Josiah Update January 21st

Hello Friends and Family,
This is going to be a newsy, long post! So go grab your coffee and get a blanket - make yourself comfy before you nestle in to start reading. First of all before I get to the update on Josiah's doctor's appointments from the last two weeks, I wish to express from Dana and I, our sincere gratitude for all of your prayers - they have made a difference in the times we have spent with our doctors. Let me share a few examples how they have specifically helped...

Last week Josiah had his MRI at OHSU and our consult with his neurosurgeon. When we arrived for the MRI, two pediatric sedations for spinal MRI's had been scheduled at the same time. Normally when this happens, they almost always have to reschedule one of the appointments as it is difficult to pull together a sedation team at the last minute. This was answer to prayer #1. Within 15 minutes, they had pulled together a team for Josiah's sedation (also due to the fact that he had to have a specific anesthesia medicine and needed to be monitored more closely) and we were able to proceed with the MRI - praise the Lord! The MRI went well and we had Dara with us for the day, it was a neat opportunity for her to see what her little brother was going through.

When Josiah woke up from his MRI, Dana was brought in to be with him. He was laying in bed, eyes half open, totally groggy. Dana leaned over to greet him, "Hi Josiah- Hi little man... Mommy loves you." Josiah cracked his eyes open just a bit and looked at Dana and said, "Gump Truck!" For those of you who do not know, Josiah is obsessed with all things automotive, and in particular, dump trucks! It was just what Mommy needed to hear from her little guy. Josiah recovered quickly from the sedation, much more quickly than normal and we left OHSU Hospital to go meet with the neurosurgeon.

Our neurosurgeon reviewed the MRI with us and there was some positive things and some things which were of concern. 5 months ago, they were concerned that there was also a narrowing of the spine at the base of Josiah's head. Based on the most recent MRI, this is no longer a concern, it looks completely normal- Yeah God! The cyst in his spine had also not gotten worse and was generally the same. The concerning part of the MRI was that the base of Josiah's spine had gotten slightly narrower which increased the neurosurgeon's concern for pinching of the nerve roots as they move into the sacrum. The nerve roots he was referring to control Josiah's feet sensation, feet function (ability to walk), and bladder & bowel control. He expressed a desire to consult with our spinal specialist at Shriners to determine the best course of action at this point because any surgery to protect Josiah's spinal cord could endanger his spinal stability and lead to the development of neurological problems that don't currently exist. We had about 10 days to wait until our appointment at Shriners for the two of them to discuss the results of the MRI.

Answer to prayer#2. During the time between appointments, we discovered that both doctors had planned some time off, and it was going to be nearly impossible to get them together. With lots of prayer and phone coordination with our nurse care coordinator at Shriners, Dana worked diligently to make sure no balls were dropped trying to get the two physicians together. On Wednesday of last week, to our great relief, our care coordinator called us while the two physicians just "happened" (we know it was the hand of God) to be in the same place at the same time discussing another patient. She encouraged them to take the opportunity and make time to review Josiah's MRI and discuss his care- which they did. We found out today that even the best laid plans for things like this rarely, if ever happen and how miraculous it was for the two of them to have spent the time they did reviewing Josiah's file together. God was so faithful to make sure this piece fell into place prior to our consult at Shriners today.

This morning we roused the family early to get Dara to school on time (Thanks to our carpool for doing both shifts today-- (bless you! bless you). Traffic was no problem and we were 30 minutes early to our appointment. After checking in, we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, Dana checked in with the registration staff to discover that our file had been sent to the wrong nursing unit and our "buzzer" which they use to keep patients in cue wasn't working properly. Now, if you know anything about spinal clinic at Shriners - you can be completely on time and still wait for 3 hours to see the doctor, so we were beginning to think this could be more than a three hour tour. Upon learning about the mistake, Dana began praying, and she just felt like the Lord told her there was a reason for the delay and not to worry.

It wasn't long before they called us back for the x-ray and, 15 minutes after that for our appointment with our doctor. We began settling in to the exam room, where on our previous appointments we had waited for 2+ hours to see the doctor. So, Dana began to feed Josiah lunch when in walks our doctor! We were shocked and surprised and delighted at the same time for this change in events. Now, as I dive into describing what we learned, there were two distinct parts to the appointment.

