WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008
Yesterday was a rough day for us. We had our meeting where we went over the chemotherapy treatment and the side effects from that, as well as the treatment itself. The hardest part was to go over the things that can possibly go wrong. It’s really hard to sit there and listen to the possible ways that your son could die while you’re trying to save his life. It’s very scary, so overall it was quite an emotional day.

Logan on the other hand, was a doll all through the meeting, playing with his toys and drinking his bottle. He’s been so good lately, well, most of the time. He can still be a little stinker on some occasions. Like right now he is sitting beside me playing with his bib and his binky, just squealing and talking to them. You’d think that they were great toys.

SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2008
Today was a pretty uneventful day for Logan, but there is some good news. The infection around his central lines has healed so now he doesn’t have to go in for daily dressing changes. We just have to go in so that they can “flush” the lines. They do this to make sure that they are working properly and aren’t clogged. This will save us time throughout this week, so that’s a good thing.

For our little friend Alyssa things didn’t go so well today. She is another little girl who has Hurlers and was admitted into the hospital wing yesterday. She had her first dose of chemotherapy today and there were complications with her heart. She’s doing well now but she and her parents need everyone’s prayers and thoughts. . Click here for past updates regarding Logan's treament.

SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2008
Well, like I said before there isn't a lot going on this weekend. Logan has a slight infection at his central line site, but they are giving him some antibiotics through his central line that they believe will take care of it. It just looks red around the site and has a little discharge, so they don't think it will effect his admission date.

We are all doing well, getting a little bit nervous, but that's to be expected. Generally though, we're in high spirits. Especially Logan who has been giggling constantly at pretty much everything. For example the other night Dave just kept saying the word "remote" and he thought it was the funniest thing in the world. So, that's been adorable. Hope everyone is doing well and thank you for all your well wishes and all your help with the fundraisers. Love you all.

FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008
Hello everyone. Just wanted to let you guys know that there probably won't be any updates this weekend since there isn't much going on other than his bandage changes. We have lots of meetings next week to talk about his admission into the hospital on the 5th. As well as his chemo and exactly what we should expect, so I'll definitely keep everyone in the loop on that (though sadly everyone in this family knows what to expect with chemo, but it might be a little different in children). So we love you all and you'll be hearing from us soon.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2008
Logan is back home now and seems to be glad about it. Everything went well yesterday and through last night. In fact, he slept from 10 last night until 8 this morning, which for Logan, is amazing. He doesn't seem to be in any kind of pain, and is acting like he normally does, so everything is going great.

TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2008
Logan had his surgery today and everything went well with it. He had his adenoids removed and tubes put in.

However, his tonsils were so small that they didn't have to remove those. So at least he's not in quite so much pain. He didn't wake up very well. In fact, he screamed when he started to wake up, then Grandpa Ramsey sang him back to sleep for a while.

When they went to take him up to the room though he started screaming again and didn't stop until we were able to get him a bottle about half an hour later. All of us then kind of fell asleep in the chairs/bed for a while (except for poor David who had to work) and we just woke up. Logan isn't happy at this minute, but we're going to get him some ice cream (he really likes it), and its about time to get him another bottle.

His dressings are doing well, except for the fact that last night while we were giving him a sponge bath he ripped half of the dressing off, and we think that he might have pulled one of the tubes out a little bit. That was pretty scary. He didn't start to bleed though, so we figured that it was okay.

So everything is kind of so-so at the moment. Logan is pretty cranky right now, but hopefully that will get better throughout the night. Well, I'll update everyone tomorrow on how he's doing. Love ya'll (little southern talk for you). :)

MONDAY, JULY 21, 2008
Well, tomorrow Logan has another surgery. He has his tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy. It'll be done at a different hospital, but it's supposed to be a really good one.

Then, about two weeks after the surgery, if everything goes well, Logan will be admitted into the hospital. That will be around August 5th.

Just so everyone knows, Dave is working on a new website for Logan. It isn't complete yet, but there is a preview of what it's going to look like. It's going to be great. The website is www.loganjackstout.com. It has the cutest picture of him.

Thanks so much for everyone's help and well wishes, it means so much to us. Even though you're not physically with us, you're all here with us in spirit. We love you all.

SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008
Since it's a weekend, Logan doesn't really have anything to do at the hospital, except for getting his bandages checked where his central line was put in. So, we have to go today and tomorrow and have them checked by a nurse. Today they also take the gauze off, which might be a little nauseating, but hopefully we can handle it.

He did great yesterday after his surgery. He slept for a few hours, and didn't even cry from the pain. He was up and playing in no time at all. He was up during the middle of the night though, from about 2-5, so that wasn't good because now he's only running on about 6 hours of sleep, which is low even for him.

Other than that things are pretty uneventful right now. We have a meeting on Monday with some of the different support systems that Duke has, and then on Tuesday he has his tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy. He'll be in the hospital for probably two days.

Then, about two weeks after that he is going to be admitted into the hospital for the chemotherapy and transplant. That's pretty scary, but we don't have a choice, we have to do it.

FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008
Yesterday wasn't very eventful, so I decided to wait till today to update everyone.

Today Logan had a surgery where they put what is called a central line in. Actually, in his case they put two in.

These central lines are what they are going to administer food, medication, and put things into his blood. The tube is inserted into his chest down to his heart vessel. From his chest hang lines almost like an IV line. On one of the CL he has two tubes, and on the other one he has a single tube.

The surgery took about 45 minutes and it went very well. He was quite cranky when he came out because he was so hungry, but we had to wait for the results of a chest x-ray they had done.

Since it was an outpatient procedure, he is now comfortably resting at home. When we got him home he and Mommy took a nap for a little while (he kept Mommy up a lot of the night) had a bottle and food, and is now relaxing and laying on Grandma's lap.

