Dear friends and family



Just writing to update everyone on how Conner is doing. For those of you that do not know Conner moved back to Bryan last month and is living in a therapeutic foster home. This was a huge blessing; the residential treatment center was a horrible placement. Other than the time he was in public school he was pretty much warehoused. The children spent hours in front of the TV, not matter how beautiful the weather outside. In the short time he has been in the therapeutic home he has drastically improved, he sorely needed the love and attention that the home has been able to provide. My mother says that his colored is better and he looks well cared for instead of institutionalized. We have not been updated by CPS as to his progress while in the home but I was able to briefly talk with his foster mom earlier this week. She said Conner is thriving and has adjusted well to the move.



We are hoping to find a therapeutic home that will let us pay them directly and then we can ask CPS to step out of the picture once more. So far they have only replaced one stress with another and seem to be focused on finding something to blame Bryan and me for than helping Conner. We had hoped by doing this with the State we would be able to get better care for Conner, instead he has had a lesser quality of care than while in our home. Our other alternative is to wait until he needs a lower level of care and enroll him in a boarding school; the state limits the amount of time we have to do this though. Fortunately we have a very wise Judge that seems very fair.



Bryan has had to bear the brute of the stress these past few months. When Conner stabbed him in October at the RTC the puncture became infected. It was treated with several types of antibiotics through December until we thought he had finally beaten the infection. Then in January he started having problems with what he thought was his knee. A MRI showed that he has a torn meniscus, but the orthopedic surgeon also saw something that he wanted us to get checked by an infectious disease specialist. Evidentially the original infection never went away completely and has reappeared, first as a soft tissue infection which has turned into acute osteomilitus. They scheduled him for a PIC line at St. Josephs’ for first thing the next morning, which was this past Tuesday. A PIC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) goes into his arm and then through the vein until it reaches just outside his heart. Bryan will have the PIC line in for the next 6 weeks and receives 3.5 hours of antibiotics each day. We go in once a week for blood draws and to have the bandage changed. Midway though he will have more x-rays to see if the spots that the doctor is concerned about are changing. We left town Tuesday after finishing with the doctors and headed to Columbus, OH, we have a contract here that we absolutely could not cancel. We were able to find brothers to help pull cable since Bryan can’t do much lifting and our doctor in Bryan found a local office for us to work with. Fortunately Bryan has insurance but it is Scott and White and doesn’t cover prescription medications or out of town care.



Please pray for our family. Pray that Conner will continue to do well, that he will be able to thrive in a basic environment soon and that we will be able to find an appropriate placement. Pray that Bryan’s body will respond to the antibiotics and he will be freed from pain. Pray for us to feel peace, no matter what happens next, and to not doubt that God put Conner in our home for a very specific reason.



Thank you for the love and support you have all shown our family. If you know of anyone that does therapeutic foster care that does not have small children please let us know.



Bryan, LaNell, and Zachary

 

Hang in there. I've got two elderly parents in nursing homes and my mother is in failing health. My brother came up four weeks ago from Alabama to visit and had to have emergency surgery here. He had to have the PIC line so I had to learn to do IV antibiotic infusions. I took him back to Alabama last week and he has another appointment with his surgeon tomorrow.

We just have to take it one day at a time and pray to God for strength! We'll keep you in our prayers.

 

I do not know you, your family, or the situation, but it does sound as if it was very traumatic. I will be keeping you and your loved one's in prayer.