Part 1: The doctor explained that Josiah's MRI had, in general, had not changed much regarding the bone structure. He examined Josiah physically and watched him as he walked around. He was very pleased to see that developmentally, the deformity in his spine wasn't having a dramatic impact on his walking and mobility. He did bring up the concern with the nerve roots at the base of Josiah's spine and the potential for injury to them should his spine narrow any further at that junction. However, intervening on a 2 year old is quite risky because their bones aren't fully developed - they are still quite soft. Not until closer to the age of 4-5 is it much safer to consider intervention as the bones are stronger.

He stated that his desire was to continue to monitor Josiah every few months over the next couple of years and keep close watch on this with the goal being to buy as much time as possible for Josiah's bone development before an intervention was required. He seemed to be in agreement with the neurosurgeon that in fact, Josiah does have a tethered spinal cord, which normally there would be very little concern with addressing, however the structure of Josiah's spine would complicate such a procedure, putting at risk his stability unless the "snipping" of the phylum (the tendon like material which supports the cord) could be done higher up on the spine to release the tension in his spinal cord. In order for us to assess how significantly this tethering is impacting Josiah, the neurosurgeon and our spinal specialist agreed it would be necessary to have a pediatric urology test for them to evaluate what level of bladder control Josiah currently has since we cannot evaluate that since he is so young and not potty trained. At this point, he asked us if we had x-rays taken as apart of our appointment today, which we did. And this leads us to part two of our appointment...

Part 2: Our doctor left the exam room to go review the x-rays. He ended up being gone about 10 minutes. On one hand, it seemed long considering the x-rays probably weren't vastly different than last time, but I figured it was a busy clinic day and he had likely gotten interrupted. Unbeknownst to Dana and I, he spontaneously decided to ask his partnering physician for some input on Josiah's case, which became the focus of the latter part of our appointment. When the doctor came back in, he prefaced what he was about to tell us with the fact that what he was about to share with us was not to scare us in any way, but to help us gain perspective of Josiah's situation and understand some precautions we needed to consider for Josiah.

Before the story came, he made several admissions, all of which were new to us. First, he said that deformities like what Josiah has are extremely rare, a physician like him may see only one to two cases like this in his entire medical career. Which is why it makes Josiah's case so complicated to deal with. His second admission was that prior to today he had not considered Josiah's bone structure to be fragile he was not very concerned about the likelihood of his spinal column failing in any way structurally - but now he was thinking differently. With these admissions he shared with us a story from his partner's patient that had a similar style defect in his spine, although it was higher up on the spine. One day while this child's mother was at home with him, she got frustrated with him and set him down in a chair roughly to get his attention and verbally reprimand him for getting into something. When she set him down in to the chair, his spine collapsed due to the impact to his nerve cord & deformity and resulted in a permanent paralysis. After sharing this he said that Josiah's spinal deformity is lower in the spine which makes his back more stable, however, that being said he wanted to raise our level of precaution regarding normal everyday activities that could potentially have an impact to his back unnecessarily (i.e. roughhousing with dad or big sister, etc...). He asked us to specifically watch out and protect Josiah from any impact (bouncing on our knees, etc.) or falling on his back. This was and is a big change in our minds as well.

Additionally, following his conversation with his partner, he decided that waiting and observation wasn't enough when it came to watching for indications of pinching to the nerve cord. He immediately ordered a CT scan for Josiah which would provide a 3-D image of all of the bones in Josiah's spinal cord where they can visually see how much margin exists in the area where his spinal cord narrows at the base of his lumbar and beginning of his sacrum. From the urology test and the CT scan, they hope to establish a firm plan for whether or not there is any need to intervene at this point with a surgical procedure. The doctor today said, "It's a tough call - do we wait and then kick ourselves later because we didn't intervene soon enough and there was a neurological catastrophe? Or do we intervene now but then kick ourselves because it was too early and we should have waited? This is such a tough case and we need as much info as possible to make the right decisions." We will be having both of these tests scheduled in the next 2-3 weeks and then give the doctors a couple weeks to meet & talk about Josiah's results. Then we will meet back with them - probably about 5-6 weeks from now.

We are grateful for the precautions that our doctors are taking on behalf of Josiah's safety. You can imagine we are having some mixed responses at this time. It seems as if, as one of our friends so well stated, "a fuse has been lit, we just don't know how long the fuse is." We definitely see the hand of the Lord involved in our circumstances which is giving us encouragement. Please continue to pray with us for the following:
1) Supernatural healing in Josiah's body. We continue to encourage ourselves with the scripture in the gospels that states "With God all things are possible". We value and honor the wisdom and care of our physicians. We have however, not ceased to contend for God to do a miracle in Josiah's body.
2) Strength for Dana who feels the burden of being more cautious with Josiah as he plays each day and the need to watch him also for any symptoms of nerve complications.
3) That once the urology test and the CT scan have been completed that our neurosurgeon and spine doctor from Shriner's will be able to make the time to connect and review the results of the tests. We need another "meeting miracle" in this area!

