I'm a student again

BACK TO SCHOOL

You may have noticed I haven't had as many posts lately here on the blog. That is because I have been even more busy than usual - I'm back in college.



This semester, besides working nearly full time at a local daycare and keeping up with the bills, laundry, dishes, trash, etc. at home, I am also taking two of my pre-requisite classes I need to get into the respiratory program at St. Phillips College next fall.

I am taking College Algebra and Human Anatomy & Physiology.




Since I have not seen the inside of a college classroom in 15 years, I am really having to put my nose to the grindstone to master this material. But I think I am doing pretty well. I have made 100's on my math quizzes and on my first lecture and lab exam in A&P, I made a 101 on each! I took my first math exam on Thursday, but have not seen my grade on it, yet. I do know I missed at least one of the 17 problems on the test because it dealt with something that we did not specifically cover in that class, but something that we should have remembered about graphing from a previous math course (which I had not taken since high school).

Here are some of the interesting things I'm learning about in my classes so far:







And here are some of the subjects we've covered in Anatomy & Physiology:

Words used to describe body areas and position, etc.





Body Cavities (areas in the body where different organs go)



Cells



and now we are working on the skeletal system



skull






vertebra (spine)







ribs & sternum




shoulder/arm




hands



hips/leg/feet



I have a big exam on all the bones coming up Wednesday, Oct. 6th. Wish me luck!


I really enjoy taking Anatomy & Physiology because I can use what I'm learning as I study on the medical problems Josh has with his ROHHAD. I learn the medical terminology and functions more specifically. I'm all for learning as much as I can to help Josh and others with this crazy disorder.

Josh is 14

Wow, 14 years old!







We planned the details of Josh's birthday party for several weeks. However, it did not go off the way we planned.

Josh wanted as many kids as possible to come to his party ... which was to be held at the same park where we had his last two parties ... so they could play all the football, basketball and baseball they liked.

One of his nurses had recruited Pizza Hut and Starbucks to help supply the food and drink.
We picked up the decorations. And we had several offers of folding tables to use to set up everything at the park. Invitations were out and we even set it up as an event to invite friends on facebook to come. It was all coming together and Josh was super excited.

BUT .........mother nature did not play along. We were watching the weather forecast and the sky as the time neared to go out and set up at the park. At one point, it said there was a 100 percent chance of rain for the time of the party and the next hour. And it started pouring before we could even get out the door to start toward the park. So, we contacted everybody we could and let them know we would change the location and have the party here at the house instead. Josh was not happy to have to ditch the park and all the sports he was ready to play with his friends.

My sister and I worked relentlessly to get the house ready for a party that we had not planned to have here... and just in time, it looked like we had planned to have it here all along.

We picked up the coffee, etc. from Starbucks (a huge container full with a sleeve of cups, lids and all the different sweeteners you can imagine plus a half gallon of half n half).



Another of Josh's nurses arrived and brought with her a very large, beautiful birthday cake she had worked on for hours for him.



Then, the guys from Pizza Hut popped in to unload several large pizzas, tins of pastas, breadsticks, sodas, plates, cups, etc.

And our guests got here despite the downpours outside. Josh had a few boys his age show up, his nurses and their families, some great friends from church and some neighbors as well.

We all ate and drank well.







The kids had a great time throwing a little soft football around.






Josh received several nice gifts.



And we all had a great visit.

It seemed the party was a huge success even if it couldn't happen at the park this year.

THANK YOU!!

Josh and I worked on some thank you poster cards for Pizza Hut and Starbucks.
Here are a couple of pictures we took of Josh to use on those cards:





A LATE BIRTHDAY GIFT

Besides the party, I had hoped to be able to give Josh a gift he has been wanting a while - his own laptop computer.

He has a pretty severe learning disability. But he loves to look up information on the computer about pretty much anything he learns about in school.

He had been trying to save money from selling cookies, etc. but still had not collected very much.

So, I put out a request on a local yahoo group called Freecycle for a used laptop computer.

I did not get any responses back before Josh's birthday, so had given up on receiving one for Josh.

But more than a week past Josh's birthday, I was contacted by email. A lady asked if I'd ever gotten a computer for Josh from a fellow freecycler. I told her I had not. And she said she and her husband had one they were no longer using. She would ask her husband to get it prepared and would bring it to us for Josh.

They did and brought it over yesterday (Saturday, Oct 2nd).

Josh was still asleep when they came by with it. My husband, sister and I started looking at it to make sure it would be able to get on the internet and everything. We loaded programming into it that would allow Josh to get online wirelessly. And we found that this was one of the nicest computers we'd seen. The couple even gave us their nice leather case for it.

The wife told me that her husband had walked in telling her they should think about getting rid of that computer because they no longer used it right as she'd noticed my post about wanting a computer for Josh. We decided it was God's moving that brought this all together.

Since Josh's birthday was already 2 weeks behind us, I thought about holding the computer as a Christmas present for Josh. But after looking it over and getting it all ready for Josh, I was too excited to wait. I went up and woke him. I told him we had something for him downstairs, but he had to do his breathing treatment, take his medicines and get dressed before he could see it. He did all that and was so thrilled to see his gift. It was kind of like Christmas morning!!!

Josh on TV again, back to school preps, Morgans Wonderland fishing & more

JOSH TO BE ON TV AGAIN



On television in the coming months, the world has a couple more chances to learn about ROHHAD, the rare disorder that nearly took Josh from us and causes him to require a ventilator and all sorts of medicines. ROHHAD stands for Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic dysfunction, Hypoventilation and Autonomic Dysregulation.

