January 25, 2010 - 11:30pm Joshua got a terrible headache and his entire left side went paralyzed and he heard a pop in his head. He was rushed to the E.R. since my Aunt was already aware of the AVM, she was told when he was 7yrs old it was inoperable however he had radiation therapy which didn't shrink the AVM but it didn't appear to be getting worse she was told last year.

January 26, 2010 - Joshua was transported to Children's hospital, still awake and speaking... he had another blood vessel burst that afternoon and went into a coma and he is placed on a ventilator for life support.

January 27, 2010 Doctors advised us that where his AVM had bled all the brain tissue was now dead that it was highly unlikely he would ever wake from the coma but if he did he wouldn't be the same Joshua and because of the part of the brain where the bleed was on he would not be able to understand, comprehend or be able to learn again. Thier advise was to turn off the ventilator and let him go. After much prayer from everywhere & everyone and crying feeling so hopeless about the situation approx 8:30am Joshua wakes from the coma... they tell him to move 2 fingers...HE DOES IT! move two toes...HE DOES IT! they wave hi...he waves hi back... which went against everything we were advised.

January 28, 2010 Joshua has another bleed and goes back into a coma.

January 31, 2010- We were going to take him off the ventilator but decide not to

February 2, 2010 We again think about taking him off the ventilator but dont. They turn down the settings on the ventilator and find out he can only breathe for 6 hours on his own and then he stops and the ventilator comes on.

February 3, 2010 Joshua breathes on his own for 9hours and then stops and the ventilator comes on.

February 5, 2010 We have another meeting with the doctors. The show us the CAT scans & MRI's ... of course it dosen't look hopeful. But we still haven't given up hope... Until Jesus decides to take him home we are praying for a miracle. We do schedule to have his ventilator taken out at 9pm on Saturday.

February 6,2010- The ventilator is taken out and turned off. The doctors tell us we can all be in the room with him after.

February 7-11, 2010- Joshua continues to breath on his own! Praise God!! He also started to respond to touch. If you touch his face he sometimes turns his face the other way. On February 9th he was moved out of ICU ...onto a regular floor.

Feburary February 12, 2010 - Today is 18 days for my cousin Joshua's coma... they will be sending him home from Children's Hospital on Tuesday February 16th on Hospice Care. I have been at the hospital as often as possible...sometimes everyday if I can..we read to him & play music for him. He's 15 years old. He will be turning 16 this year. We are still praying for a miracle...He is in God's hands...

February 13, 2010- I was at the hospital today. Joshua was having what seemed to be withdrawl symptoms from the morphine...The doctors said it was either that or siezures but more than likely it was withdrawl symptoms. He also is getting muscle spasms where is arms are curling in. A doctor spoke to us in the evening and said that happens with the brain stem is having pressure put on it ...either from the blood from the burst or from being swollen. She said it's only a matter of time before it affects the part of the brain that controls his breathing and from her words that would be happening sooner rather than later. Its so hard to watch him suffer this way and there is nothing we or the doctors can do. They say he may still come home Tuesday. We will see.

February15, 2010 - I went to the hospital. Joshua seemed really aggitated and I called in his nurse to see if everything was ok. He ended up having a seizure which last about 45min to an hour before they were able to get him the medicine he needed since it was his first one. He isn't coming home today. They need to do CAT scans & EEG's to make sure they have everything under control and have him on the correct medication before they send him home. It was a really tough day to watch him go through that.

February 16, 2010-Whittier Daily News has an article about Josh in the newspaper.A local newspaper did an article on my cousin Joshua who has an AVM. He's 15yrs old. Some of his friends are doing a concert to raise money for medical expenses.There is so much support & prayer. http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_14406777

February 17, 2010- I wasn't able to make it to the hospital today. My aunt tells me Joshua seems really restless according to his vital signs since he's still in a coma. They also haven't gotten his seizure medication right yet so she said it appears he's still having little seizures but nothing like the one on Monday. I'm going to the hospital on Friday and Sunday to be there all day. A local news station did a news segment on Joshua and the band raising money
http://cbs2.com/tv/need.friends.teens.2.1501982.html

February 19, 2010 I was at the hospital all day today. Josh seems to be having seizures or withdrawal symptoms very often. They were doing a 24hr EEG test on him to see if they were seizures that we are seeing. He seemed very aggitated with all the equiptment on. I was trying to clean his face and he pushed my hand away! He also did alot of moaning and making noise here and there. Even as the doctors say he's getting worse he seems more aware of his surroundings. We are having a meeting with the doctors are monday to see what the results of the CAT scan, MRI and EEG are. Keep praying for a miracle!

