We have been home over one week from the hospital and things could not be any better!! It has been such a joy to have Karson at home and to not have to travel to the hospital everyday. He is doing SO GOOD. This is the first time in over two months that he has been at home for longer than a week. That is amazing considering that up until this point he has spent over half of his life at Primarys.

These first two pics were the night that we brought him home, last Monday.

This picture is a big deal because he put his finger in his mouth by himself. Big muscles!!

Mike, Jody's Dad, bought this shirt for Karson's a few weeks after he was born and he has wanted to see him in it since (size 12 months) so we figured that it would be OK as pajamas.

Hadie had fun playing with Dr. Reyna's daughter Abby.

Here is a picture of a the "SMA group" after the game waiting to talk to Nat, the REAL soccer player that gave us the tickets. Dr. Swoboda is the one in the pink shirt.

This Saturday at the Real Salt Lake game it is going to be sort of an SMA awareness event and Dr. Swoboda asked us if we would be willing to share some pictures of Karson and have him kind of be spot lighted at the game. We, of course, were totally excited and honored to have this opportunity. The only problem was that all of the pictures that we have of Karson he has tubes coming out of his nose or down his throat or duoderm all over his face. So since Karson has been doing so good these past few days he was able to come off of the BI-pap for a half an hour at a time and Jessica came up to hospital and did a quick photo shoot. She, as always, did an amazing job!!! We honestly will NEVER be able to repay Jess and Danny for all that they have done for us these past months and beyond! Too say that they are truly are very best friends and that they have been our rock, would be an understatement, they are family!! Anyway, look at how big our little man is getting.

What a heart-breaker!

Karson has been in the hospital for now over two weeks. In these weeks that we have been here he has been intubated (breathing tube placed down throat) twice and extubated twice(tube removed).Karson gets to the point where he needs this tube to give him a rest and to get the secretions out that are deep in his lungs. The first time that they extubated Karson lasted for 12 hours then they had to reintubate because he wasn't doing well. The first 48 hours are very crucial because that tells them that he has a pretty good chance of not being intubated again. Dr Swaboda is Karson's SMA doctor, she has been very concerned with Karson because we haven't been able to keep him out of the hospital. Her words to me were that she hasn't had a kid give her this much trouble in 4 years. She had a pulmonoligist fly in from Wisconsin to take a look at Karson . Dr. Swaboda and Dr. Schother wanted to be in Karson's room when they extubated so they could give Karson the best chance. Can I just say watching your baby be on the brink of needing the be recesitated is very scary!! Thank heavens to those doctors, respiratory therapists and nurses they have kept him alive. Well, that night I got a call from the ICU nurse practioner saying they probably were going to reintubate. Karson was not doing good at all, he had given them many scares. I called Dr. Swaboda to let her know & she fought with the ICU to give him a chance and to do all they could do to not reintubate. Dr. Swaboda called from 11 p.m. on, all night, every 2 hours to check on him. What doctor do any of you know that is willing to do that? Then in the morning she went and put the ICU staff in there place. I am so happy to say Karson is past 48 hours and it is because of Dr. Swaboda, she truly has a love for Karson you can see as she tears up talking about him. I also need to tell you how wonderful Dr. Swaboda's nurse is, her name is Abby Smart and she might as well have M.D. at the end of her name. She is always there for us. She is amazing. I'm just so thankful to Heavenly Father for giving Karson the strength to keep fighting. I can honestly say our testimonies have become stronger and we truly know what's important in life.

p.s. This is the only pic that I have of Dr Swaboda

Photo by Jess Kettle
This picture is very precious to me I will never forget this day . We had been there all day I had been crying alot feeling like my son wasn't going to be with us for very much longer. Our dear friends Danny & Jess came to the hosp. to help Darren give Karson a blessing. We had turned down the lights and I was kissing my baby goodbye and whispering in his ear that I loved him. Jess had her camera out and I had no idea she had taken this picture of us.