We're Home!!!!

We finally made it home at around 1:00 today. Chris is doing great. He hardly has any pain now. Guess that nerve finally decided to settle down and stop causing so much trouble. We're getting ready for the big game now. ROLL TIDE!!!

Oh yeah. Chris says war eagle....whatever!

We're On Our Way....

Well....in a little while we will be anyway... Chris is feeling much better this morning. His pain is tolerable, so Dr. Wade says we get our walking papers now. We are waiting on his last dose of antibiotics and muscle relaxers to infuse and then we will be headed home. Yeah!!!

It's A No Go...

Chris' pain didn't improve, so.....We get a night in the 5 star, all-suite, very luxurious Brookwood hospital, which BTW has very comfortable beds. The service and the food is GREAT! (Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice right now?) Gotta love the hospital life. Okay, enough of my ramblings, on to Chris. I think wandering around this hospital has made me a little crazy. You would think I would be used to hospitals since I do work in one for 12 hours a day and all, but I gotta say, I'm not liking the other side. Not one bit! Don't get me wrong, the staff is all great, but you all understand...


Oh yeah....Chris... So, his pain didn't improve, if anything it got worse. Doc says it's because the nerve was more damaged that he initially thought. When the pressure was relieved, the nerve was not used to having all of this reacquired free space and was causing muscle spasms. They gave him some IV steroids and muscle relaxers, which didn't improve his pain. They decided to admit him at around 5:00 and changed his pain meds which helped tremendously. Apparently when pain is so uncontrolled you need to change pain meds to something stronger, that buys you an automatic admission. Hence, our stay at the 5 star, all-suite, very luxurious Brookwood Hospital with the very comfy beds. He's feeling much better now, still with a little pain, but not as severe. We should get to go home tomorrow.

Waiting Again...

* Let me update before I loose my connection yet AGAIN!!! AARRRGGGHHH!!!

Okay, on to Chris.....He got moved to a room around 12:00. He's tried to eat a little bit, which is one of the requirements for discharge. So far no problems with that issue. He is having a good bit of pain, which is not being controlled with his Morphine pump. If we can't get his pain under control, he can't go home tonight. They just gave him a muscle relaxer for the spasms he's having, so hopefully that will help. Dr. Wade will be making rounds at around 5:00, so hopefully he will have controlled pain by that time. Maybe we will make it home tonight.....

Out of Surgery...

I just spoke with Dr. Wade. Chris is out of surgery and doing great. The surgery went well with no surprises. He's in recovery now and will go to a room until he can do all the things he needs to do in order to be discharged (eating, etc.). As long as he has no post-anesthesia complications we will go home later today. Dr. Wade also said Chris should regain the feeling in his hand later today or tomorrow. His recovery should go smoothly and he should be up and around in a few days.

Waiting....

They just wheeled Chris to the OR. I'm sitting in Starbuck's in the lobby of the hospital, blogging to pass the time. The surgery should take about an hour. I will update to let everyone know how things went when it's over.

Say A Little Prayer....

We found out last week that Chris has a big herniated disc in his neck. Sooooo.... On Friday he will be heading to the OR to have a discectomy with bone graft and fusion of C-6 and C-7. I must say, we are a little nervous. We even discussed with the doc about just waiting and not doing surgery at this point, but the surgeon strongly advised going ahead with the surgery. Chris has been having numbness and tingling in his hands and forearms. This will only get worse and eventually he would have nerve death and loss of function of his arms. Epidural blocks would be of no help, so there's not really much of a choice other than surgery. He goes in at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, please pray that things go smoothly with no complications.

It's Official....

WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!! I'm so excited. We have been planning to take a trip to see Mickey Mouse for about a year now and we've finally set a date and booked the trip. We are going on May 23. Only 9 months and 2 days to go....

First Artwork

Luke brought home his first artwork from school today. It's an elephant, in case you couldn't tell. They have been learning all about elephants in his class this week. According to Luke, elephants have a long nose and they eat peanuts with it. When I asked him where elephants live, without missing a beat he said, "in a house." Like, Duh, Mom! He is really loving his new school and has a great time everyday.

Back To Work...

Well... It's that time again, my short break from school is over. I start my second semester of the mobility program today. As with last semester, when reading my syllabus for my classes I had and extreme sense of being over-whelmed. Oh well, I made it through last semester without a hitch and I'm sure this semester will be no different. Once these classes are completed I will be half-way to the finish line.

Naked Baby!!!

Chloe came to stay with us today. She is 8 1/2 months old now and into everything. Next week she has an appointment with Dr. Wooley to set up a time for her head CT and discuss a more definative date for her Cochlear Implant. Right now she's just hanging out and going to speech therapy every week.
Crawling everywhere!
Give me that camera!
We've had to come up with some creative ideas to keep those busy hands away from her hearing aids.

Watch This!! Too Funny!!

http://www.glumbert.com/media/anchorlaughfall


Someone sent me this video the other day. I thought it was so funny I had to share!

(Click the link to watch)

It's That Time Again....

