THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008 06:12 PM, CST
Diego is doing better. He has not had a fever since yesterday morning and his heart rate is normal. Breathing is still fast but better. He also has had no need for extra pain medicine. He has been sleeping a lot but was pretty silly when he was up. Tonight we do night 2 of 5 of chemo and tomorrow we have a brain MRI and start day 1 of 8 of radiation to his lungs. What a difference a day makes. Please pray that the chemo and radiation annihilate his cancer. Thank you for all your messages.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 08:10 PM, CST
Diego is still OK. He had a nice weekend and even went out of the room today. A bit weak to walk but he can stand. We did not have the MRI on Friday may do it later this week. Thanks to all who are praying for Diego's healing and our whole family's strength.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2008 08:55 PM, CST
Baby Steps

Diego did walk a few steps here and there today. He can climb up and off the bed and is sitting better. I just think we have to focus on him doing it. He was wobbly standing until he was doing it to play a video game....hmmm. We did another chest x-ray today and it shows some clearing of his left lower lung. Good news. Diego seems stronger everyday. Still on oxygen as he has barely any lung capacity in his left lung. Thank you to all who have brought us delicious food. It is what we need most. Frank seem to be coming down with the stomach flu! He went home tonight. Keep praying.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2008 10:26 PM, PST
Diego is getting stronger everyday. We just have to force him to walk, sit and stand. His oxygen was decreased a little to 1 liter and he is being weaned from his pain pump. He will stay on his pain patch though for now. We finished 4 of 8 radiation sessions today. Diego's white blood cells are low and he will need platelets in the next few days. We will have our Thanksgiving dinner in the family here tomorrow. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Diego was due on Thanksgiving in 2003 but was born 10 days early!

Finally here is our Make-A-Wish Slideshow: http://www.rockyou.com/...instanceid=126859655

We are thankful for all your support.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2008 05:10 PM, CST
We had a very yummy Thanksgiving! I think it was the best my Mom has cooked yet. They set it up in the family room and it was really nice actually. Diego finished day 5 of 8 of total left lung radiation today. He had a chest x-ray today and his lung shows more improvement! Praying it continues. He needed red blood cells today. He also has no immune system. Hope he gets through uneventful until they rise. Thank you again for all your support. If you did not see the Make-A-Wish slideshow look at the previous update.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2008 06:35 PM, CST
After 16 nights at the hospital I went home last night. Did not realize how much I miss home! On my way back to the hospital this morning I caught a five minute bit on praying for healing. It talked about having the elders pray for you and the importance of praying with FAITH. Faith that your prayer will be answered and not praying that his will be done. Not praying that if it is not his will then praying for strength and comfort. The pastor from Calvary Church of Costa Mesa said to pray for GRACE and MERCY and pray with the FAITH that HE WILL answer your prayers! So please pray with FAITH that HE WILL heal Diego.
Faith is the reality of things being hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.
Mark 10:27
Here is the Make-A-Wish again if you missed the last posts.
http://www.rockyou.com/...instanceid=126859655

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 02, 2008 11:17 AM, CST
Hi everyone,

This is Frank for a change. I just wanted to joght down a few things while I have been staying with Diego. I stayed with him Friday and Saturday night at his request and we had some good boys fun. His mom is getting sick of watching the same shows all the time. Diego knows that i can tolerate watching old Godzilla shows with him. He also likes to watch me play video games and tell me what's coming up next in the game. Story time before going to bed is a bit different. I turn off the lights, take the flashlight out and do it camp style. I stayed lastnight as well and it went ok. Diego has a bit of a flemy cough. He did well with radiation today. One last one tomorrow! The Dr.checked his lungs today and said his left lung sounds better than yesterday. He is still breathing fast but praying that this will get better soon. Continue to pray for Diego as he fights on!

