New Year's Eve Dec. 31, 2008

Will's new tunnel catheter is in place. The one hour surgery took a little over 3 hours. Made this mom a little nervous but I should know better. Will just likes to make those drs. work for their money. They were able to "unclog" two of the three veins that they were wanting to unclog. So they put the catheter in and then they used it right away for dialysis. Even though Will had dialysis yesterday they did it again today so they have him as "dry" for surgery as they can get him.

Tomorrow morning at 7:30 (hospital time) they will take him down to OR and put in a graft. The doctors were being a little pessimistic about this so Will needs prayers for this graft to take. It will take between two and four hours and then he will be back in his room. This should be the last procedure before the trach comes out.

Today is my sister's birthday and I want to wish Mickey the best birthday ever. I wish we were closer so I could have made her a cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS. Love you lots.

For all of you that are going to be out New Years Eve, have a lot of fun and be careful. There's crazy people out there. I will pray that God will protect all of you. Our church is having a great time planned for New Years and I hope everyone can stop by and check it out.

God bless

Tues. Dec. 30. 2008

So I'm back in Utah and the weather wasn't bad at all so the trip over the pass went well. While I was home, I went to see my church that has been remodeled. I haven't been there in over a year and it looked so good to me. Can't wait to be back for Sunday services.

We keep getting great emails and comments and we love hearing from all of you. They are a way of feeling close to Will's friends and family. So thank you so much.

Will was down in dialysis very early again and they took another 3 liters off. He rested a few hours and then went downstairs to physical therapy. They worked him on the bike with the hand pedals. No one seems to know what time his procedure will be so Tom and I will be here early in the morning.

Will needs prayers for his procedure to go smoothly (at least as smoothly as Will does anything). This first procedure in the morning will be easy then the next day's procedure will be in the operating room and it will be a little more extensive. That one is when they put the graft (fake vein) in his arm. That will take about two or three hours.

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes. God bless.

Mon. Dec. 29, 2008

Well, what can I say? Dallas didn't win so Will is now in mourning, I think he's having a relapse. I couldn't find Will's Dallas shirt for him to wear, so I am now being blamed for single-handedly making the Cowboys loose. Danny made it up there to watch the game with him even though the roads were bad. What guys do for a game???? I know it matters if they won, but Will and Danny had a good time just watching the game like old times.

He did go for a walk around the unit tonight with Tom and he ate some more soft food. Dr. Cahill would really like to see him eating again and soon. That's great with Will too.

I decided around 11:00 today to run home to Hagerman and get my classroom set up for next week when we come back to school. I don't know what the future has in store so I had a couple of days and I thought I better get it ready. Lots to do after the Christmas break. So I left and it was sunny. I drove for about one hour and it wasn't sunny anymore. I hit a little storm going over the mountains but then when I got to the good ol' Idaho, it was clear. So it wasn't that bad. I had a nice dinner with Angel and Aaron and then I went up to my school to work.

I'm going back to Salt Lake in the morning because I got most of my work caught up. I'm taking the correcting with me. The weather should hold until I get back there. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, Will will be busy. Don't know what happens after that, it will be an adventure as always.

God bless

Sun. Dec. 28, 2008

This was an easy day. Will had dialysis very early this morning and they were able to take off almost four liters off. Tomorrow will be a real good day since he's probably close to his "dry" weight (that's close to his normal weight). He took a very long walk today and he was able to just take it easy.

Nothing much else has been happening but we just watch all this white stuff out the hospital's window. Man, there's a lot of snow. Angel and Aaron told me they spent the day tubing with our neighbors, the Whites, and had lots of fun. Pretty soon it will be Will's turn out there on those sleds. Tomorrow is the big game for Dallas, so keep your fingers crossed that they bring the full Cowboys' team.

Have a great Sunday and God bless

Dec. 27, 2008 Saturday

Can't believe that it's already two days after Christmas. I'm not ready for the season to be leaving us, so I'm not going to let it go until we get home. It will be soon, real soon. Here is some pictures of Will's room. It looks so festive.






I would like to show these pictures from before Will left Boise. This was his little parade out of the hospital to the ambulance. Very special people who will be are friends forever. We do miss them all. I haven't been able to download pictures and then I found out that I can download very late at night. Don't know why.








Will will be going back down to dialysis tomorrow even though he had it today and they took 3 1/2 liters off. They will be giving him another blood transfusion tonight about three and then dialysis after that. Maybe that will help him have a real good weekend. He's really looking forward to the Dallas Cowboys game on Sunday. They have to win that one to get the wild card and keep playing. Danny will be up and watch it with him so he can do the play-by-play. yea!!

Since I didn't get any shopping done before Christmas I was one of the scary people out the day after Christmas. I did some shopping but I didn't see that many sales-maybe later. The snow kept a lot of people home. It was a little sloppy out there. Angel and Aaron are staying home in Hagerman because of the storm.

The drs. still plan on doing that first procedure on Tues. and then the graft done on Wednesday, New Years Eve. Then maybe we will start the new year out with the trach being gone. We don't know for sure----but maybe.

DEC. 26, Friday

CHRISTMAS DAY 2008

Here is Danny walking his cousin on Christmas Day. See how I got his pole all decorated up?
Danny was almost embarrassed pushing it down the hall. Will thinks he's wearing a Cowboys cap, but he makes a good Santa. The only sad news was the Celtics lost to the Lakers. That one hurt but Boston is still on such a hot streak. Will just decided to let Coach have a Christmas present from him.




Here is a good picture of us taking Will for a walk this morning. He's looking good. He had a pretty easy day today. He was able to have a great foot rub (shown below) by AnneMarie. What more could he want??



