Medical Misery

The day before Cloudburst's baptism, Thunder was at the gym lifting weights.  He was benching 300 lbs when he felt an explosion in his chest.  He screamed for his spotter to lift the weight, and they drove straight to the ER.After doing some tests and meeting with an orthopedic surgeon, they determined that Thunder had completely separated the pectoralis major muscle away from the (humerus) arm bone.  The tendon had ripped away from the bone and curled up in his arm, which you can see from the bruising.  The muscle recoiled into his chest cavity and it was all incredibly painful.

The surgeon, who used to be the head of BYU orthopedics, said that he could repair it with surgery.  They scheduled us for same day surgery on Tuesday, so we headed to the hospital, thinking we would come home that night.  Here is Thunder getting prepped around 1 PM....

... and here he is after the surgery, about 6 PM.  I was in the waiting room for several hours.  I finally called the nurses in the recovery room and they said that they couldn't move him yet because his pain was not under control.  Yikes.  They gave him a spinal block and then he was moved to a hospital room. He was pretty unaware of what was going on.  He kept asking over and over and over to please straighten his arm.  He looked so miserable, but was definitely altered from all the pain medication.  He got a blessing and he begged them to straighten his arm.  It was so sad to hear him ask over and over.

 As he started to wake up more, he complained that it was very painful to swallow.  The nurses assured him that it was minor irritation due to a breathing tube, but it was hard for him to even drink water.  Since we had a babysitter at home with our kids, I finally left him at 11 PM that night to go home.  I should have figured out a way to stay.  When I came back at 7:30 the next morning, I found out he had not had any pain medication since I left the night before.  It still hurt to swallow and they had given him lemon juice for hiccups.  He was throwing up a little blood and wheezing.  He was so exhausted.  He couldn't eat and could barely drink water.

But we hoped it would get better, so we checked out that afternoon on Wednesday.  I was so uneasy but was hoping that being at home would be more comforting.

The next morning, Thunder was throwing up significant amounts of blood and had a fever.  We called the surgeon, who said to go to the ER.  Thunder was complaining of excruciating pain with swallowing.  They checked for blood clots and recommended an appointment with a GI doctor to scope his throat.  For this, he had to go without food, drink and medication for 12 hours.  It ended up being 13 hours of nothing by the time they got us in.  He was shaking with pain and weakness.

When they finally did the endoscope procedure, the doctor showed me the results.  He could see dozens of open lesions up and down his esophagus.  He said that a particular virus can rarely cause this infection of the esophagus and somehow Thunder had gotten it in this rare form. He pointed out multiple white spots and said that they would all swell and burst over the next 48 hours.  Some had already burst and were bleeding into his stomach, causing nausea and vomiting.  But the doc said that it would get worse until they all burst and started to heal.  Thunder barely ate a few bites a day for a week.  He just slept and tried to swallow his pain pills.

Now, this whole time, my foot had been hurting.  I had run 12 miles the Saturday before the surgery and it started hurting the next day.  I was hobbling around Thunder's hospital bed, but I couldn't very well go off to the doctor with him in his condition.  So I called in reinforcements!  Nana had called a few times and offered to come out, so I finally accepted her offer.  And boy was I glad.  One by one my kids were coming down with Strep throat too.

With her here, I went into a foot doctor and discovered I have a stress fracture in my left foot.  Part of me was kind of glad I wasn't just being a big baby about it, that it was something real.  But mostly I was just so deflated.  I had been training for a marathon and had been doing my runs, getting up at 5:30 AM and really doing my best to stick with the training.  All that was going to be lost in the 4-6 weeks of recovery, and there was no way I could jump back into the training.  So I withdrew from the marathon.  It was probably good, since I came down with Strep the day after Nana left.

Here are all of Thunder's pills he was taking after surgery.  I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of it all!

So here is Thunder now.  He has to wear this arm brace for 6 weeks and will then start physical therapy.  He is still recovering.  We all came down with the stomach flu this past week and the poor guy got it.  He was been working a lot from home, since it's been so hard for him to have energy for long periods of time.

