Hey All,

It’s Joey B here. Thanks to all of you who called, sent cards and prayed for me. I was released from the hospital last week but I am still groggy about what was going on. First of all I had no idea that I was in the hospital for 6 weeks and no idea what was wrong until Anneke told me. As for all those praying-AMEN-I do believe prayer works. Most of you know that I’m a Christian and my church and my church family were praying hard (they probably had all the lines tied up).There were people cooking dinner for my family every night and bringing it to our house. Poor Anneke was a wreck, thank GOD she has a flexible job because it seemed whenever I opened my eyes she was there (I am a lucky guy to have such a wonderful wife). Anneke’s family took turns staying here and helping her with the kids etc (they all live back east).They flew out in shifts. Also when I went into the hospital our kitchen/dining and living rooms were completely gutted so there was no place to cook or sit. Anneke took the plans we had and had the work completed, most of the workers were friends of ours which helped.
Our friend Melody set up a blog where many of you left comments and it was unbelievable all the comments we received. As of right now I am going down to UCLA in the mornings for hyperbaric treatments (what a trip) and a nurse comes every day to administer antibiotics thru a pick line that is in my arm. I have a long way to go but it is overwhelming to see and here all of you, it brings tears to my eyes. For anyone that doesn’t know I went into Los Robles hospital because my back was leaking after the first surgery. After going in again they could not find the source of the leak, but by now my condition was getting worse. So they transported me to UCLA (go Bruins) where they proceeded to open me up again. Well after 5 surgeries they found a pocket of bacteria from a surgery 16 years ago, but the bad thing was that by now I had an infection in my brain and E-Coli throughout my body. In any case by the grace of God I am home and hopefully on my way to a complete recovery. They did leave a drain tube in my body and its helping drain fluid into my stomach.
Anyway I’m getting tired and I am going to go and rest. Please feel free to e-mail anytime. Patfan15@gmail.com.

In His Name,
jb

Joey is home! He walked through the door of our new living room and kitchen around 6:30 p.m. last night.
He is still very weak, but you can already see a huge difference, just by him being at home.
There will be quite a bit of follow up therapy in the next month or so, please keep him in your prayers as he begins to realize the magnitude of some of this.
Once again I am amazed at the body of Christ in action. Thanks to everyone, our friends that are believers and non-believers for the outpouring of love on our family.

“…..but if all of these trials bring me closer to you, I will walk through the fire if you want me to.”—Ginney Owens

We have been through the fire, but not alone and the scars we will carry could never compare to the nail scared hands our Savior bore on our behalf, because he loves us.
Love
anneke

Hi,
Yesterday morning(Friday) Joey was taken by ambulance to another building where he sat for some hours in an oxygen tank or oxygen room. I forget what the name of it is a something or other chamber, anyway, it was used to help with his healing process. The nurse had said the plan was to release him today (Saturday). I came home to pick up the little ones from school (my mom left yesterday) and got a call from the hospital. Both of the doctor teams and the nurses working with Joey had had a meeting to discuss his progress and reported it to the head neurosurgeon who all thought it was best that they keep Joey in over the weekend. Although I miss him terribly and want him home, I do want him to be fully recovered.
Joey insisted that I go to Joey B's homecoming game (they won!) but it was hard for me to be away from the hospital. Thanks to Tina and Brian White's loan of their video camera, I got a lot of good footage to share with Joey when he comes home. Brian and Cindy Lilly spent several hours with Joey at the hospital so he wouldn't have to be alone.
My sister (Stephanie) flies in from NY and will be here this afternoon. I am so blessed to have a family willing to fly 3,000 miles to help me. My brother Mark and Joey's sister Eileen will be out this month also.
"You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised" (Hebrews 10:36).
Thanks for everyone's prayers and lets keep praying we get Joey home on Monday.
Love
anneke

Anneke here. Tough day for Joey, very uncomfortable from the shunt. He had difficulty breathing and a lot of pain. X-rays showed nothing serious, no pneumonia or anything out of the ordinary. Just probably pressure from the shunt and some swelling and maybe having SIX surgeries is getting to him. Ya think. He was leaking from the original incision quite a bit this morning which concerned everyone, but tonight he hardly had any leakage. They had him sitting up quite a bit. He really wants me to go to Joey's big homecoming game tomorrow, so if anyone is interested in going down to UCLA sometime tomorrow evening I can give you my parking pass. I hate to see him alone for such a long time. He gets very lonely. I plan to video tape the game and the half time show where Joey will be nominated for homecoming king. Little Johnny is his stand in because Joey will be in the locker room for half time.
Still thanking everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

9/27 Another Update

Anneke did go to the hospital today & talk to the doctors. Joey is having some discomfort in his side & chest which could be from the shunt itself. They have taken x-rays to see what is causing the pain & the leaking & whether the shunt is doing its job. He may just be in pain from spending so much time on his back, so they are sitting him up & having him walk more. Joey is getting very anxious to come home as he is really missing all his family & friends very much. Anneke & Little Joey will go back down to visit him tonight & may have some more test results later.
Until then,
Melody

Just came back from the hospital. I brought my mom and little Johnny with me tonight. My mom will be leaving Friday morning, so it is probably the last visit for her. It did Joey good to see Johnny who was of course very curious.
Joey is stilll leaking. I haven't spoken to the Dr. since surgery, but he had been paged. My plan is to call the nursing station around 5 or 6 tomorrow a.m. to see if I can catch the doctors. Please continue to pray.
I love you all.
Hey Mark( my little brother) Stephanie (my littel sis) will be here on Saturday. You are welcome to come any time. Just let me know.

9/26 Joey B Update...

Joey finally had his 6th surgery last night. After an original attempt to begin surgery at 7:30 pm, Joey's surgery had to be stopped due to an emergency with another patient. So, they woke him back up, sent him to recovery & back to his room again. Then 20 minutes later, back down to surgery around 10:15 pm. Anneke spent the night at the hospital & we are all still waiting to hear from her this morning with the results.
Thanks for all your prayers!!
Melody