3 1/2 weeks at Arnold Palmer Hospital

Everything begin at 1:30pm Friday September 24th. Aaron had an appointment with the pulmonary doctors. He was getting his initial vitals checked when his oxygen saturation registered in the high 30s. The nurse called EMS and sent Aaron and I by ambulance to the emergency room. Michael followed in his truck.

After a long night in the emergency room, the physicians determined Aaron had a very severe lung infection that covered almost his entire lungs and his immune system was not normal. Aaron was then admitted to the hospital and put on oxygen and antibiotics.


By Saturday night Aaron's condition was determined to be so severe that he was intubated with a ventilator and moved to the ICU. At this point he had the ICU, infectious disease, and pulmonary doctors following him closely at the hospital as well as the pediatric immunologist in Tampa. The cultures also came back positive for PCP pneumonia (extremely rare in infants). He began IV Bactrim (which is on a nationwide shortage and only reserved for patients with PCP pneumonia).

Michael had to leave for 5 weeks of flight training with ExpressJet on Sunday. Thankfully, Grandma Cindy agreed to leave the Turquoise Angel studio in Tubac, Az to come help her grandson for as long as he needed her.

Over the next week Aaron had a dozen tests performed on him. Finally, a blood sample shipped overnight to Cincinnati confirmed a diagnosis of x-linked hyper IgM immunodeficiency. This condition is seen in 2 out of a million people.

After 2 weeks of intensive care, antibiotics and ventilation, Aaron's lungs were doing amazing. He surprised all his doctors with his recovery. However, Aaron had been having bloody stools and required 2 blood transfusions in the past couple of days. The GI doctor scoped him and found 8 ulcers but felt that they were no longer active and did not require intervention at the time.


Then... the scariest day of my life - Monday December 11th. Holly, the music therapist came by and was singing with her red guitar while Aaron was shaking his maracas. All of a sudden he coughed and coughed and blood spewed out of his mouth twice. The next day Dr. Mehta took Aaron to the OR and sealed up his largest ulcer. He was also given another blood transfusion. Thankfully, he has not had anymore blood loss.


Today, he had a port placement for the monthly IV infusions he will need to help maintain his immune system. We are very hopeful about his future. He will need a bone marrow transplant. An identical match would result in a cure. A bone marrow transplant should occur within 9 months to a year as long as we can find a good match.

Through this experience we have learned the enormity of God's love. We have never experienced more amazing people, caring nurses, compassionate doctors, and loving friends and family. We have people praying for us in Orlando, Trinidad, Washington, Texas, Arizona, Mexico, and many others. If there is one thing we have gained from this difficult time is how good people really are.

Bieber Fever hit the Wolsey house

Aaron got pretty excited when Justin Bieber started singing on TV.

Swimming with my parents

So after my swimming lessons earlier this summer I am ready to get to the pool. After a few laps I realized my mom and mostly my dad could use a few pointers. So here I am giving the old man some lessons while my mom took pictures so she could review later. I would say the lessons were worth it.

Aaron loves playing with all his toys. He likes to stand by the toy bin and pulling all the toys out of the bin. He took his first steps 2 weeks ago today. He still prefers to crawl. He babbles and babbles. He says "baby" now.

Catching up

Serena took swimming lessons for 2 and 1/2 weeks. She loved it. She is jumping in and swimming with big arms.

My sister and her two girls came up and to visit and we went to Gatorland. The girls had so much fun running around in the splash pad. They also loved following Serena around everywhere she went.
Showing off their pacifiers.
All the Rose Family cousins in one picture and only one is crying... Not Bad!!!
Fun with the cousins at Chuck E Cheese.

Our scare from Aaron

Aaron started vomiting for an unknown reason Sunday night and stopped breathing for a few seconds. We ended up in the ER and then in the hospital. We are on day 3 right now and looking to stay one more night. Aaron is doing quite well despite the fact that he can't move more than 3 feet because he is hooked up to oxygen and an O2sat meter. Now that the scare is over, we are making the most of our time here. Aaron tries to break free daily. He managed to pull out his IV line and then the nurses decided he could keep it out. He is not so lucky with the oxygen hose stuck in his nose. The nurses have tried to stop his oxygen several times, but his lungs are still not back to normal yet.




Serena has been the true hero. She keeps us entertained. She LOVES the castle downstairs and she is determined to climb up that bean stock everyday. She doesn't believe me when I say it is impossible. We have one more day here and I wouldn't be surprised if I find her at the top tomorrow.


My sister and her girls stopped by. They were visiting from Spokane. It is nice to have visitors here at the hospital. Her girls are adorable. They hadn't been here for a half an hour and they were given free build-a-bears. Wow! What lucky girls.


Aaron is finally catching up on some much needed rest. The oxygen/sat machine beeps all night and we get very little sleep. He is also exhausted from screaming in protest whenever anyone puts on the gloves (he knows something is about to happen to him). The loudest I have heard him so far is when the respiratory therapists tried to clear out the mucus in his nose so he can breath. I call them the "torture team" since you would have thought strapped him down and stuck needles in him with the howls he was making.

It is easy to make light of all this now that he is in good spirits and doing well, but he really gave us quite the scare. We are so happy that our little guy is healthy and happy.

Playing at the library

The library had really fun games and we played with trains for an hour. Serena had the longest train and tried to take it around the track, but Aaron's hands kept getting in the way. Aaron thought it was more fun to eat the trains than have them ride the tracks. Aaron also enjoyed pulling lots of books off the shelves and then crawling away to the next aisle. Mommy chased after him putting the books back and keeping track of her little boy. Serena found lots of great books to read. She really liked the pop up books.