I've been trying to blog this for the past couple of weeks... but was waiting to put pic's with it... that isn't hapening right now, I haven't had time. So, I'll post pic's later.
Last week was Fall Break. We used to get a full week for fall break, but last year they decided we needed more school days, so now we only have a long weekend. They had thursday and friday. I talked to Bill and we decided we should do SOMETHING fun with our kids. I suggested camping, and Bill came up with a wonderful place.
OAK MOUNTAIN State Park
It is just south of Birmingham. So not too bad a drive, and Rebekah was even able to drive over from school and meet up with us.
We got to go trail riding, they had a little petting zoo, and then we stayed in a cabin by 'Lake Tranquilty'. It was lovely! The kids went out in a row boat (all 6 of them together) and tried their hand at fishing (the very first time, for most of them).
We grilled out for dinner, and then roasted marshmallows and made smores! Yummy.
We played games together as a family.
When we woke up in the morning, Bill made bacon and eggs, and when I got out of the shower, I found that while Bill was cooking, the kids had all gotten up and gone out on the dock and were fishing again.
Noone ever caught a fish - they were a little annoyed that the people in one of the other cabins went out for a short time and caught several, but my kids didn't manage to catch anything, but they had a lot of fun!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Give away's...
my friend Karen over at http://bagley6.blogspot.com is doing some sort of a give away.. she wants us to link to her blog and we'll see what she has to offer - soon. So, there you have it. I hope I managed to do it right. Can't wait to see what's in store.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Hair Dr.
O.K. so I'm not the most frugal person on the planet, but when it comes to my personal hair care and body care items, I feel guilty spending money as well as time on myself. This past year I had decided it was time to take better care of myself, and I was getting regular hair cuts, and color at a Salon. I would go about every 3-4 months for a new cut. I should probably have gone a bit more often, but... you know, the whole time and money thing... I would often just trim my bangs to deal with them until I went to get my next hair cut.
The last time I went in was for my birthday (in December). I was talking to my hair gal about the whole bangs and trimming them myself, and she said, just come in, I do bangs for no charge... I made the appointment to come back in about 3 weeks. Well, three weeks approached and I didn't think I needed it quite yet, so I called and cancelled. I should have known better, because if I don't have another appointment on the books, I tend to not go...
Here it is nearly 7 months later, and my life is crazy! The other morning, after being awake part of the night rubbing Liam's itchy spots, along the inside of the cast openings.. I got up showered, but by the time I'd gotten dressed, he was unhappy and wanting me to 'snuggle' with him. (A difficult thing with a body cast, but I do my best to get close to him and hold his hand and 'snuggle' with him). Anyway, I got up a while later and my hair had dried and was just a frizzy mess! I have trimmed it (a bit more than just bangs a time or two since my last hair cut), but that day I had HAD it! I couldn't stand it anymore! I knew however that it would possibly take a while a week or more to get an appointment with my hair gal at the salon.
I considered just running to a local quick cut place in one of the strip malls near a grocery store nearby... but Liam was having a particularly whiny day! He was so miserable and unhappy, it didn't seem likely I'd be able to get away for much at all, any time soon! So, I did it! I picked up my hair scissors, and started whacking away! I was so tired of it, I didn't want just my bangs trimmed, I wanted it cut! I wanted it shorter, easier to deal with all summer while dealing with a sad boy...
Rebekah came in while I was cutting and asked what on earth I was doing?!?!?! I said I was sick of my hair and I was cutting it! I started whacking away, but realized, that it was NOT going in anyway that I was going to be happy with! Yikes! Now what?!?! SO I did what I should have one in the first place.
I called the Hair Dr!
I've seen her 'work' before when someone lost her piggy tails (if I remember correctly) (o.k. she cut them herself), and the Hair Dr. did a fantastic job of making that little girl look like an adorable little pixie until her hair began to grow back again... I knew she could fix anything! (and honestly my hair wasn't 'ruined' but it needed some help and some direction!) When I told her what I'd done - stared whacking at my own hair, she said, "Ooooohhhhh!!!" I could tell she would have been happier with a call before I did some semi-permanent damage! but it is what it is! I was desperate and tired!
I am soooo thankful that she had time for me in my hour of 'need' (crisis)! A sweet friend who cuts hair. And she made a HOUSE Call!!! Happy day! I tied my hair up in a scrunchy, and waited for her to come.
So, now I am sporting my new 'Do' for summer, it is shorter, not so hot, not so hard to deal with and it's going to be easier and less time consuming for summer, and for a tired, busy mom! And apparently, I have some curl I didn't really realize was my own (not just left over perm from a whole year ago). I even feel a little sassy...
I'll have to fix it up and take a picture.
Thanks so much to my Hair Dr! for coming to my rescue!
The last time I went in was for my birthday (in December). I was talking to my hair gal about the whole bangs and trimming them myself, and she said, just come in, I do bangs for no charge... I made the appointment to come back in about 3 weeks. Well, three weeks approached and I didn't think I needed it quite yet, so I called and cancelled. I should have known better, because if I don't have another appointment on the books, I tend to not go...
