Happy Anniversary

7 years ago today, I married the best person in the world. He has been my rock during the rough times and the guy who stole my heart with his sense of humor and charming good looks (I know sappy sappy).
We may not have thought our lives would have turned out the way they have but they have made us who we are today and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. And I am so glad we are taking this path together.

I love you Travis!!

Picture from our honeymoon.
I wanted to put a picture from our actual wedding day but didn't have access to it since we are in the hospital :o)

Day 3

It's Day 3 in the hospital (2nd day post-op). Tyler was moved out of the ICU yesterday and onto the main floor. It is much more peaceful on this floor. They actually changed the trashed during normal day time hours and not at 1am like they did in the ICU. Doesn't quite make sense to me but whatever. So far we have no roommate so it has been wonderful and spacious in the room. There is a couch and a chair that folds out to sleep on and our OWN bathroom. So keep your fingers crossed we don't get a roommate.

Tyler's heart rate was still in the 150's when he got moved from the ICU to the main floor. They weren't too concerned about it and thought it was just elevated due to possibly pain and a little bit of blood loss from surgery. Yesterday afternoon it seemed to creep up a little higher and into the 160-170's. They ordered some blood work and since the counts came back a little on the low side, they decided to give him a blood transfusion today. So hopefully that will help lower his heart rate.

The other big thing that happened today was that he finally got to eat. So far he has been on a clear liquid diet. The day of his surgery, Tyler was nauseous and wasn't able to keep anything down, medicine or water. Yesterday he was able to keep water and juice down all day. So finally this morning, they cleared him from that diet. I was a little skeptical about feeding him (just because I thought he would get nauseous) but I knew that he had to be hungry. For breakfast he ate the ENTIRE bowl of oatmeal and all of his spaghetti and applesauce for lunch. So far he has been keeping everything down, so I guess he proved me wrong. When it comes to that, Tyler can prove me wrong any day.

Under all circumstances, Tyler has been in a comparable mood. He has been awake most of yesterday and today. He slept fairly well last night (except for the vital checks every 4 hours). But after not sleeping at all in the ICU, we'll take 4 hours at a time. We've had several visitors yesterday and a couple today. So thank you for all those who came to see us. The hardest thing is passing time in the hospital. You can tell that Tyler is bored. He has watched cartoons and movies but his favorite thing to pass the time is playing with his balloons.

Tyler with his balloons and other gifts that people have sent.

Tyler watching his favorite cartoon (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) and even smiling and laughing

Here's a video of Tyler "passing time"

Surgery Update

Tyler made it through surgery. We're staying at least 1 night in the Pediatric ICU because there were some concerns about Tyler's heart rate. It spiked a little during surgery, and is still just a little higher than normal. So hopefully tomorrow he'll be back to normal and we can be moved to a regular room.

Thank you to everyone who has been thinking of us today and keeping us in your prayers. We truly appreciate them ALL.

Waiting before surgery
I think he knew something was up because every time a nurse would come in to take his vitals or the anesthesiologist came to talk to us he would curl his lip.

Tyler being wheeled off
Tyler was actually smiling real big as he was being wheeled down the hall. I think he thought he was going on some kind of ride (If he only knew then where he was going).

The waiting begins.

Resting peacefully with security toy in hand..aka his football.

Not to fond of his cast

Surgery

Tomorrow is the big day, Tyler is going to be having surgery on his hips. Click here to read a previous post about the details.

We met with several doctors today and anesthesia to make sure everything was lined up for tomorrow. We met with his neurosurgeon to make sure his shunt was still working and not going to cause any problems. I'm sure we would already know if his shunt malfunctioned but just wanted to make sure. We then met with his ortho surgeon just to go over some last minute details and to get one more x-ray. Then it was off to the surgery floor and get a tour of where we were going tomorrow and meet the anesthesiologist.

The surgery will last approximately 5 hours and is a pretty intense procedure. The surgeon, Dr. Keeler, said the recovery time can be very painful and can be a shock for little kids. Just because they don't know what to expect. I am sure that Tyler will do fine but it is going to be tough seeing him in that much pain. It breaks my heart that I won't be able to do much for him. Dr. Keeler said the first 3 weeks are the worst. We plan to be in the hospital for about 5 days, depending upon how Tyler tolerates everything.

I keep telling myself that Tyler will do just fine and pray that God will watch over him during surgery.

Also, Tyler wanted to say he is a tough guy and will do just fine and he even wore his tough guy shirt today to remind me.

Feeling Anxious

Tyler's hip surgery is in 2 days and I am beginning to feel anxious. I am not sure which is worse an emergency surgery or a planned surgery. Neither is fun, but there is something about a planned surgery that just worries me. There is just too much time to think about it, all the what if's and trying to stay healthy.

I like to plan things and make sure everything is in line. But how do you plan for surgery. Well so far:

We have our work schedules adjusted

We have our bags packed (kind of)

Hotel room booked for the night before surgery (so we don't have to drive 2 hours the morning of his surgery)

Tyler's school schedule adjusted (he will be out for approximately 3 weeks)

Normal therapy canceled and tentatively scheduled for when we are back home

I will have Tyler's blanket, his donkey that he sleeps with every night and some of his favorite toys packed.

That's the easy stuff though. It's the anticipation of Tyler going in for surgery that no parent wants their child to go through. But I know that God will be watching over him and I have to put my faith in him that everything will be okay.