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 05, 2008 05:34 PM, CST
We are doing about the same here. We were supposed to be transferred due to insurance on Thursday but there are no beds at CHLA where they want to send us. So most likely we will finish more chemo here and hopefully radiation to his brain that is 4 weeks past due as well. Then we hope to go home and will be able to go to CHOC on January 1st which is our 2nd choice. City of Hope being our first. Diego is barely on any oxygen. Barely .25 a liter. Can't go any lower without turning it off but we are not there yet. Pray we can finish treatment here, be home next weekend, for Diego to be off oxygen and his lungs will continue to clear.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2008 11:01 PM, PST
We are still at City of Hope and Diego started up another 5 day course of chemo tonight. We also hope to finish up his brain radiation as well within this week. First we have to get an MRI then it will be 1-4 days I believe. We will not be transferred to CHLA as the Dr. there has refused our case siting it is too complicated. I would talk about it more and the insurance company but with us probably going to court in the future I cannot talk about it. I will say it is like adding a fun house to the roller coaster ride. So for now we are here and hoping to go home within a week and be off oxygen. Diego has been a bit depressed being here for so long but seems to be a bit better these past 2 days.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2008 06:22 PM, PST
We are actually glad they refused our case as at CHLA as we did not want to go there. It was an unexpected blessing. Not sure what is going on now with the insurance company as I have not received any calls. Diego will have a chest x-ray in the morning and a MRI of his head and neck tomorrow at 4 PM. Praying for good results. Diego has been sleeping more and seems to be coughing less.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2008 09:32 AM, PST
No MRI results. Not sure if they read them on the weekend so I think we will know more Monday. Hopefully it looks great and it will just be the tool to finally get his stereostatic radiation done next week. The Dr. said the chest x-ray continues to show improvement. Diego has an annoying cough and some pain. He is still on oxygen. Yesterday he had a good day until he was hungry and could not eat until after the MRI. Hoping he will eat more today. We have been here for a full month today. Frank has to go back to work next week.




MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2008 09:44 AM, CST
I am unclear about the MRI results. I do know that Diego has a 8mm lesion in the front part of his brain again. The Dr said it looks pretty good in there though. We are planning on starting the radiation soon but we need another MRI that takes thinner slices to plan the field to be radiated. Diego is having pain under his right arm and lymph nodes have popped up on his neck near his surgery site. We do not know if that is new disease or reactive nodes. Not sure if I mentioned that he got a new double lumen port placed under his skin about 3 weeks ago. This makes everything easier. The MRI is scheduled for Thursday but they are trying to move it up. Looks like we may be here for Christmas. I have not bought a thing for the kids yet! Diego could care less and Lilia will be happy with the few things I will manage to pick up. I'll try to do some shopping this weekend.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2008 07:18 PM, CST
The Real Deal

