I haven't updated Corey's blog in a couple of weeks. For those who followed, we lost our little Corey on March 5th. It was a tuff time in our lives but we know that Corey has become a real angel and is in the arms of Jesus & my dad. We will miss him so very much.

Courtney and I would like to thank everyone who offered their prayers for Corey. They weren't answered in the way that we had asked, but they were answered for Corey as he is no longer suffering and will live an eternal life of being a sinless child in the heavens above.

For those who were following Corey's blog, I encourage you to follow Kendall's Hope http://kendallbriggs.blogspot.com/. Kendall is the precious child of a friend of the family's. Her diagnosis is a lot different from Corey's but her story is just amazing! Her mom, dad & big brother have the strength I only wish I had.

Where to begin....... They have removed his Pentabarb today and will start lowering his Versed tomorrow with a small additive of Ativan to keep him from having withdrawals. They have also removed him from the EEG and will no longer track his seizures. It sounds like we are giving up, but the truth is, Corey cannot continue to live in a coma. We have to start weaning him from the coma meds to see how much damage has been done and how bad his seizures really are. We will attempt, I assume late next week, at removing his breathing tube. The doctors seemed very positive that he will continue to breath on his own, but the concern will be him controlling his secretions (saliva, coughing, etc.). Courtney, has had to make some very serious decisions in reference to what sort of intervention she would like from the doctors once the tube is removed.

This is a very hard decision for anyone, and a decision we should never have to make for our children. I just want everyone to know where she stands as I don't wan't people judging her and her decisions. Assuming this baby breaths on his own and controls his secretions, we will continue to love and care for him unconditionally no matter what state his brain is in. If he chooses not to breath on his own or cannot maintain his secretions and it appears that his quality of life will be limited or nothing at all, we will not interfere with what they are calling a "natural death". This child has been through a lot and should he continue to fight, we will fight with him. If he decides he's tired and doesn't have the strength to support his condition, we will let him go be with GOD and be the Angel that GOD intended him to be.

I've posted a couple of pictures of him without his EEG leads. What a beautiful baby!

I ask that each of you continue to pray for him.

Morning! Everyone please say a little prayer this morning. We have a 10:00am Care Conference with all the doctors to discuss our next move. They lowered his Pentabarb yesterday down to 1.0 and as far as I know he has had no seizures. Once I know more from the meeting, I will post updates. Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers!

Do you ever ask at what point in your life you start watching infomercials? Well, mine started at about 3:00 this morning. Gotta tell ya, very cool stuff! Would like to have the Shark Steamer and the Ninja dicer, mixer, snow maker! Yes, I am sleep deprived and delirious at this point, but really, you should watch it at some point in your life!

Corey and I had a great night last night. As far as I know we were seizure free the entire night! Yeah!! I've posted a couple of new pictures of him. They don't really do him justice as far as everyone getting to see him move around and make his funny facial expressions. Mimi captured the picture of him crossing his legs. This is something he did in the very beginning and when she sent me this picture yesterday it made me smile. It gives us hope that he is progressing slowly back to the Corey we all know. Sometimes I feel like we are the only ones that believe this, as we only get negative feedback from the doctors. I will continue to feel this way no matter what they tell me because at this point they have no idea what is causing this or what his condition is going to be from one day to the next.

He gets CPT every 4 hours which is where they strap a vest on to his chest and shake him up for 10 minutes. This really sets him off and he lets the RT know that he is not in any way happy with this procedure. He makes faces and frails his arms and legs around to let them know that he would much rather them take his temp!! When we take the rails down on the bed he throws his legs over and tries to escape! Love it!

My cousin Terry in Georgia sent me the following prayer. It is a wonderful prayer that touches my heart and expresses the wants and needs that I would like for my little Corey. I hope that you take the time to read it and believe it in your heart.

