Back to Baltimore

The Save A Limb ride is Sunday, and Zac's appointment is Monday. Looking forward to it. We do have a concern that the antibiotic is not helping with the pin site infection. Please pray that we can get rid of this infection!

Prayer request

Please pray for this young man who posted on our TARS support group last week...

Please pray for me,
i don't know how to explain this but here goes....last Sunday i went
into the hospital because i saw bruises on my back. thinking that it
was apart of my TAR syndrome, i went in.....they told me that my
Platelet count had dropped to 59,000...then a few days passed and it
dropped to 56, 53 then to 50...it held at 50 then jumped back up to 68
then to 54...during all of this they had my blood sent off to be
tested....on the day i was being discharge the hemo Dr. came sat down
in front of me and said, in a low voice...Mr. Goss i have bad news, we
got your test back and i'm afrade to tell you but you have
T-lymphoblastic Leukemia. this is a cancer of the blood....i'm 29 and
scared for my life...i have two path...take a year of kimo or in four
months you'll die...you can't even begin to imagine what i may be
going trough....my mind is a mess and my nights are long and my days
are short..

~Derek

Please pray that Derek will find peace with God, will have comfort, and healing. Derek has authored some videos on youtube, under the Derek Goss show. Please pray with us...

Thank you.

E-mail Update for 9-8-08 follow-up

Zac's follow-up visit was almost a week ago, but I am just now sitting down to write the update. I know part of it has to do with some disappointing news, but, I will start with the good news. Zac's left leg, the one with the fixator is doing really well. The x-rays revealed that we are almost done moving the bones down, they are almost even at this point. Just a few more weeks of turning, and then we will be scheduling the surgery to align the bones. Dr. Paley is really pleased.

The disappointment that I spoke about has to do with Zac's right leg. It is noticeably shorter than the left leg -already. When we addressed this with Dr. Paley he explained to us (for the first time) that the growth plate had to be split -along with the bone, but, he had hoped that it would not be damaged. After the initial surgery on that leg, there was a nice ball of cartilage, however, when they went in to do the alignment surgery, the cartilage was missing! This all happened after the break in the Tibia, which may be the reason that the cartilage came off. (Dr. Paley corrected this problem in the left leg, so, there should not be the same issue with that leg) Therefore, the top of the Tibia may not be growing. Our initial thoughts were overwhelming, with much concern for further surgeries -including limb lengthening. It has occurred to us that an artificial product may be an option much sooner. We have been told that artificial knees will not be an option until Zac is done growing in order to preserve the growth plates. This area has yet to be discussed with Dr. Paley, but we are hopeful that God has another plan. Please pray with us that we make the right decisions regarding his Right leg, and that we are made fully aware of our options, and the best solutions.

Our next visit will be Sept. 29th. We are hoping to go up a day early to attend the annual Save-A-Limb ride (www.savealimbride.org -September 28th). These Dr.s do amazing things for so many people!!

Thank you for continuing to follow our story, and for all of your coveted prayers!!!

LeAnn, James, Zac and Cai

Zac is doing much better with the pain management. He is however, on the second round of antibiotics as it was apparent that he was once again infected. The pin site infections are VERY common. The antibiotic is pre-prescribed so that we can have it filled whenever we see the first signs of infection. It is so nice to finally be off of the heavy med.s, and have Zac very close to the Zac that he was before the surgery. He is often frustrated with things, but what 2 yr old isn't. He is scooting on his bottom again, almost as fast as he did before. He can reach things off of the floor much better than he did before as he has better balance, and his foot is not in his way anymore. All in all things are going well. We return to Baltimore on Monday Sept. 8th, hurricane permitting!