February 21, 2010 I was at the hospital today Joshua seemed to be doing so much better, He's on morphine, keppra, and ativan. He barely had any tremors or what we thought were siezures today. He looked really comfortable today which was good. I was upset because the had stopped giving him his feedings on Monday or Tuesday and they hadn't restarted because they said they wanted to see if he was having seizures they didn't want to chance him throwing up and then it going into his lungs. But after me and my aunt asked everyone that came in the room today. They are gonna start his feedings through his I.V. instead. Tomorrow is the meeting so we will see what they say. Today was 28 days in the coma.

February 22, 2010 - The meeting was today I wasn't able to make it. They said they wanted to try to send Joshua home by Wednesday(2-24-10) on all his medications, but without a nurse for maybe a week, just hospice care. My aunt told them she wasn't comfortable bringing him home without a nurse because of this seizures so they are going to try to keep him until they are able to get a nurse approved through the insurance to take care of him. The also dont want to send him home on his i.v., they said they dont want to send him home with anything that could get infected??? so they are going to try to give him all his medications through his feeding tube and see if it dosen't upset his stomach. If it dosen't upset his stomach then they will remove his i.v. and do all feedings and medications through the feeding tube. We will see how this goes, if it dosen't work out they said they will get back to us on what the next step would be. Another day of prayer and walking in Faith... thats all we have left. Sometimes he seems very uncomfortable, it's hard to see him like this day after day. I just can't imagine how my aunt feels as his mom. She has so much faith and strength, I stand in admiration.

February 24, 2010- Joshua was supposed to go home today but they haven't even started him taking his meds through his NG tube, they keep changing the amount of the dosage which is making it almost impossible for him to be comfortable, he's sweating, trembling, his blood pressure is high. There is also no mention of him going home on friday. I will be at the hospital on friday for the day we will see what they say then. My aunt is so tired of seeing him suffering, it's heartbreaking to watch him and to see her. We keep praying for miracles.... I will walk by faith...even when I can not see.... God is faithful & true no matter what the circumstances or outcome... but we are still praying for a miracle.

February 26, 2010 - I was at the hospital today. Josh seemed to be doing better today, and for him better means he seemed to be resting more comfortably. Unfortunately to us that means he's having a "good" day. Sad ..... the social worker mentioned to us today that they were just waiting on the insurance to approve the hospice care and the medical equiptment, bed, etc and the part-time nurse for the evenings. Again they now say maybe monday or tuesday (I dont know where they get these days from) Since they are saying someone still needs to come out to the house to measure for a bed and no one has been out there. Joshua's sister asked the doctor if he would come home sweating, trembling and they said yes, that what they see wouldn't keep him in the hospital, he is "stable". So we are just waiting to hear next week. We continue praying... asking.... and hoping...

March 1, 2010- My aunt called me today that they say he is once again going home tomorrow. It seems nothing is set up, they can't give her any definate answers so we will see. The did up his dosage of keppra and he is off of all i.v. medications and feedings... all feedings and medications are done through his n.g. tube. They still say they are going to show my aunt how to feed and give medications while they are waiting on nurses to be approved. We will see what this week holds... another day... lots more prayers....

March 2, 2010- I got a call this morning from my aunt, the hospital talked to her and said that he would be leaving the hospital at 3pm, they wanted to know if we had clothes to send him home in.... clothes??? no one told us... I guess we just assumed due to his condition he would be going home in a hospital gown. They said they wanted her at the hospital as soon as possible so she could learn how to put in the ng tube and administer medications and feedings.... funny....after over a month of being in a the hospital they are barely showing her today... the day he's going home. The good thing is having him at home will mean no visiting hours , no having to take turns seeing him, 2 visitors to a room, and her house is much closer than the hospital which means I can be there more often. Lots and Lots of prayer needed today... for Josh's miracle... and for my aunt's comfort and calm mind. ...

March 2, 2010- cont. I went to see Joshua, he's home.... I'm happy for that! We have a nurse that is staying just until 11pm tonite and then we are on our own until tomorrow when the nurses shift will start being 11pm til 7am. Hospice was also at the house checking up on Joshua. He looks really good today, very peaceful and relaxed. I will be able to see him everyday this week and for that I'm grateful. This is a definate answer to prayer!

March 3, 2010 - I went to see Joshua today, I just can't believe how different and relaxed he is, In the hospital he's was sweating and his hands were squeezed into a first, at home he's not sweating and his hands aren't in a fist, it seems like he knows he's home. My aunt gives him all his medications during the day and his feedings. He's fighting for a reason, and we pray it's for a miracle but whatever he's fighting for we are here for him...

