tagged again.......by jessica!
As a recipient of this award I must answer the following questions with ONE WORD answers and then pass it on to 7 more people to do the same.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Where is your significant other? couch

3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? Loving

5. Your father? Smart

6. Your favorite thing? Keegan

7. Your dream last night? forgot

8. Your dream/goal? recovery

9. The room your in? family

10. Your hobby? scrapbooking

11. Your fear? spiders

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here

13. Where were you last night? home

14. What you're not? chef

15. One of your wish list items? tan

16. Where you grew up? colorado

17. The last thing you did? music

18. What you are wearing? sweats

19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? kona
21. Your computer?laptop

22. Your mood? restless

23. Missing someone? grandparents

24. Your car? pathfinder

25. Something you're not wearing? shoes

26. Favorite store? all

27. Your summer? sad

28. Love someone? drew

29. Your favorite color? green

30. Last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? dunno

Pumkin Patch

October 2008

Keegan went with Grandma and Mom to the Pumkin Patch! He was pretty serious and interested in all the kids and animals. He saw pigs, a goat, a donkey, and chickens.

Keegan rode in the Pumkin wagon and looked at the farm animals.

KENNEDY KREAGER SPINAL CLINIC

We also visited the Kennedy Kreager Spinal Rehab clinic during our Baltimore trip. They were excited to meet Keegan and think they can help him with FES (Functional Electronic Stimulation) Therapy. Which they tried during our appointment. See the pics! We are considering going back for their 2 week outpatient therapy program soon.

Johns Hopkins

We had our Dr's appointment last Wednesday, 10/8/08 with Dr Kerr. (He is the big man Neurologist @ Johns Hopkins in Baltimore) Johns Hopkins has the only Tranverse Myelitis center in the world and Dr. Kerr is the head of the program. We were so lucky to get an appoinment with him this soon. A definate Blessing from God. We anticipated an 8 -12 month wait to get in and were seen at the last minute due to a cancellation. Dr. Kerr was thrilled by Keegan's progress (we showed him a cell phone video of Keegan moving his legs in the crib a few days ago) and said that Keegan might the 1st or 2nd best case he has seen in a small child at this stage of recovery (3 mos). He thought Keegan would do great and continue to make great strides in his recovery including (hopefully) walking unassisted. You have no idea how great it was to hear him say this.

What next?
Dr. Kerr thought we should go ahead and get another full dose of the IVIG treatment (Keegan had that in the hospital back in July) and follow up with a half dose each month through next March. He thinks this treatment will help boost Keegan's immunity during the winter months, as he does not advise that Keegan get any vaccinations until at least age 2 if not longer. He also thinks that the IVIG treatment ( a plasma-type blood that is full of human antibodies ) will help with Keegan's spinal injury/inflamation. His biggest concern now is for us to keep Keegan healthy this winter. Keegan's immune system is weak and so are his diaphram musles which weaken his ability to cough, and without vaccines, he is more prone to contract serious illnesses like pneumonia, rsv, and the flu. His exact words were "Purell Purell Purell." He definately confirmed our need to keep Keegan out of the public as much as we can this winter.

Dr Kerr said he has never seen a reoccurence of TM. Whew......... What a relief.

THANK YOU DR. KERR & TEAM AT JOHNS HOPKINS! WE ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR SO MANY ANSWERED PRAYERS THIS WEEK!

Great Grandparents

Keegan met his Great Grandparents this week! Harry and Ruth live in Sharon, PA and came to visit us in Baltimore, MD. Grandpa Harry is 88 yrs young and loves to talk about cars and world war II. Keegan had fun playing and seeing the Inner Harbor with them. Keegan loved feeding Grandma and Grandpa rice chex and popcorn. I don't know who had more fun.




Keegan with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa
October 10th, 2008






Keegan and Great Grandpa at the Inner Harbor
Balitmore MD
10/10/08

Week one down, one to go.......

This has been a tough week for me and for Keegan. Mr Keegan is teething, and has a bad cold. Mr Fussy is more like it. He's not his usual smiley self. In addition, this week he had 2 follow up appointments at Children's Hospital and an appoitment with Dr. Melamed, the Immunologist here. We had good news, no news, and not so great news.

I guess I will start with the good.....
The Urology Dr. cleared Keegan, so we don't have to Catheterize him anymore. YEAH!! This news made the 2 hours Keegan and I waited to see the Dr . totally worth it. Keegan also saw the Rehab Dr's and some of his PT's. They were all so excited to see him and see how he is doing. The Doc's thought he looked good, like he had improved since they had seen him last (about 7 weeks prior.) Drew was able to get Keegan to kick his left leg so they could see, so that was awesome.

The Rest........
The visit to the Immunologist was good but left me again with the realization of how serious and aweful this all really is. Keegan's blood tests confirmed his severe allergies to peanuts, and also showed allergies to nuts, bananas, and wheat. Wheat was a new one. So now in addition to being off dairy, Keegan is now off wheat, and soy. Now I'm left navigating uncharted waters. The Dr. prescribed vitamins, and some allergy meds and a very limited diet. In addition, his results showed some anomolies in Keegan's immune system showing that Keegan has little or no immunity to some of the things that he's already been vaccinated against, and stranger still that his IVIG treatment should have boosted. We are not able to get Keegan vaccinated for many common and scary illnesses this year due to the IVIG treatment, so we are to keep Keegan out of the public as much as possible. No stores, malls, daycare centers etc. It's going to be a very long winter. I'm already getting cabin fever just thinking about it. The Dr. wants us to come back in a month to consider more IVIG. Keegan had this treatment in the first week of his illness, it is a immunglobin blood treatment that for some reason shows ability to help reverse peralisis. Since Keegan has developed some small movement in his legs, (mostly his left) in the last month or so, the Dr thinks a conservative approach is best.

Well, that's it. We leave for Johns Hopkins and Kennedy Kreager Institute on Tuesday. Keep us in your prayers. Thanks.

SOAP BOX.....
If anyone is considering having another baby......I would definately, no matter what the cost...bank your cord blood. Our Dr mentioned to us a recent case that made the news of a baby with paralsys from cerebral palsey who was healed by stem cells from his own cord blood. Makes me want to cry. If only I had done it. At the time the $2500 fee and monthly/annual payments seemed like a lot, and I didn't know anyone else that had done it. Trust me.... It's priceless. I would pay a million dollars to have it now.