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support - it means the world to us. Dana told me that when they were potentially going to have to reschedule Josiah's MRI last week unless they could find a 2nd sedation team for Josiah - she literally thought of all the people praying and knew in that moment that EVERY prayer matters and is effective. You may not know how God uses your prayers but they are ALL needed and put to good use. So thank you for your prayers and please continue to stand with us in prayer for Josiah & his healing. We'll continue to post updates as we have them.
Blessings,
Shawn & Dana
P.S. - Thank you to our friend, Jenifer for these amazing pictures of our boy. We LOVE them!!! Check out her website here - she's an amazing photographer!

August 2009 - Appointment Results for Josiah

Hi Everyone,
Sorry this post is so long in coming - the Fall really got away from us. So, we will get right to it! This is what we found out from Josiah's last round of appointments back in August:

Josiah had an extensive MRI of his spine and brain after which we met with our neurosurgeon at OHSU and our pediatric spinal specialist at Shriners. Upon initial review, our neurosurgeon was convinced that Josiah had a tethered spinal cord which was causing the cyst in the fluid sack around his spinal column, he wanted to discuss with our doctor at Shriners the possibility of shaving some of the bone at the base of Josiah's spine to reduce the narrowing at his lumbar sacriatic joint and the risk of it pinching his nerve cord and untether his spinal cord at the same time. Additionally he noticed a narrowing of the spinal column up around Josiah's neck which he also believed could be contributing to the cyst in his spine.

When we met with our spinal specialist at Shriners, he completely disagreed with our neurosurgeon and said he saw no evidence of the tethered cord. He absolutely said that there would be no surgery at this point to the bone at the base of Josiah's spine because of the risk it could cause to Josiah's stability and long term neurological complications from the surgery. He did confirm the narrowing of the spine at the base of Josiah's neck and believed that this, along with the narrowing of the spine at his lumbar sacriatic joint could be responsible for the cyst developing in his spinal column.

After both doctors conferring, they elected to wait another 4-5 months. They ordered another set of xrays and spinal MRI to see how Josiah's continued development is affecting his spine and nerve cord, particularly, how his walking, climbing etc... has affected the part of his spine with the deformity. This leads us to the present.

Josiah has his next round of appointments starting next week. January 11th, he has his MRI and appointment with the pediatric neurosurgeon to review the findings from the MRI. January 21st, we have Josiah's appointment at Shriners for another set of xrays, and appointment with the spinal specialist to review the MRI, xrays and give some input as to what he thinks next steps are regarding Josiah's spine.

We have a lot of questions as we head into these appointments with the doctors and are hoping there is nothing critical that is happening in Josiah's body at this time that would require intervention. His body developmentally is in such a tender stage any intervention at this point is a huge concern because his bones are still soft and there would be significant risk. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as these appointments are all day long ordeals and very exhausting physically and emotionally. We also ask that you continue to stand with us in prayer for a miracle for Josiah's back as that is the most ideal option.

We will post an update at the end of January as soon as we have more information. Thanks for your love and support!
Shawn, Dana, Dara & Josiah

Our trip to Redding, CA

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip to Redding - we had a wonderful time! The travel down on Friday was amazing - the kids did great. Our van was packed with lots of activities (thank you Aunt Michelle & Brynna for the use of your DS & games), snacks, movies (thank you Weldon's for the portable DVD player), coloring books and of course we made lots of stops for potty breaks and stretching. :)

One of the highlights of our trip down was a stop in Corvallis to see Shawn's brother and his family. What fun we had hanging out with Jason & Olivia and seeing our neice, Teagan and nephew, T.J. - the kids got to play at a jumping gym (even Shawn & Jason got in on the action). It was the perfect pit stop on our trip - we LOVED hanging out with you guys! The rest of Friday was pretty much a travel day - checking into the hotel at 9:30pm, getting settled in and then heading to bed for some much needed sleep.

