"Looks like its getting close"

Cameron, called me yesterday and said that someone came into his room at Sacred Heart Hospital and said, "So, your leaving soon?" Cameron said that they thought he was getting ready to discharge that day. So he called me and said, "Looks like its getting close." He has been a patient, patient.

I am so fantastically excited to deliver this message to all of you. Family and caring friends, God gave the devil 2 black eyes and through Dr. Obermiller completely killed the two bacterial infections in his blood!!!!!!!! I'll give you a moment to shout for joy and scream hallelujah.

He is spending his days at Sacred Heart walking with physical therapy and doing exercises for strengthening. He is referred for extensive rehab at St. Lukes following his Sacred Heart discharge at Cam's request to return to work. All of the swelling in his arms and hands has decreased completely to normal size due to the blood clots resolving. He is able to use his left hand and fingers more to do things because of this. His nieces Star and Lily come over to play most days and Uncle Cameron helps give them clues when playing several games of hangman. He also teaches them about various things such as telling Star about all of the planets and the characteristics of each. Lily has decorated his hospital room with her toys. He has been feeling perky enough to take some phone calls now.

His admission on January 1st began with treating the two blood infections and finding out what caused them. In Cali they talked back and forth about an alternate site for dialysis and assumed the central line was the cause of infection. They were treating him for one bacteria with Zyvox. They never removed the central line. They kept using it for dialysis and talked about a femoral vein/groin catheter. Finally the vascular surgeon placed a graft in his right arm to attempt dialysis via another route. By the time he came home for the holidays his blood was growing 2 bacterial infections. While reviewing Cameron's extensive medical records and history in Cali-thanks to Curtis' hard work going and harassing every facility for Cam's records prior to coming to Idaho, Dr. Obermiller removed the central line, inserted a femoral groin catheter for dialysis, and cultured the tip of the catheter for bacteria. He had an extensive procedure to check his heart and the replacement valve. Cam's heart is within normal limits and no abnormalities to the valves. The catheter tip also did not grow any bacteria. Although there is the possibility that the bacteria could have been further up the line that was not cultured, Dr. Obermiller was intent on finding the source for infection. After a head scan and barium swallow showed up normal, Mom said, "We may never find out where the infection came from and Dr. Obermiller may have to leave it in God's hands."

However, one view showed a hazy appearance surrounding Cam's transplanted kidney. Dr. Obermiller said that it can mean inflammation of the kidney. He told Cameron he has had this happen before and it is caused by further rejection of the transplant kidney. If it is inflammation, then it can be infected. He advised Cam he would like to take it out. A usually very compliant patient, Cam spoke up in a loud voice looking at him with question, "Take out the kidney!" Dr. Obermiller reassured Cam he has done this before and in doing so he could be taken off the prednisone completely. Dr. Obermiller quickly realized how Cam felt about this and offered a biopsy to ensure reason for removal. Cam was ok with this.

There are 2 procedures needed to get Cam closer to discharge:
1)Incision and drainage of all of the fluid above the graft site, in order to prevent infection or damage to the graft and ensure use.
2)Kidney biopsy to check for inflammation or infection.
3)Needle aspiration of fluid below left lower lobe/lung. He has had this drained once thus far while staying at Sacred Heart and Cam said, "they removed 2 quarts of fluid!" This was cultured and negative for bacteria, also.
All of these procedures require an above 50 platelet count. Cam's has been 47. He has had low platelet counts on and off while in Cali. Dr. Obermiller has been working with a hematologist to find out why. He has a clotting problem not a bleeding problem. He questions whether it is over the years from Lupus or damage to the bone marrow. He had the pharmacy check his medications and one of them was discontinued due to the possible cause of lowering platelet counts. Dr. Obermiller was able to talk a radiologist into finally 2 of the 3 procedures today and Cam seems uplifted since they have been done. The excluded procedure was the kidney biopsy.

So, if you are in the Spokane, Washington area despite the weather and road conditions, Cameron would love to visit with you.
Much hope, health and happiness to you all and thank you for your much needed prayers, Cameron's sister-Susan

Where is Cameron

What if spirit is like a milkshake for the soul..........One can only wonder, as I often do.



I would like to make an apology for such a lengthy delay in updates. Cameron returned home for the holidays and is now at the Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital in Spokane Washington under the care of Dr. Gary Obermiller.

