Good article by the Signal on Nate

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/3694/

I thought you would all like to read this link which is an article by local paper the Signal.

Thank You Cowboys!!!

Thank you Canyon Cowboys for coming to the hospital to donate blood on Nate's behalf! You are fantastic teammates and friends.

The Latest (Updated by Jeremiah)

The last two weeks have been rough on Nate. I arrived back in CA on the 10th of Aug and he was finishing up his last few days of chemo. We were prepared for him to get sick which he did but he just kept getting sicker. On Monday he was fairly mobile but by Tuesday we were lucky to get him out of bed and across the room. Tuesday was particularly rough as it was the day of football pictures with the team and he had hoped that to attend. His doctors although reticent were ready to let him go to the team photos but the 30 minutes prior he started having poor blood pressure then would become tachycardic (heart beats too fast).

• Wed he became immobile and his low grade fever began to spike.
• Thursday he had an echocardiogram on his heart and developed diminished cardiac function. The physicians were trying to figure out if the issues were caused by pericarditis which is an infection of the sac around the heart or sepsis which is an infection in the blood.
  
• Friday the fever persisted, fluid on his lungs was discovered and his kidneys started to not function well to the point that he was moved to the ICU for better monitoring
  
• The ICU was busy and crazy. Nate seemed to stabilize but his kidneys got a bit worse and on Saturday his legs started to swell and moving at all became difficult.
  
• Sunday it was more of the same and the concern was that he was averaging less than 200 calories a day, the fever continued and ranged between 101 and 105.
  I left on Sunday and I was scared as each day seemed to have more and more bad news. He was fairly stable and did not seem to truly belong in the ICU. Nate began to realize that he needed to fight the disease instead of just enduring it and getting back to his life. The week physically was difficult and draining as his white blood cell count was bottoming out due to the chemo and all of the fore mentioned issues. Emotionally it was difficult as he missed the team photos and school started that Thursday.
  
• Monday Aug 17- Nate was moved to Telemetry (a step up from ICU) but not back the pediatric floor that was much friendlier. It was decided that his issues were being caused by sepsis and he was receiving many drugs to treat this but the fever persisted and the kidneys got worse and the cardiac function was increasingly becoming alarming.
  
• Tuesday 18th- Telemetry was the pits! Again more of the same without much good news. Again decreased kidney function and cardiac function. The swelling got worse and started to move to his abdomen.
  
• Wed Nate was moved back to the ICU and things did not look good and all of the fore mentioned issues persisted as well as his liver started to fail and swell.
  
• Thursday was the low of all lows. I received a call as did all of the family that Nate was going into surgery around 3 and they were not sure if he would make it. We were all asked to come home. It was a stressful flight. Nate’s kidneys were failing and dialysis was needed but he had liquid around his heart that needed to be drained and all of his organs were swollen and his body had no clotting factors to stop any bleeding. He did make it through but when I got in on Thursday night it was rough to see him on the ventilator, tied down, on dialysis (where the clean his blood for him)
  
• Friday he got off the ventilator and some swelling went down. The fluid around his heart did not refill and this was the first day where there was more good news than bad. In fact his white blood count started to come up which means that his immune system can start fighting his infections.

I write this now on Tuesday the 27th and progress is coming. Nate is still in the ICU and continues dialysis and we are hopeful that we will be released up the pediatric floor this weekend and deemed stable. 2 weeks from now we would like to see him released to go home for a week prior to coming back for another round of chemo.

We would like to thank all his friends who have come by and would ask that you wait to see him until he is out of ICU but he is buoyed by your thoughts, prayers and visits. Thank you to all that have and are donating blood and platelets in his name as he has needed almost 2 pints of blood a day and platelets on a regular basis. This is currently the best way to help. 40 football teammates came down via bus yesterday to donate blood and I understand that over 400 students and staff at Canyon are donating blood on Thursday in Nate’s name.

We thank you and we will keep you updated. We would like to especially thank Meghan and Cathy Patterson and the whole Patterson clan for their assistance. Thank you to all others that have assisted our family in this trying time!

Photos and stuff

This is some stuff and pictures from the first few days after he was diagnosed with AML and early in his treatment. Sorry, we have not been the most dilligent in updating the blog. Here is another photo of Nate post the hair cut with his mohawk/mullet.

3 days after he was diagnosed with cancer and 2 days after he had surguery for his central line for his medications Nate had some Sr. photos in the hospital room next door. Obviously these were prior to the mohawk and mullet. We'd like to thank O'Conner Photography for coming out to the hospital to photograph Nate.

Leave it to Nate to look GQ, during clothing changes in the hospital.

2 hours after his Senior photos were taken, Nate started chemo.

A few days into chemo we brought Nate's dog in for a quick visit. You can see from the glasses photo that Nate is a joker. The favorite has been the fake fart machine but the fake puke was a good one to get nurses and visitors.

Nate has had many friends and visitors which always cheers him up. We're so thankful for all the love and support that has been expressed by friends and family all over the world. Both Nate and our whole family have been strengthened.

Here are some great photos from his last football game his Jr year with his two nephews Ethan and Kaden. Ethan was the one who picked out the fake puke for his cool uncle in the hospital. Nate isn't just his favorite uncle, so much as Ethan's favorite person on the planet. Kaden is on the same Nate-adoration bandwagon.

We'll give you a status update on Nate shortly.