I have some pictures of him pre and post surgery, including the ones that actually show the central lines posted in the photo gallery.

Now, next week Tuesday he is scheduled to have a tonsilectomy and an adnoidectomy. he will be in the hospital for two days.

After that, they figure he will go into the hospital in about two to three weeks. The tenative date is August 5th, but there isn't anything set in stone yet. First we'll have to see how he heals from the tonsilectomy.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2008
Well, today Logan went in to get his eyes checked and everything came out pretty well. It turns out that he is a little near-sighted, but considering my vision is so bad that isn't a huge surprise.

We went to go see the doctor because with Hurlers syndrome, the patients end up with some eye problems, one of which is corneal clouding. The doctor said that this was kind of like if you took Vaseline and smeared it over your glasses. While he does have corneal clouding, the doctor says that it isn't much, and so his eyes are looking good.

Poor Logan has been feeling really tired lately, but interestingly enough, it's during the night that he is having trouble sleeping. He's okay if you're holding him, but when you set him down he wakes up, but that is pretty classic Logan.

Dave, Mom, Dad and I are all doing well, except for the fact that we seem to be busy all the time. Thankfully, we've had a break this week and we haven't had that many appointments this week. So, everything is going pretty well.

TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2008
Today was actually a really good day for us. Logan did have to have another Lumbar Puncture, but thankfully all went well and he is doing fine.

What's even better is that the pressure was down which means that he won't have to have a shunt at all, which is a HUGE relief! We really didn't want him to have to go through something where they put a tube into his brain, and honestly, the idea of it was quite terrifying, no matter how common the procedure was.

He woke up just fine from his LP and this time he didn't even cry coming out of anesthesia, in fact, when Grandpa Ramsey came in to visit he tickled Logan's toes and Logan started kicking his feet and smiling.

We were out of the hospital on the way home by 11, which, for us, is quite a record.

We are planning on doing a different website than this one sometime in the next month or so. This one only allows for twelve photos at one time and we want to be able to post tons of pictures so that everyone can go along on our journey with us.

MONDAY, JULY 14, 2008
Today was a really rough day for Logan. They had to do another CT scan, which meant that he had to get another IV put in. For some reason IV's don't do well with him. Either his veins collapse, or the liquid is too thick and can't go through.

So, at first they jabbed at him a couple of times before they finally found a good vein. We got into the CT scan room and got most of the procedure done, until they went to put the contrast dye in.

When the woman went to do that, Logan started crying. His vein had collapsed again and by pushing in the dye, the woman was hurting him. I switched with my Dad since my lead vest was so heavy, and then after a few minutes I heard Logan screaming. I go in and I hear Dad saying "All right girls, that's it, lets get an anesthesiologist in here."

I grabbed him up from the table and he was just screaming, which made me want to just about faint, but after a few minutes of walking around he was okay.

They finally got an anesthesiologist in there and in less than a minute he had a good vein and got the IV in without any problem. So, they were able to finish the CT scan and he was at least all done with that.

Next, he was scheduled to get another 7 vials of blood taken. We go up into the room to get his blood taken and the nurse can't get the blood out because the needle/tube that they have to put stuff into his blood isn't thick enough to get blood out, so to get the blood taken he would have had to get stuck again.

At that point I said no more and asked them to do it tomorrow after he gets his Lumbar Puncture done.

When we got home we had all had such a hard day that we all took naps, except for Dave, who sadly had to work while the rest of us got to sleep.

Right now Logan is belching between gulps of formula and relaxing.

I'm adding a couple of pictures that were taken with my parents camera from when we were swimming in the hotel swimming pool. I won't have any more pics up for a while , because we're having a problem finding the adapter from our camera and it could take a little while before we get any new pics up.

UNDAY, JULY 13, 2008
So, since staying in the hotel and eating out every night was getting a little too expensive, we found a place that we're sharing with my parents until our townhouse is ready. It's a really nice two bedroom, two bathroom apartment

FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2008
Today was a hard day. Logan had a lumbar puncture done, which I think was easier for him than it was for us. Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother him. We did find out that Logan is probably going to have to have what is called a shunt. If he gets one then they will hook up a one-way valve with a tube that runs from his brain down to his stomach, draining the access fluid from his brain into his stomach. From those we've talked to, this is a very common surgery and he should only be in the hosptial overnight for a night or two. We're a little nervous about it, but we'll find out for sure on Tuesday whether he will need one or not. If not, then his tonsilectomy and adnoidectomy is scheduled for next Tuesday.

THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2008
Today started out with a trip to see an orthopedic surgeon, who gave us some very good news. It seems that the Hurlers hasn't had very much effect on Logan's skeletal system so far, and while he is getting his transplant and healing from it there won't be any further damage.

One of his only concerns is that he has knock knees, which if you look at Mommy and Grandma you can tell run in the family anyway. So this is some really good news that gives us some hope that we could really use right now.

After that we had our daily meeting with Annie, our fabulous nurse coordinator. Her job is to completely set up the dates and times for our iteneraries, and is in contact with everyone in the hospital to make sure that we make all of our appointments (since usually the hospital is running at least an hour behind on all of our procedures).

I don't know what we would do if it wasn't for her. She is going to be with us throughout the entire time that we're here and we will be seeing her at least one time every day.

Next, Logan had an MRI, which he was sedated for. During the first few minutes of his sedation it was absolutely hilarious due to the fact that he was giggling at absolutely everything, including the IV that they had put in his arm.

Then, when he was fully under (which is actually really creepy to see), they brought him into the room with the MRI. Mom and I were able to come in there with him.

Everything was fine until he partially woke up about halfway through the process crying. That really scared both Mom and I. They gave him a little bit more sedation and he went back to sleep. Then the head lady told us that if he moved to tell them again.