Joe's back surgery

Joe's back surgery went well. He was only able to get one disk fixed and in 6-8 weeks the dr. will look at the second herniated disk and see if Joe is ready to have that one fixed. Joe is home and doing well. He will be out of work for a week or so, which will be fun to have him around the house a little bit this week. He feels well and is looking forward to being able to be more active and play more basketball again. He is on crutches for a couple of days as his right let gains some strength because of the surgery. He is in good spirits and has good drugs...so all is well. Joe is a trooper....which I love about him!

Just when I thought life could get no crazier...

I am called to teach seminary and also called to be a stake YCL leader for girls camp this summer. I am super excited about it, I just hope that I can juggle 3 callings (yes, I am still the nursery leader for the ward) homeschooling and being a mom. So far I feel very much at peace with it all and have LOVED the chance to read and study for 2-3 hours a day out of the scriptures. I have very much felt the Lord's love through this calling like never before. I feel so blessed to be learning the things that I am learning in the detail that I am learning. We spent 6 weeks as a class studying just the last week of Jesus' life. What an awesome experience it has been to dive so deeply into the details of his ministry, life and love for us.

Camp meetings start next month and I will be over the YCL's that are over the 2nd year girls. They let me choose which year I wanted to be over so I chose the 2nd year girls . We have really good friends who have a daughter with type 1 diabetes that will be a 2nd year so I am hoping to be of some help since I know the disease so well. I always love when there is someone with Hayden to help and give me a little peace while he is away. I have a lot of the YCL girls in my seminary class so it will be fun!!

I'M BAAACK!

WOW! It's been a while since I have been on my blog. I was having problems getting my background changed and have just been busy...but I'M BACK!

What have the Estes' been up to lately?

I have discoverd Facebook (thanks Kasey!!!! I REALLY don't have time for it, but it's so fun.) I have down loaded a lot of pix there.

I have LOVED homeschooling this year. What a great experience it has been on so many levels for me and my family. I have never felt this at ease with my day to day schedlue, which I truly expected the opposite:o) We have done a lot of field trips. We have done a lot of hiking, took an extra last minute trip to Texas to see my brother, Brent for his 30th birthday in November, found some snow to play in up in Northern Arizona, cut my hair short, then a month later cut i really short, went to the chocolate factory north of Phoenix where the kids got to make chocolate "pizzas" and see things like chocolate covered jalapenos (yes, Hayden was curious) a 3oo lb. chocolate Santa and an equally big chocolate football....you know we all loved that one. We have played a lot and learned a lot....there are a lot of things that I either never knew or have just forgotten through the years, but I learn new things everyday.

Hayden played flag football this year and made the cover of the local PRL magazine, which was a fun surprise. Michael didn't play this year...he can't wait until next year, though.

Christmas was awesome this year. One of my favorites so far. Very quiet and laid back. My brother, Brent and his family came out for Christmas...waaay fun. We had a great Christmas and I am happy to have all of the decorations put away....I can only handle the extra clutter for so long, a month is just enough time for me...

We brought in the New Year with a group of Michael's friends...I forgot how late teenagers are willing to stay up! Ikicked the last couple out after 2:30 am and felt really old:o)

I have been called to teach Seminary this last semester. That has been awesome! We are learning the New Testiment and daily I say to Joe, "how did I not know this?". The kids are awesome and teach me more than I could ever teach them....I have totally fallen in love with these kids:o) I have a mixture of all ages...they don't divide by grade here, which I didn't think I would like but I do.

I got a new treadmill last week, which has been the hilight of my month...after waiting a few weeks for it I was so excited to finally get it.

I just signed Michael up for 9 credit hours at the community college. He has not loved high school so we tested at the local college and he did great so we withdrew him completely from high school and I think this will be a great fit for him. Next semester we will add more credits to his schedule and hs goal is to get as much school under his belt as he can before his mission.

We are busy, but life is good and we are looking forward to a great New Year!