It's been quite the ordeal! But once again we feel so loved.  So many neighbors and friends helped with kids and food and I never had to worry about them for a minute.  And of course for Thunder's mom to drop everything and come out here and help us, it was so incredibly nice and needed.  We feel so lucky to live in our neighborhood and have such great family.  And dang, I'm grateful for texting on cell phones.  I've never sent/received so many texts in my life, and it was so nice to update people that way.  As you can see below, the kids didn't miss a beat.  Here they are racing down the stairs in their footie pajamas.

And here we are, broken foot, kevlar-stiched chest, Strep infections, random viral esophagitis, stomach flu and all.  Here's to no more doctor's visits!!!  Man, maybe it's time for a vacation in the tropics...

...then again, we have met our deductible....

Born again

We are still breaking out in smiles, remembering what a great week we had surrounding Cloudburst's baptism.  We don't have immediate family close by, and so we began planning this week sometime last year.  Thunder and I really wanted it to be special, and we were so happy that so many people were able to come!

Here you can see Papa (Thunder's dad), Sunshine, Uncle Robert, Aunt Jenny, Grandpa (my dad) and Grandma (my mom).

Here you can see Cloudburst, Grandma, Aunt Allie and Nana (Thunder's mom).

And here's Thunder.  Notice how he's not moving his left arm?  On Friday morning (the baptism was Saturday) he was weight lifting and blew out his chest muscle.  But more on that later.  We had people fly in from New York, California, Texas, Virginia and New Mexico.  We had such a great time just being together!

The day I picked up Grandpa, we had some time to kill until Grandma's flight arrived.  So we drove around Salt Lake City, visiting the apartment he lived in as a grad student, where me met my mom, and the church they got married in.  Well, at least we think it was the right church.  :-)  Thunder and I went to a BYU basketball with my parents.  It's been quite a year for them.

Once everyone arrived by Friday, we took Cloudburst out for a girl's afternoon.  Our fist stop was to Claire's where she got her ears pierced!  Both Grandmas were there and almost all of her aunts (we missed you Aunt Vicki!) so it was quite special.  She didn't cry and was so excited to pick out her new earrings.

While we were there we also got pedicures.  Girls day, right?

On Saturday morning we all made a mad dash for the showers to get all 13 people ready on time.

Cloudburst was beaming from ear to ear.  We had a very special service for her.  Grandma gave a talk, Aunt Jenny gave the opening prayer, I gave a talk and also sang a song I wrote just for the occasion, and Sunshine gave the closing prayer.  Thunder baptized Cloudburst.  I had both grandmas help with getting Cloudburst dressed after she got baptized.  Thunder and I both got a bit choked up, me during my song, and Thunder during the baptism.  It was such a neat feeling to have everyone there to support her.

And then it was off to eat!  We went to a restaurant called The Mayan, which has an awesome indoor jungle theme and cliff divers.  My Aunt and Uncle Soderquist, and my cousin with her children were able to join us.  It was so fun to see everyone seated at one big long table.

We also surprised my dad with a flaming cake- it was his birthday too!

Here are Nana and Papa.  It was a short trip for them and they missed us so much that Nana came back to visit us shortly after.  (Well, actually it's because by then our family was slowly falling apart from medical issues and it would have been hard to get through that next week without her!)

Here is my cousin with her kids.  I haven't seen her in a few years.

Playing around outside the restaurant...

That evening we rented a room at Noah's, which has rooms with wallyball courts, pool tables and places to hang out.  We let Cloudburst invite several friends and their families so we had quite a crew.

When Cloudburst turned 7, she decided to read the Book of Mormon all by herself, and she did it.  She has asked us a lot of questions, and made the decision herself to be baptized just like Jesus did.  We are so proud to be her parents.  We feel so lucky to have had so much support from family and friends.  We had an amazing week, and it all traces back to one special girl and her decision.

Eye am warning you now...

... the following pics are not for the faint of heart. I thought the whole process was fascinating, but many people get grossed out too. What process you ask? Why, LASIK!  Here is my last day wearing glasses.  Before the surgery I had to wear them for 10 stinkin, ankle-twisting days.  I had to take a final picture with Cloudburst with both of us sporting our specs.

And then it was off to Hoopes!  They gave me some Valium to calm my nerves and led me in to the cold procedure room.  They first used a laser to cut a thin flap of corneal tissue from my eye.  They applied suction (yes to my EYE BALL, thank goodness for that Valium).

