jb

Austin loves Justin Bieber!

It all started when I took the boys and a bunch of friends to the Justin Bieber movie the day it came out, he fell in love.  This week the movie came out on DVD and the craze is back on.  Everything Justin Bieber.  Can I get a Justin Bieber wig, for my birthday I want a purple jacket and shoes like Justin.  Do you think Justin Bieber was cute when he was a baby?  I do.  This morning he told me- "These boys at the baseball last night are RUDE, they said Justin Bieber is for girls." " They said Justin Bieber sucks." "That's mean, huh."

This morning he spent his morning making a Justin Bieber poster while watching the movie.  I have printed all the words out to all the Justin Bieber songs so that Austin can learn them and sing along.  He can't read but likes to carry the paper around while he sings to the iPod.

He ended up taking his poster to school to give to his teacher Mrs. Smith.

P.S.  - Chloe loves Justin Bieber too

5K for charity

first watch this video, you might need a tissue
Dayton's Legs

The boy (Spencer) in this video is Holden's teacher's grandson.  Holden has been very moved and inspired by this story for months and so when we found out about this-

we committed to be a part of it.  All the kids were in. What a great cause and a way to honor Uncle Pips while doing it.

So on Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Dayton's Dash.  Travis was out of town and we decided to leave Austin sleeping at home since we had company over the weekend.  Holden was a superstar and game in 27th overall in the 5K.

It felt good to get out there and do a little exercise and also help raise money for something that hits close to home as well as support 2 boys that we admire.

melissa is home!

Just got a text that Melissa was released from the hospital, YEAH! And I wanted to share the newest cute picture of Max and Will.

melissa update & a birthday

I was chastised a couple times that I haven’t sent an update out for a couple days. I guess my excuse is my days and nights running together with seemingly slow progress.

Melissa looks great and feels more normal every day. She is quite restless to get out of the hospital. Most of her fluid swelling is gone, her arms look like a heroin addict, but other than that she looks as beautiful as one can get in a hospital gown.

Her kidney’s are within the normal range. She is just two points off where she was prior to the birth. Her blood is thinning well and she should be regulated or “therapeutic” within a day or two on the oral blood thinner. They make some tweaks here in there, but in general she is staying in the range they would like her and it seems to be solving the clot danger and kidney problems.

Her last hurdle is to keep her blood pressure in check. For the most part it is doing well, even hits normal levels, but once or twice a day it spikes and they have to restart the blood pressure medicine fed through IV. If she can get off the IV blood pressure medicine and remain therapeutic on the blood thinner she can come home as soon as Thursday. Before she leaves they will schedule an appointment to come back to do a scan for blood clots and take out the basket they put in 3-6weeks.

The boys are doing well. They seem a little up and down from day to day, but they tell us they are doing great, very normal, and right on schedule. Melissa usually can go down and hold them once a day for an hour or two, but only when she is off the IV blood pressure medicine.

Thank you all for your love and concern. Each night when I leave the hospital, I kneel at her bedside and we express our gratitude for all of your kindness and prayers.

David G. Adams
 
on another note... today is

SADIE's 12th BIRTHDAY!!!

 

Happy Birthday Sadie, we love you!!!

the pool is done!!!!

these pictures were taken at 5:30 a.m. Friday, April 1, 2011

When I woke up to the noise of a backhoe, I said darn I never took a "before" picture, so Travis got up and did his best in the dark.

The kids are so excited (Chloe too, she just missed the photo shoot)!  The pool was filled just in time for our first day of 100 degree weather, yes, I did say 100 degrees.  On both May 5th and 6th we hit the triple digits! The pool is complete, now we are just waiting on the landscape and pool fence which should be done in the next week or so and then I will post the "final" finished yard.  I am so happy to be rid of the dirt and dust and to have somewhere to go and enjoy the outdoors.  Hopefully we will get to enjoy some time out on our patio before it gets unbearably hot!!!!

day 10 or 11

This is the e-mail from late last night, I haven't heard anything yet today.

I still haven’t decided if today was a good day or a bad day. Whichever it is it doesn’t seem to be ending. For most of the day we felt like we took several steps backwards.