Here it is nearly 7 months later, and my life is crazy! The other morning, after being awake part of the night rubbing Liam's itchy spots, along the inside of the cast openings.. I got up showered, but by the time I'd gotten dressed, he was unhappy and wanting me to 'snuggle' with him. (A difficult thing with a body cast, but I do my best to get close to him and hold his hand and 'snuggle' with him). Anyway, I got up a while later and my hair had dried and was just a frizzy mess! I have trimmed it (a bit more than just bangs a time or two since my last hair cut), but that day I had HAD it! I couldn't stand it anymore! I knew however that it would possibly take a while a week or more to get an appointment with my hair gal at the salon.
I considered just running to a local quick cut place in one of the strip malls near a grocery store nearby... but Liam was having a particularly whiny day! He was so miserable and unhappy, it didn't seem likely I'd be able to get away for much at all, any time soon! So, I did it! I picked up my hair scissors, and started whacking away! I was so tired of it, I didn't want just my bangs trimmed, I wanted it cut! I wanted it shorter, easier to deal with all summer while dealing with a sad boy...
Rebekah came in while I was cutting and asked what on earth I was doing?!?!?! I said I was sick of my hair and I was cutting it! I started whacking away, but realized, that it was NOT going in anyway that I was going to be happy with! Yikes! Now what?!?! SO I did what I should have one in the first place.
I called the Hair Dr!
I've seen her 'work' before when someone lost her piggy tails (if I remember correctly) (o.k. she cut them herself), and the Hair Dr. did a fantastic job of making that little girl look like an adorable little pixie until her hair began to grow back again... I knew she could fix anything! (and honestly my hair wasn't 'ruined' but it needed some help and some direction!) When I told her what I'd done - stared whacking at my own hair, she said, "Ooooohhhhh!!!" I could tell she would have been happier with a call before I did some semi-permanent damage! but it is what it is! I was desperate and tired!
I am soooo thankful that she had time for me in my hour of 'need' (crisis)! A sweet friend who cuts hair. And she made a HOUSE Call!!! Happy day! I tied my hair up in a scrunchy, and waited for her to come.
So, now I am sporting my new 'Do' for summer, it is shorter, not so hot, not so hard to deal with and it's going to be easier and less time consuming for summer, and for a tired, busy mom! And apparently, I have some curl I didn't really realize was my own (not just left over perm from a whole year ago). I even feel a little sassy...
I'll have to fix it up and take a picture.
Thanks so much to my Hair Dr! for coming to my rescue!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Hip Surgery - Spica Cast
Liam had an infection that setteled in his hip joint as an infant and he had surgery to clear out the infection, but as he grew the hip and the hip joint did not grow quite as we had hoped and expected. We have been watching his hip and going to the Pediatric Orthopedic Dr. every so often for check ups to see how things were progressing. This year when I took him in, the x-rays showed the femoral head was not sitting in the socket where it ought to have been, but up out to the side, and the acetabular joint wasn't formed like it should have been to hold the ball joint down in place like it should have been.
From looking at the x-ray we wondered how he could even walk, let alone run and jump and all the other things 4 yr old little boys do, with seemingly no pain! The only 'pain' he would exhibit was in the middle of the night sometimes, and he woud complain of leg pain, cramps, etc. from the muscle being over tight and working so hard, as he walked with a limp or up on his toes of the right foot to compensate for teh disparity... Freqently he would wake up in the night crying and wanting me to rub his leg. With "Wotion!" (Lotion)...
So after the x-rays and then an MRI that the dr sent us to the hospital to do it under sedation, he told me that it would probably take surgery to repair or try to repair the problems. I asked how soon we 'needed' to do this surgery, and he said not IMEDIATELY, but certainly within a year probably at the most. If we didn't do something then, the arthritis would be worse, etc. as well as the younger the child, the quicker the bones heal and regenerate new bone growth, etc.
This was the same surgeon that did the initial surgery on him when he was an infant, and it sort of just felt like, 'Oh, this is just Liam, and more of what we/he has to deal with in his life...'. From what I with my untrained eye could see in the x-rays, it seemed pretty obvious surgery was probably what he needed. I showed the x-rays to Liam's Physical Therpist, and our Chiropractor, and they both concurred as well.
After a few months and hearing a few stories from other people about children and surgeries, it occured to me, perhaps we ought to get a 2nd opinion before having Liam undergo a major surgery. After getting in with my family care provider, then getting them to send in a referal for a 2nd oppinion to our insurance, and then finally hearing from the other Dr. in B'ham and making the appointment, the only time available was the day before his surgery was scheduled here in Huntsville.
Time went by, and it turned out that we took Rebekah to Tuscaloosa for new/transfer student orientation at the University of Alabama. We ended up staying with a sweet 'old' friend who is now a young married student/graduate and with a brand new adorable baby boy. On saturday, Rebekah stayed behind with our friends, and we came on home. Jessie ran Rebekah around a bit and helped her look at apartments. It was great, since she knows the areas and knew which apartments were in bad areas, and to not even bother looking at them...
Anyway, Rebekah found an apartment, so Bill and I drove with Liam back to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday morning to look at the apartment. It looked fine, and was a decent price, and it was close enough to school, she might even be able to walk to classes, and she gets an extra visitor guest parking hang tag so on game days, dad will have a place to park! yippee!!! So, Bill ad rebekah went back to the office to sign the contract for the apartment, and I went back to J's with the two little one's.