Then they fired the IntraLase laser to create thousands of tiny air bubbles beneath the surface of my cornea.  Here, it is about half way done.  Over the next couple of minutes those air bubbles congealed together to form one layer of air just below the surface of the cornea.

Then I moved over to a second machine, the Allegretto laser.  Dr. Hoopes cut the flap away and folded it down.  You can see it folded back at the bottom.  Then the laser did its magic for 6 seconds.  See that cloudy part in the middle?  That's where the laser burned away parts of my eye, and yes I could smell something funky.

Then Dr. Hoopes smoothed back the flap.  Then he did the other eye of course.  They put all sorts of eye drops in my eyes.  Then I got to lay in the most amazing massage chairs for several minutes to let my eyes rest.  I still dream about those chairs.

Once Thunder drove me home, I put on my fancy new eyewear and slept pretty much all day.  But guess what?  When I woke up from sleeping I COULD SEE!!!!!

It is still weird to not take care of contacts at night.  It is so nice to wake up with Sunrise in the night.  Wait, it's nice to be able to SEE at night when I MUST wake up with Sunrise (the darn kid is not a good sleeper).  And being able to wake up at 5:30 AM for a run and NOT have to fiddle with contacts?  Oh wait.  I don't have to do that any more (see upcoming post on the medical drama....)

Happy Birthday Cloudburst!

Alrightie... Cloudburst's birthday was back on February 25, but we've had an exciting few weeks, so I'm just posting the pictures now.  This was a big birthday for her because she turned

8!

There was a place up north that she had been asking to go for months.  It's called iFly and you really do fly.  They had a deal for families, so I snatched it up and we made the plans to go.

When she got home from school, we first opened presents.  She got so many cute things!

Then we trekked up to Ogden and got ready to fly.  The first had us watch an instructional video and taught us hand signs to use in the giant wind tunnel.

Then we all got suited up and ready to go.  Everyone could fly except for Sunrise, so Thunder and I took turns holding him.

Here is the big wind tunnel.  Air comes up from below, and the fan can blow at different speeds depending on  the person inside.  An instructor is in there with you at all times and helps you get the best body shape to catch the wind.

And here is everyone's best cheerleader.

Here's the birthday girl!  She sailed right up there.

Here is Thunder.

He got some pretty good air.

Here is me.  It was so loud in there and hard to see that you could really just concentrate on the position your body was in.  Each twist of your arms and legs could send you up, down or into the wall.  It was fun to learn.

Here is Sunshine.  He was very nervous and shed a few tears, but conquered his fears and had a great time.

Here is Tornado.  He wrapped every arm and leg around the instructor and wouldn't let go.  He wouldn't be peeled off until his turn was over.

We all got two 1-minute rides.  On our second time, the instructor took us each high up in a large spiral.

Tornado got up a little more courage his second time around and managed to let his feet loose.  At the end of everyone's turn, the instructor put on an awesome show, doing some great tricks.  We would love to go again sometime!

And then we came home to eat cake.  It was such a special day for a special girl.

Now that she's 8 years old, Cloudburst is really starting to spread her wings and fly.  We love you!

Coming attractions...

The last few weeks have been insane.  I will be uploading pictures and blogging about it all, but I wanted to just send a short update now while I have time.

* At the end of February was Cloudburst's birthday, when she turned 8.  We went flying (for reals)
* At the beginning of March she was baptized.  We had family fly in from all over the country to be here, and we had a rockin' good time together, even if it went by in a flash
* Thunder ripped apart his chest muscle while exercising.  Last week he got the tendon reattached to the bone, where it had separated.  Then he had some complications that have led to a long stressful recovery.  I hurt my foot on a long run, and it turns out I have a stress fracture in my foot too.  Goodbye marathon.  Also the kids have had strep, pink eye, stomach aches and have been waking up at night.  Thank goodness Nana was able to come help us out!

It has been a trying week but we will make it!  We always do!

Thank you hairy much

On Sunday I walked up the stairs to see Sunshine brushing Cloudburst's hair. He tries to be such a tough guy, but he is really a softie.

And Sunrise, oh Sunrise.  What a phase you are going through.  I came upstairs to find he had discovered the Vaseline.  And thought it was shampoo.  Which needed to be applied several times.

Do you know that it is impossible to get that stuff out of anything???