Without warning we found out they were taking Melissa in for a detailed ultrasound this morning of her kidneys and major veins going in and out of them. They found a blood clot was flapping in a vein on the exterior of the kidney. There was quickly a concern so they did ultrasounds on each leg looking for more clots and then rushed us to angio or radiology where they decided to do a procedure to try to prevent the clot(s) from hitting her lungs and being back to square one.

They went in from her neck and put a “basket” or filter in just above the clot which broke off during the procedure and is caught in the basket blocking about 3/5 of the vein. This is where I think the day could have gone bad but was good because had the clot broken loose why in the women’s center it could have been every bit as serious as the first emboli. During this procedure they also went in from the groin to see if after the basket was in they could grab or break up the clot which turned into lots of clots. They tried and were unsuccessful at this and decided to back out because it was too risky.

This kind of put them into some further predicaments. She needed to be on blood thinner to treat the clots, but there is fear of her bleeding and her blood levels have already been low even after receiving 5 units of blood. Ultimately this is a risk they felt they had to take. So she is on blood thinner, 4 blood pressure medicines, and they are taking her blood every two hours to make sure she is not bleeding somewhere. If her blood levels start dropping we will likely end up in ICU again and have to do a special scan to find the bleed or if the bleed is vaginal they would do a hysterectomy.

If there is no bleeding we may have dodged another bullet and have slight or no more kidney trouble, probably a little blood pressure still. They will also have to do something with the basket. It is higher in the body than they usually have it. They can remove it or collapse it and lower it to a safer part of the body below the organs.

I will try to keep everyone posted as things develop in the night or tomorrow. Today we were stuck for 5 hours before I could get in a position to let anyone know that things had changed.

Boys are doing good. Maxwell was put back on oxygen, but not much flow.

Thanks for everyone’s help, support, prayers, and patience in our absence.

David G. Adams

melissa in surgery

This is my 3rd post today but I wanted to give a quick upate-

I received a text about 1:00 this afternoon that Melissa was headed into surgery.  She has a blood clot.  A somewhat delicate and risky surgery trying to block or retrieve a blood clot near her kidneys.

She is out of surgery and the one blood clot that they were going in to get dislodged but they were able to get it but discovered she has several other blood clots.  They will begin blood thinners with a risk of hemorraging.  She will likely be back in ICU tonight.  I hope all this  information is correct, it is through several relayed messages but is the best I have right now.  I will update as I get more acurate information, please keep her in your prayers, still.

update from eirmc day 9

here was the e-mail I got last night from my brother-

It is hard to believe a week ago tonight I said to Melissa I hope they take the babies tomorrow morning so we can be back in the swing of things by Monday morning. That has proved to be very wishful thinking. It was about 10:30p.m. when they confirmed they would take the boys at 6a.m., 12:30p.m. when they let us go to bed, and 4:30a.m. when they began preparing for what would become an unforgettable day.

Melissa is doing well tonight. It is London’s 2nd b-day so we brought the girls up to see mom and the babies for a short b-day party. Mom and the babies were better than any present could have been.

They gave Melissa two units of blood today (that makes 5 since she has been in here). They took her off the IV because they think the fluids maybe diluting her blood count. They also doubled her blood pressure dosage since it continues to stay high and spike higher. They are hoping this combination of changes will produce better results in the morning. Like the last blood transfusion I can see an increase in energy and color. They take her blood each morning at 6am and then sometime in the morning the doctor will come in and tell us how things are progressing and the plan of attack for the day. We are anxiously awaiting those plans to include significant improvement and going home.

They allow Melissa or us to hold the babies once each day. As they get older that will increase. That is definitely the highlight of her day and you can see her magical motherly love turn on. It really gives her a boost.

They gained weight for the first time so they are right on schedule and doing very well. They really thrive together and already mimic each other. One will get the hiccups and then the other will start. One will start chirping and then the other - back and forth. Ones breathing will go shallow to set an alarm off and then the others; thankfully they recover quickly on their own without assistance.

Thanks for everyone’s continued love and service on our behalf.

David G. Adams

Happy 2nd Birthday London!



njhs

Chloe was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society the other night.

Students earn the honor by excelling in scholarship, leadership, citizenship, service and character -- the five pillars of NJHS.

The ceremony took me right back to Middle School in Heidelberg, Germany.  It was the exact same as it was 25 years ago.  They light candles for each of the 5 pillars and say something about that pillar.

