Walk? I don't think so!!!

The physical therapist came in to get him to move from his bed to a chair. He had a pain shot not too long ago and 2 Lortabs. Those didn't even TOUCH the pain. He was in some serious pain. I felt so bad. He has never felt pain like that before in his life. They are coming back in at 1 or so to try getting him back to his bed. Be careful, you might hear him scream from where you are.

Randy's crash

As a lot of you are aware, Randy was in a crash on his motocycle yesterday (Thursday). He was leaving his work in Hurricane and a car pulled out of a side street into his lane and he couldn't stop. After skidding for 7 feet, he hit the back of an older model Ford Explorer. He smashed his gas tank, broke the handle bars, and took most of the impact on his pelvis from his windshield. His head went through the back window of the SUV (that's when the $750.00 helmet pays off). He got up and started to walk around and could feel the grinding in his pelvis, so he sat down. There were a few witnesses that called 911. He called me very calmly and told me he had crashed and they were trasporting him by ambulance to DRMC. I told him I would meet him there. I called his brother, who is a UHP trooper and told him to get right over there. He was really close. It was good for Randy to see his brother. I was already getting calls from his co-workers, they were all worried about him.



We got to the ER. They did x-rays and a CT scan and found that he had broken his pelvis along with mild internal bleeding due to the break. At first, they said that we would probably have to go to Salt Lake or Vegas. That kinda made me nervous, then the trauma doctor came in and said he can stay here. He is in room 414. The night was good for him, not bad for me. At 5am the pain was starting to get to him. We'll just have to stay on top of the pain meds.

The orthopedic surgeon came in this morning and said his break is just under the maditory surgery level. He was encouraged that he had been up walking at the scene of the crash. He wants to get him to try walking and do a new scan tomorrow. If the break starts to close... no surgery. If it stays the same or opens more... surgery. So, we have a day of trying to walk ahead of us and hopefully make some improvements.

On the advice of some people I trust a lot, I contacted an injury lawyer about his case. He will be a big help, I can tell already.

I want to take minute to thank everyone for all the love and support, prayers and service. We are surrounded by angels. I have never doubted that, but I have had it proven to me over and over for the last almost 24 hours. I love you all and appreciate all you do for me and my family.

I will try to keep my blog up to date on his condition. Thank you again for everything!!!

"I like everything"

We were riding in the car today and I was telling Tyler that I like how he will try any food. He likes to eat... A LOT. By the amount he eats, he should be an obese kid. We were talking about our favorite foods.

Me- Ty what's your favorite food?
Ty- Rice!!! You know I love rice.
Me- What's your second favorite food?
Ty- Sandwiches. Hamburgers, ham, cheese, ham and cheese, meat, peanut butter.... yea, I don't think there's a sandwich I don't like!!!
Me- IS there a food you don't like?
Ty- Just 2.... broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
Me- Have you ever TRIED Brussels sprouts?
Ty- No, (with a light bulb over his head) I should try them... I might like em!!!

With a grin on my face, I remember why I love him so much!!!

Some crackers with my whine, please?