After visiting for a little while, we headed out to Birmingham for Liam's 2nd Opinion Dr. apointment. I figured 'IF' the Dr. had a completely different sort of diagnosis, and recomendation, then I would call and cancel the surgery for the next day, but we took the x-rays and the MRI results, and the Dr. said the exact same diagnosis and surgical treatment. He did explain it a little bit more clearly for me, or in more detail I think, and Bill was there this time, but it was the same. We thanked the Dr. and drove back home to get ready for Surgery the next day.
So, below is the running comentary I made on facebook through out our time in the hospital.
-Liam Hip Surgery –
June 2010
16 June 2010
Today we drove back to Tuscaloosa, to pick up Rebekah who stayed there with a friend and found an apartment. We have a signed lease... and then we went to B'ham for a 2nd opinion from a Ped. Ortho for Liam. We go in for surgery tomorrow morning for his hip.
Thanks all. We are expecting 6 weeks in a body cast. SO if anyone has any ideas about that? I welcome all suggestions to keeping a 4 yr old occupied/entertained.
17 June 2010
6:02 am
Waiting to get started... they haven't messed with him yet, so he's happily playing nintendo ds.
7:34 am
He's on his way back to surgery.
10:51 a.m.
We were waiting for an update... the surgical nurse finally called: Everything is going well. She'll call me again in another hour or hour and a half with another update.
11:56 am
Liam is about done with surgery. They called. He did great. He did end up getting a pint of blood... (not his first transfusion). They are closing him up now, and then they will do the spica cast and the Dr. should be out to talk to us in about an hour. Deep breath... now for the 'fun' part. When he wakes up in a cast, in pain and can't move... Hopefully he'll like all the fun new toys, and games, etc. to try to keep him busy.
3:12 pm
He's in his room. Snoring away - doped up on Morphine for the pain. the Dr. did a femoral reduction (cut a piece out of the femur bone) - it has a metal plate and 4 screws holding it in place, and Acetabular Osteotomy (cut the hip joint, added a bone graft), He is complaining that he itches, and he wanted us to take off the thing that was under the covers that was on him... The CAST! He doesn't really get it yet. he is still drugged up and not sure about what all of this means. He knows he has to lay in the bed somehow, but he's definitely not happy with the i.v. or the pulse-ox little thing on the end of his finger.
3:24 pm
Sorry for all the double photo's... I clearly don't know how to do the whole mobile upload of photos from my phone...
We found this Super hero Squad Bedding on sale a month or two ago. I got it and hid it away... so he'd have something cool at the hosp. He already asked where the blue bed was at (when we had folded the covers down for a bit). I showed him some of the pics of the guys on it, I said, “Isn’t it neat-o?” He is now determined that ‘MAGNETO’ another SHS Character is on it somewhere and he wanted me to show it to him!
3:58 p.m.
Random weird comments from drugged boy: "What if I want to climb on the wall?" I don't think he was fully aware of what on earth he was really saying. Or perhaps he knew exactly what HE was saying, and I just didn't understand.
4:43 pm
Screws and metal plate on his femur
We will have to do a day surgery/outpatient to remove them in 6 months to a year... If you wait closer to 2-3 yrs the bone starts growing around the metal plate and it's much harder to get out/off, if at all. Anyway, he will need another endoscopy in another 6-9 months, so we'll have th offices start coordinating all of that so they can do both at the same time under anesthesia one time for both.
6:58 pm
He wakes up because of a sleep jerk. He starts crying and saying, “help me, I'm stuck!” Then he asks, "why are my underwears off?" Poor little guy is so confused
"I can't move my leg! I can't move my leg because of the thingy (the cast), and I want to move my leg, but I'm stuck!" He's so pitiful!
On the other hand, he's watching Diego and starting to interact with the show and say the things Diego asks the kids to say/shout. He's still in between sleep and wake though.
8:32 pm
So the nurse comes in and talks to him... trying to get him to interact with her while she does vitals... he is SOOOO NOT impressed! He will ignore you and fight you, and he's so DONE already and we are JUST getting started!
Then he tells her she's a meanie, and starts saying Bye Bye! (meanwhile she continues to try and engage him in conversation... "I'm going to get you some medicine" "NO I don't want any medicine!!!!" "it's o.k. you don't have to 'take' it, I will just put it in your I.V...." meanwhile, he's saying NO! and getting more and more unhappy! and she is still trying to chat with him and make it ‘all better’.
Just do what you absolutely have to do, and then be done, please don’t spend 5 minutes trying to explain it to him. He’s not going to be any happier about any of it, and most likely he’s just going to get madder and more upset!
It’s going to be a long couple of days at the Hospital, and a Looooonnnnngggg 6 weeks in the cast!
9:08 pm
She also tells us we need to turn him every couple of hours. (I had read about that, but no one had said anything about it so far today, and I had forgotten to ask...), Bill asks if we can just turn him ourselves, so she doesn't have to come back and bother him again. She was sure she would need to do it. He didn't care who did it, he did NOT want to be messed with to turn on his side.
