Surgery

Bob had his surgery yesterday, and there were a few complications.
He was scheduled for 3:30 and didn't go in until 5:30 to start with. Then it took 4 hours instead of only 90 minutes as planned.
Long story short- the fracture was worse than they thought. The bone was more shattered and smashed than the x-rays indicated. When she went in to move the bone it rotated and she then had to re-rotate it and then put everything back in place and put the plate in. When she finally came out at 9:40 she was very happy with how it turned out, but was going to admit him over night to help monitor his pain.

Skip to today-
They are going to be keeping him again tonight. He is in the most pain I have ever seen him in. They are giving him morphine, and tordall(sp) for the pain and it takes the edge off for a little while, but not enough so he can rest.

I personally haven’t talked to the surgeon today so this is all coming from Bob.
The worst of the pain right now is the feeling coming back into his arm. They had a tourniquet on his arm during the surgery(4 hours) and until about 7 am he had no feeling at all in his arm from just above the elbow down. Now he is having shooting pain and “pins and needles” sensations(like when your arm is asleep) but multiplied 100 times. At about 2:00PM he finally had a little feeling just above his elbow. The Dr. told him it could get worse before it gets better.
He has also been having some irregular heartbeats. Part of it is probably from the pain, but they did and EKG and one side of his heart is intermittently firing faster than the other, so they just restarted his IV and are giving him some calcium. I guess a lack of calcium can cause that.

To top it off last night after they admitted him, before he was aware and remembering stuff they had a staff change and when he asked them if his surgery went ok they told him they thought so. He asked why he was admitted and they said they didn’t know. He couldn't feel his arm and so he was worried that something went wrong and they weren’t telling him what was wrong. He was in a bit of a panic. So he didn’t sleep at all until after 6AM, and then the pain started.
He didn’t want to call and wake me up to ask if everything was fine, so he waited until 6am to call me. Until then he didn’t know if everything was good.
He is still a little worried about his arm, but he sounded a little more confident that he actually believed the feeling would eventually come back when we just talked.

Right now he isn’t up to calls, but I am passing on all your well wishes. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. the next few days are going to be hard for him.

Thank you again to all of you who have helped out the last few days. We are so blessed to have such great friends. I couldn't have made it without you.

Update on Bob

Today we spent 3+ hours at the Orthopaedic surgeons office. Of that time only 15 minutes was spent with the doctor.
She determined that Bob will need surgery to put a plate in his wrist. The way she explained how it broke is like when you crack a hard boiled egg. It isn't just one crack in a straight line.
She took more x-rays today and said that he had a good size horizontal fracture with at least 2 vertical fractures coming off it. Plus there is a least one other area where it has broken.
So on Wednesday afternoon he will be going in for surgery. The surgery should take about 90 minutes and he will be under general anesthesia.He is still in a lot of pain so hopefully after Wednesday he will start to get some relief.
Today they took off the splint that was put on in the ER on Friday to get some more x-rays. He still has a lot of swelling and some bruising. The new splint they put on gives him more movement in his fingers so hopefully that will help with the swelling.
I took the following picture with my phone to show how swollen he is.

Broken Bones

Yesterday at a work quarterly team building activity Bob broke his wrist!
He was playing kickball and was running to 2nd base. The guy was blocking the plate in hope to get Bob out, so he kind of slid and fell. He landed just right and knew immediately that something was wrong. (He was safe by the way).
He walked around a bit to see if the pain would die down, it didn't, and he figured it was probably broken at this point so he just got in the car and started driving to the ER closest to home!(he was about 30 minutes away)When he got there they were very impressed that he drove himself in.I ended up having to go pick him up,(they won't let you drive while on drugs) and many thanks to Kristin and Craig for bringing Bob's car home to us.
At the ER he got right in. We have a really nice ER right by the house that guarantees a 30 minute or less wait time.
After a shot of morphine and some x-rays it was determined it is broken.
Now we are just waiting for the swelling to go down and he will see the Orthopedic Surgeon on Monday and probably have a plate put in.
I will add x-ray photos when Bob is not so doped up he can tell me where he saved them.(They gave him a CD with his x-rays on it to take on Monday)

First Food

Last night we had our first taste of food. Rice cereal. She didn't hate it!
I think she had more on her bib and face than she actually swallowed.
The past few weeks she has been fussy in the evenings. It seems once the boys are home in the afternoon she is afraid she will miss something is she slows down to nurse.So she is a little crabby at times. Since she is at the table with us anyway we thought we would give it a try.
I have been putting off giving her food for as long as possible. I don't want her to grow up any faster than she already is.
Hopefully this will fill her tummy and bring back our happy girl in the evenings.