Previously here in California the medical staff had begun to treat his case as terminal and were no longer working to save his life. The care in Spokane has been impressive and Cameron will stay in Spokane longer in order to fight a blood infection and rise to a safer level of recovery. He then intends to return home to Ventura and continue his work at the corporate center for the Continentals.

I am no judge of correctness or rightness as I am aware of my ways, beliefs and how they do not comply with the beliefs of the church I was raised in, nor with my own morals and standards on some occasions. I do however, accept the teachings of my youth as a foundation of my being. So contradicting my current rational analysis and through what religious knowledge I retain, I will speak more freely on a subject that is sensitive in nature to all mankind and that continues to persist as a divider in our world today. The subject is god and man of course, and the people's general objection to differing perceptions of truth and the trail of death it leaves. This injustice is based on ignorance and selfish desire for power through manipulation of the people's willingness to follow without question.

There are times in all of this when I expend all my energy and effort into daily challenges and begin to slow down as I lose belief in my perceived purpose of it all. For some reason it takes an exponential effort to complete the easiest of tasks when they are related to this pervading and overall will that I feel. Then, something extraordinary will occur that will begin to revive my spirit. Again, I risk displaying my ignorance through philosophical expression, but the truth is, that someday my life here will end, and so then, I will at least express what I feel as honestly as I can and with enough clarity for others to see what I think I see.

I do feel it hard to understand what is going on here and how it appears to be something larger than Cameron himself or any one of us as individuals. Numerous things have happened to me that are personal in nature so they may not hit you has squarely as they hit me, but all of them together show me that something has been calling out for me, and also that angelic supporters may have been sent my way. Prior to now I had lacked the will to write this blog here and then after receiving an email, I found that its message touched my soul. In summary the message was that.......It's okay to question god, and your beliefs, otherwise you become just a follower living in fear and doubt for what you may otherwise feel commanded to believe. It is through our struggles with god, questioning beliefs and searching for truth that we develop a deeper more personal relationship with god. This and more in the message filled me with strength and gave me a little hope.

I know that in early 2006 I saw my brother tiring and becoming weaker, and that as it continued I looked sadly down upon him for what could be perceived as a failure or a lacking in the will of god. Instead of aiding and protecting him from increasing forces that weighed him down mentally, my inaction enabled an even more increasing force to progress in his life. Now that I can see this, I lean on hope and attempt to cease a pattern that does not resemble salvation but instead objects to its existence. I can call attention to this force and possibly stop a cycle of untruth that if not stopped; will continue to reduce the entire family of god, into a residue of torn hearts resting in a pool of fading memories.

Those who are now with Cameron must feel what I have felt when he was in California and even stronger now. And now that I see a bit of truth in it all, I do not want to unknowingly fuel a travesty that will eventually consume Cameron, march forward, and then consume my own life. Mentors of mine and leaders from my youth are those I remember as strong and yet now they are weakened, fearful, and hurting. I never really expected this and it has become unsettling to me, then my mind began spinning to determine a solution that seemed to be non existent or too complex for my understanding. After much thought I feel like a solution was revealed to me, the solution is so simple in nature that I can only smile, since even I remember those sermons on sunday that would sometimes seems so redundant. And what would we hear again and again, "call its name and it has to flee". So I decide that I will help a brother who is weakening and find the name of this thing that afflicts his mind. The details of how I am not sure of, I can only state what I see in this case. Either way, instead of boasting about my perfection while exposing my brother's imperfection I choose to expose the presence of a growing force going against him and help to free him from this fight with guidance and through expression of the truth personal in nature, that I believe I have come to know and understand.

Yes, it could be said that my words should not be taken and that they come from an ungodly source, but I ask this of you, to question yourself on the following. I can assure you there is a force desiring to keep me from assisting with Cameron, that tells me that life really means nothing, that I should give up, and that i have no real purposeful function in life, that Cameron and I don't have the best of sibling relationships so I should abandon any thought. Then there is another force here and, I can assure you that it is, my soul that is crying out here in an attempt to save what I have tried to dismantel, disect, understand, and rationalize all my life. It is now that I can see what I have fought to get away from and so stubbornly turned my back on, is something that I need, and that if I don't have that, I have nothing ............It is my soul attempting to accomplish something that I have noticed to be an issue greater than any ailment of a body's physical member, but to save the only part of the human body that I cannot logically explain or understand, and to save what is more precious than human life.

A living soul.