I'm Back!!

I know, I know.....I have waited way too long to post. But, things have been pretty darn busy for the Jarrett family!

Work and the kids have really kept me busy. Plus, Matt & I helped with VBS at our church last week- Sunday thru Friday. We had a great group of 22 four year olds- they were great! Taylor & Cole had a great time too. This was Cole's first year of being able to be part of the groups that 'travel' around to different areas, so he really enjoyed that! And, to top it all of- last week, I also had a UTI (yep, another one) :(.

So, for now, we are looking forward to the weekend. I will have the kids on Thursday and Matt will be getting off work early & we are heading to my moms- LooLoo & Paco's as the kids say! We are staying out there all weekend to celebrate the 4th, and Kenley & Wayne's b-day which are both on the 7th- so, we are looking forward to a weekend of fun in the pool!!!

Hope you all have a good 4th and I will post new pics soon!


Joy

Emily is HOME!!!!!

Well, we received a huge blessing today and found out late this afternoon that Emily was coming home. She got home around 6:00 & without any IV's. She is so excited.

Of course, she has a lot of doctors appointments coming up (especially since they still don't have a definitive diagnosis), but she's just so thankful to be home!!!

She has to have stitches taken out at the end of next week (where they did a biopsy on her foot), follow-up appointments and new appointments to be made. But, God has been so good and we know that all of the doctors will take awesome care of her now and we feel certain that she will not get into this condition again.

To all of her friends- she is now back on the computer & myspace & facebook (yes, I can hear the cheering from here), so send her a message and welcome her home!!!!

Please continue to pray that she will not relapse, that the doctors will soon get a specific diagnosis and that the new doctors to come will be as good as the ones at Levines!!!

Again, from the family- we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the calls, prayers, e-mails, etc. You are very special to us all!

Joy

.......And, Still Waiting!!!

Well, the doctors have gotten some of the pathology reports back, but not them all.........so, we continue to wait.

They do feel certain at this point that whatever the final diagnosis will be, that it is some type of immune deficiency disorder. So, for now, we continue to wait for all of the test results and continue to pray.

Emily is still doing great. And, there is a possibility that she may get to come home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are hoping that she will do so without the IV's!!!!

Here are a few pictures that I have taken during her stay. I am sharing the good pictures with you as we are all only focusing on the positive now!!!

Emily after her first "real" shower. It really wore her out, but she was so happy!!!!

This is a picture of Emily's 1st trip out of the hospital room in a week!!!! She was so excited- it took all of us to accomplish this since she still has so many IV's, ports, etc. But, we had a great outing. We went up to the top of the hospital to the rooftop garden.

This was the first time that Emily had really seen where she was. She had no idea how beautiful and decorated the Levines hospital is.

This is Bailey, Cole & Taylor saying a very special prayer for Emily- this was on either Sunday or Monday night.

STILL WAITING

Thank you all so much for the calls and e-mails, but we have NOT heard from the pathology reports yet.

The doctors have come in a few times today and are very hopeful that they will receive the results today......so, keep checking back!

Thank you again from the family for all of your love and support.

Joy

Tuesday Update for Emily

Today was a GREAT day for Emily!!! The nutrients that they are giving her through IV and all of the medicines are really making a difference. For the first time in a week, we put her in a wheelchair and took her out of her room today. It made her tired, but she enjoyed it.

She even ate "real" food today!!!! We are soooo excited about that. The doctors have her drinking a 'special' drink in hopes that when she is released, she won't have to continue to be tube fed. She is pretty determined, so I'm sure she will accomplish having NO IV's in when she leaves there.

Tomorrow is going to be a very important day - the doctors expect all biopsies to be back, so hopefully we will get a definitive answer as to what is going on and what to do about it.

Emily is overwhelmed at the number of e-mails that she has received, calls, etc....so, from the family, we say a huge THANK YOU!!!!!

Joy

~Update on Emily~

Well, Emily did great during her tests this morning. Her GI doctor does NOT think that she has Crohn's Disease!!!!! That is a huge praise for us! For those of you that don't know, my dad had Crohns and passed away almost 4 years ago, so that potential diagnosis wasn't sitting too well with us.

They did find something unusual- she has a very strange rash on her feet that has been left unexplained for weeks now- well, that same rash is in her intestines (a very large part). So, they are now going to biopsy the rash on her feet to see if it is going to match the results from the biopsies taken this morning. The feel that this all has something to do with an auto immune dificiency, but they are still trying to put all of the pieces together. They are going to continue feeding her through the tubes and will hopefully continue to bring her energy up.

She was full of questions this afternoon which was great! Before, she was very quiet and wouldn't ask questions or talk to us about any of what is going on. We know know that she was just very scared of the thought of having Crohns....so, even though we still don't know exactly what it is, we are one step closer and are thankful for that.

Thanks to all of you who have called, e-mail Emily through the Levines website, and e-mailed the family. We all appreciate it very much.

We know that Emily will be in the hospital at least until the end of the week, but don't know anything passed that.

Thanks again and I will continue to keep you posted!

Joy

~Emily~

Well, today is a very important day for Emily. This morning at 9:00, she will go in for an endoscopy & colonoscopy. From this test, we will know for absolute sure what is going on with her. For now, the doctors have some ideas of what is going on, but todays test will give us more answers. We are all just praying right now, that this test shows that the doctors ideas are wrong and that it is really nothing at all!!!

For a quick update for those who don't know what's gone on over the past 2 weeks:

She began experiencing severe stomach pain and vomiting. After waiting a week, seeing 3 doctors at 2 hospitals and 2 urgent care visits, we finally saw Dr. Hilton - she admitted her into the hospital and more tests were run. At that time, they found acute appendicitis and a small ovarian cyst. She did go into surgery - had her appendix removed and cyst drained. She did well after the surgery, went home and for about 4 days she was great. Then, all of a sudden, the vomiting started again! So, she went back to the surgeon last Monday and was immediately admitted back into the hospital. The doctors at Piedmont realized that her condition was not something that they were not equipped to treat, so last Wednesday, she was tranferred to Levine's Childrens Hospital. This has been a huge blessing. So, she has had many tests run, she has many IV's and she has now had to start receiving nutrients by IV (which has been GREAT!!!). She is finally feeling a little better and is not so lethargic. We are hoping too that this will help her put a little weight back on. She has lost a significant amount at this point.

So, that's a brief update. If I have left anything out and you have questions, let me know.

Also, for those of you reading this that are Anita's friends, etc (those who don't know me directly).....please don't hesitate e-mailing me if you need additional info, etc. I know it isn't easy getting in touch with Anita at the hospital sometimes. So, don't hesitate e-mailing me directly at joy@joyjarrett.com. Or, if you need me sooner, call my cell phone at 803-493-1154. I don't mind answering questions, passing along messages, etc.

Please say a specific prayer for Emily this morning that her tests go well and that we get difinitive results so that we know how to move forward to care for her best!!!!

Thank you all!!!!