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Latest News July 24, 2009 Caden's test results from his March hospital stay were not positive for allergies and he was put back on a no-restrictions diet. He also had hip surgery in April that had a few complications but he is healing nicely now. There is good news - his body seems to finally be responding to the Remicade that he has been on for the past year. Yeah! -------------------------- March 16, 2009 Late Friday afternoon we returned from Houston after another hospital stay for Caden. He was in the emergency room last Monday getting rehydrated from what we thought was a Crohn's flare-up. By Wednesday his blood count was dropping and he wasn't any better so he was admitted to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston to watch him and run further tests. We are still waiting on test results but Caden may have food allergies/sensitivities. Please pray for him as he has to forgo some of his favorite foods this week to see if it will make a difference. So far, he is a little better, but he still has the bleeding. Please keep him in your prayers! Mom -------------------------- February 18, 2009 Thank you so much for your continued prayers. We are in the process of setting up a seperate place for Caden's health updates. We will post a link to it here as soon as possible. Caden's health continues to perplex us. He started having problems with his left hip in December of last year and has had quite a number of tests to find out what's wrong. Long story short, we found out he has to have surgery to correct a deformity on his hip bone, or he will need a hip replacement by the time he's 25 years old. That surgery should be in April or May of this year. His Crohn's is still problematic so we appreciate your continued prayers. We will post the link to the new health update site soon. Caden's Mom ------------------------- November 3, 2008 Next month it will be two years since Caden's first hospitalization. We were assured then that his condition is controllable with medicine and he should live a normal life. It hasn't worked out that way. Now he has been on the Remicade since June, which was supposed to get him very good results but instead has become another roller-coaster ride. Caden's treatments were to be stretched to eight week intervals but we only went to six weeks once, the rest were shorter, with the last one being only three weeks since the previous treatment. We are now five weeks out from the last treatment and Caden is trying to hold out for longer. Thankfully, he has only had one time of bleeding, however, he has had a lot of pain this last week. I have not updated any of Caden's websites in quite some time. He turned 16 in August but his website still says 15. He'll be the longest running 15 year old in history if I don't change it soon! Thanks to all who have prayed and continue to pray for our son. Caden's Mom ------------------ June 11 , 2008 Caden did well yesterday. He had only minor reactions to the Remicade - feeling hot, a little itchy and some tightness of his chest. His blood pressure only went down once and was back up just 30 minutes later. The nurses said he did well. So far, there is little change in his condition, but he might not see much until after his next infusion on June 26th. We would appreciate your continued prayers. - Christine Welborn ----------------- June 10 , 2008 Quick Note - We're on our way in a few minutes to Texas Children's Hospital. We have to start the Remicade treatments today because Caden is in a lot of pain plus tired and weak. Thank you for your prayers! ----------------- June 9 , 2008 It's been a busy couple of months. Caden's eye issues are still there, but mostly under control by the eye drops. He has had another major flare-up and had another colonoscopy this past week. He was weaned off the Prednisone but had to go back on it because his bleeding started up again. Since the colonoscopy last week he has had more bleeding and pain. It seems our only choice now is to go to Remicade treatments, which is scary to us and him. Caden has had so many Doctor visits since the first of April - I think it is around 13 - with most of them to the eye doctor to monitor his eye pressure. We still have to pay our co-pay every time and have had more labwork and previous hospital bills so we would greatly appreciate your prayers for God's provision to keep on track with our payments. But, most of all, we need prayers for Caden to not have any complications from the upcoming Remicade treatments and for him to finally be in remission. And, of course, life goes on. Our daughter just celebrated her 13th birthday so we have two teenagers in the house. Maybe we should be asking for prayer for that as well! Thank you for taking the time to read about Caden and for your prayers for us! I'll try to update you soon. - Christine Welborn, (Mom) ------------------ April 14 , 2008 Caden was diagnosed with a major health issue last week. His eyes are under tremendous pressure from medicine he was given last month to control a severe Crohn’s flare up. His eye Doctor said he may already have permanent damage. He could even become blind. His Gastroenterologist in Houston is rapidly reducing that medicine to try and reduce the pressure on his eyes. However, that may bring its own complications because the body becomes dependent on Prednisone and does not want to give it up. The last time Caden’s medicine was reduced normally he had some problems so we are very concerned about what symptoms he may have this time. Caden is also taking some eye drops to try and help his eyes. He'll be checked again this week to see if it is working. He had won a contest on OurStage and was supposed to play in Dallas this weekend for a run-off but now he will be unable to attend. If his eyesight/health does get worse, we don’t want to have to get new Doctors up to speed about what is happening and lose precious time in treatment. The Doctors at home are familiar with his case and all we have to do is call and immediately they will see him or admit him to the hospital for however his condition may change. We’ll try and keep you updated. In the meantime, we appreciate your prayers for Caden!
February 27, 2008 Lot's of stuff happening. Going through a revision for this website and put more songs up on OurStage.com. In December Caden won first place on ourstage in the southern regional division. Caden's been having more problems this month with his Crohn's. He had a trip to Texas Children's earlier this month.