This has been a long week for me and my family. Last week, I made a comment to Randy that I felt like I had a kidney stone on the move (I had passed 10 since 2003, I kinda know what they feel like). Remember this post? Sunday rolled around and when I was sitting in Sunday School, I felt it... the feeling that is undeniably a kidney stone. I sat all the way through church, feeling like I have to pee, not going because I knew how bad it was going to hurt. Once church was over, I mentioned to Randy that FOR SURE we were in for a long night. I was annoyed because Randy's mom was making my favorite meatloaf for dinner and we were going to watch Twilight. Randy was a little later coming home because it was fast Sunday. I had arranged for the kids to sleep at his mom and dad's house because I was scheduled to report for jury duty on Monday morning. By the time he got home, it was obvious that we were sending the kids to Hurricane and taking me to the ER. The pain was getting pretty severe at that point. Thanks to our good neighbor, Kurt, and Randy, I was able to get a quick blessing before we left. We got to the ER, got right in and then I heard the nurse's angel wings flapping as she gave me a shot of Dilaudid (it's a drug for pain that is 10 times stronger than Morphine). At this point I was dry heaving like crazy, so I got Zolphram also. They took me to get a CT scan. Results were there was 1 kidney stone in my urethra, one in my bladder, at least one in my left kidney and my right kidney showed signs that I had already passed one from that side. After some more Dilaudid and Zolphram, they sent me home with Percocet and an anti-boitic (because of the blockage, I now had an infection) I knew what to do to get them gone. Sunday night was LONG. Early Monday morning, I got violently ill and then the pain stopped. I assumed I had passed the stone and missed seeing it. Randy took Monday off, I got out of jury duty for this one and then the Clyde's brought the kids home when they came over for Maddison's ball game. I was still in some pain, but thought it was the infection. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during the days I was fine, but night time would roll around and I would get those stupid pains again. Friday I had an appointment with a urologist. I got some good pointers on what to do/not do, eat/not eat and some new meds to try. This morning, woke up, tired but ok. I had a family reunion photo shoot to do. Everything went great. On my way home I started to feel the pain again. At this point, I'm getting really discouraged and feeling wimpy. I didn't make it home before I was on the phone with my mom in a panic. The pain was getting really, really, really strong. Randy was on Kolob hauling wood, my kids were in Hurricane again and I didn't know what to do. ER? Go to my doctor (he was on call)? Tough it out? Thank goodness my mom called my sister, Launa and told her to come and get me. I got another blessing (thanks again, Kurt) and headed for Dr. Chamberlain's office. I was drinking a lot and not peeing. I was getting worried. While waiting for the doctor, I went to the bathroom and guess what came out???? Yep, a stone. I was still pretty sick, dry heaving, extreme pain, shaking, hot flashes, ect. They gave me a shot of Phenegren and sent me home with a bunch of prescriptions. The measurement of this one (almost 3mm) is what the one in my urethra measured on CT scan, so this was probably the first one. I feel like such a light weight and then I am reminded by doctors that I am playing in the major league when it comes to stones. I took these pictures of this stone. The pictures don't do it justice. It's covered in sharp calcium rows and spikes. It looks tiny, but it's bigger than the tubing going from your kidney to your bladder and from your bladder-out!!! I would share the name I gave it, but it's not approved by blogger ;)

I'm so thankful for modern medicine, Priesthood blessings, my family, our neighbors and an understanding husband. I will be changing some things I eat and new meds to prevent more from forming, I just have to get the ones already in there- out!!! I don't want to sound like a whiner when I talk about my stones, they suck, but they have been a big part of my life for the last few years. Hopefully I wont have such problems in the future!!!

June 2002

I am going to share with you what happened to us in June of 2002. We were home with our son, Tyler (4 months) and Maddison (2 1/2 years). We knew the patch on his diaphragm was starting to move up and that's not a good sign. We were prepared to have another surgery, we just didn't know when. While you read this, please note that I was in the middle of postpartum depression. This is one of those times in my life that I know I only survived on the wings of angels.

This is directly out of Tyler's medical journal that I kept.



June 13, 2002-
I am leaving this journal at Tyler's bedside so I can write in it whenever I can. Saturday, June 8th he started crying at 3pm. At 8pm he started throwing up, with some promptings from the Holy Ghost, we took him to the ER. An x-ray was done (After some not-so-nice words with the people in the ER dept.) on his chest and found bowels up in his chest. His diaphragm has stretched TOO much. Tyler and I spent the night at the St. George hospital and Randy went home to sleep. Tyler cried the ENTIRE night. That's unusual for him. Dr. Chamberlain is out of town, so Dr. Barton came in Sunday morning. He ordered an ambulance to take us to Primary Children's (life flight would have taken too long to get to St. George and back to SLC). I rode in the ambulance with Tyler (I couldn't feed him because they didn't know when surgery was going to be, so imagine me... tired, listening to my baby cry and not being able to help, oh yea, and my boobs were out of control, leaking EVERYWHERE!!!) and Randy followed in the car (we lost Randy a couple of times, the ambulance driver wasn't wasting any time). They did new x-rays and found more bowels had moved up. A barium enema showed no bowel obstruction. We went to the infant unit to wait for surgery (there is a nursing shortage so it's hard to get back into intensive care after surgery if there are no nurses).