March 4, 2010- I saw Joshua today, weird thing happened he started making this noise with his mouth it almost sounded like he wanted to cry. I even looked at his eyes to see if tears were going to come out... My aunt asked me what's he doing? Whats wrong? I told her I wasnt sure cause I never heard him make that noise... A nurse called to check on Josh and my Aunt told the nurse that Josh seemed uncomfortable and was making a noise almost like he was crying.... I came back to the room and told my Aunt thats exactly what I thought! I'm not sure what it was or why he was doing it but I never heard it before...thought it was worth writing about.

March 5, 2010- Josh got an ipod dock today so we can play his music in his room without his earphones on. I want to hug him so bad and feel a hug back. and it makes me sad because if this is how I feel as his cousin I can't imagine how my aunt feels. We are praying for miracles.... and hope

March 6-8, 2010 I saw Joshua, he has periods where he is more awake and his eyes are open, and then times when his eyes are closed. Saturday Morning he started to make the crying noise we heard on March 4th and tears came out, since then he has done it about 3 more times, his social worker was there this morning when he did it so she is going to talk to the dr and nurse about it tomorrow. As long as he's fighting so we will, with our prayers and our support... and keep putting our hope and trust in God, its amazing how much we have learned so far and it feels like it's only the beginning, its through the trials of life that you really put things into perspective and realize how important family and faith in God really is and how unimportant are some other issues in our lives. I checked Joshua's eyes this weekend for dialation, the right is normal sized but dosen't move but when Josh was in the hospital the right eye was a pin hole size so it has changed and the left eye dialates a little. Joshua continues to be a breathing miracle every time he takes a new breath...
Today is 42nd day in the coma and exactly 30 days without the ventilator...
he wasn't supposed to even make it a day without a ventilator... he wasn't supposed to survive the 1st bleed...the doctors said if his brain ever bled because of the location he would die instantly... at least 5 bleeds later he is still alive... He wasnt supposed to wake from the coma and understand or be able to comprehend due to the location of the bleed and when he woke up for that brief period on January 27th he understood everything... doctors can go off of thier facts and what they have learned but God's ways are above our ways and our understanding.

March 9, 2010- I saw Joshua today, and I actually saw him make a sad face, his bottom lip stuck out and tears started coming out of his eyes. It was very sad. I called my Aunt in the room to talk to him with me and he did stop.

March 11-14, 2010- Thursday night Joshua's hospice nurse gave him an extra dose of morphine because he said he looked uncomfortable. Weird this is , he never looks uncomfortable enough when he's with us alone to warrant extra morphine. It's wierd. He's on so much medication. I can't even imagine him looking uncomfortable. But Friday and Saturday he had a new nurse because his nurse was off. And he didn't need extra morphine those 2 days. Even though this nurse seemed like she didn't know what she was doing at least he didn't get any extra. It just seems like he gets so much morphine already around the clock that to give him more seems like too much to me. Saturday Joshua cried when he heard his nieces and nephews come in the room and Sunday when his aunt Brenda came to see him he started to cry. Now when he cries his whole face has expression not like before. And unless I'm imagining when you ask certain questions he really appears to slowly move his head to nod to say yes or no. He wasn't doing that before. Sunday night his regular hospice nurse was back and he again said Josh appeared uncomfortable and gave him an extra dose of morphine. Joshua was fine all weekend without that nurse there. He happens to be a male nurse. I dont know if Joshua dosen't like him or feel comfortable with a man taking care of him because he never does the stuff the nurse says he does when they are alone. I told my aunt today whatever is the problem, tell the hospice agency to send a new nurse it's not worth Joshua having to take extra morphine everynight if maybe he dosen't need it. And if he's trying to come through the coma how is he doing to under such heavy sedation. We continue our prayers!

March 15-18, 2010 - We have had the hugest miracle this week! All the prayers and faith are showing so much! This week Joshua has been nodding his head yes and no to all the questions we ask him!His sister asked him to lift his leg and he lifted it off the bed. He has never done this before, We are amazed we can't believe it! The doctors told us this would never happen because he wouldn't be able to comprehend anything if he would ever come out of the come he would be in a vegitative state, they were 100% sure and this week they have been proved wrong, He will nod yes or no if he wants to watch tv or listen to music, if he wants to sit up more or lay back down...EVERYTHING! I can't believe it. Thursday he was trying really hard to go to the bathroom and he couldn't , he was really struggling , My aunt asked him if he would want someone to carry him to the toilet, so his brother and brotherinlaw carried him from the hospital bed to the toilet and he was able to go! He did it one other time during the night, and someone said something funny and he made a noise, my aunt asked him Josh are you going to cry? He shook his head no. She asked was that a laugh? And he shook his head YES! The have also cut is morphine from 2.5ML every six hours to 1ML every six hours and he's doing really good. No withdraw effects! He still can't coordinate everything too well. And the nods are very slight but NOTICEABLE. He dosen't seem like he is able to see that well, but day by day and prayer by prayer. We are all amazed! Continue praying and Thank you for all your prayers!!! This after 48 days of being in a comatose state. The first day he nodded was on March 14 when I asked him Josh can you hear me???