Yes....It's time to start back to dance. I thought we just finished a year of dance. This summer was definately too short!

Luke's First Day Report

The report from school today was Luke had a fantastic day! His teacher's said it didn't take him long to come out of his shell and before too long he was talking non-stop. He really enjoyed his first day at "big" school.

Luke's First Day of School

Luke started his first day in the Valley Inclusive Program today. He was so excited to be going to his Sissy's school. This is all he's talked about all summer and really since last Spring. I have been telling him he would get to go to Sissy's school when he turned 4, so of course last week after his birthday he was ready to go right then. The day has FINALLY arrived and he was up bright and early this morning. He was excited to go right up until the minute we walked in the door, then this look of fear suddenly came over his face. He did good even though he was very nervous. There were no tears, but he just stood there looking around the room and wasn't really interested in playing with any of the other kids or toys. After a few minutes of coaxing from his teacher he finally started playing with a group of kids. Typical Luke. He's a little more cautious in new situations. He starts out shy, but then as soon as he's warmed up to the idea, he's ready to go. I'll post a report later today to let everyone know how he did.
Showing off his new frog snack bag
A little nervous
He finally decided he would play

First Day Report:

As Kaylyn came bouncing out of school this afternoon she said: "School was GREAT!!! I didn't even get in trouble one time today! Mrs. Childer's didn't have to correct me at all, I didn't even get in trouble for talking too much!"


You have to understand, this is a milestone for Kaylyn. Those of you who know her, know that the child talks non-stop and this has always been a problem in school. She has NEVER been so excited after one day.

Last Day at Daycare

Today was Luke's last day of daycare before he starts to "big" school next week. He has had such a good time at this daycare, these ladies have taken good care of him since he was 20 months old. They were all sad to see him go and I know he will miss them also.

Luke and Hunter: Hunter has been Luke's best friend since he started to daycare. I'm not sure if he understands that Hunter won't be coming with him to his new school. I have told him about this several times over the past few weeks, trying to make the transition easier. I will definately have to take him to visit!

First Day of School!

It's official....school started today. Where has this summer gone? I can't believe my baby girl is in second grade already, she' s growing up so fast! She was so excited to be starting school again, but not excited enough to get up this morning without a fight. Let's face it, Kaylyn is no morning person! We hurried and got ready, drove Luke to school for his last day of daycare, then went to our traditional 'first day of school breakfast.' Once we got there, she was so glad to see all of her friends. I took lots of pics, then she was ready for me to go. Yes, I'm one of those embarrassing mom's who follows her children to school on the first day with camera in tow! Don't worry kids, I promise I'll stop by the time you graduate from college!

Getting Ready For School

Tonight we had the kid's parent-teacher orientation for school. The kids got to meet their teachers for the year and they are so excited to be starting school. Luke was a little nervous and shy at first, but then he warmed up once he saw all the cool toys he would have to play with in his classroom. Ms. Carla got him hook, line, and sinker when she told him she had lots of puzzles for him to play with. Kaylyn is excited about starting second grade and was glad to see her friends. Kaylyn's school will start on Friday, Luke's doesn't start until next Tuesday. As you can tell from the pictures, Luke wasn't in a picture taking mood.

I also took Luke for his check-up today. He has been so worried about this appointment for the past few days. He was worried about having to get a shot, I bet I've told him 100 times there would be no shots today. But.....leave it to the nurse's kid to act totally ridiculous at the doctor's office. First, when they called his name he ran....right into a window. (I think he was blinded by fear and thought it was a door!) I had to drag him through the door, with him kicking and screaming and grabbing the door frame, I had to pry his fingers from the door. Then, he screamed and cried all through his weight and vital check. Finally, they totally insulted him by making him wear a gown....How dare they! Needless to say, if the floor could have opened up and swallowed me right then and there, I would have gladly jumped right in!

He has grown a lot in the past year. He now weighs 34 pounds and is 39 inches tall. He has gained 5 pound and grown 2 inches in the past year.

It's Party Time!!!!

This afternoon we had Luke's birthday party at his favorite restaurant McDonald's. (Is there any other place when you're 4?) This year he was old enough to really take part in the planning of his party. He said he wanted a "blue" cake with candles on it. When I took him to pick out his cake, he picked Nemo. I tried to talk him into having his party somewhere else, but he was stuck on McDonald's. It's a good thing we didn't have it at the park (where I wanted to have it) because just before the party was supposed to start, this awful storm blew up, complete with straight line winds, lightening, and hail. I seriously thought we were in the middle of a tornado! The storm passed and all was well. Luke had a great time playing with all of his friends and cousins. We had a total of 14 kids, who by the time they left were full of cake and ice cream were all on a sugar high!





I accidentally bought trick candles! He blew them out about 4 times!

Blogging Problem

If anyone is having trouble getting their blog to come up and receives a message that says something like "Internet Explorer cannot open the website." This is because of SiteMeter. Remove SiteMeter and your blog will pull up. Hope this helps, it took me HOURS to figure this out!