the russell5

I do need to begin with an update on Elias. We saw the doctor twice this week. After all the tests came back from his follow-up blood work last week, the doctors were still rather concerned with his lack of progress toward healing. So, they asked us to come back Tuesday to get another x-ray view of his lung which showed that there was still a significant amount of fluid in his lung. At that point they decided to wait until Friday to do another blood test to see if there was any more progress. If not, the possibility for them to admit him again for IV antibiotics was pretty high. But, we returned for more blood work yesterday and his levels looked a bit better. The doctor was also impressed with Elias’ energy level. Needless to say, Elias was relieved and overjoyed with the fact that he didn’t have to go back to the hospital. We will follow-up with his doctor again next week & another blood test. He’s getting pretty good at them even though he still “cries just a little bit.”

The “more than a pneumonia update” part is much more exciting… We’ve finally made plans to return to Mesa for a visit. The boys have spring break from school at the end of March & Ryan is doing his triathlon in Havasu again this year, so we thought it would make for a great time to get the trailer back out for a road trip. We’re planning to head to Havasu March 17th, then on to Boulder City, NV to see Granny & Grandpa John (and allow Ryan to work a couple of days in Vegas) March 21st. Then we’ll drive to Mesa on March 24th and stay through the 30th-ish. We would love to see as many friends as possible that week. Please let us know if you & your kids are available for a play date. Of course, we’ll be enjoying some Barro’s on at least a couple of occasions and we’d love for you to join us. We’re also looking forward to seeing some sun while we’re there, so if you could work on drying everything up over then next month that would be much appreciated. It seems Arizona has received more rain over the last week than we have here in Seattle. How… ironic.