Can you see the pain in his eyes in these pictures? They wouldn't give him any pain meds in case he had a chance to go to surgery earlier then planned. It was so hard. Randy and I would take turns holding him because all he did for 24 hours a day was cry. I would hold him and Randy would go walking around the hospital and then we would switch. It was hard to hear his cries and not be able to help him.



Tuesday we were finally taken in for surgery. They found that his bowels were all up in his left chest, stomach upside down and twisted, one kidney was rotated and pushed against the diaphragm and while they were in there, they took out his appendix. They knew a regular surgeon would have never found them!


He was put in the NICU because there were no beds in PICU. It's unheard of for kids to go back to NICU after going home. He was pretty desperate for surgery, so an exception was made. Today he got extubated and is comfortable. He also got a PIC line done in his left arm because 3 IVs went bad in 7 hours! He wasn't peeing yesterday, but today, that's not an issue. Although, he's still pretty swollen. Mollie and Dr. Null were pretty happy to see us. Not happy to see Tyler sick. Randy, Maddison, Jim and Peggy are coming up tomorrow. I haven't seen Maddison since Sunday. I miss her so much. Randy went home yesterday with Gina. He needed to work for a couple of days. I'm staying at the Ronald McDonald House room #301. It's $10. per night and worth every penny. It's 5 minutes from the hospital.

It was this surgery that we learned that Tyler is allergic to medical tape. Some band aids give him this same reaction. Can you see where they taped his eyes shut for surgery?


June 14, 2002-
Friday. This morning when I came in, surgery had already been there and took his dressing off his incision. There are steri-strips holding is closed. Today or tomorrow the chest tube should come out. His right lung is showing some "plugs" on x-ray. It doesn't look like pneumonia.

11am- they haven't rounded on him yet. We're taking Maddison to the zoo tomorrow. Tyler's CO2 levels are up, which means he's not breathing enough times per minute. We'll have to watch that. There was some orange stuff in his urine yesterday, maybe from irritation. We'll watch that too.

1pm- the respiratory therapist just came in and "pounded" on his chest to move some of the gunk. He's resting right now. I'm sitting next to him. He's in bed #37, in an isolation room because he's already been home. It's a small, glass room. We have the lights off and the blinds shut, trying to keep him calm. It's not dark, just not as bright. He's sucking on his Binky. I had to give the NNP his vaccination records. I'm glad I grabbed it Saturday, running out the door to the ER. Randy's bringing Maddison's records so hopefully she can come in to see him. His Verced is down to almost nothing. His Fentenyl has been halved. He's pretty comfortable. He's sleeping a lot and I'm tired. We're trying to be quiet to Tyler can sleep but it's getting harder for me to stay awake.

June 15, 2002
Saturday. 10:30am We're getting ready to go to the zoo when Mollie told us that she'll be pulling out his chest tube and Anderson! That means we can hold him! The plan is, when they get the tubes out, we'll hold him and calm him down then we'll take Maddison to the zoo and come back (we have to remember that we have a 2 year old also).

June 16, 2002
Sunday. The zoo was a blast yesterday. Lots of reflux today. He can eat, but LOTS of throwing up.

June 17, 2002
Monday. Still quite a bit of reflux. Dr. Black, the surgeon, said his stomach was twisted and upside down. Now that it's fixed, there might be some kinks or something so they did an upper GI test and put an NJ tube down his nose into his intestines. The NJ will help if he doesn't eat, they will be able to put the food through the tube. Cardiologist, Dr. Day, got an EKG. The upper GI showed that he refluxes at 4 oz. We're putting him on Prevacid and stopping Zantac. Smaller feedings more frequently. Maddison missed Tyler and I a lot.

June 18, 2002
Tuesday. He had a sedated ECHO today. It shows that he still has RVA (right ventricular athickening). The right side of his heart is thicker than the left. The RVA is mild, but he'll stay on oxygen to correct it till at least September. We'll have another EKG and ECHO then to determine if he can come off. They had to give him Verced tonight for the first time in 24 hours. He was VERY irritated.

June 19,2002
Wednesday. He's eating well, no reflux. Dr. Pfeffer, the pulmonologist says he should do good, lung wise. At age 5-6 we will need a lung function test. During lunch I went down and cut 7 inches off my hair. It's the shortest I've had my hair since 5th grade. Randy doesn't know yet! He'll like it. It's dang cute. The surgical resident told me we should be going home in the morning. Randy, Peggy and Jim are coming up tonight. Randy and I will stay at the RM House. Jim and Peggy will stay at Jenny and Jimmy Pectol's house (Peggy's niece).