Shortly thereafter, Liam says his butt itches. (he is having lots of itches, and keeps wanting dad to reach under the cast to scratch his itches…) “Scratch my butt” he says, so dad sneakily suggests we turn him onto his side so we can reach to scratch… It Worked! Usually I don’t think I’d be thrilled with this word or the insistence it was used with, and I probably wouldn’t be posting it, but, it was kind of funny!
18 June 2010
A Looooonnnggg Night! Fever, discomfort, not understanding what is going on. He would drift off to sleep, then have a sleep jerk, and wake himself up. Very sad! He wanted physical contact...
somtimes with dad, sometimes with mom... so we had to play musical beds and figure out how to sleep with him so he could hold a hand, rub my cheek, etc... or he'd want me to rub his leg with lotion, etc... or dad to scratch his itches, (mostly way up underneath the cast on the fully enclosed leg).
the Good news is, the I.V. was disconnected (he still has a hep-lock, just in case he needs something else), and he should get the catheter out soon. The Dr. said we should be able to go home tomorrow. Yay
3:00 pm
the catheter is out! He was NOT happy!!! he yelled out, "she's a bad girl!" about the nurse. Now to see how going potty in a body cast will go! JoY!
5:00 pm Success! Yay!
Chloe Raum
I bet Liam will be a pro at peeing in a bottle by the time this is all over. He might just find it so convenient that he gives up toilets all together!
We had a BM earlier - that was interesting. Bill said, 'he just needs to hold it until dad gets home from work in the evenings, to help hold him over the toilet!' he's quite heavy and not at a very good angle for sitting up!
5:30 pm
We're Mobile! Liam has a wheelchair that reclines, so we're out of bed and cruising the hallways, and playing in the game room! he remembers the game room - the only positive memories he has of this place...
I made him a pair of shorts earlier in the week. I sewed the front and back together at the legs/crotch and left the sides open and put velcro on them so we could pull them up between his legs over the cast and then he is 'dressed'. I only made one pair so far, so I would know if it was the right size, etc. I might need to make the legs a little bit wider. Otherwise they work quite well. Yay!
This pair is Diego and he's playing baseball.
9:00 pm
The latest exchange: Liam "When can I walk?"
Dad " We'll get out of the Hospital and go home and you'll have the cast for 6 weeks."
Liam "6 WEEKS?!?! I don't want to have the cast for 6 weeks!"
I don't know that he even has any concept of 6 weeks!
Yesterday at 9:57pm
I think the calendar idea is a great one. Thanks Chloe! He loves to put stickers on his charts! (when he potty trained we made him a chart. When he sleeps all night in his own bed... he gets to put a sticker on his chart. I'll get the girls on that once we make the appointment for removal. Fantastic!
19 June 2010
6:30 am
Liam - "It's Morning time!" "I want to get up! Can I go to the game room?"
(It's not open yet for the day... he did get daddy to take him for a walk around the hallways)
8:00 am
Ya know, it's just our life - with Liam. Hard, but it's what we do... and as 'hard' as this 6 weeks will be on us, I just have to keep in mind that It's all so much harder on Liam than us.
11:00 am
Waiting for the Dr. from our Dr's office to show up sometime today to hopefully release us! All Liam can say today is: "I want to go home!" "Can we go home yet?"
Did you know you can hide crushed up medicine in ice cream? Thanks dad for that great suggestion yesterday!
It worked the first time anyway - Mint Chocolate Chip! masked any grittiness, and masked the flavor. The second time around... he asked for Vanilla - didn't hide it as well. I don't know if he got a full dose or not. By the 3rd time trying to take the meds by mouth - since the i.v. is out, I wasn't going to try to get him to eat ice cream in the middle of the night – 2:00 am! So we talked and talked about it. He finally agreed to take it mixed in choc milk.
It was not a happy thing, but it had been around 7 hours since he’d had any meds! He is supposed to or can take meds every 4 hours…
11:00 am
Now he's just pitifully whining about going home! and he even said he wanted his medicine at home - chewable tylnol/motrin... he hasn't had any med's since 2:30 am.
1:00 pm
I had Rebekah stop at the store and buy some chewable tylenol - grape flavored, and bring it to us when she came to visit us today. We gave him one of those and he chewed it up fairly easily. So I guess if he's not hurting enough to 'need' it, I shouldn't be too concerned about making him take medicine for pain.
2:30 pm
Just waiting...
Finally around 11:30 I tracked down our nurse, who had only been in once today thus far, to ask her what our plan was for the day. "Are we just waiting around for a Dr. to come and release us, so we can go home?” Is there anything else we are supposed to do today? The nurse had NO idea, and said she'd find out. Around noon I went to find the nurse to ask if she’d found out anything?
She told me that 'they'd be by around 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. to release us'. Great! we WILL get out of here today! I wonder however if I hadn't gone to ask the nurse after waiting all morning, if anything would have been done at all? We might have sat here into the night, still waiting...
4:00 pm
Going Home!!!! yay!
From looking at the x-ray we wondered how he could even walk, let alone run and jump and all the other things 4 yr old little boys do, with seemingly no pain! The only 'pain' he would exhibit was in the middle of the night sometimes, and he woud complain of leg pain, cramps, etc. from the muscle being over tight and working so hard, as he walked with a limp or up on his toes of the right foot to compensate for teh disparity... Freqently he would wake up in the night crying and wanting me to rub his leg. With "Wotion!" (Lotion)...