November 30, 2007 Caden will debut tomorrow on OurStage.com. This site promotes independent musicians and video artists by having a contest between two performers at a time. Budding artists submit their songs along with a picture and they are placed side by side in a ‘channel’ that lets them compete against like songs. For example; there is a ‘Pop’ channel, ‘Acoustic’, ‘Rock’ and so on. Near the end of the month the ones with the most votes start competing against each other in ‘Finals’ with the last day of the month devoted to all the top songs in one ‘Music’ category, and all video in one ‘Video’ category until there is only one winner in each. It seems to be a pretty clean site, with the ability to report offensive lyrics and photos. And you only need to listen to the first 15 seconds of each song before you can cast your vote. Caden’s music will debut in three categories; ‘Love’ in Acoustic, ‘Force of Nature’ in Electronic, and ‘Christmas Rain’ in Solo Performance. We would very much appreciate your vote! There is a pretty hefty top prize awarded every month and songs can be sold on the site as well. The songs are selected to judge by the websites own ‘algorithm,’ so there is no telling when you would be able to vote for Caden, but click here and you will be taken straight to his profile page where you should be able to click on his music to hear it without judging. If you want to vote for Caden, you’ll have to go to one of the three previously mentioned categories and vote while waiting for his song to show up. Just make sure 'Music' is clicked on the top left of the page and then click 'Judge' and you will be taken to the Judging page. Thank you for reading and please keep Caden's health and career in your prayers! And spread the word! Caden's Family
November 27, 2007 We've added a new item; the 'Featured Song.' Every month or so we will feature a new song of Caden's in which all the money raised from selling that particular song will pay for the medical expenses (minus transaction fees.) The cool thing is, you set the price for this song (minimum fee of 50¢ required.) And you can enjoy great music while knowing you've helped someone at a difficult time in their life. Thank you for your purchase, and please, spread the word about Caden's music! Chris Welborn
November 26, 2007 We hope ya'll had a happy Thanksgiving. We had a peaceful one, which is a great blessing. We're all getting over some sinus cold that is going around. Caden did see the Doctor, and thankfully, he is better now. With his immune lowering drugs, one Doctor had said we have to treat him more aggressively when he gets sick so it puts a knot in my stomach when he gets a sniffle! When you've been through two hospitalizations, an emergency room visit and many Doctor visits - all in the last 11 months - you tend to get a little tense. And this is just one kid! By the way, if there are any other parents out there with chronically ill children, I'd love to hear from you. How do you deal with your child's pain, the Doctor visits, the medical bills, etc. If you would like to drop me a note I'd love to hear from you. Write to chris@welbornworks.com Caden's songs are now up and for sale on his sale page, and as you can see, we have the donate buttons up! [Update: We have had to remove the donate buttons.] Hopefully, we will start making enough money to pay for the cost of this site and to start paying on his medical bills. We've tried to keep the costs very low by doing the work ourselves (Caden's Dad is the designer of the site) but there are still costs associated with hosting and shopping carts. Our ultimate goal is to help Caden with his career since we think he has tremendous talent! He is completely self-taught at the keyboard! If you read his bio, you will find out how he got started. Thanks for reading. Please email everyone you know about Caden's music! Caden's Mom
October 29, 2007 During the last six weeks, it has been a roller-coaster ride. Caden's Mom has been ill and had a colonoscopy. They thought she might have Crohn's, like Caden. The good news; everything looks great! The bad; we still don't know why she's having the problems she is. But good news is always welcome. On September 16th, Caden woke up with a swollen throat so we took him to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with mono and strep throat (blood test and culture confirmed both.) He was also told his spleen was swollen and to not do any heavy lifting or activity for the next 6-8 weeks. Caden started having more abdominal pains and saw his Gastroenterologist at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston on September 27th. The doctor thought it could be related to the mono and advised us to wait and see how he is in the upcoming weeks. After a round of antibiotics and taking it easy, Caden is feeling much better. It was hard keeping him from doing too much since we also had to pack up and move during this period of time. We had been living in our Hurricane Rita damaged home that had never been repaired (a long story we'll save for another time) and it was definitely time to move. In fact, two days after we moved a cold front went through taking our 'Rita' roof and blowing it to shreds in the yard. The place was falling apart fast and we are blessed to be in another place closer to his Dad's work (since 'Rita' took out our second car as well.) So now we've moved from the country to the city, again. There's good and bad. We're in a prettier place with a garage (very nice) that even has an upstairs. The bad is it is very near train tracks with an intersection about a block away and the trains run all night long. Friday night I stopped counting at seven trains, Saturday night at five. They say you get used to them. I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later. Saturday Caden fell down the stairs of the house. He's pretty banged up but is able to walk. I have no explanation as to why he keeps getting sick, or hurt or injured, nor why a lot of bad things have happened in the last two years, but God knows. I just try to keep faith that "...all things work together for good to them that love God..." After all, "the just shall live by faith." (Rom. 8:28, Heb. 10:38) Thank you for your continued prayers, Chris Welborn
September 4, 2007 Caden's last visit to the Dr. had good news. His Crohn's seems to be leveling out and Caden's pains have become fewer and further between. Also, all the other tests he had done (three more of them) all came back negative. Very good news. Caden has only had one major pain issue since that visit and it has worked itself out. We had been hoping to go for the whole two months without having to see a Doctor but he did have to visit his pediatrician last month where we thought he would need to get more x-rays. However, we, and his Doctor, decided to wait a couple of days and see how Caden was feeling. Thankfully, that issue resolved itself completely without needing any x-rays! God's answer to prayer! As for his website, we've tried to get a shopping cart up and running to start selling his songs. But it's hard to find one that we know and trust and doesn't cost that much. The money raised will be used to pay his medical bills, which are in the thousands. (Even with insurance, that's our part to pay. Woa!) There are a few more kinks to work out but we hope to have some new stuff up soon. Thank you for reading this and we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line! info@cadenwelborn.com Chris Welborn
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