The Last Piece

Hi. It is Hannah (Gary's Daughter). It has been about three weeks from the worst thing in my life and I thought I should start writing down things about my dad. It is really hard to write down memories because I miss his love and everything so much it makes me so sad to think about it. I want to tell everyone this one story though.
Okay, anyways it was the night after the funeral. Me, Aunt Patti(dad's sister), and Uncle Kelly( brother in law) were doing a puzzle (to keep everything off our mind. It really works actually.) and it was like I think 1000 pieces and our family had been working on it for a few months. Even before my dad got in the hospital. Anyways we had all the pieces in the puzzle, but one of the pieces were missing. It has kinda been a game in our family to be the one with the last piece of the puzzle. I think dad started the game in which all of us end up hiding a puzzle piece in our pockets so we can put in the last piece. So we had worked so hard to get the puzzle done and then we can't find this one stupid piece. So I yelled to my mom and said something like "Have you seen the last puzzle piece?" and we looked everywhere. Finally for some reason she told me to look in her hospital bag. It turns out it was in there!!!! My dad had gotten the last piece! Nobody knows how the piece got in the bag but I think my dad had something to do with it.
Thats the story I wanted to tell. Me, my brothers, and my mom will keep more stories about my dad before and after death. It is a really rough time at the Lathams but we are trying to Stay strong and hopefully things will get a little bit better. Keep reading. Thanks for all the support.
Love you all,

Hannah xoxoxo

Latham Children's Fund Information

LATHAM CHILDREN’S FUND

An account has been established in the names of Craig, Hannah, and Scott for their education.

If you would like to make a contribution to this fund, please make your checks payable to the Latham Children’s Fund;
Please mail your contribution to
Sara Olsen at 23986 Elizabeth Lane, Novi, Mi 48374

Thank you so much for your continued support for the Latham Family.

What's Happening

Hello blogers this is Scott again. My family is crying tears of joy for my dad or at least I am.
He shouldn't had died he did nothing wrong. He was a fighter. Now we are going to the funrile home today to see my dad. He was a great loss and a really good friend to some of you. We are staying strong and trying not to cry that much. So we are now 1 day befor the sad event. I hope you people keep reading and I will update every day.

Latham Children Educational Fund

Hi today's blog is from Sara Olsen. I can't take credit for this idea just instituting a great idea. Based on numerous requests, there will be an additional donation option for anyone who is interested. We will establish an education fund in the names of the Latham children at Bank Of America. We expect to establish the account in the morning ... stay tuned. Thank you everyone for your continued love and support and let's keep it coming.

Funeral Arrangements

Funeral arrangements for Gary

Tuesday April 7th 2-8pm Visitation O'Brien Sullivan Funeral Home
41555 Grand River Novi

Wednesday April 8th 10:30am In State at Nardin Park UMC Farmington Hills
11am Funeral Service

Going to Heaven

Dear people,
Hi I am Scott Garys son. My dad is dead and in heaven right now. He was my best friend I had in my life. He was the only person that played with me when I was sad. So now we will go on and stay strong. He died April 4, 2009 6:00pm. He was then best father a son could have. We will keep typing about our family. But with out him we are not a familly. The last thing I heard from him was " I love you Scotty and stay strong". Today is the worst day of my life. And god wanted him to come and live with him forever and I hope something will be good to us. He was a good man and I love and I am pouring tears and can not stop. He did nothing bad to god or us. To the Latham family in Novi Michigan this is the worst day of our life. If you are reading this don't cry. Dad if you are reading this i love you even if your dead. Bye and have a good night. My familly is miserable with out him. Stay strong people.

Positive Attitude

We had a chat late this afternoon with Gary's regular hemonc doctor- the one that he sees in clinic and we trust. She was very concerned about Gary's condition tonight- his breathing is labored, blood pressure high, fevers continue, etc. They dr team feels that Gary's pneumonia is getting worse without much chance of improving. Without his own neutrophils and a very resistant bacteria, we are in a difficult place.
The drs kinda recommended stopping the neutrophil transfusion for this evening. Gary kept asking when am I going to get the blood. Gary's sister arrived from Denver this afternoon and we decided to go on with the transfusion. Donor #6 volume 253cc- they are going to work hard in those lungs.
Gary is restless but his overall happy self making jokes which we do not always understand.
I decided that the kids needed to visit him this evening. We are not sure how his condition will change in the next few days. All he could talk about his having a pizza party with big Cokes. None of us were hungry so I ordered one from food service for him. It arrived and he said this was not what I was expecting. I think we will have a big pizza party with him tomorrow with pizza from Pizza House or Cottage Inn.
We also moved to room #4 at the hospital. A large double room that Gary has all to himself.
God is surrounding our family with his love and lots of angels which seems to arrive at just the right moment.
The bone marrow could decide to recover at any time- the time in now the time is tonight. Keep the faith- God has a plan!

Worse Before Better

We thought Gary would feel worse with the transfusions before getting better. We are at the feeling worse part. Although Gary continues to tell everyone that asks that he feels good, his body is very busy fighting all of these infections. His positive upbeat attitude has not changed. He was cheering himself with clapping and thumbs up during doctor rounds yesterday. I think they could use some lessons in the affects of a positive attitude.
He is ready for another batch of angry neutrophils tonight.
Pray for Gary to remain calm and for lots of peace.
"For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who ARMS ME WITH STRENGTH and makes my way perfect." Psalm 18:31-32

Neutrophil Batch #5

After transfusion #5 WBC 3.2 ANC 2.9. For those that are into the competition of comparing donors- I have to say that Donor #5 was jipped they threw away 10% of the cells. Some crazy blood bank rule due to his increase in temperature. I don't care what they say I will not be convinced that the increase in temp was due to the transfusion but just a typical rise in temp that we have seen again and again the last few weeks.
His breathing is more labored today - which we think is due to those neutrophils eating away at the infection. He is getting a higher level of oxygen with a face mask now instead of tube in nose. It will help him to breathe more comfortably.
They were able to put in two new iv's yesterday- we really need 3 with all of the medication that he is getting. The iv team will be back later to try for one more.
He started IVIG transfusions last night. It will put antibodies in his system to help boost his immune system. Another product that comes from blood donors taken from plasma in blood.
I have the lights off and shades drawn- he needs some sleep.

Pulling the Picc! (again)

Here we go again! Another bug was found I just didn't realize that Gary was so buggy! So our friend the pic line has to go :( No changes in meds yet. His fevers continue and very especially rough throughout the night. Blood pressure has had some serious spikes but they tell us that it is beter than low blood pressure. The spikes seem to go along with the fevers.
Another chest cscan this morning- still seemed pretty full of stuff.
He just had an ultrasound of his legs to check for blood clots- the tech thought they looked fine. Med lesson: veins carry blood toward the heart vs arteries which carry blood away from the heart- I know I learned that in some science class long ago.
Platelets bumped to 36 today...wow. If we could only figure out why/how did he get such a great increase in platelets- they have not been this high in a long time. We are told that fevers eat platelets but he did continue to have fevers even up to 104 all night???? FYI- normal platelet levels are 150-300.
Another neutrophil transfusion tonight--- how will Donor #5 rate?? or how many stops will the cabbie make this time??

7:00 pm Neutrophils started volume 253cc for donor #5. Pray for the fevers to stay under control. Hospital protocol states that blood transfusions must be stopped if fever changes 1.8 degrees. Gary is getting close to that- this is when a intelligent decision needs to be made instead of textbook- he has been spiking fevers for the last 4 weeks we know that it is not related to the transfusion so just let it continue!!!