So we are still here. Hoping to be home for Christmas. Since we have been in the hospital my hard drive crashed with all my pictures!!! We found out my cousin works at Data Finders and is confident we will get them all back. It was right after I made the last slideshow. Then on Saturday while leaving for the hospital my car was hesitating in drive so I put Lilia's carseat in Frank's truck and the battery was dead! Lilia started crying. I explained that cars are like toys and sometimes you need new batteries. She still says she wants to get in my car and zoom again. I had to go to the one neighbors house I did not want to as I know they work nights and ask for help with a jump. Luckily they were awake. They also introduced us to our neighbor who is a mechanic at the shop just down the street. Real nice man. He said just give me the keys and your number and we will get it fixed! Good timing I guess since we don't need two vehicles hence why Frank's battery was so low from not being driven. So I'm still taking everything in stride and thinking wow God is taken care of us despite all our setbacks. I think I made the guy downstairs mad. We get the MRI results Lilia starts with the stomach flu on Monday morning but quickly recovers and starts eating. I go home to sleep last night and at 4 AM she starts throwing up again every 2 hrs until 10. Frank took today off. So there goes my idea of a good nights sleep but she did stay in bed until 11:15 so I did too. Good timing for a bad thing again though. Nice being at home on a rainy day until I call Frank and find out Diego was gasping for air last night! Could be that he was coughing and then choked and anxiety but he has been breathing fast again. Most likely from the sinus infection they found on the MRI. His ability to fight infection is zero for now and mostly likely through the weekend. He has been coughing and having belly pain. They added a new antibiotic to cover this in case it is bacterial and any skin infection since they are putting two screws in his head tomorrow for radiation which may start Sunday. So I was feeling very overwhelmed this morning and for some reason all the clocks in the house need new batteries and that really annoyed me-LOL! Plus I misplaced my cell phone! I am worried but am doing my best to put it in God's hands. Please pray that his mucous drys up and he can breath much better. Also his heart rate is elevated. Pray for guidance for the Dr's and us. I miss shopping for the kids at Christmas and the excitement of the season. Thank you all who are told me that gifts were already taken care of. I still hope to slip out and by 1 or two from me.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2008 02:37 PM, CST
Sorry I have not updated sooner. Things are a bit touch and go. On Thursday Diego did great with his procedure and MRI for radiation. On Friday he could not do the CT planning due to a cough. On Friday night I went home to sleep and at about 4 am Diego was coughing, hyper ventilated and passed out for about 3 or 4 minutes. The next morning the on call Dr wanted to know if we wanted to put him on a respirator. We were a bit in shock as we thought he was improving. The Dr ordered a CT and preliminary it did not look like much change so this was good. On Sunday though the official result read that it was mixed with areas of improvement in both lungs but new areas in the right and a small spot on his liver which was not in the image before so it is hard to say if it is new. Diego had a bad night last night as he is having pain again. We put him back on his pain pump. We hope to talk to our Dr today and suggest a new treatment that is done outpatient and go home. Not sure how quickly we can get home as a lot of things will need to be set up. Please pray that Diego can make it through this and get home. Pray that we can have some quality time. We are not giving up hope. We know God can heal Diego.



SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2008 08:30 PM, AKST
So we are hoping to be home on Wednesday!!! We will do an infusion of Navelbine which is not immune suppressing and then go home. We will go in to get this infusion weekly. Diego will be on oxygen and his pain pump but we ALL need to be home. Diego will have his last GCSF shot tonight. With the new chemo he will not need it. If Diego's lungs clear enough we will go ahead with his radiation. If you missed the previous post please read.

A special thank you to our Parkcrest Christian Preschool family that brought over so many gifts on Saturday. When they told me they bought the doll house I wanted for Lilia I cryed. It really made those feelings of needing to shop for them myself go away. It means so much to us! Well it means we will really have CHRISTmas. I am so behind on so many thank you's. The food, gifts and money everyone has sent has really got us through this long and trying time.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2008 09:04 PM, PST
We had plans to bring Diego home today but God had other plans. Diego went to be with our heavenly Father at 3:07 PM today. He fought so hard till the bitter end.

Adam, give Frank and Michelle my consolations and Justice a big hug.
It's hard losing a friend, and for a young guy Justice must be feeling some heavy emotions.
Misty eyed.

he will always be a hero to me

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2008 09:26 PM, CST
Diego died in our arms surrounded by people who love him. He started having breathing problems the night before and went from 4 liters of oxygen on the nasal cannula to 10 liters with a mask. At one point his saturation was only 72 and his heart rate was falling to 87. He had been at 97- 98 breathing saturation and heart rate of 130's. He was working so hard to breathe. His heart rate went up to 183 and 100% saturation but still was struggling to breathe and it just did not stop. I think a tumor in his lung burst and took over what was left of his breathing space. We told him about an hour before he died he could rest now, that he could stop fighting. He said I want to fight. He was so loving up until the end. Leaving him cold and alone in his bed was the hardest thing we ever did. We know he was not in there but it is hard to except. We miss him so much but the gravity of the loss has not really sunk in so I imagine that this will get harder. For now we watch videos and look at pictures. We cry uncontrollably but also still laugh. It does not seem real.