Lord, we love you and you know we love Corey. We know God you are the miracle worker. We know you hear us when we pray. We have seen Corey in his sickness. We know many things have been tried, and he is still with us. God we ask you to look into his life and his future. You know what lies ahead. Lord heal him Your way, Your will and Your time. Guide us in making whatever decisions are best for him. Lord please don't let him suffer. He is your child, Lord. You gave him to us, and we are so thankful for every day, every minute an second that goes by. Lord after all these words, we simply ask Lord, for your will to be done. Let our hearts be prepared to accept your will. May we find peace and comfort in knowing Lord, you will not let him suffer. Thank you for his smile, we will remember always. Amen.

Morning everyone! Gamma and Corey had a good night at the hospital last night. He didn't want to wake up for me when I got there so he waited until around 9:30pm and we were up all night. No worries here - it was worth every second.

We have a Care Conference with the doctors on Thursday. I guess we are back to having to make some decisions on how and where we want to go from here. In the six weeks we have been there we've had at least 4 of these conferences, so what's one more? It stresses everyone out to know that another one is here and the news we will receive and the decisions we will be faced with. I can only hope that whatever decisions are made, they are the right decisions for Corey. How do you know what's right? How does a parent make such decisions? Why is a parent faced with such decisions? I spend a lot of my days asking these questions over and over and unfortunately I never find the answer.

I know miracles exist as I have seen them and I pray for one with every breath that I take. I know we always have to be careful for what we wish for as sometimes the worse things in life actually turn out to be the best things in life and we wish them away. I just try to make sense of it all and it's like a puzzle with a missing piece and it will never be complete. I want Corey to be complete, but only if it is his choice. As a Gamma I tend to be a little selfish - well, I think I earned that right, but it is selfish and I have to understand it's Corey & GOD's decision and I will respect what ever decision they choose.

I love him with my entire body and soul and I can only pray that he comes through this. I ask that each of you pray for the miracle that I want, but most importantly the miracle that Corey wants and so much deserves.

Corey's seizures seem to be coming a little more frequent. They have upped his Pentabarb to 2.0 which is discouraging. We had hoped the Keto Diet would have kicked in by now and we could start lowering it again. The plan is to leave it a 2.0 until end of week when the diet has been in affect for a complete week. Hopefully then we can start cutting back on the Pentabarb again.

Gamma is staying over tonight and Tuesday night - I'm so excited. I didn't get up there this weekend because I had Mason and I wanted to spend some time with him. He's a strong little boy, but he's had to spend a lot of time away from me and I tried to focus my time on him this weekend. He was the man of the house this weekend and helped me with all the chores that have gotten behind. I am very proud of him for understanding and giving up so much of his time for Corey.

Please keep Corey in your prayers that this illness will leave his body and he will be whole again. I don't expect the Corey we had, but I expect that smile and those big brown eyes for many years to come. We love him!

Morning everyone! Corey had an ok day yesterday. It was discovered by the day nurse that his IV that infuses his Versed had come out and they were not exactly sure how long it had been out. This could have been the reason for the seizures over the past day or so. They reinserted it and he was seizure free the entire night! Courtney told me that I was not allowed any more sleep over/slumber parties with him because he now has his days and nights confused - well, little does she know, it will be happening again! Can't wait for him to be able to wear PJ's so we can have a PJ party!

I am attaching a picture of him from the hospital. I thought really long and hard about it, but I would like to show everyone his progress from week to week. In this picture I tried to capture the smile that I got when I walked in the room that day. It really melted my heart.

Good morning everyone. Corey and I had another sleep over last night, although Mimi scolded us and gave us a 10:00pm curfew! Well, we might have slipped a little bit, but for the most part we got some sleep. Mom was home with a stomach bug and was still banned from the hospital. She did arrive this morning as I left for work and is feeling much better. Cousin Anthony from Georgia has been in for a couple of days and it has been a blessing to have him here.

It was confirmed that he had several small seizures on Tuesday night and a few through out the day on Wednesday. None of them lasted very long, which we are thankful for. I observed at least two clinical seizures (body movement and reaction) last night, but again we have to wait for Dr. Perry to let us know for sure.