It is snowing still so it's not looking very good for Angel and Aaron coming down. We don't want them on the road like they are now. Dr. Cahill told us that on the 30th he will have the procedure to put in another tunnel catheter. Then on the 31st, he will have the graft put in. We don't know what happens but they will explain it to us later.

Tomorrow Will will be up and downstairs by 9:00 doing his exercising. Then sometime tomorrow he will have dialysis. So busy day. Thank you all for you good wishes to Will and all of us for the holidays. I read them all to him and we had a lot of phone calls too. We talked to Angel and Aaron through the webcam again today. It was great. We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas.

God bless

MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. We not only celebrate His birth in the manger, but also the reason for His coming -- His death on the cross. We thank You for providing eternal life for each person who will accept His free gift of salvation.


We are so happy tonight. We got to (via webcam) feel like we were with our family tonight, except when we tried to sing Christmas carols. Then it just doesn't work. It's like singing in round without meaning to because there is a delayed voice but it was great anyway. We had Angel on one cam, then Billie, then Christi, then Aunt Karen, all at one time. It was fun. Technology is wonderful! It wasn't as good as being there--but almost. In the morning we can watch them open gifts too.

Danny, Will's cousin, said he will be here around 10 in the morning to spend time with Will on Christmas Day. I went back to the blog about Christmas last year and it was so funny to see all of us waiting for Will's lungs just being goofy. You can go back and check it out if you want. Just click on 2007 on the right side and it will take you there.

Will really worked hard today even though it was dialysis day. He used up all his energy with his exercises and then he had a few hours wait until dialysis. Tonight he was watching TV until we did the webcam. Now he still isn't sleeping, I think he's waiting for the big guy in a red suit to show up. If the weather is cleared up by Friday, Angel and Aaron will come up for a couple of days. That will be so good for Will (and Tom and I too).

It was so good to hear from all of you that sent comments to wish Will a Merry Christmas. He got a big ol' grin on his face. Thank you so much, and any of you that would, please give a shout out to Will on here or on my email harbisonterri@hotmail.com

Enjoy the wonderful, joyous day and we want to pray to our God for love and happiness as our gifts to you. God bless and MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HARBISONS

CHRISTMAS EVE 2008

WOW, CHRISTMAS EVE IS HERE.

Tom made it through the pass and is here with us now. We went out and got a webcam for our computer and we hope that it will get us hooked up with our family(Angel and Aaron and Will's cousins) so we will be together through the power of technology. We just got it so I think I have it installed right. Will went down to the physical therapy room downstairs and did some exercises and he will do more tomorrow. He has dialysis tomorrow and he will be feeling good on Christmas Day. Maybe if you all have time, you could wish Will a Merry Christmas on the comment page (you don't have to write a lot). I will read them all to him on Christmas morning. I would mean a lot to him.

We look forward to Christmas because of all the blessings God has given us throughout this last ten months. But it all started with the miracle in a manger, what a great gift for all of us who believe in Him, Jesus Christ, and what it means to all of us-eternal life.

I can't help but remember that there is a family going through their "first" Christmas without their loved one. Without his or her special gift of lungs given to Will, he wouldn't be here now. I pray with all my might that they might find peace through this season. Please help me pray for them.

"more blessed to give than to receive."Acts 20:35 (NIV) I know most kids out there don't believe that, but if you haven't bought your gifts for your family, maybe you can give a service gift of yourself. Think about a foot rub, or doing dishes without being asked, or anything like that.

God bless everyone and have a great Christmas Eve. We sing carols and laugh a lot (usually it's because of our singing that we laugh).

Dec. 23, 2008 Tuesday Only two days left

90,000 HITS ON WILL'S BLOG!!

That is so incredible. It just doesn't seem possible. There are so many people that follow Will's journey. I told Will and all he said was why? He just doesn't understand how people can be interested in him and what he's going through.

So the doctors came in today and told us they would take him in and put in a temporary tunnel catheter because Will really needs dialysis today. It was getting hard for him to breathe. So they took him about 12:30 downstairs to do the procedure. He didn't like them very well. I told them before I left to go to the waiting room that he can't see much and to please tell him what's going on. They said they would and then they didn't really tell him anything more after that. They did try to put in a tunnel catheter in the subclavian (spelling is probably all wrong, it means by the collar bone) but they were blocked two different times. So they had to go into his jugular vein. But at least we have something that works for a while.

The dr. told me that he will probably wait for a week and then go in through the vein in his thigh and try to unblock one of the veins so they can take the one out of the jugular. They don't like to use them. The dr. also said that the fistula probably wasn't going to happen and they will put in a graft. That's where they put in a fake vein and use that. It seems an okay idea but I will research it and find out more. As soon as they were done with him (it took about 2 1/2 hours) they took him right away to dialysis. They took three liters off and he's breathing better tonight. He's in a lot of pain because of all the probing they had to do but tomorrow will be a better day.

Tom is coming down tomorrow if he can make it through the pass. They think that it might be drivable tomorrow afternoon. It will be great to see my sweet husband (hey, it's the season to be nice, right?)

I hope you all are keeping Christ in your Christmas.

God bless

Monday Dec. 22, 2008 3, only 3, day till Christmas

So it's Sunday and it's quiet today for the most part. Will took a stroll around the unit but he's really needing dialysis so it was hard for him to breathe. He walked without sitting and with only one stop. His itching (from the need of dialysis) is driving him crazy. Dr. Cahill came in and told Will that she will be on top of things first thing in the morning. We don't know what they will decide so please pray for Will and Will's doctors.

Danny and AnnMarie came up with her two kids. They are so much fun, all four of them. They were keeping Will company. We have such a fun nurse, Kristen, tonight. She was having to change dressings on Will and it wasn't nice but by the end of it she had Will smiling. I love nurses like that and we have had a bunch of them, again we have been so blessed by love AND laughter around Will.

