Saturday Morning, 7/30

Jadon’s Wake and Mass of Christian Burial will both take place at St. John’s Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon, Oklahoma.  His Wake is scheduled for Monday, August 1 at 7PM.  The Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for Tuesday, August 2 at 10AM.  The church and funeral home details are provided below respectively.

St. John Nepomuk Catholic Church
600 Garth Brooks Blvd.
Yukon, OK 73099
405-354-2743

Yanda and Son Funeral Home
1500 W. Vandament
Yukon, OK 73085
405-350-7101

The family would like to thank everyone for their generous acts of compassion, kindness and prayers through this long and difficult ordeal.  The family would also like to thank everyone who participated in the Walk for Jadon held at the Yukon High School gym tonight.  A very special thank you goes out to Father Novak, Deacon Dan Lombardi, the school and church families at St. John’s Nepomuk.  A very, very special thank you to the dedicated medical staff at OU Children’s Hospital who showed their caring compassion for Jadon through the daily routines of treatments, patient maintenance and unending family questions.

In closing, I have to admit my personal knowledge of leukemia was limited to St. Jude advertising showing the bald kids that apparently had a much different outcome.  Leukemia had never touched anyone in our family before.   After witnessing the terrible ordeal first hand that Jadon endured this experience has given me not only an elementary baseline of knowledge about the disease but it allowed me to see the strength of Jadon’s character that was never apparent to me before during our casual interactions.  As some of you may already know, the treatment for the disease is almost as terrible as the disease itself.  I witnessed Jadon taking every injection with only a grimace knowing he was being subjected to extremely high levels of pain.  Not to mention the numerous negative side effects that would accompany each treatment.  Even though the chemotherapy burned through his body like hot coals his will to fight never waned.   Although Jadon ultimately lost his battle to the disease, his tenacity to beat this disease was apparent all the way to the end.  He truly exhibited the resolve of a hero.  As his grandfather I hereby award Jadon Conger the highest award for bravery and conspicuous gallantry while engaged in action against an unseen enemy – Leukemia.  Good bye Jadon and God Bless you for eternity for you are my hero never to be forgotten.

Thursday Night 7/28

This morning the parents made the difficult decision to remove life support from Jadon’s body and hope for a miracle.  The dosage level of the blood pressure medications were reduced by half, the dialysis machine was removed and the trach was disconnected.  Jadon’s blood pressure tapered down to a systolic value in the 20s with shallow respiration.  Jadon maintained this level for about two hours before the life left his body at 1:50PM this afternoon.  He died in the presence of mom, dad, Father Novak and Deacon Dan Lombardi.

Today I lost my grandson, friend, favorite chess opponent, kite flying buddy and James Bond movie buddy.  Those big beautiful brown eyes will only be available to see through the many photographs recorded over the years.  Admittedly a poor substitute for the real thing.  The photos cannot let me hear his laughter, sense of humor, see any more soccer or basketball games.  I won’t get to see him walk across the stage to receive his diploma and grow into the man I know I would have been proud.   Instead I have a large hole in my heart that will never heal.  However everytime I watch a James Bond movie he will be sitting right next to me and won’t complain when I eat all the popcorn

A wake for Jadon is scheduled for Monday evening with a memorial service for Tuesday morning at St. John’s Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon.  The times have not been set at this time but will be provided in my next and final blog.

Thursday Morning 7/28

Jadon’s blood pressure continues to be an issue even with three medications being administered.  He is regularly receiving blood products to maintain a nominal blood count.  Visual observations reveal his nasal debridement site has resumed  bleeding as evidenced by the blood in his mouth.  His lower abdomen is distended and his breathing has become labored.  He was not on the dialysis machine when we arrived last night but the attending doctor was going to reinstate it due to the excessive fluid retention and blood chemistry levels.  The dialysis machine was reinstalled without incident at the parents request.  The chemotherapy will not be resumed due to his weakened state.  The attending doctor has recommended his DNR be reinstated.  Jadon’s prognosis remains grim.

The St. John church deacon was with us most of the evening.  We want to thank everyone for their continued thoughts and prayers.

Tuesday Night 7/26

Jadon is receiving an additional blood pressure medication (vasopressin) at the direction of the new attending physician.  This brings his total number of BP medications back to three although it will be at a lower dosage level than before.   His systolic BP has been maintaining in the 80s with the addition of the vasopressin.  The oncologists have elected to begin administering chemotherapy tomorrow to prevent the leukemia from returning at a more aggressive rate pending the family’s consent.   He remains on dialysis due to his nonexistent kidney function.  His toes and skin issues continue to improve.

Other activities today included two units of blood and his trach tube was replaced.

Thank you for keeping the prayers coming as Jadon is needing the healing hand of his Lord and Savior more than ever.

Monday Morning 7/25

Jadon has been maintaining nominal blood pressure levels for the last few days.  He remains on two medications; epinephrine and dopamine.  The epinephrine was increased slightly yesterday to ensure he maintains acceptable levels.  He also remains sedated which keeps him limited to head nods in response to verbal requests. Last nights observations revealed his skin color appeared more normal and the former rash/blistering sites on his abdomen were healing.  Both of his feet still exhibited a dark skin color but showed evidence of healing.  His kidney output is still almost nonexistent keeping him on dialysis.  I have not been made aware of any pending procedures this week.

 

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Friday Afternoon 7/22

Jadon is definitely showing signs of improvement.  His need for the ventilator has been reduced.  The remaining two blood pressure medications have been reduced to half their original dosage.  His BP continues to maintain at the low end of nominal but is being closely monitored.  His sedation is also being reduced.  The CRRT dialysis is still required due to his low/nonexistent kidney output.  The ICU doctor is planning to install his feeding tube this afternoon.

The family wishes to thank everyone for their generous donations of blood in Jadon's name and for their continued prayers.

Tuesday Evening 7/19

Jadon's blood pressure continues to hold while the BP medications are slowly being reduced.  He is currently receiving only two medications.  It was reported the systolic pressure is maintaining around 100.  The darkened skin around his feet is still apparent but should respond to physical therapy once all the BP medications are removed.

To aid the family with incurred medical expenses St. John's is sponsoring T-shirt sales and a 'Pray 4 J' relay walk.  The email below will provide all the details and was just provided for posting this evening.

Subject: Pray 4 J FINAL t-shirt order
Reply-To: St. John Nepomuk Catholic School <dheard@sjnok.org>
St. John Friends and Family,

Tomorrow, Wednesday July 20th will be the FINAL day to place an order for the "Pray 4 J" t-shirts. The drawing of the shirt is attached. Cost is $15 for each shirt ($16 for XXL and $17 for XXXL)

Orders must be in by 2:00 pm and must be prepaid. No orders will be taken after Wednesday because we need to be able to get them in time for the walk on July 29th. At this time, these will NOT be available at back-to-school night.

Please e-mail me with your sizes and money can be dropped at the school between 9 am and 2 pm Wednesday.

You may still register for the "Pray 4 J" team for the Relay for Life walk on July 29th. That will take place at 7pm in the old Yukon High School Gym. As I get further information on the walk I will be sure to update everyone.

Click here to view the TEAM page for Pray 4 J
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=982207&pg=team&fr_id=32258&fl=en_US&et=9IVkB9NvrP9KuDojUxL0tg..&s_tafId=881047


Thanks to everyone for your continued support of Jadon and the Conger family.

Denise Heard