Dear friends, family, and all you other people we may not have “officially” met:

First of all, I consider you all friends! Thank you for caring so much about Philip and our family!
I promised pictures of Philip’s birthday presents, card, etc, but that won’t be happening in this update….
Because we FINALLY decided (and mostly found the time and ability!!) to renovate Philip’s bedroom the way it really needs done! It’s getting fresh paint, a closet organizer, and new laminate flooring! I’ll be extra excited when all the work is DONE and Philip’s HEAVY bed is in there!!!

Continue reading The projects never stop…

Happy BIRTHDAY DEAR PHILIP! YOU LIVE IN A ZOO!

Haha, that’s the way it feels around here, sometimes… I’m sure you can relate!

A big happy birthday to Philip today, on the commemoration of his 32nd year of life!

A huge thank you to everyone who sent cards and presents for Philip’s birthday! You guys sure are a generous and creative bunch!  I want to show you a picture of Philip’s wall with all the decorations and cards… but I haven’t gotten it finished yet! Hopefully I’ll remember to post a picture next update! (and if I don’t remember, someone remind me!)  Someone sent a video message, and Philip REALLY seemed to be paying attention and enjoying the DVD (thank you so much, Heritage UMC Sunday School class!!!)

Does anyone want to Skype with Philip in the next few days for a short while and tell him happy birthday? Please call or text me (Amanda) when it is convenient! 727-776-0429  He’ll probably be MOST awake after 2 or 3PM EST, but feel free to do it whenever it works for you!

We continue to be blessed by you, our support group! It is IMPOSSIBLE to go through such a journey as we are traveling without support!  We are so grateful to you, our wonderful friends (and Philip’s most magnificent friends!) for all that you do! “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.  Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy.” (Philippians 1:3-4)

As for family updates: all is well!  My new house is good, though the projects never stop!   It definitely keeps us busy, that’s for sure!  Mom and Dad Hunt are good, but school keeps them well worn-out!  We are counting down the days ‘til spring break, where they can get a little bit of extra rest!  Jim has been pulling triple duty between doing Philip’s early and late day care (his first need is at 6 AM and last is around 10 PM, and I am usually at my house at those times), work, triathlon training, and spearheading most of the projects at my house… wait, I guess that’s quadruple duty?  Ann has been pulling… well, HEAVY duty! She wakes up around 5 AM, teaches school all day, then comes home and takes care of Philip and all the house chores so that I can go to my house and work on stuff.  Can you feel the exhaustion?

But God is good and oh so faithful! We continue to be blessed by listening to online and TV sermons, particularly Joseph Prince and, dare I say, Joel Osteen (never thought I’d like him… didn’t know he was a grace preacher!!).  They have such incredible messages that encourage, exhort, and spur on to greater faith!  We continue to grow and learn in these trying times. We will not remain the same, we MUST be changed!!

So, there you go. A little birthday summary. I want to get this out in a timely manner, so I’ll keep the pictures to a minimum this time (meaning non-existent! They are so time consuming to format!). View our personal Facebook pages for the latest pictures!  (facebook.com/Amandafhunt or facebook.com/philipahunt or…. Facebook.com/annk.hunt, I guess?)

We love you guys!
Grace and peace to your from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amanda for Philip for the Hunts!

Happy Monday, everybody! It’s a beautiful, balmy morning here in Florida! (Amanda writing) My dad and I decided to get back into training and racing this year. We’re doing a triathlon series starting Memorial Day Weekend… but the weather hasn’t decided to be warm enough for us to get out and do much, yet! But, we can’t complain too much! The cool weather is a nice break from the normal overly-hot weather we get. It does make it a little bit more questionable to take Philip out for walks or shopping, though, so he’s enjoying a toasty, indoor sort of couple of weeks, for the most part!

Things are going really well in the Hunt household… at least today they are, being that we haven’t quite started the day yet! We are always grateful for long weekends and the extra day’s break from school (work)! Saturday we had a lovely family day at IKEA – I bought some wonderful, inexpensive furniture (pictures to come once I assemble everything!), and the family got wonderful, free massages! It was a nice change of pace for us, but it certainly is exhausting going through the whole IKEA store!! (shameless IKEA plug: they have all black or all white Billy Bookshelves for only $50 right now! They are nice bookshelves! http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70104099/)

Philip enjoying his free massage!

Continue reading Have you seen any good Swedish DIY furniture lately?

Happy New Year everyone! First off, a shameless plug from Amanda: if you know anyone who has made or is going to make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight or get more fit, why don’t you recommend that they contact me about Take Shape for Life? Do you know people who already started a program? Please keep me in mind… most likely, that person will stop their program in the next month or two after an unsuccessful attempt. Diets don’t work. Exercise plans are hard to abruptly start. That’s why having a FREE health coach such as myself is THE MOST successful way for people to lose weight! As many of you may know, most people who lose weight on a diet will gain back more weight than they lost within 2 years of losing the weight. With Take Shape for Life, most people keep ALL their weight off for MORE THAN 5 years!

Now on to the IMPORTANT things, such as Philip! We have one main request to make, so that is the information we’ll put in this update. Stay tuned to later updates for more information on the rest of the Hunt household.

Philip has been “injured” for 3 of his birthdays so far. I do believe that every year we have asked people to write him notes and Skype with him… I don’t think anyone has Skyped with us after such a request, and very few people have written notes. Philip’s birthday is January 27th. In honor of his birthday, will you consider doing something for him this year? The past is gone, we look not back, but it would be such a blessing if you would do something for Philip for his birthday this year! I have a few ideas, but feel free to come up with your own idea, as well.