So after the x-rays and then an MRI that the dr sent us to the hospital to do it under sedation, he told me that it would probably take surgery to repair or try to repair the problems. I asked how soon we 'needed' to do this surgery, and he said not IMEDIATELY, but certainly within a year probably at the most. If we didn't do something then, the arthritis would be worse, etc. as well as the younger the child, the quicker the bones heal and regenerate new bone growth, etc.
This was the same surgeon that did the initial surgery on him when he was an infant, and it sort of just felt like, 'Oh, this is just Liam, and more of what we/he has to deal with in his life...'. From what I with my untrained eye could see in the x-rays, it seemed pretty obvious surgery was probably what he needed. I showed the x-rays to Liam's Physical Therpist, and our Chiropractor, and they both concurred as well.
After a few months and hearing a few stories from other people about children and surgeries, it occured to me, perhaps we ought to get a 2nd opinion before having Liam undergo a major surgery. After getting in with my family care provider, then getting them to send in a referal for a 2nd oppinion to our insurance, and then finally hearing from the other Dr. in B'ham and making the appointment, the only time available was the day before his surgery was scheduled here in Huntsville.
Time went by, and it turned out that we took Rebekah to Tuscaloosa for new/transfer student orientation at the University of Alabama. We ended up staying with a sweet 'old' friend who is now a young married student/graduate and with a brand new adorable baby boy. On saturday, Rebekah stayed behind with our friends, and we came on home. Jessie ran Rebekah around a bit and helped her look at apartments. It was great, since she knows the areas and knew which apartments were in bad areas, and to not even bother looking at them...
Anyway, Rebekah found an apartment, so Bill and I drove with Liam back to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday morning to look at the apartment. It looked fine, and was a decent price, and it was close enough to school, she might even be able to walk to classes, and she gets an extra visitor guest parking hang tag so on game days, dad will have a place to park! yippee!!! So, Bill ad rebekah went back to the office to sign the contract for the apartment, and I went back to J's with the two little one's.
After visiting for a little while, we headed out to Birmingham for Liam's 2nd Opinion Dr. apointment. I figured 'IF' the Dr. had a completely different sort of diagnosis, and recomendation, then I would call and cancel the surgery for the next day, but we took the x-rays and the MRI results, and the Dr. said the exact same diagnosis and surgical treatment. He did explain it a little bit more clearly for me, or in more detail I think, and Bill was there this time, but it was the same. We thanked the Dr. and drove back home to get ready for Surgery the next day.
So, below is the running comentary I made on facebook through out our time in the hospital.
-Liam Hip Surgery –
June 2010
16 June 2010
Today we drove back to Tuscaloosa, to pick up Rebekah who stayed there with a friend and found an apartment. We have a signed lease... and then we went to B'ham for a 2nd opinion from a Ped. Ortho for Liam. We go in for surgery tomorrow morning for his hip.
Thanks all. We are expecting 6 weeks in a body cast. SO if anyone has any ideas about that? I welcome all suggestions to keeping a 4 yr old occupied/entertained.
17 June 2010
6:02 am
Waiting to get started... they haven't messed with him yet, so he's happily playing nintendo ds.
7:34 am
He's on his way back to surgery.
10:51 a.m.
We were waiting for an update... the surgical nurse finally called: Everything is going well. She'll call me again in another hour or hour and a half with another update.
11:56 am
Liam is about done with surgery. They called. He did great. He did end up getting a pint of blood... (not his first transfusion). They are closing him up now, and then they will do the spica cast and the Dr. should be out to talk to us in about an hour. Deep breath... now for the 'fun' part. When he wakes up in a cast, in pain and can't move... Hopefully he'll like all the fun new toys, and games, etc. to try to keep him busy.
3:12 pm
He's in his room. Snoring away - doped up on Morphine for the pain. the Dr. did a femoral reduction (cut a piece out of the femur bone) - it has a metal plate and 4 screws holding it in place, and Acetabular Osteotomy (cut the hip joint, added a bone graft), He is complaining that he itches, and he wanted us to take off the thing that was under the covers that was on him... The CAST! He doesn't really get it yet. he is still drugged up and not sure about what all of this means. He knows he has to lay in the bed somehow, but he's definitely not happy with the i.v. or the pulse-ox little thing on the end of his finger.
3:24 pm
Sorry for all the double photo's... I clearly don't know how to do the whole mobile upload of photos from my phone...
We found this Super hero Squad Bedding on sale a month or two ago. I got it and hid it away... so he'd have something cool at the hosp. He already asked where the blue bed was at (when we had folded the covers down for a bit). I showed him some of the pics of the guys on it, I said, “Isn’t it neat-o?” He is now determined that ‘MAGNETO’ another SHS Character is on it somewhere and he wanted me to show it to him!
3:58 p.m.
Random weird comments from drugged boy: "What if I want to climb on the wall?" I don't think he was fully aware of what on earth he was really saying. Or perhaps he knew exactly what HE was saying, and I just didn't understand.