Will has been telling people how well he was treated (I think the word is "spoiled") by the Boise hospital. Now everyone wants to go there-I'm talking about the employees of this hospital. Will might have made it sound like a spa, who knows?

Tonight the big storm is supposed to hit. I hope all our caregivers make it home. Tom will try to get down here on Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever the snow decides to let him over the pass. Angel and Aaron will try to get down here after Christmas.

Thanks everyone for the continued prayers and I hope you all are getting ready to celebrate our Savior's birth. I know I am. The whole season is so miraculous.
God bless

Dec. 21, 2008 Sunday 4, yes 4, days till Christmas

It's almost here, people!
Merry Christmas to all of us

Saturday started with will having an EKG done which took about an hour. Then after walking around the unit once he did some leg exercises. They are still giving his antibiotics for his infection. The doctor that takes care of these things came in the afternoon and took out his dialysis catheter. It was a major production, you know Will, he can't do anything easy. So it had really grown around the tubing so the doctor (warning: sick part here) had to cut it off his skin. It took about an hour and half. The doctor said that it usually isn't like that. Go figure. So it's out and now they will wait and see if the infection leaves.

Dr. Cahill came by and told Will that the big vascular surgeon is back on Monday and then all of them will powwow and figure out a plan for Will. I know that they have to put a new temporary catheter in so he can have dialysis on Monday. That's about it so far. We will keep everyone informed.

There's supposed to be another storm in tomorrow, Sunday. Brent, Stacee, and Whitney Clark came by because they fly out tomorrow to San Diego because they are one of the lucky people that get to go and watch the big BSU game. They are going to stay and play on the beach for six days. They were up here tonight when Will got his first Pepsi in three months. He said "sweet." I don't know if that means it was too sweet or s w e e t like the kids say for something good. Anyway he also had a little bit of pudding and he hasn't thrown up either thing. Way to go, Will.

Christ's birthday is just around the corner. I hope we are all celebrating in the right spirit. It has nothing to do with shopping malls. (This is coming from a person who needs to start her shopping soon). So have fun and love one another.
God bless

p.s. My dad thinks I might be trying to write books some nights so I'm going to try to keep it shorter. I love you, Dad.

SAT Dec. 20, 2008 5 days until Christmas

First full (and I mean full) day in the University of Utah hospital. We started at 7 with the rounding of the herd of doctors. Do you all remember how that was before?? Then at 8 Will was sleeping finally and the PT asked if they could take him on a walk. Seriously. He had no sleep all night because of the trouble with meds. He got to sleep at about 6 and then they wanted him up at 8 to walk. Well, Will got rid of them really fast. Then it has been going crazy. This doctor wants this done and that doctor wants something else.

The blood work came back showing his ports (IV port and dialysis port) are infected so they have to come out. They still haven't gotten the dialysis catheter out yet. The doctor has to come and do that for Will. Then they have to decide where to put temporary ones in. So there were many tests for that.

Then they found out that his blood was way, way low. So they ordered a couple of units of blood for transfusion. While this was going on and he was on his way to the dialysis unit on the third floor, the fifth floor decided that Will needed too much care for a regular nursing floor. So they transferred him to Intermediate Intensive Care Unit where we were before we were moved to Boise. It felt like coming home to a lot of good, good friends. We were sharing with them how our new friends (care givers from Boise) treated us. I think they were jealous. We miss them and they did do wonderful things for Will. They took him a long way.

Tauna, our transplant coordinator, came in to visit. She was so excited to see Will. Lots and lots of hugs. Then Mrs. BIG, Dr. Cahill, came in. She was so swamped today so she just had a minute. But she hugged Will and listened to him and told us that we can't do any surgery until the infection from the IV lines is cleared up. Will had been waiting so long to show her that he can stand on his own. So when she came in he had to stand for her. It brought tears to my eyes to see how far he has come.

So we don't know anything about the surgery. They did do some mapping on his veins today but it wasn't good so they might have to do something else. We still have not met the surgeon or team that is performing this surgery. I don't know how they will do the dialysis on Monday because they don't have a line. Even if they put the other one in, they can't use it for a few weeks while it "cures."

They are doing some tests on his heart tomorrow because one of the interns thought he heard a murmur. You know all doctors have to be interns once but I wish they wouldn't come near Will. They always are coming up with something. But, that's what a teaching hospital is all about.

As you can see, it was a busy, busy day. It's now midnight and they are just getting him ready for bed after they hang another unit of blood. Hopefully they will let him sleep in tomorrow.

It snowed so hard today, it was unbelievable. I thought the night nurses wouldn't be in because a lot of the roads are closed but they all made it. It's very, very cold here but I hear from Tom that it is colder at home. WINTER

I did decorate our room last night and took a picture of it to put it on the blog. Then we moved so I had to take all the decorations down. I put them back up in our new one and took another picture because it looks so Christmasy. Then I forgot I can't put pictures on my blog from their server at the U. It's too slow and they don't download pictures. I used to go to our apartment and download there but I don't have an apartment anymore so I don't know what I will do. Maybe I can go somewhere else when the roads open and then download them, like the library. I hope so. Well, I've written another book but I had to let everyone know what has been happening.

Take care and stay warm. God bless

Dec. 19 Friday. Only 6 days left

Well we are back to being Utahans again. Will had a very uneventful trip up here, thank you God. The snow held off until he got here. The people who transported him were very nice. He's in a nice room and they have a cot for me so we are all doing fine. We have meetings all set up for tomorrow with all sorts of drs., but our favorite, Dr. Cahill, will be here in the morning along with all the other interns that come for this reason and that. We are back to a teaching hospital and that comes with the territory.