Saturday morning we headed over to the healing rooms at Bethel Church. There were about 120+ people there for healing. Because of the numbers of people that come each week to the healing rooms, they have it very organized. We registered, were assigned a group letter (we were in the "H" group), and then proceeded to the sanctuary to spend time in worship and in the presence of the Lord. They had the chairs all moved around the room in small groups and you could sit anywhere you wanted, worship was going on constantly and it was very peaceful but declarative, and in the back they had a section with toddler toys and then a table set up for the older kids with crafts and painting activities. It was very welcoming for both the adults and the kids that were there. For the two hours that we were in the sanctuary waiting for group "H" to be called, we witnessed a lot of people experience healing miracles. There were many people who were either deaf or had significant hearing loss that were healed and received their hearing back. There was a woman who was healed of a severe ankle injury. There was a man & his wife from Montana who had a severe back injury from 30 years ago when a large piece of machinery fell and hit his lower back. He could hardly walk and spent 6-7 hours a day in bed, had had 8 surgeries, been to multiple pain clinics, on lots of pain medicine, etc. As we were in the sanctuary, over about an hour & a half time he went from hardly being able to walk to completely bending over, jumping, running, etc. They brought them up for testimony and he was just praising the Lord and his wife was sobbing as they shared that God had just healed his back - it was amazing! Praise the Lord! It was awesome to witness these miracles taking place all around us - it really built our faith. Group "H" was called at 11:30am and we were taken to a fellowship hall type room where 2-3 people from Bethel's ministry team were praying with each family/couple/individual there for healing. So we waited until Josiah's name was called. Two older gentlemen prayed with us. They introduced themselves, read through our form, asked a few questions about Josiah's situation and then began to pray for him. They also coached us that while we witness some miracles being instantaneous, that some miracles happen progressively. So they coached us on how to continue praying for Josiah which was very encouraging. Lastly, one of the men praying for us felt the Holy Spirit tell him that we were like the story in the Bible (Mark 2:3-12) of the four friends who cut a hole in the roof and lowered their paralytic friend down on a mat so that he could reach Jesus and be healed. He said that we are like those four friends to Josiah, bringing him to the feet of Jesus to be healed and that God would honor our faith. We also attended service on Sunday morning at Bethel and had Josiah prayed for again after the service at the ministry time for physical healing. We very specifically felt the presence of God while Josiah was being prayed for then. Dana also took the opportunity to be prayed for as well for her PCOS (poly-cystic ovary syndrome) and Dara was prayed for as she had burned three fingers earlier that morning on the waffle maker at the hotel's breakfast bar (poor thing!). On the way to church her fingers really started to blister badly despite our efforts to soak them in ice water and she was in a lot of pain. During the ministry time when Dara was prayed for the pain left her fingers and the blistering on her hands was almost completely healed - you could barely tell that she'd had a burn that morning. God did a miracle in her fingers because her burn should have blistered up and been painful for the next week, it's like God just stopped the progression of the burn and healed it - Dara was really excited and we were too - praise the Lord! We left Bethel feeling very encouraged in our faith and in the conviction that God will heal Josiah's back. We are continuing to contend for that healing in our prayers as we look forward to his MRI on Aug 24th.


We headed home on Monday and the trip back was good - not quite as "amazing" as the drive down had been. The kids were tired from the traveling, Josiah had had it with his car seat (how do you tell a 19 month old there's 8 hours of driving left?) and it was time for us all to get home. :) However, we had a wonderful visit with a good friend, Robbin and her kids (including her beautiful new 9 week old little girl). We made it home late Monday night about 10pm and we all crashed. We are SO glad we made the trip but it's always good to be home! It was quite an interesting transition home, although, because we had been in 110-114 degree weather down in Redding and then we came home to a week of 104-110 degree weather here - all week we kept saying how much it felt like we were still in California, crazy! What a relief that it's finally back in the 90's again. :)


Thank you for all of your prayers! We will continue to keep you all updated about Josiah. As a side note, Shawn finished his last shift at Starbucks this weekend - yippee! He begins his new position at Adventist Hospital tomorrow morning. He's SO excited and we are thrilled to have him home with us again every evening.
Love & blessings,
The Klinkners

Arrival in Redding

Hello Friends-
We have safely arrived in Redding. We had a really nice drive down today. We checked into the hotel at 9:30pm. It only took us 12 hours to make a 7.25 hour drive. We figured not too bad for 6 stops!

Actually, one of the best parts of our day was getting to see Uncle Jason and Aunt Olivia, and cousins Teagan and TJ in Corvallis on the way down. We got to catch up a little and spend some time in a jumping gym with tons of inflatables. Even Shawn and Jason got in on some of the action! (Pictures to come- I promise).