Josh and his disorder were already featured in an hour long documentary, Life or Death : Battling to Breathe (see it at the bottom of this blog page) that aired on the Discovery Channel and Discovery Health a few years ago. Battling to Breathe focused on the time when Josh suddenly went into respiratory failure and doctors struggled to save him and discover what it was that caused this previously healthy boy to get so sick so quickly.

CAST OF DREAMS

If you recall, Josh was selected to go on a dream hunt near Del Rio in December 2009, thanks to TNT Outdoor Explosion and Cast of Dreams. He shot his very first deer, a big buck. He even made the front page of the Del Rio newspaper the next day.





Those working on the show contacted me last week to say they were currently editing his episode and needed some photos to help tell Josh's story. They also said they'd send me a disc when editing was complete, so we could see how it turned out. I still don't have an air date, but I'll pass that along once I do. Here is a link to the channel and schedule for TNT Outdoor Explosion's.

I just have to share a couple more pictures from Todd Cast of Cast of Dreams. Todd just got back from another hunt in Zimbabwe. He sent us a couple of pictures of his most memorable kill:






MYSTERY DIAGNOSIS

I've also been contacted by the makers of the Discovery Channel Show, Mystery Diagnosis, about telling Josh's story. They have been interested in telling the story of a ROHHAD patient for some time now. They had been in discussions with another family, but the plans with them fell through. They were still very interested in ROHHAD because it is so rare (less than 100 known cases in the world) so they found us here at VWootenWorld and left me a message. Our primary doctor who diagnosed Josh back in 2005 was happy to help tell the story with us again, so the show is pitching the story to the network. We should hear whether it is a go or not soon.

JOSH SICK

Josh started running fevers last weekend and started coughing coughing up super amounts of mucus. After 4 or 5 days of this, I made him an appointment with his pediatrician, who sent us to a clinic for some tests and prescribed Josh an antibiotic (Omnicef).
Josh at Pediatricians office

Josh and Nurse at Clinic for bloodwork, sputum culture and chest xray

Josh's chest xray


That night, Josh had one of the roughest nights since he had double pneumonia back in late January. We had to suction several times and max out all his ventilator settings to get his oxygen and carbon dioxide levels near normal levels. His nurse said she nearly woke me in the night a couple of times because she didn't think his levels would normalize, but they finally did.

After a couple doses of antibiotic, plenty of rest and lots of suctioning, Josh is starting to get better. His temperature is still a little higher than we'd like, but it's coming down more often than before. We are hoping he will be back to good health by the time school starts Aug 23rd.

Getting Ready For School

We have already registered Josh for school. He starts Junior High this year. We go this next week (Aug 18th) to meet his new school nurse, pick up his class schedule and books that he'll keep at home. He is very excited about it.

And for the first time since before Josh was born, I am going back to school this year, too. It has taken far more time and effort than I ever dreamed it would, but I got all registered for my pre-requisite classes.

Grants will pay for my tuition and fees. We scraped together the money to buy my books (I found them on Craigslist and I'll try to sell them to someone else after the classes are over). But I will still need to work as much as I can so we can afford the gas money to get me back and forth to classes. I have classes 3 nights a week at a facility about 30 minutes away.

Once all my pre-requisites are finished, I'm hoping I'll be accepted into the Respiratory Care Program at St. Philips College. Its a 2 year program. But since I already know so much about working Josh's ventilators, suction machine, and monitors, I figure it would be a natural fit for me.











Thinking of taking house off market

Since we will be so busy with work and school starting up again, we have decided we will take our house off the market if we recieve no bid for it in the next couple of days. We've had the house up for sale for the last year and a half, with no bites, so I've had enough with trying to keep the house show-ready. I really don't want to have to worry about that with working and going to school.

Morgan's Wonderland Fun

Last weekend, James got the opportunity to participate with a buddy in a red fishing tournament. He had a lot of fun even though they didn't really catch any award winning fish. While he was away, Josh and I decided we wanted to do a little fishing of our own - but at a place much closer to home - and with a bit more to do than just fishing. We went to Morgan's Wonderland.

Morgan's Wonderland is an amusement park created with special needs folks in mind. It's the only one of its kind in the world. Below are some pictures of us enjoying ourselves. Oh, and my sister, Amanda and her boyfriend, Nick came along with us.





















SOFTBALL

For years, Josh has been waiting patiently to get back into some kind of sport. He loved T-Ball and coach pitch baseball back before his respiratory failure. Since then, he's been forced to sit on the sidelines mostly because he's connected to a ventilator and riddled with hydration and temperature problems. While those problems are still present, at least now he has pacemakers to free him from the ventilator most of the time while he's awake. So, we've agreed to let him try his hand at softball, playing (a little bit anyway) with our church's league. He went to his first practice last Monday. And today, he picked up his very own softball glove. Now, we just pray for the weather to cool off.

BIRTHDAY PLANS & GOODBYE TO POST OFFICE BOX

Josh's 14th birthday is coming up September 19th. His nurses, seeing first hand how his disorder affects his life, are excited to try and make his upcoming birthday party one to remember. They have shared with me that they have made a few requests for donations for party supplies and maybe a gift or two for him. I know one of his big wishes for a birthday present is his very own laptop computer. So, perhaps his birthday wish can come true - we'll have to wait and see.

And we've decided the time has come to close (and stop paying for) Josh's post office box. He has been very happy to go check his PO box often over the past 5 years. But as time passed, he was receiving fewer and fewer cards and letters. He still loved getting every one that came. But we figured it was a good time to go ahead and just have any more mailings forwarded to our home address. If you would like to send Josh a card or letter, etc., you are welcome to send it to our home. Drop me an email at JWooten116@att.net and I will share the address with you. If you would like to drop him a line on his own email account, I know he'd love that too. You can email him at: JoshuaAlanW@Yahoo.com.