He has started teeteeing on his own now and that is another step forward for him. No more caths and one less thing to make him uncomfortable.

His movement and eye contact appears to be getting stronger each and every day. Yesterday Mimi and I missed each other by approximately 10 minutes at the hospital so he was alone for that short period of time, but when I walked in and spoke to him, his little face lit up with a half smile and my heart just melted.

He is such a precious child and it aches my body to see him going through this, but I know who is in control here and I just ask that everyone please keep him in your prayers. Love you all!

I know.... day two of Corey's blog and I'm already behind! Corey and Gamma had a sleep over at the hospital last night and it turned in to more of an "over" than sleep! No worries here, we talked all night - well at least I did and he listened. He had a great night with what I think was seizure free. We won't really know until Dr. Perry arrives and gives us the scoop. Mom is home today with a stomach issue and so she is banned from the hospital until further notice- lol. Mimi is spending the day with him today and they were having fun with bath time when I left this morning.

Currently they are leaving his Pentabarb at 1.0 and hoping that the Keto Diet will help control the seizures. If that works, then we should be able to wean completely from the Pentabarb and then start working on weaning the Versed.

We know there are going to be bumps in the long road ahead, but we are here to encourage him and fight for him any way possible. I am very thankful to everyone who is keeping him on their prayer list. We have a great social network of friends and family and I am thankful for each and every one of you.

I always say that things happen for a reason. What this reason is yet is still to be determined. But what I do know is that it has brought this family a lot closer together and for that I am very happy. A lot of people don't understand the relationship between Mimi and Gamma, but we do and that is all that really matters. Liz has been a great Mimi considering she inherited Corey through marriage. I am blessed every day to have her and I know Corey is blessed more than anyone. I just want to personally thank her for giving up her time at home and her time away from Bailey to be such an inspiration and true fighter for Corey. We love her!

In the beginning........ yes, I borrowerd that line from one of the best written books known to man. It starts with the life of my little man, Corey. Corey is my grandbaby, born March 31, 2006 to my daughter Courtney. Corey has always been a very vibrant, happy, joyous & healthy baby up until he began having seizures one day without any warning. We have been at Cook's Childrens Hospital in Fort Worth for the past five weeks and we still do not have a diagnosis. In the beginning.....(see I knew I would use that line again) we arrived at Cook's at 10:00pm on a Wednesday night. By 3:30am Thursday morning he began to have a seizure. They perfomed a spinal tap and a catscan to assess the situation and try and find what was causing this to happen to his little body. By 6:00am he had a very strong seizure that lasted approximately 13 minutes. At this time they had to give him meds to stop the seizures that also stopped his breathing. That lead to us having to put him on the respirator. He was eventually coma induced to allow his brain to rest and avoid further damage. He was on two coma inducing meds along with two seizure controlling meds. As of last Friday, they have started lowering the Pentabarb (coma med) in hopes that he will wake up somewhat and be seizure free. Since Friday, he has made great progress in waking up and has start moving his body a little. As of yesterday, his eyes were fully open and his body movements were very strong. That brought great hope to our hearts as it was the first time we had seen his eyes or any body movement for 4-1/2 weeks. As with any illiness there will be bumps in the road - we encountered one of many at 11:30 last night. Corey began to have small seizures again. Rather than up his meds again, we have opted to try the Ketogenic Diet which works in most kids to control their seizures. We still have a lot to learn about this diet, but with all the diets I've tried in my 42 years, it will be a piece of cake (not literally)! We have been on an emotional roller coaster of not knowing where he may or may not progress. The doctors always tell you the worst and you always hope for the best.

I will continue to use his blog to provide daily updates on his recovery and I hope you visit the blog often.

Thanks to each and everyone of you that have offered up prayers and are continuing to pray - he is definately a precious child and we love him very much!