We are headed to bed for a much needed rest before our big day at Bethel's healing rooms tomorrow. Thank you for all of your prayers for safety and traveling grace- the kids did great. More updates soon-
Love,
Shawn, Dana & Kids

Trip to Redding & New Job!

Hello Friends,
I have some great news! As many of you know last year after being unemployed for 8 months, in July of 2008 I was hired at Adventist Medical Center in Portland to provide support and coordination for a large construction project they had undertaken. It was a temporary year long position, but I felt that it was the right opportunity and that it would lead to other open doors.

During the past year I have learned a lot about healthcare, hospital operations and construction, which I previously knew nothing about! My boss, who was the Senior Vice President at the time, 4 months into my new job ended up promoting to become the CEO and was unable to continue providing leadership and oversight for the project as he previously had. So I had to step up to take on additional responsibilities from December through the finish of the project at the end of May. It proved the perfect testing ground, as God used it to provide a way for me to demonstrate many of the capacities He has given me, some of which I didn't even know I had. I gained a new interim boss, who also became an amazing advocate for me.

Well, to make a long story short, I have been offered a new, permanent position working as the property manager for the hospital, medical office buildings and our outlying clinics. Its a great opportunity for me to continue to learn, not to mention build relationships with many of the physicians that work with our hospital. I will also be in charge of space planning, and making recommendations for how vacant space is used on the campus, including the hospital itself. (I will even have my own office and an assistant who will support me in my new position!) I am so grateful to be able to continue on at AMC, as this position will open up other doors for me long term.

Another blessing is that I will finally be able to turn loose of my second job!! {Hear the angels singing & dancing? I think I just saw Gabriel bust-a-move!) It has been a long road, but God has rewarded my perseverance and faith and given me an amazing opportunity. My last day as a Starbucks barista will be August 1st, and that will officially mark 4 years and 10 months. That's a lot of mochas and frappucinos people! It has been a good part-time job to have, but I am ready to enjoy my Friday and Saturday nights with my family again. Suffice it to say, we are all so excited for this new season- thank you Jesus!!

Now, on to our next bit of news...

Many of you have been following our updates on Josiah. He continues to grow and develop into a fun-loving, loud, busy little boy. With his upcoming MRI on August 17th, both Dana and I have been prompted to take opportunity to really seek God for a healing miracle on his behalf. Following the doctor's appointments he has already had, it appears that there is no easy solution for the issues with his back. There are many risks with doing any kind of surgery, and risks if there is none. Our neurosurgeon even admitted that he didn't have any clear ideas on how best to address the issues in Josiah's back.

So, after some thinking and prayer, Dana and I have decided to drive down to Bethel Church in Redding, California. We have been familiar with Bethel and Pastor Bill Johnson's faithful work there to raise up a church body that walks in the power of God to see healing miracles come to all people. Over the past years, Bethel Church has seen people healed from cancer, broken limbs, gastrointestinal disease, deafness - there are so many testimonies, we couldn't possibly list them all. Bethel has a ministry of their church called "healing rooms" where anyone who is in need of physical healing can come and be prayed for. Weekly people come to be ministered to in the healing rooms and experience God's healing power in their bodies. We believe that God has made provision for Josiah's healing and are therefore making every effort to get him in an environment where he can experience that healing.

Many of us become familiar with a construction company, or a physician, counselor or pastor, who has developed a reputation because of their skill and talent. People seek them out because of their knowledge, giftedness and wisdom and benefit from it. In the same way, God works through different parts of the Body of Christ who have cultivated wisdom, knowledge and understanding about teaching, evangelism, discipleship and healing. We feel it would be foolish to not take advantage of the wisdom that God has given to this fellowship of believers who have with sincerity and diligence pursued God for wisdom and understanding about how to walk in the supernatural. So Friday morning we are driving down to Redding, California to take Josiah to the healing rooms at Bethel and to attend church services. We will come back Monday evening, so we are doing our best to also make a mini-vacation out of it and have some much needed rest and relaxation for our little family.

Will you join with us in believing God for a supernatural intervention in Josiah's body? The Bible says that all things are possible with God, and scripture gives us example after example that Jesus has not changed- He is the same yesterday, today and forever! Like the woman who had the issue of blood for 13 years and no doctor could heal her of her condition, we are reaching out in faith to our precious Jesus to take hold of His healing power for Josiah. Thank you for your prayers- we will be driving down Friday all day - and back home Monday. Please pray for safety and traveling grace for us, and most of all for the healing miracle we so desire for our little guy. We will post an update next week after we return from our trip!
Love,
Shawn, Dana, Dara and Josiah