4:43 pm
Screws and metal plate on his femur
We will have to do a day surgery/outpatient to remove them in 6 months to a year... If you wait closer to 2-3 yrs the bone starts growing around the metal plate and it's much harder to get out/off, if at all. Anyway, he will need another endoscopy in another 6-9 months, so we'll have th offices start coordinating all of that so they can do both at the same time under anesthesia one time for both.
6:58 pm
He wakes up because of a sleep jerk. He starts crying and saying, “help me, I'm stuck!” Then he asks, "why are my underwears off?" Poor little guy is so confused
"I can't move my leg! I can't move my leg because of the thingy (the cast), and I want to move my leg, but I'm stuck!" He's so pitiful!
On the other hand, he's watching Diego and starting to interact with the show and say the things Diego asks the kids to say/shout. He's still in between sleep and wake though.
8:32 pm
So the nurse comes in and talks to him... trying to get him to interact with her while she does vitals... he is SOOOO NOT impressed! He will ignore you and fight you, and he's so DONE already and we are JUST getting started!
Then he tells her she's a meanie, and starts saying Bye Bye! (meanwhile she continues to try and engage him in conversation... "I'm going to get you some medicine" "NO I don't want any medicine!!!!" "it's o.k. you don't have to 'take' it, I will just put it in your I.V...." meanwhile, he's saying NO! and getting more and more unhappy! and she is still trying to chat with him and make it ‘all better’.
Just do what you absolutely have to do, and then be done, please don’t spend 5 minutes trying to explain it to him. He’s not going to be any happier about any of it, and most likely he’s just going to get madder and more upset!
It’s going to be a long couple of days at the Hospital, and a Looooonnnnngggg 6 weeks in the cast!
9:08 pm
She also tells us we need to turn him every couple of hours. (I had read about that, but no one had said anything about it so far today, and I had forgotten to ask...), Bill asks if we can just turn him ourselves, so she doesn't have to come back and bother him again. She was sure she would need to do it. He didn't care who did it, he did NOT want to be messed with to turn on his side.
Shortly thereafter, Liam says his butt itches. (he is having lots of itches, and keeps wanting dad to reach under the cast to scratch his itches…) “Scratch my butt” he says, so dad sneakily suggests we turn him onto his side so we can reach to scratch… It Worked! Usually I don’t think I’d be thrilled with this word or the insistence it was used with, and I probably wouldn’t be posting it, but, it was kind of funny!
18 June 2010
A Looooonnnggg Night! Fever, discomfort, not understanding what is going on. He would drift off to sleep, then have a sleep jerk, and wake himself up. Very sad! He wanted physical contact...
somtimes with dad, sometimes with mom... so we had to play musical beds and figure out how to sleep with him so he could hold a hand, rub my cheek, etc... or he'd want me to rub his leg with lotion, etc... or dad to scratch his itches, (mostly way up underneath the cast on the fully enclosed leg).
the Good news is, the I.V. was disconnected (he still has a hep-lock, just in case he needs something else), and he should get the catheter out soon. The Dr. said we should be able to go home tomorrow. Yay
3:00 pm
the catheter is out! He was NOT happy!!! he yelled out, "she's a bad girl!" about the nurse. Now to see how going potty in a body cast will go! JoY!
5:00 pm Success! Yay!
Chloe Raum
I bet Liam will be a pro at peeing in a bottle by the time this is all over. He might just find it so convenient that he gives up toilets all together!
We had a BM earlier - that was interesting. Bill said, 'he just needs to hold it until dad gets home from work in the evenings, to help hold him over the toilet!' he's quite heavy and not at a very good angle for sitting up!
5:30 pm
We're Mobile! Liam has a wheelchair that reclines, so we're out of bed and cruising the hallways, and playing in the game room! he remembers the game room - the only positive memories he has of this place...
I made him a pair of shorts earlier in the week. I sewed the front and back together at the legs/crotch and left the sides open and put velcro on them so we could pull them up between his legs over the cast and then he is 'dressed'. I only made one pair so far, so I would know if it was the right size, etc. I might need to make the legs a little bit wider. Otherwise they work quite well. Yay!
This pair is Diego and he's playing baseball.
9:00 pm
The latest exchange: Liam "When can I walk?"
Dad " We'll get out of the Hospital and go home and you'll have the cast for 6 weeks."
Liam "6 WEEKS?!?! I don't want to have the cast for 6 weeks!"
I don't know that he even has any concept of 6 weeks!
Yesterday at 9:57pm
I think the calendar idea is a great one. Thanks Chloe! He loves to put stickers on his charts! (when he potty trained we made him a chart. When he sleeps all night in his own bed... he gets to put a sticker on his chart. I'll get the girls on that once we make the appointment for removal. Fantastic!
19 June 2010
6:30 am
Liam - "It's Morning time!" "I want to get up! Can I go to the game room?"
(It's not open yet for the day... he did get daddy to take him for a walk around the hallways)
8:00 am
Ya know, it's just our life - with Liam. Hard, but it's what we do... and as 'hard' as this 6 weeks will be on us, I just have to keep in mind that It's all so much harder on Liam than us.
11:00 am
Waiting for the Dr. from our Dr's office to show up sometime today to hopefully release us! All Liam can say today is: "I want to go home!" "Can we go home yet?"
