Palmer is feeling much better. The pain she was experiencing (abdominal wall or muscle spasm or ?) has subsided a lot. It's been top-secret until now - we have just arrived home. No not from ACH but from Dallas. It has been a wonderful weekend and Memorial Day. We got to see Palmer's cousins from Houston & Argyle, Texas that she had not seen since she was diagnosed. We got to be with MiMi & Poppy and Palmer even made a brief appearance at Prestoncrest. I promise she did not get hugged on by everybody - if her doctor's are reading this. Everyone else swam - Palmer did not, but enjoyed hanging with the other kids by the pool. We where so blessed just to break the cyle and go somewhere besides Little Rock-ACH (You know we love you all - but you know what they say about too much of a good thing).  Sam Moon and Frisco Mall shopping seemed to be of great therapeutic benefit. We had some wonderful meals and some wonderful fellowship with friends and family. It was a time we will never forget! Thank you to all who pray for Palmer and our family. We are so amazed at God's grace and love and mercy each and every day. I am reminded of the songs lyrics " Great is thy faithfulness - morning by morning new mercies I see" Amen & Amen! Lamentations 3:22-23 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Thank you to all the men & women of our armed forces who have and are serving, and who have served and given the sacrifice of their lives for our freedoms - we remember and honor them this Memorial Day. Thank You.

Hello all. Palmer is home she came home last night. Palmer, Lori Ann and Hayden hit Target before they left Little Rock. Palmers ANC jumped big overnight Saturday. Thank you Lord. Thank you body for praying and loving on us. I have not yet seen Palmer today, I left the house early. If there is more to tell I will update later. Oh- one thing she will not begin treatment on Wednesday. Her counts may be good enough but she cannot begin having an active infection still being treated - the pneumonia. So we plan to head back for Chemo 4 on June 1. Strength & Honor!

7:40am Lori Ann is with Palmer at ACH. I am home with the other children and working. I have not talked to Lori Ann yet this morning but will update any news when I do. Yesterday Palmer got platelets and also got a CT scan. She was a little nervous about reacting to the dye they put in her veins. She did great - no reaction. Her doctors are fairly certain the spot they saw on her lung was pneumonia but they may also expand her antibiotic coverage for fungal infection. We have done a urine culture for fungus and are waiting to see if anything grows from her fungal blood culture. All her blood cultures have been negative thus far. They keep investigating when you are neutropenic (no ANC) and have some infiltrate that causes you to spike fever. Very small infections can become a very big deal. Palmer and I had hoped this would be a quick stay, however our doctor said yesterday could be another week. She was scheduled to do chemo round 4 on the 25th. We don't know yet whether she will make that schedule, if she does it will be continued hospitalization - from neutropenic with fever-infection-treatment-chemo. We are not sure yet how this is going to work. We take each day as a new event. Please pray for Palmers "emotional stamina" and for the whole families " persistence in the face of battle fatique". These words came in text message from a friend yesterday, they seemed on target to me. Thank you all - update more later.

1:30pm Definitive results from CT. It is pneumonia not fungal - thank you Lord. Staying with the current 3 IV antibiotics. No fever in the night- ANC is improved slightly. We are thankful. Palmer is more energetic today - Lori Ann is getting her up and around to keep her lung capacity up. Thanks for praying.

7:00am Good morning. Palmer is still sleeping she is just about to get a platelet transfusion, her doctor wanted to do this yesterday and I held them off hoping she would rebound on her own, she did not. She went 23hrs without running a fever then spiked a fever around 11:00pm last night. It always seems that at night is when the fever comes. She has to be without fever 24hrs and be improving in her ANC before she can go home. All of Palmer's blood cultures are coming back negative so they began to look for other causes of fever and infection. We took chest X-rays and got results last night. Palmer has Pneumonia so we have to talk this morning about her meds and course of treatment. Palmer cried in bed last night because she wants to go home, we had hoped today. Next best thing - Mom and I are going to shift change today. Lori Ann will head to Little Rock and I will head back home to be with the other 3 kids. Palmer is scheduled to start round 4 chemo on the 25th and we are wondering if her counts will be up enough. Thank you all for your prayers - please pray for Peace for all of us- interesting how the things that often seemed so important before really where not. I tell people after Palmer's diagnosis we experienced a "rapid realignment of priorities". Jesus said it best in Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Please add to your prayer list a very special young lady named Keena who is a friend of a friend and just arrived here at ACH yesterday. She and her family live near Fort Smith and just began the journey after being diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma. Please visit her website at www.PrayforKeena.com. We will have some other kids prayer pager numbers up soon. Watch under the Palmer's Prayer Pager tab on the left. Life is precious-love on your families don't take today for granted. Praise be to our God!

7:30am Palmer slept well in the night. About midnight she spiked a fever but has rolled back toward normal temp. We need to be 24hrs fever free and see her counts (ANC) start to recover. This morning her counts are down from yesterday.She has still not grown any bugs (bacteria) in her blood. We will talk with her doctor later this morning to figure that out?  Please pray for Palmer's counts and no fever so we can return home on IV antiobiotics at least for a short time before we come back next week for a week + of her 4th round of chemo. Please pray for our whole family by name - nothing is normal and it seems that no day works as you plan. We take each day as it is and thank God for it! I would encourage everyone who reads this to do the same. We are not in control - only God is and "His ways are not our ways" so will will put our Hope in Him.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement for Zach Ramsey www.caringbridge.org/ar/zachramsey. I am going to introduce you to someone else who needs your intercession to the throne of our Father in Heaven. His name is Dakota Hawkins and we have been watching a great walk of faith since we began to pray for him and to observe his families great love and devotion to Dakota and to our Lord Jesus. Dakota is in Jerusalem slugging it out with AML. Please hold up the arms of this family all who read this, and tell others his story it is an amazing walk of faith. www.caringbridge.org/ar/keepthefaith.  Thank you all. Praise our God he is Awesome! Pray Hard!