My students haven't driven my sub crazy yet. He has reported to me that they are ready for vacation which, as any teacher can tell you right now, they all are. I miss them.

We have had several people pop up from the other floors that we have been on. There has been messages from others that said they will be up after Will gets settled in. So good to see them but we already miss the quiet hospital in Boise.

I probably should start my Christmas shopping this weekend. Right?? I love the hustle and bustle of the last minute shoppers. I already have Will's room decorated. So we are settled. I will blog lots tomorrow but tonight I'm tired. Thank you all for your prayers. God is good and has shown His love once again.

God bless

Dec. 18, 2008 Thursday one week till Christmas

Just one week until Christmas, how exciting!!

Will is going to be on his way to SLC by 10 am (hospital time). He should be here by 4 or so. I am already up in SLC at Danny, my nephew's house. Danny is such a nut, but he's excited that Will is closer so they can watch the Cowboys games as the season winds down. I came up early because we didn't know what the weather would be doing and we didn't want Will to come and have no one here to get him settled. Tom stayed with Will to get him packed up and help put him on the ambulance.

The bad news was that I stopped at my mom's on the way to say goodbye and I left my cell phone. So it feels real strange to be without a cell phone. I will have Will's phone when he gets up here so if anyone is trying to get me, just call Will's phone tomorrow evening. I probably won't have my phone until Tom comes up here and I don't know when that will be.

About that--I need to wish my sister-in-law, Karen, a very happy happy birthday but I didn't call because I have no phone. Just know I was thinking of you. Hope you had a great day.

I'm excited about this move because it's just that much closer to getting the trach out and then coming home. Will had dialysis tonight so he will be in good shape for the move. So now we won't be Idahoans for awhile, but we will be back shortly.

Please pray for Will's traveling and for the people that are helping him get here safely.

God bless

Dec. 17, 2008 Wed. 8 days till Christmas

So, everyone, guess what?? Change of plans. Seriously.

Will won't be going on Wednesday. He will be transported on Thursday instead. He will not be transported by plane but by ambulance. So that is what we will be doing now. By this time tomorrow we could have all new sets of plans. We should know better than to think everything is all set. Then the doctor told us that we could maybe be waiting until after the first of the year to have the surgery because of the holidays. But we do know people up at the University and so we could have some pull and get things done sooner. We will see.


I will now go down to SLC and wait for Will. Then we will start things moving up at that hospital. As most of you can realize, Will isn't all that happy with all this time wasting away. But he will be better once we get up there and see all our friends at the hospital. Again, we will be leaving so many new friends, good friends, that have gotten Will to where he is now. It gets hard to do that so many times, but we are so glad that they have come into Will's life to help him through this journey. We are lucky, lucky people.

This is all in God's plan for us. We will keep up our Christmas tree up until we get home and then we will have our family's Christmas.

So we need traveling prayers for all of us and then pray that we get things done sooner than later. Life is good.

God bless all of our friends, old and new.

Dec. 16, 2008 Tuesday 9 days till Christmas

So we have finally some news to share. We will be flying Will down on Wednesday. That's all we know right now. We don't know when, we don't know how long we are there until surgery. We don't know how long we will be there after surgery. We don't know if we get to come home after we check out of the hospital. But we DO know we will go to Salt Lake on Wednesday.

Tom will come back to Boise tomorrow morning and then I will take off for Salt Lake because I don't want Will to get to Salt Lake and maybe if the roads are bad, I wouldn't be able to be there when he landed. So I will go up and stay with my nephew, Danny, and then go over to the hospital and wait for Will on Wednesday. Tom will put him on the plane (we think it's a fixed wing plane) and then Tom will wait and see if he will come down on Thursday or later. More on this later. Maybe tomorrow the doctors will have something for us or not.

So thanks for your prayers because we are getting something done. I don't really know about Christmas so I will wait and see what God has planned. If any of you want to write Will a Christmas card, just send it to our home address: 793 Hillside Drive, Hagerman, Idaho 83332, and Angel and Aaron will see that he gets them all.

We have so much to celebrate this season, but the best is that it's when our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born. I pray everyone is remembering the reason for this season. I know we will be, and if we are in the hospital on Christmas Day, we will celebrate it after we get out.

Tom went to my students' Christmas recital tonight. He said my class was the best, of course. Will had dialysis for a short while tonight and then they would come back in the morning and do a full dialysis. (It's a long story). Will did work out this morning and it was really a work out. They don't let him slack off a minute even when he's not feeling well.

So I will be in SLC tomorrow night, Tom and Will will be in Boise, and Angel and Aaron will be holding down the fort again. That's about all we know. Pray for the snow and ice to allow all the travel that we need to do. We are excited to see all our old friends from the University Hospital.

God Bless

Dec. 15, 2008 Monday 10 days till Christmas

Playing with Billie's little one, Sadie Kay. She had a Santa and a candy cane (off Will's tree). What else could a little girl want?

Here was a break in the game. The three guys (Coby is the cute one) were really into the football game.

Here the guys were watching the game. They look like they were all chillin' but it was really intense in the room. Notice the shirt on Will and the blanket I made him for last years' season.

Below is the Clarks' taking a walk with Will. He had some exercise because he walked all the way down to the front door to see his friends off.


The snow is here, the season is here, what an exciting time of the year.

Will had a good day. He got to sleep in until after noon. Wow! It felt very good to do that he said. He had some real good company to pass a lazy Sunday. Brent and Stacee came up just to visit with Will and they left Hagerman when is was sunny--it wasn't sunny in Boise. The snow was a surprise and it was so cold too. They brought Will a new Jerome Lady Tigers shirt with buttons so he can use it on dialysis day. Great gift. Thanks again.
Whitney, their daughter came over, she lives in Caldwell. So everyone got together and visited about basketball, what else??