Land

Back in March we sold our house after being on the market for 8 months. I was a little leery that we weren't going to be able to sell it, especially in this housing market slump. But at the time the government was offering the first time home buyer credit that had me wishing it would sell. So I guess 8 months isn't that bad. Once the house sold we didn't want to jump into anything and settle on something that we could make work. I wanted something that would work for our entire family. So in the meantime, we are renting a duplex. We looked at houses and just were not finding the "right" one.

So we thought maybe we should look at land and possibly build instead. I really liked this idea because then we can make it just how we want. So a different type of search began and let me tell you, looking at houses is more fun than looking at land. When looking at houses there is something physical in front of me and a house to walk through, when looking at land there is nothing except dirt. I am not a visionary or an imaginative person, so it was hard for me to look at a piece of empty land and visualize a house in front of me. At least when we were looking at houses there was something physical there and I could say I like this part and I don't like that part. But that is also going to be the benefit of building because when I walk into my new house I won't be able to walk around and say I don't like that. I WILL like it ALL (at least I hope).

We didn't look long before we found the piece of land we fell in love with. It was the right size/acreage, same school district, perfect location (just a little bit out of town but not too far) and the best part is that it has lake-front access. Now before you get too excited, this lake isn't the type of lake that you would go skiing on but it is big enough to take a small boat out on and go fishing. Travis is already getting excited about taking Tyler fishing and how to modify his Kid Kart so his fishing pole will be attached to his chair. I guess, boys need to be boys :-)

So now the planning begins. We have already met with an architect and he has drawn up some plans to meet our needs. We are needing to make a few changes to the plans but we are well on our way. One of the things that I am most excited about is making a house accessible for Tyler. He will have his very own bathroom with roll-in shower, wider doorways throughout the house and an open concept. I am sooo excited!!!

Now if we can just move in tomorrow, my dreams would come true. But I guess that's not going to happen.

View from the road - we have a total of 2 acres

We are standing about where the back of the house will be.

Travis & Tyler in front of the lake.

The Fair

We took Tyler to the annual fair again this year. He seem to enjoy it. He enjoyed riding the rides and of course the best part was the food. Mmmmm!

Waiting in line for the merry-go-round.

Round 2
on the merry-go-round.
Riding the ferris wheel.
I love Tyler's face in this picture. We were sitting still for awhile as people were unloading and loading. And Travis took the picture as soon as we started moving again. Every time we would move we would make this face and gasp. He wasn't quite sure of this ride, but never got upset :-)


The dog ride (I'm not sure what it was actually called).

Appointments & Therapy

We have had a lot going on the past couple of weeks with doctor appointments and adding additional therapy. Tyler is now receiving an additional 1 hour a week of physical therapy in addition to all the therapy that he receives at school. I am pretty excited about this and hope that this additional therapy will help him get stronger. At this new facility he will be receiving 30 minutes of water therapy and 30 minutes of land. I think it's kind of funny how they call it land/water therapy :)

We have also been meeting with an orthopedic doctor about Tyler's hips. Apparently, his hips have been dislocated for some time now. The way his femur bone is growing, it is growing straight up, instead of up and in towards the hip socket. The result of this is that the hips are compensating for this and are growing out instead of growing in and around the femur bone.

The doctor says that this is not painful to Tyler right now but as he continues to grow it will be. Unfortunately the plan to correct this is surgery. So on October 1, Tyler will undergo his 3rd surgery. They will be doing 3 different procedures during the surgery. The first is a Femoral Derotational Osteotomy, which will redirect the femur bone to grow into the hip socket. The second is a Dega Osteotomy. Tylers hip sockets are very shallow and this procedure will deepen the socket of the hip, to help prevent future dislocation. And finally the 3rd is a soft tissue release. This will help with flexibility.

So that is the plan. I am definitely not looking forward to another surgery but if this is going to help Tyler in the long run, then I am all for it.

The Sweetest Thing Ever

First of all, let me mention that Tyler is not fond on babies. He really hates when they cry.

In therapy today, his therapist, Brandy, was working on pretend play and trying to get Tyler to feed the "pretend" baby. And yes, when I told Travis that Tyler played with babies today in therapy, he was not too happy. But he'll get over it. Tyler wasn't into feeding the baby at all. So the baby was laying in front of him while Brandy and I were talking a little bit (which we end up doing quite often). So as we were talking, Tyler grabbed the baby, gave it a hug and kissed it right on the cheek. We literally stopped in mid sentence and looked at each other in amazement, saying "Did you just see what he did?" Tyler never gives kisses but even puckered his lips and gave a sweet kiss on the baby's cheek. He then did it again. By this time, I am trying to grab my camera but of course as soon as I do he stops. So Brandy grabbed her phone and tried getting a video and we did. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

Let's read....or not!

Man have I been slacking. If I waited too much longer, you guys may have decided to change your vote and ask for Tyler's perspective back. So far he has a better track record than I do. I promise I will do much better.

Since Tyler was going to be starting kindergarten, I wanted to buy some books that talked about going to school. I found 2 really cute books.

Ready for Kindergarten, Stinky Face?

and

Llama llama misses mama

I ordered these through Scholastics and unfortunately they didn't come before school started. But they are still really cute books and I thought he would still enjoy them. Well Tyler thought otherwise. The other day, he was playing on the floor with some toys and amongst those toys were his 2 new books. They weren't even that close to him but he found a way to scoot on over to them. And after being in the room for no more than 10 minutes by himself, this is what I find.
The book is still readable (there's just a big hole in the middle of each page). Good thing the book only cost $2. Luckily he didn't get to the other book.