The last thing we are to do when preparing for battle and taking up the Armor of God. See Ephesians 6:10-18. verse¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 

9:00am Moved Palmer to Gold last night. Got her a shower and got her bed all set-up went to sleep about 11:20. We both slept like a rock only a couple of times waking in the night. Palmer is feeling good but really tired this am. I keep telling her rest is good for her immune system and restoration of her marrow. Palmer left her phone in Fort Smith as we left in a hurry - sorry to you guys trying to call her, email her instead. Her prayer pager is buzzing non stop. We have been doing a reverse zip code search and we can tell where all of you are praying from. It is so encoraging to have such tangible evidence of so many in the body praying for Palmer.  I am told that our local TV station 40/29 ran a story last night about Palmer and her prayer pager. Lori ann and the kids saw it, Palmer and I will have to order a copy. Thank you to all for your prayers. Our God is an Awesome God! 

Joshua ^1:9  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

2:00 am We are still in the emergency room at ACH. Palmer responded the same as before to the initial antibiotic hitting her bloodstream and the bad bacteria. (See 4/6/05 log entry). She had elevated heart rate and rigors or shivers. She is better as I write this. Her previous experiences, her disease and treatment, and her reponse to antibiotics are all strong indications she has an infection.Our emotions are the same as they where last month when we had to come back for fever/infection while neutropenic. We where at home just long enough to settle in to the daily humdrum, and pretend for a moment everything was normal. We believe with all our hearts that God daily provides the "How" and only he knows the "Why". And we Trust Him with the "Why".

12:20pm Palmer is stable and sleeping. We are in Pediatric ICU right now. We came here from the ER because of Palmers septic shock response when the antibiotics hit the bacteria in her blood. They gave lots of IV fluids and she is getting blood transfusion now and will get platelet transfusion later this pm. They have kept her here in ICU to monitor her closely. Her blood pressure has stayed very low. We hope that after she gets all the blood products it will head toward normal levels. The nurses on 3-Gold have already been over to check on her. She is anxious to get to the floor that she knows so well. Thank you for your prayers as we returned to ACH and as Palmer is here.

8:10pm We are still in PICU. Palmer is stable, her blood pressure is up she is ready to go to 3-GOLD our home away from home. We have had great care since we arrived last night. This not what we had planned or hoped for yet I am reminded often of a song Scott Krippayne sings

He has a reason for each trial that we pass through in life.

That calm his Spirit brings is such a blessing. Thank you for honoring us with your prayers and love.

6:00pm Palmer is running a fever, Scott and Palmer are headed back to Arkansas Childrens Hospital. Many tears shed as we have enjoyed our time at home. Please pray specifically that she will test negative for infection and that she will not have an adverse reaction to the IV antibiotics. Please pray for protection physically and emotionally for the whole family. We will try to update later. Please Pray!!

12:30pm we are set for platelets this afternoon. Palmer began to show symptoms, tested her platelets she was now 7. No choice but to get them going. We are headed over to outpatient sugery at St. Edwards - hope this is a quick trip. Despite these issues we are still at home as far as Palmer is concerned. Please continue to lift us up to our heavenly father - especially Palmer - she is my hero. Update later.

4:00pm That went pretty quick. Palmer is home she slept some through her platelets, then came home and cleaned and organized in her room. She was big time hungry at diiner and is very tired. We never got her official ANC today but Mom says she is bottomed out. Please pray that she will not get an infection and that she will recover her own marrow and white blood cell production. Thank you for your prayers and don't forget to page on her prayer pager. (479)784-PRAY or 800-264-2535 ext.PRAY

Happy Mothers Day! Palmer and I prepared mothers day Lunch for Lori Ann. We cooked steaks on the grill (in the rain) and made salad with baked potatoes. When Lori Ann and the kids returned from worship, there where gifts for Mom including a crown and lots of handmade cards. It was wonderful celebration at our house for a very special Mom. Happy Mothers Day also to my wonderful Mom - Andee (Hi Mom) and to Lori Ann's wonderful Mother - Barbara. (And you all thought I was not a very smart son and-son-in-law!) We enjoyed the rain and Lori Ann relaxed while we cleaned up from lunch. We all went to the movies later in the afternoon and saw "Because of Winn-Dixie". We all left smiling and had a great time. We then got a bite and hooked up with Brooke Myers whom we all love. Back home for showers, bed, books, and prayers. Thank you Lord for a wonderful day,a wonderful wife and wonderful children, a wonderful family, and wonderful friends new and old. We are blessed and comforted by your amazing love and support through the body of Christ.

We will have labs tommorow to tell us more, but Palmer felt lots better after getting 2 units of blood.

Palmer has a Prayer Pager. You can page her when you are praying for her. (Thank you to our pager donors) Please call and when asked enter your zip code instead of phone number and she will know you are praying for her and where you live. Her local number is 479-784-PRAY(7729). Her toll free number is 800-264-2535 ext.7729(PRAY). Also please do the same for Zach Ramsey 800-264-2535 ext.5005 www.caringbridge.org/ar/zachramsey (see earlier log regarding Zach)

We will have a tab on the website with this information up permanently soon. Thank you for praying. Our God is so Awesome! Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.