While they were here, Grandma and Grandpa Atwood swung by after they went to the Nutcracker. They serve at those functions at the Morrison Center as volunteers and they love it. The said the kids were so cute dressed up like that. Next year maybe I will go see that.
They took me to dinner, Olive Garden, one of my favorite places. It was so good and we had a good visit too.

Then the BIG game, Dallas and the Giants. Cowboys got the win which we knew they would. Billie and Matt (another Dallas fan) with the two kids came over to help watch the game. It was fun to have someone else to give the play-by-play while I played with the kids. It was nice that they won too. Thanks Dallas for doing that for Will. LOL


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR GOOD FRIEND, DONNA. It's finally her 40th. Love you.

Tomorrow we should hear from the doctors in SLC so we can get going on this surgery. (I just cut and paste this from the other blogs last week, it's easier that way.) Hospital Time.

Well, pray for us to get him transferred all safe and sound (and quickly).
God bless

Dec. 14, 2008 Sunday 11 days until Christmas

'Tis The Season to be Jolly

(And doesn't Will look Jolly, I thought he was going to
hit me because I asked him to pose by the tree, hee hee)

We put up a little tree with lights and decorated it with basketballs and candy canes. If you know Will really well, that's about his favorites. He got to put the hangers on the little balls so I could hang them up. It took awhile but we got them up. We even had Christmas carols going in the background thanks to his XM radio. So if we can't go to our Christmas, we will just bring it up here. His room is so cute.

Curtis, Jenn and Cali came up. Cali had a little mp3 player. She had downloaded all the Hannah Montana and High School Musical and something else really cute. So she had Uncle Will listen to it. I wish I had my camera ready. Those pink little headphones on him were so "precious." I think he was really enjoying the Hannah songs.

Now for the big news for all you Dallas Cowboy Fans-such as Will.

Dixie is a nurse from our hospital in Twin Falls and called and asked if she and her husband, James could come up and see Will. Of course we said yes and then she said she had a big present for Will. She got up here and had Will open his present. Dixie knew somebody who knew somebody who had some connections, I wish I wrote down the names but we will get them thanked. Will opened up an autographed picture of Roger Staubach. For those that don't know that who he is---Roger the Dodger is probably one of the most famous QBs of all time. He played in the 70's and is in the Hall of Fame. He led the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl victory and was part of making the Cowboys America's team. Will has looked up to him for years so this meant so much to him. I don't think he has put the pictures down yet. The other autographed picture is of Mike Connelly who is also a hall of famer from the Dallas Cowboys 1960-70's years. He is an offensive lineman and he wrote a very nice letter to Will. This was a wonderful gift for him and we will have to write a big thank you letter for all the people that made it happen. Thanks so much Dixie and James.

Above is Dixie and James-great people!

Look at that smile..............................................

I hope all of you can get what you want for Christmas. I think Will's good to go.

The big game is tomorrow night so we all need to cheer for Dallas against the Giants.

They need this win. So GOOOOOOOOOOOO COWBOYS!!!

PS. Danny, eat your heart out.

Dec. 13, 2008 Saturday 12 days till Christmas

Here is Will with his occupational therapist, Nicole, working on his upper arm strength. What this picture doesn't show is how much his arms are shaking just moving that light bar back and forth. He works so hard and I love to see that he has so much drive to get better.

Kim and Richard came up and we had a good visit, even though Will wasn't feeling well. He spiked another fever again after dialysis. We will try to get the doctor to tell us why this is happening. He did not feel well at all. So really a rough day keeping his O2 up. Now that this is the weekend, we know we won't be moving to SLC until at least Monday. FRUSTRATING!!!! I'm glad I have this blog to vent, just kidding.

Tom is home and he's enjoying being there. Angel and Aaron are all tucked in and I hope that everyone is safe with this bad winter storm coming in.

I was reading the blog tonight to Will and then I read the comments. The one from Coach made him smile, and yes, there has been times that I have quietly listened, and when God talks to me I always listen. Then there was the comment from Marlene and it hit me in my heart. Marlene, thank you for sharing your feelings with us. Sometimes I wonder why I keep blogging every night and then you say such wonderful things about our son motivating and inspiring you and it really touched us. You are a very kind lady to have said the things you did and I will ask God to lay a special blessing on you and yours tonight. By the way, I was so touched I read it again and I'm still crying, but they are tears of humbling gratitude. Angel was very, very touched by the comment also and she wrote her brother a special email. I hope she will let me share parts of it with you all.

I am going to go out tonight on my way to Dad's house because Walmart is opened all night long, and I'm going to buy lights for Will's room. I have had his room decorated for a few weeks now, but there is a patient across the hall whose family decorated hers today and they put up lights. Now, I'm not like the Griswalds (maybe a little) but I have to go get some lights, a few hundred or so should do it.

Saturday will be so much better because he won't be having his dialysis. We will try to go outside tomorrow and maybe make snow angels----JUST KIDDING.

I have often wondered if Mary looked at her baby Jesus when he was first born like we look at our own children. What she must have been feeling had to be so much more because she wasn't just looking at her new baby-she was looking at our Savior. But then I look at my own son and daughter and I can't imagine being able to feel "more." Now, I have made you ponder this also, sorry. This just came up because I am sitting here watching him sleep so peacefully and I still remember the first time I saw him when they laid him in my arms.

I have so much to pray for tonight, I need to get started. Our God is so awesome.
God bless everyone.

Dec. 12, 2008 Friday 13 days left till Christmas

We are still in Idaho, aren't we? Nothing was said today, and nobody seems to know what or when anything is going to happen. I'm thinking that since this is the weekend coming up that we probably won't be going anywhere until Monday. So we wait. I really am going to enjoy having everybody from the SLC hospital getting to see Will. He has come so far. I know that they were a big part of it and they need to see how well he's doing.