June 22,2002
Saturday. Well, we came home on Thursday the 20th. Exactly 4 months after coming home the first time. Randy loves my hair. Coming home we got stuck on the freeway because of a fatal crash. It took is 6 1/2 hours to get home. YUCK!!! It was so good to see Maddison again. She was at my parent's house. She was very happy to see us. She kissed on Tyler for about 20 minutes. We went to Dr. Chamberlain yesterday so he could check him out. For the first time in his life, he could hear "full" breath sounds, on his left side instead of "decreased"! He was amazed to hear so much movement. We'll keep Tyler on Tylenol for another week or more. I'm sure he still hurts.

Follow ups:
Chamberlain- 6 month check up
Black- 2-3 weeks surgical follow up
Pfeffer- 5-6 years lung function test
Day- September EKG and ECHO
Newborn follow up program at health dept.- whenever we can go up

It's a lot to remember, but they're all very important appointments. Mollie and Dr. Null came by to see us before we left. They will always have a special place in our hearts. They both love Tyler so much. My visiting teacher and the RS President have brought dinners over for us. They're very kind. I'm so tired. I'm going to bed.

Love, Me


Randy and his dad waiting for Tyler's discharge orders.


Leaving the hospital. Yea, a wagon, how else can you get everything? Remember, it's a children's hospital!

As you can tell, I had lost my sense of humor. I was in such a dark place. My brain just wasn't working right. Who am I kidding? Is it working right now? Anyhow, there were miracles that we witnessed during this time of our life that strengthened my testimony. I am glad that my Heavenly Father trusted us enough to send a child down that would need extra attention. We have received so many blessings from these hard times that it's easy to see this time as a blessing. I am going to start working on a video of his journey, but I'm a little slow, so who knows when it'll get done. To learn more about diaphragmatic hernias, go here.

My brave girl!!!

When Maddison was 5, she donated her hair to Locks of Love for the first time. (I couldn't find those pictures) Then a couple of years later, she was ready to do it for the second time. This is in 2006. She has such a tender head that it hurts her to have long hair, so when it gets long enough to make into a wig (10 inches) she gets really excited to cut it. I have never made her wait to cut her hair, it's something she likes to do.



This donation was just under 11 inches!!!


Now here we are and again, the snarls in her hair are killing her. She wanted to cut her hair, but she wanted to wait till it was long enough to go into a wig. That's when I told her that if it's shorter than 10 inches, they'll sell it to help offset the cost of the wigs. When she heard that, she insisted that we call Angie RIGHT AWAY!!! So, yesterday was the big day!!! She was so excited!!! Donation #3 on the way!!!

Before........

8 inches of hair later.......


That's my friend, Angie (best hair girl in the west!!!) and her son Wyatt!!! The smile on Maddison's face says it all!!! Another satisfied customer!!!


(sorry the picture is blurry) Daddy doesn't like it much because she looks much older (her age)!!!She's feeling a little sassy and she can't pass by a mirror without looking in it an giggling!!! New hair and a good cause? What could be better? I'll be donating mine for the second time soon. I have 10 inches, I just don't know if I want mine as short as hers right now!!! Lookin cute Maddison!!!!

UTAH BOUND!!!

So, my friend (sista from anotha mista), Holly has been living in exotic places for a while now. She's moved from Louisiana to Oregon. She's kicked Hurricane Rita's tooshie and moved to Oregon right before an ice storm. She left during Hurricane Rita with all 27 of her kids, by herself. I am one of her biggest fans. She has done all this moving around for her husband's job without hardly a murmur of complaint. Well, patience pays off.... HOLLY'S MOVING BACK TO UTAH!!! And not just any Utah, Southern Utah. I don't want to sound like a stalker, but I clocked the distance from her house to mine...... only 3.3 miles will separate us!!! I am so excited!!! I can't wait for 2 more weeks when she'll be here with the kids!!! Anyhow, I thought I would be the first in her family to blog about this exciting time (and because she pointed out that no one else had blogged about it)!!!! See ya soon Holly!!!!