Is Winter Over Yet?

This winter seems to never end. I have never particularly liked winter...it's cold and it snows a lot, but never has winter seemed so bad as this year. Winter now not only means cold and snow...but germs and sickness. Because Landen is so immuno supressed, he seems to catch everything. We don't even really leave the house and he is still sick too often. Poor little guy celebrated his birthday with 101 fever, an ear infection and a bacterial infection in his stomach. Not really the best mix to have him actually eat his birthday cake. He is such a tough little guy. He spent the whole weekend with a fever over 100 with tylenol every 4 hours. But, Sunday evening he seemed to break the fever seemed to break. The hardest thing about him being sick in not knowing what it is. It is funny that hearing he has some kind of an infection is actually relieving, but it is. I mean I still feel bad for the little guy, but at least it is not him rejecting the heart. The signs of rejection are similar to any kind of cold/flu or infection (increased heart rate, temperature, vomiting,...) It makes for a lot of worry and of course prayers. I am not sure how our amazing doctors and nurses know when to worry and when it is okay. We are just so grateful for the amazing care we receive. So, to sum it all up. Landen is doing well. He seems to catch colds and develop infections, but he gets through them. We are so looking forward to the end of winter and the end of isolation.

Wonderful Days

Just thought we would give a little update on Landen. He is doing amazing. He spent a couple days in the hospital last week with a bacterial infection in his stomach. They put him on antibiotics and he was able to come home the next day. Since he has been home, he has been doing amazingly. He is no longer throwing-up (going on 5 days now). Since his transplant in May he threw up at least two times a day. In those nine months there was only 2 days that he did not throw up, but now we are going on six straight days. We are so grateful. We are so glad he is feeling better. I am also grateful to not wake-up each morning to Landen throwing up on me. His smiling face is way better to wake up to. We are so grateful to the amazing doctors at Primary's, especially the transplant team. Thank you. To make matters even better, Landen is eating again. We are just so grateful for this progress. We thank our Heavenly Father everyday for his continued blessing on our family.

Updates

Again, I am so sorry for never posting anything. Things are going so well. A couple of weeks again Landen all the sudden decided to eat. He is eating baby food a couple of times a day and we are ecstatic. I was getting to the point that I thought we would never be able to get rid of the g-tube and then he decided to eat. His favorite food in pureed potato and corn soup. This week he has also decided to start drinking from a sippy cup. Again, we are so excited. Things are just going so great. We are so lucky. Landen has changed our lives and we couldn't be more thankful. He is an amazing little boy with his bright blue eyes and his smile. Thanks everyone for your continued prayers and support. We look forward to a great Christmas. I think a New Year resolution for me is to start blogging more. Life is so wonderful I should be sharing it with others.

Sorry

I was just reading my friend Chrissy's blog. Chrissy and I met at the hospital months ago at transplant clinic. It turns out that her little boy who is KoKo's age got his transplant just 2 weeks after us. She has been an amazing friend and support for me. Anyhow, I was reading her blog and I realized what a bad job I do on keeping up with our blog. Landen is doing very well. I actually feel like today might be a turning point. This is the first day since transplant, over 6 months ago, that Landen did not throw up. Whatever the reason, I hope it continues to work. Again, he is doing very well and we are so happy. I think with transplant the worry will never end, but if we remember the good days and the little accomplishments we can get through it. I don't know if I have mentioned this, but I can upon this song and the words mean more to me than they ever have before. It says "I believe in Christ, so come what may." We never know what life is going to bring us or why, but it will all work out in the end. Thanks for all your support and prayers; we couldn't have made it without them.

The Quilt

While Landen was in the NICU before we knew anything about a transplant, I decided I wanted to make a quilt and have the doctors, nurses, etc. sign it. It would a quilt to remember all the people that helped save our son's life. Well, when I first was planning this quilt I thought it would be a baby size quilt, but the quilt seem to grow and grow. I think I drove people nuts with my bag of quilting squares, but this quilt turned out amazing. I love reading each square and thinking about each person that contributed so much to save our child's life. We have had the most amazing doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff. All of which contributed in saving our son's life. THANK YOU!!!!

The Letter

Last week we received another great gift. We received a beautiful letter from the most wonderful family-Landen's donor family. "Donor Family" is what they are called at this time, but they are more than that. They are the family that gave my son life. We know that without a doubt that this was Landen's heart. It was scary to accept it, but we knew that it was our only chance. And for some reason, this was Landen's perfect heart. This family had the most difficult decision ever to make and in a horrible circumstance, but we thank them each night for their gift. And asked that they are somehow comforted. The letter explained that the little lamb they sent was in the crib with their baby until they took her to surgery. That make that gift even more special to us. We were even able to see a picture with the little angle holding the lamb.

Alomst 5 Months Post Transplant

THought we would add some photos since its been a while. Landen is doing well. He's fighting a little rejection right now, but the doctors said it isn't too bad, in fact they said that if he were further out post transplant they probably wouldn't even treat for it. He along with our other 3 children are such blessings in our life. Landen is always smiling, and so happy, even though he's gone through so much. Thanks to all our friends and family who continue to love and support us.

Love Joe Tam and Fam, Especially the Lion!!