He walked a few times around the unit today. Then he had some time listening to books on tape. Then just out of the blue the doctor decided to down size his trach this afternoon. Tom said that everything went well and Will has had no problem breathing. He has been sleeping most of the evening.

Tomorrow he will have dialysis again but I will be going up there in the morning. The reason I'm not going to be in school was that I had to get a sub when I thought I would be going on Wednesday. He's a real good sub and I didn't want to loose him by putting him off day by day so I told him by Thursday I will be gone. I went in this morning and worked and showed him how things were done. I got him all set set up and then I said goodbye to my kids. I won't see them again until after Christmas when school is back on I think that's is the fifth of Jan. It made me real sad because those kids are something else. I love them all. I am so lucky that I work in such a great place. Everybody is just so wonderful to try to help me and my boss is great about giving me the time off. (I would say that even if he wasn't going to read this,really).

So I spent the afternoon trying to unpack some boxes that I haven't been able to get done since moving back from Salt Lake. I'm getting Will's room all ready for when he gets to come home. What a great day that will be!!! Maybe tomorrow we will hear something. I will go up to Boise in the morning and then Tom will come home and have an extra day with his horse, his daughter and Aaron, and with his brothers (probably in that order).

Well I hope everybody is getting into the spirit of Christmas. Isn't it a wonderful time of year???

God bless

Happy, happy birthday, Rustin.

Dec. 11, 2008 Thursday 14 days until Christmas

Well, Will's day was just like the dialysis days go. Well, there was one exception-Will got to listen to the eighth round of the National Finals Rodeo with Dad. Wasn't he lucky???

Dialysis came and took almost five liters off today but then he started cramping and running a fever again so they stopped. His fever comes down after a couple of hours and then the cramping stops too. I don't know why because I still haven't met the kidney doctor so I haven't been able to talk to him. From what the nurses say, he comes in real early and Will doesn't usually know when he's there.

Still NO NEWS AGAIN so we don't know what will be happening. We were really hoping that we could get down to Salt Lake and get all this done so we could maybe be home for Christmas. Now Christmas is two weeks away so it doesn't look all that great but we will see. We are where we are supposed to be at this time. I have faith that God will get us moving when we need to be up there and not a minute earlier. We hope to have some news in the morning.

Grandma and Grandpa George came up and stayed a few hours while Tom took a walk. They have been so supportive during our stay in Boise. What we would be doing without our family. This journey would be so much harder on us if we didn't have the support of our family.

God bless family

Dec. 10, 2008 Wednesday

Isn't this just a beautiful picture? We all can pretend that we are sitting in a chair next to one of those big windows drinking cocoa. How about that???

Will's day started with occupational therapy who is trying to strengthen Will's upper body. So he did exercises for his arms. Then physical therapy came along and decided that he needed to do some more stairs. So off he went. By now, he's tired, very tired, and it's before 11 a.m.

Coach came up and stayed with him for several hours. Coach brought Erin with him. Erin is Coach's daughter that hasn't seen Will in a long time. So everyone had a good visit. Later in the evening Christi, Will's cousin, came. Christi was telling me that she had a great visit with Will and before she knew it, she had been with Will a couple of hours, initially only going to stay a few minutes. Tom said they were really having a good visit. He needed these visitors to help cheer him up because..........

We still have no idea when we are going. I have arranged for a sub but I don't know when. It could be tomorrow because the doctor said that they might fly him there. It would be so much better for Will and now that he isn't throwing up as much, the trip shouldn't take too much out of him. But then again, we might not be leaving until next week. WE JUST DON'T KNOW. Yes, that's me yelling and I feel better now that I have. Sometimes it gets frustrating not having any idea what's happening with our life. But God tells us to sit quietly and listen. So that's what we will do. God has His reasons for us not leaving yet-it's all in His perfect time. I believe, I believe, I believe. I will let you all know as we get the information.

You need to click on Tanya's blog on the right of this page and see how good she's doing. She had a "Congratulations, I had My lung transplant party." There is one picture of Sarah and Tanya together. These two friends of ours have had their new lungs right around the time that Will got his. Sarah just had her one year anniversary and Tanya had her transplant over three months ago. They look fabulous so click on their name and check it out. Thanks for your continued prayers.

God bless

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008 16 days until Christmas

Well, I guess I called it, didn't I? We have no news from the doctors, so we still don't know what is happening. We do know that we are going to be going to Salt Lake real soon. That's all we know. Maybe tomorrow we will find out.

Will worked out this morning with physical therapy and then with occupational therapy so he has had a very busy day. Grandma and Grandpa came up and spent some time with him. Then he had dialysis. He then had a sleepy afternoon and evening. Tom said he listened to a movie and was asleep early.

So tomorrow will be a good day after getting some fluids off. I heard that Boise had some snow today. So winter is here, I guess.

God Bless

Monday, Dec. 8th 17 days until Christmas

Merry Christmas

This is my dad and Cherie's house, all
decorated up for Christmas.
It's like a picture postcard.
There's so much warmth there.

Here's our two Christmas trees we found along the road. We bought these trees for the nurses' desks and they found a new use for them.




This is how Will and Aaron watch the Cowboys game. They look very comfortable, don't they? Even if the Cowboys lost at the last minute, it was a good game.


Will's day was better than yesterday. Grandpa came up and gave Will another haircut. Then he just visited and had a good day all around. He still doesn't feel too well yet so he didn't walk much, although he did walk this evening after the loss of the Dallas game. He had to get rid of some of his adrenaline.