Did you know you can hide crushed up medicine in ice cream? Thanks dad for that great suggestion yesterday!
It worked the first time anyway - Mint Chocolate Chip! masked any grittiness, and masked the flavor. The second time around... he asked for Vanilla - didn't hide it as well. I don't know if he got a full dose or not. By the 3rd time trying to take the meds by mouth - since the i.v. is out, I wasn't going to try to get him to eat ice cream in the middle of the night – 2:00 am! So we talked and talked about it. He finally agreed to take it mixed in choc milk.
It was not a happy thing, but it had been around 7 hours since he’d had any meds! He is supposed to or can take meds every 4 hours…
11:00 am
Now he's just pitifully whining about going home! and he even said he wanted his medicine at home - chewable tylnol/motrin... he hasn't had any med's since 2:30 am.
1:00 pm
I had Rebekah stop at the store and buy some chewable tylenol - grape flavored, and bring it to us when she came to visit us today. We gave him one of those and he chewed it up fairly easily. So I guess if he's not hurting enough to 'need' it, I shouldn't be too concerned about making him take medicine for pain.
2:30 pm
Just waiting...
Finally around 11:30 I tracked down our nurse, who had only been in once today thus far, to ask her what our plan was for the day. "Are we just waiting around for a Dr. to come and release us, so we can go home?” Is there anything else we are supposed to do today? The nurse had NO idea, and said she'd find out. Around noon I went to find the nurse to ask if she’d found out anything?
She told me that 'they'd be by around 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. to release us'. Great! we WILL get out of here today! I wonder however if I hadn't gone to ask the nurse after waiting all morning, if anything would have been done at all? We might have sat here into the night, still waiting...
4:00 pm
Going Home!!!! yay!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Birthdays and other days...
We have had 2 birthdays since I last Blogged...
Liam turned 4 and we went to Chuck E. Cheese! He had lots of fun, other than the LOUD singing and cheering for him, and when he refused to have anything to do with Chuck E. and of course that was when all his friends were there. 
The birthday helper put the Birthday Crown on his head, (several times), and he kept pulling it off, with a GET this THING OFF of ME!!!!!! attitude!
When the Birthday Helper lit the candles, Liam refused to blow them out, and didn't WANT anyone else to blow them out either. Finally a couple of sly blows later by dad, myself and possible a kid or two... the candles were out! Then we began pulling some of hte guys off the cake in order to cut it and serve it. Liam got mad and tried to put them back ON the cake. Later... he decided that licking the icing off the guys feet was a pretty cool thing, and then he got to have his new Super hero guys... so he got right to work!
In May we had Sariah's 14th Birthday 
and she moved up to the Mia Maid class in our Young Women's program at Church. She had asked me to make her a dress for her birthday present. I worked on it all week whenever I was home and not out doing other things. I had to add 6 inches to the patern length for the dress to fit her long legs... I worked on it saturday, late into the night so she'd have it for her birthday on Sunday. We got up on Sunday - mother's day she put on the dress and it fit... then as my luck would have it... the zipper broke. We had quite a time even getting her out of the dress! Then we had a few emotional moments.
Liam turned 4 and we went to Chuck E. Cheese! He had lots of fun, other than the LOUD singing and cheering for him, and when he refused to have anything to do with Chuck E. and of course that was when all his friends were there. The birthday helper put the Birthday Crown on his head, (several times), and he kept pulling it off, with a GET this THING OFF of ME!!!!!! attitude! Later he played and hugged Chuck E. and had a grand time. He did enjoy playing games with his tokens. 
He also loved opening presents. (Who doesn't?)
He also loved opening presents. (Who doesn't?)One of his favorite friends this year is a little girl named Elizabeth in his pre-school class. I think he's in love... she has been very influential on him this past year. When he comes home from school we will ask him what he did at school today, and he always says, that he played with Elizabeth. She loves pony's - My little pony, and that is what she always plays so that is also what he frequently plays. For Christmas we gave his classroom some dinosaurs, so now he usually reports that he played pony's and dinosaurs. ;-)
Liam's favorite color has been GREEN for a very long time! Recently however, when you ask him he will often tell you his favorite color is pink. Can you guess WHO'S favorite color is PINK?(Elizabeth)
We had talked about Liam's cake and he had asked for months to have a GREEN birthday cake. I managed to incorporate that into the Super Hero Squad theme that we went with, since that is his favorite thing these days... I put colorful swirls inside the cake mix - mostly green until I ran out of green food color. I had worked on the cake the night before his party when he was asleep, so in the morning I asked if he wanted to see it? He looked at his cake all covered in Super Hero squad guys and everything on the green grass icing, and said, "I wanted a PINK cake"!When the Birthday Helper lit the candles, Liam refused to blow them out, and didn't WANT anyone else to blow them out either. Finally a couple of sly blows later by dad, myself and possible a kid or two... the candles were out! Then we began pulling some of hte guys off the cake in order to cut it and serve it. Liam got mad and tried to put them back ON the cake. Later... he decided that licking the icing off the guys feet was a pretty cool thing, and then he got to have his new Super hero guys... so he got right to work! In May we had Sariah's 14th Birthday and she moved up to the Mia Maid class in our Young Women's program at Church. She had asked me to make her a dress for her birthday present. I worked on it all week whenever I was home and not out doing other things. I had to add 6 inches to the patern length for the dress to fit her long legs... I worked on it saturday, late into the night so she'd have it for her birthday on Sunday. We got up on Sunday - mother's day she put on the dress and it fit... then as my luck would have it... the zipper broke. We had quite a time even getting her out of the dress! Then we had a few emotional moments.The family went off to Church, and we came home afterward, picked up Sariah and the picnic lunch dad had put together and had a lovely lunch 
at the new greenway, and then the kids wanted to go see the new playground at the new elementary school... we obliged and everyone had a fun time playing on all the new playground equipment! 