March 20, 2010 - Saturday...approx 2:30am ...Joshua's nurse that takes care of him at nights asks him a questions and he gives an AUDIBLE yes! not a nod, he said it out loud! She goes to wake all the family memebers in the house, when asked again Joshua responds with a YES and a NO and my aunt asks him if he can say MOM and he repeats it perfectly! another amazing miracle! I can't explain how much joy this has brought to our morning when I get a call at 7:40am to be told what happened! I get to my aunts house at 10am and hear Josh say yes and no... at my aunts prompting he can say I love you! He does try to say things we can't make out yet, later on the in the day he was trying to say something I could tell it had 2 syllables so through a process of elimation I realized he was trying to say bathroom! I asked him again are you trying to say bathroom he nodded yes, i said ok then say it again and he said BATHROOM. I asked you have to go to the bathroom, he said yes, so my Aunts son in law carried Joshua to the bathroom where he went on as they helped him by holding him up. A few hours later when his Aunt Brenda was there he started to say bathroom again, and my Aunts son in law took him again and he went. It's truly an amazing miracle watching this all come together we are speechless at how great and awesome God is! Continue to pray for his recovery!

March 21, 2010 - Today I went to see Josh, he was really sleepy, I was only there for 2 hours but during a period where he woke up I told him let me fix your pillows for your legs, so I fixed them and after I was done, he said something I went closer and asked him to repeat and it sounded like Thank you. I asked him did you say thank you and he nodded his head yes. This is the first time he has said thank you!

March 26, 2010 - Joshua eats soft foods for the 1st time and he also smiles for the 1st time since responding.

March 28th - Joshua is wheeled outside in a desk office chair for the 1st time he's been outside since he's been home.

March 29th- I went to visit Joshua and he said "stay with me" he also asked "where am I?" We are not sure if it's disorientation from the medication or loss of memory. We will see.

April 19th- The doctors are slowly decreasing Joshua's meds, he's completely off morphine now. Hospice doctors came to see him last wed, April 14th and also say he's a miracle , they are going to move him from hospice to a rehabilitation program. The sad this is it's taken them a month of him responding to actually come out to see him. He also has another CT scan this wednesday at children's hospital. He seems very depressed ...but again it's been a month of him responding and no care had changed as far as trying to get him rehabilitated. Some of the medication appears to make him hallucinate and make him very angry. Also yesterday for the first time April 18th, he tried to stand...with our help although he insisted he could do it on his own =) We stood him up twice supporting him by holding his arms and he pushed up with his legs... he is truly the biggest miracle I have ever seen even though I know he dosen't feel like it right now.

Evening of April 19th and April 20th - I got a call from Aunt... she said Josh wasn't breathing well or responding his eyes weren't dialating. I went over to see him and the hospice nurses came after 3 hours of waiting for them to get there... his temp was 103...he was having seizures about every 10 minutes and completely unresponsive...the nurses said from the symptoms he had another bleed probably around 3pm when my Aunt started noticing something was wrong, he is back in a coma. He had come so far, but God's ways are not our ways, we dont know why this is happening but we are trusting in God. It's hard to be back in the waiting period to see whats going to happen, he's not going to the doctor tomorrow for the schedules CT scan because the appt was to show his progress and get him into rehab and now it would be more harm to try to move him and stress his body. He's at home, since he's on hospice care we weren't able to call an ambulance during the entire episode. So for 4 hours we were completely on our own with God on our side until the hospice got there. And since he's on hospice care he dosen't get re-admitted into a hospital. We will wait and see what plans God has for him. and Us. Keep praying... we have witnessed what God can do and nothing is impossible.

April 22, 2010 at 2:15am, Joshua went home to heaven, where he now walks and talks and does everything on his own. Joshua's life touched so many people, I got to my aunts house on April 21, around 4:30pm and stayed until around 1:45am, I went home and was home for 20 minutes when I got the phone call that he was taking it last breath, I went back to my aunts house and stayed all morning until the Funeral home came to pick him up. Yesterday when I saw Josh I told him if he could hear the angels singing it was okay to go home and be with them now, that we were so proud of how hard he has been fighting. Sunday when he was still responding I told him that day how proud I was of him, he responded thanks. Joshua life will always be proof that miracles do happen, according to the doctors we should have never had the last month with Joshua where he was responding to us, I love him so much, it's hard to believe he's gone from here on earth, but I know I will see him again. He's waiting for us with no more pain,.. I thank God for giving us the opportunity to spend these last few months by Joshua's side. Thank you for all your prayers and support.