We should know more on our move to SLC in the morning. Please pray for Will.
God bless

Sunday, Dec. 7 18 days until Christmas

We have got many pictures to share with you all. Please read until the end of the blog. Don't just look at the pictures because there is news to share at the end. Will had so many visitors today. It was just what he needed. He had dialysis at 7 this morning and they were able to take off 3 more liters. So yesterday was 5 liters and today was 3. That's over 17 pounds of fluid in less than 24 hours. I really think I need to invest in one of these wonder machines.

Above: This is my Dad and step-mom, Cherie with the kids. They were running around the check in area and so I had them all take a picture and they did. My dad is holding little Coby, Billie's baby and then the rest are sitting by Grandma. What a bunch.

First company was Angel and Aaron with Carson and Candace. I told Candace she had to be nice for the picture because she tries to make faces all the time. Now she looks a little too "unreal" but she is so cute. The kids helped me put up more decorations, I know we are crazy because we will be leaving soon, but it's Christmas. Below is the two kids putting little things on Will's door.




Below is my nephews, Noah and Elliott, getting in the groove decorating up Will's room. They hung up two things each. I remember just yesterday when they were helping me decorate at my house and I lifted them up to put things on the tree. Now they both can lift me up (well not really, I can just pretend) but they are big guys now.


Here is a cute picture of Christi, the boys and Will. They had a good visit. Did you notice that I made a candy cane out of Will's IV pole. How fun.





This is a surprise visit from Sarah Choates. Her family has a diner in Jerome where Will says they have the best hotdogs in the world. Go try them out and tell them Will sent you. He use to eat there whenever he could. He is craving that hotdog and when he can eat again, that will be the first place he visits. She brought up a cute card for "Coach" with a great poem that I will share with you all later, because this blog is going to be long enough already. She was so sweet to surprise us with a visit.


Then we had another surprise visitors, Uncle Albert and Auntie. They came down from Hell's Canyon and wanted to see their nephew. They had a great visit and got to see Will walk. They hadn't been able to see that happen before so they were really impressed with the improvement they saw.

DOESN'T WILL LOOK GREAT!!!!

List of today's visitors: Angel, Aaron, Carson, Candace, Billie, Sadie, Coby, Grandma, Grandpa, Christi, Elliott, Noah, Sarah, Auntie, Uncle Albert, and then Billie came back up for a visit by herself. That makes for a full day. He will sleep well tonight. I asked him if he was tired from the company and he said no that it was a good tired.


ALERT: So here is some kind of BIG news.*********

The doctors are going to go through with the little operation putting in a fistula. That's the under-the-skin connection made between an artery and a vein, usually in the arm. This is used for the dialysis and is easier to access and lasts longer than the tunnel catheter that he has now. This will be a good thing but it takes a while to "cure" so he will still have to wait to use it for a few weeks.

The good/bad news is that we have to go to SLC to have this done. Good news is we can see all our hospital friends; bad news is that we have to move Will again by ambulance and we thought the next move would be to go home. The surgery won't keep Will down for long and then hopefully Will can get the trach out and we can get home. Don't know all the details, Dr. Fuller said he is shooting for Wednesday, (hospital time could mean ???? next week, next month, who knows). We will be discharged from here when we leave. This is kind of short notice for us so nothing has been decided yet. I will let you all know when we know. We should know most of the particulars on Monday.

God bless you all on this wonderful Sunday. Praise God for He IS the one that makes all things wonderful.

Dec. 6, 2008 Sat. 19 days until Christmas

So Tom's at home, I'm up in Boise, Angel and Aaron are in Boise, and I hope everyone else is home keeping warm. It's cold here.

I wish I could say that Will is feeling better, but he really isn't. I'm sure it will be better tomorrow. Dialysis took of 5 liters (over ten pounds of fluid), and tomorrow they will come and give him an extra run and take off 5 more liters. Hopefully he won't cramp up too much. That's what happens if they take too much fluid off. Then maybe things will turn around and he will feel like getting out of bed then. I did get him to walk to the hall but he just didn't want to go any farther. He's was wiped out. His white blood count isn't up so they don't think infection is the cause. We will just keep pushing to get him back on his feet.

Angel and Aaron should be coming up with Candace in the morning to help "decorate" Will's room a little more. I will take pictures of that and show you how cute the room looks. We love Christmas.

God bless

Dec. 5, 2008 Friday 20 more days till Christmas

Ho, Ho Ho

Will's day wasn't great. He didn't feel like doing any walking. Some days will be like that. Hopefully he will have a better Friday, even with dialysis. Tom and I will be trading places again and he will be able to come home for a while. We are already getting Christmas cards in the mail. Wow, there are some people out there that are on the ball. Maybe you can expect Christmas cards from us just about in time for Valentines Day. Maybe.

God bless

Thursday 12/4/08 21 days left before Christmas

I love the Christmas season so when I went up to Will's, I took some little decorations with me so I could decorate his room up tonight. Will really loves Christmas and I know he will like it when he gets in a better mood. He's not feeling too well tonight. He had dialysis and they were able to take off three liters so he should breathe better tomorrow. He will have a better day because today just wasn't one of those "good" days. But we look at it this way--he's having a lot more good days than bad lately and that's what we need.

I will take more decorations when I go up this weekend. We don't want to take too many because we still plan on being out of there by Christmas but that's just what we think, not what they are telling us yet. It won't be long though. Grandma and Grandpa Atwood had their house all decorated up already and they just got home from vacation. Made me want to get all my stuff up, but I will wait until we hear what we will be doing this year.

Tomorrow we are getting new carpet in our living room because we want to have all clean, fresh carpet for when Will gets home. We already put down wood flooring in his bedroom. That's so funny that I said "we" because I didn't do anything. I was up in Salt Lake still with Will. So now I really need to start emptying boxes and getting things put away.

