Keep good thoughts!

It's been almost a week since I posted, but then again, we were on vacation ... and you were warned, remember? Hopefully the with drawls weren't too bad. Spring Break was bittersweet. Before we left, I got a call that Cam's teacher from FCA had passed away. (See this post for a little bit of background ...) She lost her battle to IBC, and it was a short battle. She is now in a much better place, and where she belongs. No more pain or suffering. Debated on when to tell Cam. Decided to wait until we got to Mom and Dad's. Then decided to wait until we got home, then went back and forth about whether that was such a good idea as far as the timing. (See the last part of this post). Well we let him know this afternoon, and there were quite the flood of tears, from all of us. He adored her, and will truly miss her.

We left Tuesday for Vegas and really did have a great time - until the weekend or so, but even then we did some great stuff to "write home about". We overlapped a bit with Theresa and the kids' visit, as they left on Thursday. The kids had a great time in the jacuzzi, playing at the park, and just hanging out. Thursday we hit an incredible skate park in Anthem, and got some great video/pictures. (I have a lot of pictures to download still, it's been crazy ... so I'll try and get those done soon.) Mom and I had our date at the casinos Thursday night, not millionaires by any stretch but we had a BLAST playing! Cam and I hit Mopar on at the strip and had a full day of races, car shows and meeting Chip Foose - autograph, pictures, the whole shebang. He was loving it!

Friday didn't turn out to be so so good. Dad hadn't been feeling well, had quite the cough/shortness of breath. Finally went to Urgent Care and ended up coming home a couple of hours later after a chest x-ray revealed a spot on his lung and a significant heart murmur. He ended up checking into the ER Friday afternoon. We know now that he has pneumonia in both lungs for sure, possibly valley fever, but still aren't sure about the heart or the spot. The four chest x-rays he did have have not changed, which means the initial possibility that the pneumonia or valley fever was causing the spot is no longer valid. The antibiotics have not affected the spot at all. Originally they thought the spot might be due to TB, so he had actually been in isolation for that until today, when it was determined he is negative for TB. So that's a good thing. The pulmonologist ordered a needle biopsy, which they are doing tomorrow. We still don't have results of echo gram or blood work, but hopefully that is coming soon. He is also off of oxygen, and only using it at night when he sleeps. It was very hard to leave to come back home, but I was glad to have been there over the weekend when this all took place. Cam and I did seem him again last night before we left Vegas and he looked better, more color to his face, and seemed to be in good spirits considering. Cam tried to be strong, I know in the room he certainly lifted Papa's spirits and made him laugh, but leaving was a different story. Leaving the room he cried, and then again on the plane taking off. Our flight was delayed about 2 1/2 hours due to weather, so we didn't get home until 10:00. It was certainly a long day. Bryan was glad to see us, and it was good to have another shoulder to cry on. I've tried to keep my emotions on a leash, but sometimes that leash becomes unfastened. :) I will post more as I get the information. In the meantime, prayers and positive thoughts are certainly welcome.