Pack Meeting

Last night Zachary was awarded his Bear Award. He actually earned it a while ago, but we missed pack meeting in February, so he just got it last night.
He also received a gold and a silver arrow point.
Having your Dad as your webelos leader has some advantages and some disadvantages.
Zachary has worked really hard since turning 10 and got his Communicator and Fitness activity pins, along with his communicating and computer belt loops.
The den had started some of these right before he came in, but Bob worked really hard with him so he was able to get the awards with the rest of the den.
Way to go Zach!! Keep up the good work.

Arrow of Light

The arrow of light went really well last night. I thought I would post a picture to show all the work that Bob went to for it.(it looks even cooler with the lights dimmed)
I hope that all the younger boys, including Zachary were watching and listening to the script and will follow the example of the boys last night and keep working hard. The scout program is so great.

New Toys

This morning I found this piano and a few other not so quiet toys in the garage. As you can see Rachel loves it.

The Bone Box

The title of this post sounds a lot worse that it really is.

Tonight Bob is doing an "Arrow of Light" ceremony at Pack Meeting for 4 boys who have earned the Arrow of Light award.
While at Pow-Wow a few months ago he learned about the bone box.
The AZ Game and Wildlife Dept. has these boxes you can check out for no charge for school and scout groups. In it is skulls, hides, pictures, and track models of about 5-10 animals.He is going to use the skulls and hides as part of the decorations and ceremony.

The boys especially Ethan had so much fun holding and touching everything. He kept asking me to take pictures of everything since it has to go back before show and tell on Friday.
We ended up with the skins and skulls of a fox, bobcat, mountain lion, javelina, beaver, jackrabbit, and raccoon.

Here are a few favorites.


Ethan with a fox skull


Ethan with the mountain lion skull


Ethan wearing the mountain lion skin


All the skins laid out

Photo Shoot

Last week I took Rachel to Target for her 5 month pictures. They turned out so cute I just had to post a few.
The past few weeks I have been having so much pain in my ear and jaw I haven't had the energy or chance to take her in for a 5 month weight check.She doesn't go back in offically till 6 months.
Hopefully I will get some answers tomorrow at the dentist and some relief will be in sight and I can get her in and post a 5 month update.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!

We have had a nice quiet weekend here at home. We colored eggs, played, ate,went to church and enjoyed our weekend.
The boys all had Friday off school and after helping me around the house had some fun hiding some glow in the dark eggs that I bought. It came with 2 little black-light flashlights to find the eggs.
Today we tried to get the kids to sit for our "annual" Easter Picture. It isn't easy to get 4 kids to sit and look at you. Half of the pictures they are all looking at Rachel.

Here is also a slide show of the rest of our fun for all of our family we didn't get to see today and share in what we did.

OPPS!

Bob's brother and sister in law are living in Provo and attending BYU. This is what the newspaper on campus read on Monday morning! Luckily Tom got a copy before they pulled them all. Thanks for sharing Tom and Marci, we got a good laugh out of it and thought you might too.

Dinner Time

This week Rachel's schedule has changed so that she is awake when we eat dinner. She wasn't happy in her bouncy seat on the floor and it's to hard to eat holding her. She grabs at everything. So we put her in he Bumbo chair at the table. She can barely see over the table, but she LOVES it. She just sits and watches everything, and squeals at the top of her lungs until we are all looking at her!!!

Easter Bunny

Today we went to the mall. As we were getting ready to leave we passed the Easter Bunny. Ethan wanted to go see him, and there was no line so I thought why not!
Rachel's shirt is all wet down the front from chewing on her toys while we shopped, and if I had planned this they would have at least had combed hair. The cute smile on Rachel's face makes up for that. Ethan just gave us a classic Ethan look. Rachel wasn't afraid at all. She actually kept trying to eat his furry hand!

Teething

Rachel is teething and she loves to chew on anything. Right now one of her favorites is the top of the Tylenol bottle. Turn up the sound when you watch it. She is really working it.

Can you see the Resemblance

Can you tell who is who?



answer: Zachary, Brandon, Ethan, Debbie, Bob, Rachel
(all at about 4 months)