Merry Christmas

Jeep, Acura, Jetta (Some things never change)
Over scheduled but juggles his responsibilities well
Serving in the Young Men’s Presidency, sad to leave High Council.
Enduring 75 mile round trip commute to downtown Phoenix
Paintball with Michael and Hayden
Has 1-½ years left on City Council

Triathlon training
Really enjoying nursery calling
Eighteen day Georgia, Florida and Caribbean vacation with Joe
Cake decorating class with Jenna
Involved in local and national campaigns
Amarillo, TX. all July to see Joy and kids

Makes it hard to keep food in the house (6ft~ 225 lb, 15 yrs old)
Incredible summer: EFY, scout camp & youth confs. in AZ & TX
Called as 1st counselor in Teacher’s Quorum
High school golf team
Awesome big brother
Eager to start Community College classes in January
Loves football as much as ever



Home schooled 7th grade, 12 yrs old
Awesome flag football, basketball player & pianist
Yaks on the phone with friends, spent summer with Joey Perez
Diabetes is doing well, 3rd JDRF walk for a cure November 2008
Eating me out of house and home (like a good 12 yr. old boy)
Not in primary anymore

Jumps at any chance to play with friends…. little miss social
Enjoying 3rd grade at home and loves piano
Neat to have her baptized by her dad on her birthday
Never sleeps past 6 am
Always gets me up to run so she can ride her bike

Never stops making us laugh
Always talking about Indiana Jones and super heroes
Turned 3 in October
Happy when he can play video games with brothers
Always being asked “who’s your favorite brother?” by brothers
Never passes up a chance to play at the park

We love and miss you all and hope that this holiday season finds you all well. How blessed we are for this season to celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord. It is our prayer that this celebration is taken into and through the New Year.
Love,
Joe, Trecia, Michael, Hayden, Jenna and Nathan Estes
Mama4x@gmail.com Estesfamilyfun.blogspot.com Joeestes@juno.com

Hayden in ICU

"Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a state of inadequate insulin levels resulting in high blood sugar and accumulation of organic acids and ketones in the blood. It is also common in DKA to have severe dehydration and significant alterations of the body’s blood chemistry. "

This is an online definition. Basically, his body, for whatever reason doesn't get enough insulin. This is usually onset by an upcoming illness which is what makes it so hard because his body will fight an illness before we see the symptoms of him getting sick. When he is sick he needs more insulin but sometimes by the time he gets the flu or whatever it is too late so his body is already short insulin. He then gets really sick and has high ketones. This causes swelling of the brain which makes him nauseous and then the vomiting starts. At that point it's all over. He gets dehydrated, causing higher blood sugars, causing higher ketones and the cycle spins out of control. This is usually the state a person is in when first diagnosed if waiting to long to see a dr.

Then all of his electrolytes are bouncing all over and out of control. So he requires an IV to flush his body. The ketones are basically an over spilling of acids from the kidneys because the kidneys are over worked at this point. Ketones are released through urine so he went through a total of 12 bags of IV fluids just for his ketones. In ICU he had 5 different bags of 5 different things being pumped into him.


The high blood sugar then causes his body to start "eating" it's own fat and then muscle (the reason to NEVER do the Atkins diet) because there is no sugar going to any of his cells outside of his blood. He lost almost 5 pounds. (Not my kid who needs to lose any weight:o)

Once we got his blood sugars under control we then had to wait until his body was free of all ketones. 48 hours later he was finally negative the ketones. His electrolytes were still all "funky" (which is evidently a technical medical term because I heard it a lot:o) He is on medicine for a week to even out his potassium and and couple of other electrolytes.

The last thing they were watching was his thyroid. This is where diabetics can get problems with thyroid. So far, he has been fine with that, thank goodness.

I came home feeling like I know NOTHING about diabetes, except I can neverlet Hayden get sick:o) I am looking into a bubble today.


Anyhow, that's it in a nutshell. He spent 24hours ICU and then 24 hours on the diabetic floor at Phoenix Children's Hospital. We LOVE that hospital.