I don't know if I say it enough but God gave Will a wonderful dad. Tom stays right by Will most of the days and well into the night without ever complaining all week long. There isn't that many men that could do that, especially one who is used to being outdoors. It's all going to be back to normal soon but Tom should definitely get the "Father of the Decade" award.

When Will and I were talking tonight we had two good pieces of news to share. One of his very, very close friends had a baby and Will was so excited for her. We don't want to tell everyone yet who it was because we don't know if all the family has been notified. But I know the new "mom" reads this blog daily and Will just wanted me to tell her congratulations, we love you lots, and we will call you this weekend.

The other good news is Will's cousin, Noah, is having a birthday today and we want to wish him a very, very, big HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NOAH, to you. He's a very special young man and we are sure glad he was born.

I hope everyone is starting to feel the love of the season. I know I am, I'm already singing Christmas carols (when no one can hear me, because that would just be cruel).

God bless

12/3/08 Wednesday 22 days left till Christmas

Tuesday was a better day. Will walked this morning all the way down to the PT room. But, this will just blow you away, (I know it did for me) Will walked down 24 stairs with just someone holding onto his belt. That is just amazing..I wish I could have been there--I would have been just woohooing (yup, that's a word now) up and down the hallway. Maybe that's why they waited till after I left Boise, ya think? Anyway I will be going back to Boise Wednesday after school and I hope I can see him do some stairs for myself. If I do, I will get pictures for sure. But that is his day for dialysis, so chances aren't that good.

Coach came up and visited for a few hours. Then Will took a long nap. When I called later he was sleeping again, but Tom said he took another walk around the unit. Christmas is going to be so good this year. We just happen to be getting our Christmas presents early every time Will passes one of these milestones.

Another big milestone that happened a few days ago and I thought I put it on the blog, but I didn't and I'm sorry because it's very, very big. Will is no longer an intensive care patient. He is now considered just a "regular" (but very special) patient. The nurses that use to take care of him are only high observation nurses so they don't get him anymore and they don't like that. So they sneak in all the time and visit anyway. Isn't that just great news??? See, another Christmas present.

Our God is an awesome God and He answers all our prayers in His time, not ours. He sure is answering our prayers. I know many of you start your day out reading the blog and praying for our Will. We just want you to know that you are all in our prayers, too. Life is so precious and it's such a joy when you have a firm belief in Him.

God bless

Tuesday Dec. 2, 2008 (23 days left until Christmas)

Okay, here are just some cute pictures of Will's family. We didn't have any other ones to send out now but these will make you smile. They were taken this weekend at home.

This first one is of Angel's guys-little Carson, who she has kind of adopted, Duke, her favorite dog, and the other cutie is her husband, Aaron. They were all outside playing football last Sunday and they sent this up to me. Look at the sunshine, we won't be having that much longer.

This next picture is of Will's cat, Bella. She's patiently waiting for her guy to get home. I will explain the phone next to the radio. We couldn't get webcast up at the hospital for the Jerome girls' game last Saturday so we had Angel get it on the radio at home and then put it on speaker phone and Will listened to it on his phone at the hospital. Lots of work for that, but it's really worth it for Will to hear the game. That's how he listened to the whole game. Thank goodness for cell phone free weekend minutes.

This last picture is of the cutest little girl, our new granddaughter, Candace, at her dance recital in Boise on Friday. She danced a really cute number and of course she stole the show. I was so glad that I got to go and watch.

Well, Monday was kind of boring so I thought I would put up these pictures. Will walked once around the unit this morning. He was totally wiped out because he really needed dialysis. They came about noon, and he slept the rest of the day away. So not much action there but he did get 4 liters off today. Yea, team.

Tom said he talked a little bit and watched some TV tonight but he was sleeping by 9:30. Coach is coming up tomorrow for his weekly visit. Thank goodness for good friends like that. Coach very rarely misses a week without seeing Will, even in SLC. Will looks forward to his visits so much (It really escapes me--WHY???). Anyway, his Tuesdays are so much better than his Mondays. So watch out.

God bless

Monday, Monday--First day of December

Here's the chauffeur, Will, taking his little cousin, Rustin, outside for a stroll. Needless to say it wasn't too long before Rustin and Will had to change places, but it made for a good picture. It was beautiful in Boise after the fog left this morning and we did get Will out for a few minutes to enjoy the sun. Otherwise it was a lazy day for Will. He was sleeping most of the late afternoon away when Aunt Karen came up to see him. Sorry about that, Karen. Sundays are his hardest because of the need for dialysis. So if he can sleep, we let him.

Tom came back from Hagerman around 6 looking rested. He rode his horse today so he's ready for the week to come. Grandma and Grandpa Atwood should be back from Reno tomorrow evening. It has been so great having a home to go and a wonderful bed to snuggle down in the evenings. We can't thank them enough.

So now it's starting another week and we are getting closer to getting him home. We don't know anything though. We should hear something the first of this week. We'll let you know.

***************

This is something very important!!!

Sarah, this is for you.....

Happy anniversary to you

Happy anniversary to you

Happy anniversary dear Sarah,

Happy anniversary to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

This is Sarah's one year anniversary for her new lungs. Remember last year folks, how sick she was and how much everyone prayed for her to get a transplant. Then, miracle of miracles, she got her lungs. She didn't just get her new lungs, she blew everyone out of the water with her post transplant recovery. I think it was 11 days and she was out of the hospital. Sarah, ur da man. We are so happy for you and proud of your progress. I will update everyone on what she's been doing next blog. Also, we need to remember the donor's family and pray for them because they are going through a totally different anniversary. Because of their unselfish gift of life, Sarah is with us today. I hope we are still spreading the idea of organ donors around. Thanks to them, and thanks to God.

Happy Monday and God bless