After we went back home the kids and dad put together my mothers day dinner. They all pitched in and helped.
Even Liam... 
We had a yummy dinner, and an over all really nice day together as a family (minus Rebekah who called me to wish me a Happy Mother's Day).
at the new greenway, and then the kids wanted to go see the new playground at the new elementary school... we obliged and everyone had a fun time playing on all the new playground equipment! After we went back home the kids and dad put together my mothers day dinner. They all pitched in and helped. Even Liam... We had a yummy dinner, and an over all really nice day together as a family (minus Rebekah who called me to wish me a Happy Mother's Day).Other than that, Bill flew up to NY to pack Rebekah up and bring her home from College for the summer. We worked on the house a little bit the weekend before, and moved Liam and his Toddler bed back into our bedroom, and put the trundle bed in his room so Rebekah would have someplace to live for the summer months while she is home. the kids all have one more week of school - they would be out already but we actually had several snow days this winter so the kids have to go extra now to make up for it now. This summer we have some things going on, the big girls will be working, Sariah is taking a trip to Europe. There will also be EFY and Girls Camp, and Hannah will be going to a softball camp for a week and then a police camp for a week, through school. Marissa will continue on with karate. Liam will be getting surgery on his hip in the middle fo June, and that will make all of our lives interesting.
I'll try to do better at keeping up with all our lives and activities.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Prom 2010 (very picture heavy)
Life has been so busy! I have been working on Amanda's Prom dress for weeks. In between working on the prom dress, I have helped with decorating for a wedding reception, and helped work on costumes for the High School Musical - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Which, when I wrote this, I didn't even have a child in. However, as of yesterday I have a child who has been asked to jump in and help by playing in the orchestra. Life has been a whirlwind of activity.
I don't know what has gotten into me lately, but for some reason I went crazy and thought I'd be a seamstress or something! I haven't sewed much in years, before I had to do the trek clothes 2 yrs ago. I sewed blessing dresses for the first thee kids. I have made a dress here and there, mostly t-shirt dresses, where you are really only gathering a ruffle to add to a shirt for the skirt part. When Rebekah was home on Christmas break I began making her a dress. I didn't get it completely finished and so I had to send it to her in her birthday package. Then the prom was coming. Rebekah helped me pick out the pattern and fabric and Amanda liked what we picked, so off I went! 
I have to say a HUGE Thank You to my friend S for being so wonderful to help give me moral support, and get me through the directions for the dress (actually there were two patterns we were merging together to make the dress modest for Amanda). Thank you also for her family for putting up with me at there house for hours while I sewed and sewed! and Thank you, to MY family for putting up with me being gone for hours and hours, sewing and sewing. I finished the dress - not as soon as I would have liked, and added a little bit of stress to Amanda's life (if the first Zipper had not broken after I had put it in on the first try, and dare I say it was beautiful!!!, but alas, then I had to pick the zipper out of the nearly completed dress, and wait until I could buy a new zipper the next day, and then that zipper, took me over 2 1/2 hrs to get in right. I'm good at invisible zippers apparently (without the special hidden zipper foot even), but the regular one's, ugh!!! 
Anyway, I finished the dress, we borrowed the under slip poof from S's daughter K from her wedding dress (thank you K, it worked out great!), and the dress, was fabulous... if i do say so myself!!!
and I think my daughter was a Beautiful princess! 
and I hope she had a great time with her friends!
Rebekah made a couple of corsages and they turned out great! 
Thank you also to everyone who helped host and put together a fun prom night!
All the dresses were beautiful and the kids all looked amazing! 
Showing some sisterly support... 
A bunch of kids got together, they all did pictures together in downtown Madison, and then did a progressive dinner and it looked like everyone had a great time! 
The boys were very nice and stood there being supportive (trying to block the sun for one another), while the girls had lots of fun getiting thier pic's taken. 
All the table decorations and set up were beautiful! It was fun of course to see some of the decorations from the wedding reception I helped set up being used again for something else so fun! Great job!
I had fun taking pictures too, I have also been trying to learn how to edit the pictures I take a little... This is my first attempt.
I was able to help out at the dinner part, serving food, clearing tables, and taking pic's and it was fun to be around the kids and get to be a small part of their fun day. (When we arrived to help at dinner, one of the girls noticed a little bird outside on the back porch of our friend J's house, and it was taking a little bird bath in her kitty's water bowl. 
A Dangerous adventure perhaps, but it was so cute! Iwas able to capture one picture of it before we all scared it away I'm sure by crowding around the windows to get a peek at it.
I wonder what fun April will bring to our home?
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