out the cough, after exams I tell his doctors, "He still has the same cough," to keep it on his record. I am curious about concluding my concerns when he is off treatment (11 months from now). He will begin taking Milk Thistle and Fish oil supplement this month. Jeanine and I are looking forward to seeing his labs result next month before his procedure.

Prayer Request: God will restore Gabriel to health and heal his wounds. (We know Gabe has a Testimony to tell people when he is older.) God will continue to give us discernment concerning Gabriel's health.

Although this may seem like a laundry list of things going on with his, Gabriel has more blessings in his life than ailments. God is always with him. I have seen God working throughout everything he’s been through. I have attached a picture of Gabriel to this email. Looking at his picture does he look like all these things are going on? God deserves the Glory. Even his doctors tell me he looks great. Gabriel is blessed.


Justin is our leader. The nurses commented on how good an older brother he his. They tell me he acts as if he where years older than Gabriel rather than 15 months. He speaks up for Gabriel. “That hurts my brother. He doesn’t like it when you do that. Gabriel wants this or that…” Or he will encourage Gabriel to open his mouth for the exams, etc. Gabriel still will not talk to his doctors or nurses, he becomes like a baby goo goo gah gah is all he’ll say to them.


Adrielle is the boss. She is the youngest, but she runs her brothers. I am blessed they are gentle with her most of the time. She also speaks up for Gabriel at the hospital. She tells the nurses to stop when they access his port. When she sees me preparing meds she’ll yell,
“Gabe Medicine!”

Sorry for this length of this email. I have not written and update in three to four months. I pray all is well with you all. We are thankful for God's faithfulness, grace and mercy. He is the only way we’ve made it through the challenges in our lives.

Angela