Jose’s Big Brave Journey

10/19/2026

10/19/2026

✂️✂️Almost time for the big CHOP!! ✂️✂️

You won’t believe what happened last week.

I have a post with more detail on how this all came about with José’s diagnosis but the Cliff notes are: Juan went to get an eye exam. His prescription was rough. Dr. K at Arkansas Vision Development Center asked if he had siblings and she insisted on seeing José! Brought him in the next week. His eyesight is fine and he doesn’t show the same issues as Juan but she caught the swelling in his optical nerves. She explained what that could mean and we were admitted to children’s 3 days later for in depth testing. Fast forward to last week and Juan had his follow up for his vision. We profusely thank Dr K. for finding what was needed to get José diagnosed and shared a flyer for our HAIRraising FUNdraiser! GET THIS… SHE OFFERED 8-10” of HER HAIR TO ADD TO THE FUNDRAISER!!!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹

So, if you make a pledge to the fundraiser you will get 2 totals on cut day! One for Juan, José and myself and one with Dr. K’s hair added to the total. It is your choice to increase your pledge to cover her donation as well!!

You can allow make you pledge in the comments on this post! Make sure it’s the original post and not a share so I’ll see it!!

Please share!

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. Mark your calendars for Nov 6th to pray please!

10/17/2026

They were supposed to be getting dressed for Juan’s tball game… after a bit it got real quiet… oh no…just wait for it. 🥹

10/15/2026

This made me an emotional wreck the rest of the evening.

We were driving home from school talking about surgery and how we feel. Had to stop at Braums for our weekly 628 gallons of milk for José and when we parked I asked Juan to get his brother out of his seat buckles.
José - mom brother kiss my head
Juan- mom I love him. I kiss him.
José- I love you brother.

Me 🪦

10/11/2026

I've been doing more research lately and found this video that gives a non-graphic visual of one of the 3 procedures they will do during Jose's first surgery. This is the cranioplasty for the sagittal suture. This video depicts 2 options for infants, but I cannot find anything for a kiddo over 12months. Jose will have the open surgery, and he will not have to have a helmet afterwards. If I find videos that show the other 2 procedures, I'll post those too.

I did find a few videos of the actual surgery and pulling back of the tissue and drilling and removing sections of the skull... zero stars do not recommend.

When the spaces between the bones of a baby's skull, called sutures...

10/10/2026

So I’m not sure if it a normal growing thing or medical related or stress related but José’s already limited eating has significantly dropped. He has lost weight but also grown taller so he is kinda sliiiim at the moment.

However, shout out to Krazy Wingz on Main in Van Buren! We have yet to come and he not eat at least 2 boneless wings and a few fries!! And, without dipping chicken or fries he also eats about 4 ounces of ketchup. 🤷🏼‍♀️ we get an empty 2oz sauce cup and fill it with ketchup packets and he downed that before our food arrived 🤦🏼‍♀️ he asked for more so we refilled it. And he downed that too along side the chicken and fries.

💚Thanks for being delicious Krazy Wings💚

10/07/2026

So many of my pics of the field trip have other kiddos in them but here are a few I can share!