Continue reading Happy New Year!

IT’S OFFICIAL!

It’s official: it’s 2 days til Christmas! So here are our OFFICIAL Christmas jibjab video links for the year:
Song by the Hunts
Snowball fight!

It’s official: We are definitely enjoying our change of pace during the Christmas school break. The weather here in Florida has been in the blustery cold 70s… ok, sorry friends with snow! I’ll take some of your snow any day! (we continue to have to run the air conditioner because of Philip’s intolerance to heat) We haven’t really stopped working like crazy, but at least it’s been a different kind of work – we’ve been hard at work getting Amanda’s house fixed up! Yes, it’s true…

Continue reading It’s official!

The days since we came home are flying by!  So much to “catch up” on!!!  Philip is doing great – pretty much back to himself, meaning unhappy during his wide awake times!   We are more vigilant watching him at all times, even with someone sleeping in the same room each night, just to be sure he doesn’t need us.  No seizures since arriving home; his fever is finally gone.

We got a 14 day free supply of VIMPAT from the manufacturer; waiting to hear whether Medicare will approve it.  The doctor seems to want to get him off it completely in a couple of weeks, and has asked us to slowly reduce his dosage of VIMPAT while raising his dose of Keppra by 200% from his original dose. (was 1500 mg/day; now 4500 mg/day)  Phil has an appointment with the neurologist in two weeks, so we’ll discuss what he’s thinking about treatment.

We’re grateful for a week’s break from work so we can recover from our week in the hospital and try to get things back to normal at home.

Again, we thank you for your faithful prayers for us.  We are totally dependent on God’s work in Philip’s life, and we confidently wait in expectation that the day of his restoration is coming!  More about that soon….

Bad news, good news…. which do you want first? Let’s get the bad out of the way. 2 seizures this morning, even though they’ve added the additional new med. Infectious Disease specialist is WONDERFUL – he’s still wracking his brain about the fever and possible cause of seizures. Good news: neurosurgeon has completed his little surgery procedure and, without lab results to confirm, says the shunt fluid is “crystal clear” and appears to be infection free!!! Sooooo….. what does that really mean? Everyone still has no idea what’s causing the seizures or the infection, but Philip is really healthy otherwise. He seems to be getting back to “himself” with more activity and normal interactions; not so “out of it” as earlier.

Amanda has just gone home to try to sleep and check on things. It’s quiet and peaceful here in our room. How I love being here with Phil! Thank you so much for your fervent prayers for Philip, for his doctors, and for his mom, dad, and sister!!!! We are grateful! “Our HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Jesus paid the price for all our blessings in the New Covenant – his shed blood gives us forgiveness of sins, and by his stripes we are healed! Hopefully just good news next time – we’ll let you know! LOVE!

Bad news, good news…. which do you want first? Let’s get the bad out of the way. 2 seizures this morning, even though they’ve added the additional new med. Infectious Disease specialist is WONDERFUL – he’s still wracking his brain about the fever and possible cause of seizures. Good news: neurosurgeon has completed his little surgery procedure and, without lab results to confirm, says the shunt fluid is “crystal clear” and appears to be infection free!!! Sooooo….. what does that really mean? Everyone still has no idea what’s causing the seizures or the infection, but Philip is really healthy otherwise. He seems to be getting back to “himself” with more activity and normal interactions; not so “out of it” as earlier.

Amanda has just gone home to try to sleep and check on things. It’s quiet and peaceful here in our room. How I love being here with Phil! Thank you so much for your fervent prayers for Philip, for his doctors, and for his mom, dad, and sister!!!! We are grateful! “Our HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Jesus paid the price for all our blessings in the New Covenant – his shed blood gives us forgiveness of sins, and by his stripes we are healed! Hopefully just good news next time – we’ll let you know! LOVE!

Well, another day comes to a close. It’s been an okay day – “only” 3 “large” seizures since 5 am – 3 too many, in my opinion! The Infectious Disease specialist wants to check his shunt for an infection. The neurologist added a second drug to try to control the seizures, as he is maxed out on the dosage of his Keppra. He’s so miserable most of the time. The seizures are awful. He still has a fever.

We were blessed with several visitors who came to see us and pray with Philip – we are so blessed with your prayers! One of my students has been coming daily after school, just to be here with us. A former student works here at the hospital and is making sure we’re well fed and have all we need! What a blessing! We are grateful!!! Looks like we’ll be here several more days while waiting for a neurosurgeon to come check out the shunt while making sure there are no adverse reactions to the new seizure med and to see if it works. So if you’re local, come see us! Just be sure to call first: 727-738-3831.

Please continue to pray for Philip. Thank you for your messages of encouragement to us all!

Hey friends, wanted to give you a quick update! As I type this, my mom and the EEG tech are wiring Philip for an EEG this morning. I think the doctors still pretty much don’t know what is causing the fever or the seizures (but I am of the opinion that perhaps he just picked up a cold or something that coincides with the seizures).

So we just sit and wait for news from the doctors.  The treatment at the moment is:

fever – continue antibiotic

seizures – see if his EEG has changed in the last two days; monitor his seizure activity compared to his medicine levels; perhaps add a different seizure medication.

Please continue to pray for wisdom!  There are times that I particularly feel that there may be something the neurologist is missing, but I am in no way skilled or trained.  We just want to make sure he is getting all he needs, missing nothing!

Most of all, we want our Great Physician to be the main Guide and Wisdom that we listen to!!  We know that God is working, angels are protecting, and love is poured out from our Loving Father; we just have to keep trusting that!