My eighth grade year of NJHS I was the Secretary so I got to light one of the candles - Service.  I can still remember part of what I said -

Former President of the United States, John F. Kennedy said, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

I thought my Dad would hate my part beause I knew Pres. Kennedy was not one of his favorites, but he never said anything.  During Chloe's ceremony they said something else for Service, I was slightly disappointed.

But very proud of Chloe for her great achievement!  Congratulations!

daily update

Melissa is doing much better each day. I would say yesterday was the best day so far. Today is about the same, but more tired. For the most part we have been turned over to an internal medicine doctor (kidney doctor). The last two days we have seen slight kidney function improvement, but he said far from normal. Her blood pressure remains high, but they think if they can improve the kidneys the blood pressure will follow. They are trying a new medicine today that will take about 10 hours to see results. I guess it is hard to treat blood pressure when kidney’s are down and/or the other way around. Her blood count was down a bit today so they are considering doing another blood transfusion. This would be her 4th unit.


Boys are doing great. They moved them together. They are both off oxygen and the billy ruben lights.

Thanks for everyone’s love, support, and prayers.

David G. Adams
 

Pictures of Max and Will today, day 6.  They moved them in together, which is fun. They say they do better that way. I love in the picture from behind you can see how huge those teeny weeny diapers look on them.  Whenever I see a newborn diaper, I can't even imagine that any of my kids were that small once, and these boys are swimming in them!

introducing the twins

Here is today's update from my brother-

To the eye Melissa still looks much better each day. The boys are doing very well. Melissa has been able to see them twice and hold them. I really think it gave her a boost. We named them Maxwell and William.


We are still digesting the miracle of the progress thus far. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard medical personnel say after hearing what happened “did she die” or “is she dead”. The last doctor said it is a medical anomaly that she lived and statistics he has studied show neurological damage in 85% of those 10-20% that survive which we haven’t seen any signs of. I found out she quit breathing for around 90 seconds before they were able to get her on a life support. I would say I was in the room for about 20 seconds of that, but it seems like minutes.

We are still battling some serious concerns. She is still on oxygen, her blood pressure is still high, she only has half the blood a normal person does, and her kidney function is at 20% and dropping. They just had a kidney specialist come in and they are starting her on some treatments to see if they can get the kidney to at least stop dropping in function. They need to give her blood, but have some concern because they tried in ICU and she had a reaction of shortness of breath and chest tightness.

We continue to appreciate everyone’s prayers and support. Family, friends, ward members, employers and co-workers have been extraordinarily helpful, kind, patient and understanding in our time of need and absence.

Thank you very much.

David G. Adams

Here are some pictures although not very good ones, they were all taken on phones.

William David
born 4-29-2011 and weighed 3 pounds 14 ounces

Maxwell David
born 4-29-2011 and weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces

spring break & march

Yes, I am going back clear to March.....I want to blog about our Spring Break and the many things we did in March.

We went to a Spring Training game, the weather was warm & sunny and oh, so perfect!

Cousins came to visit and we went to the Phoenix Zoo.

Austin was on a roll and was just ham'in it up for the camera every time I turned it on!

All Nicholas cared about was getting this walking stick from the gift shop.

He was the official "animal photographer".  I have about 20 shots of every animal but he did a great job.

A few days later we went to an air show at Luke Air Force Base.  Travis and Nicholas have been long awaiting this event!  Luke AFB only has the air show every 2 years and since we moved here, they had been waiting for the day to roll around.  Chloe was less then thrilled to go, but in the end everyone thought it turned out pretty cool.  Travis and Nic will be returning for sure in 2013!

Chloe loved this pink fire truck but wouldn't get her picture in front of it.

Our very best friends from Idaho came for their spring break to visit us at the end of the month.  We loved spending time with them. 

We went to more Spring Training Baseball-

We had so much fun just talking and catching up, it was just like old times.  And of course Holden loved that his best friend came to watch his baseball game!

March was so busy and hectic but we had a lot of FUN!  The weather was p-e-r-f-e-c-t!!! Warm, sunny, and not too hot!  We must have had one day that was not perfect because I have this picture of Austin playing in the rain, but I can't remember anything but sunshine.

And there you go a quick synopsis of a crazy, busy month.  Not shown in pictures were 5 other out-of-state visitors, my birthday, school, baseball, soccer, getting ready to leave on a big family vacation, and finalizing pool plans.