Home! (still in Houston)

Beau got to go home from the hospital this afternoon!  He was so glad to leave the hospital but is still getting IV antibiotics at home for a little while.  He has a meeting with his doctor on Thursday for a checkup and a chest x-ray to see about the pneumonia.  This whole ordeal is going to push his last round of chemo back by a couple of weeks.  We're thinking it might be a lighter dose this time but still waiting to hear what Dr. Benjamin will recommend.  Thanks for continuing to keep Beau in your prayers...

I would also like to ask all of you to please keep Summer Neel and her family in your prayers as well.  They are long-time friends of our family and Summer is battling cancer again (and recovering from a stroke).  Go to her Caring Bridge page here to read about her situation and please keep this precious family in your prayers along with Beau!

Still in the hospital...still doing better

Beau is still in the hospital but he is now on the Sarcoma floor where he normally gets his chemo treatments. He is doing much better than last week and he has been up and walking around some. The doctor told him he needs to do that to help get his lungs working and get rid of the pneumonia. I'm still not sure what they are going to do about the last round of chemo or when they will be able to start it. Beau will have another meeting with Dr. Benjamin on Monday and I think they will decide then. He will probably be in the hospital through the weekend. I believe they are lowering the number of antibiotics that Beau is on for the E.Coli, so that is a good sign. Please continue to pray for Beau to be healed from the blood infection and the pneumonia. He is so ready to get out of that hospital!

On another note, I am going to direct you all to my cousin, Jimmy Ewing's blog. He wrote a hilarious post about Beau today called "He Never Needed a Helmet" and all of you who follow this blog need to read it...you might learn some things about Beau that you never knew before!

He Never Needed a Helmet

Out of ICU

There isn't much to report today which I think is a good thing!  Beau still feels pretty much the same as he did yesterday (MUCH better than Saturday) and they have moved him out of the ICU into a regular room.  I'm not sure how much longer he will be at the hospital but I know they wanted the pneumonia totally under control before he could leave.  Jessica said all of his vitals and levels are so much better so it should just be a matter of time before he is able to fight it all off.  Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers headed Beau's way.  It truly make a difference....

Since I didn't have much news to give, here are some long overdue pics....

Beau and his buddy, Jerry Honeycutt at the Texas race

Jessica, Beau, Buster and Jeanne at Pappadeaux

Beau and Sam (they are staying in her house while in Houston)

Beau and Jessie

Mom, Shu (Dr. Benjamin's nurse practitioner that they love), Beau and Dad

Jessica's parents, Jerry and Mona with Beau and Jessica at the beach in Galveston

Beau working on his swing on a good day

Much Better....

Beau is doing much better today!  Jessica said that the doctor actually called Beau a "Phoenix" this morning and was very surprised that they didn't have to end up putting him on a ventilator.  They are giving him a break from the CPAP today for a few hours and are going to be weaning him off of it until tomorrow.  He will probably be in the ICU for 3 or 4 more days until he gets rid of the pneumonia.  He will also have to remain on IV antibiotics for the next 3 weeks because of the E-coli.  They have some kind of home care program so that he will be able to leave the hospital before that three weeks is up and still get the IV antibiotics.  We're not sure at this point what this is going to mean for his last round of chemo.  He was supposed to start it next week sometime but I don't know what they will decide to do about that.  Thanks again so much for all of the kind comments, thoughts and prayers for Beau.  Y'all have made this ordeal a bit better by sticking with us through it all.

Doing Better...

Beau is doing a bit better now.  His vitals are definitely better and his fever has broken again.  His heart rate is down to 97 which is the lowest it has been in four days.  Jessica said he has been able to rest most of the day.  He finally got used to the CPAP machine...at first it made him kind of claustrophobic and panicky.  Since everything is headed in the right direction, they will start trying to get him back on the regular oxygen mask pretty soon.  

The blood infection turned out to be E-coli.  That's not great but not uncommon in Beau's situation.  Apparently, E-coli is kind of like staph...it's all over the place and most healthy people just aren't affected by it because they have good, strong immune systems.  People with weakened immune systems like Beau's can catch it very easily.  The doctor also said that he actually could have gotten it from himself...weird, huh.  When your white blood count is super low, you can't even fight off the bacteria that is already in your own body.

Thankfully, things are starting to look up...please keep the prayers coming!

Thanks again for all the prayers... 

Breathing problems...

Jessica called this morning and said that Beau seemed to be doing a lot better last night but that he is worse this morning.  His vitals are all still pretty good and closer to normal than they had been but he's struggling pretty hard to breathe so his oxygen saturation is the only one that's really "off".  He's also coughing and hacking a lot...which is making his throat irritated and sore.

The doctor came into the room while I was talking to her and said that they were going to put him on a CPAP machine (continuous positive air pressure) to force oxygen into him at a constant rate.  This is the last step before intubation (a ventilator) so please pray that the CPAP will be sufficient.

Also, the infectious disease doctor came in while I was on the phone and said that they would know pretty soon what kind of infection he has in his blood...they are still waiting on the cultures and it takes awhile.

Please keep the prayers coming...I will post more when I know more.

Pneumonia

So they've finally decided that what Beau has is a bad case of pneumonia mixed with a blood infection...and he is still in the ICU.  Jessica said that everything is inching in the right direction.  All of the different levels that they measure on a regular basis are improving.  The doctor said he just needs time to build everything back up and let the antibiotics do their job and he will be fine.  She also made it a point to tell mom again that this is just what happens to patients towards the end of their chemo treatments.  Their bodies get more and more worn down and it becomes much easier to get sick...and much harder to recover from a sickness.  If your white blood count is .0, how are you supposed to fight infections/sicknesses?  I think we just got used to seeing Beau handle these treatments so well and bounce back from them so quickly that this really came as a shock.  What we need to be thankful for is that he hasn't gotten this sick until now.  From what I'm hearing, a lot of patients have these kinds of problems throughout their entire treatment and Beau fortunately avoided that until now.

Thanks for keeping up with Beau...and being faithful with your prayers!