Sunday, November 30, 2008

Moving around...

Today was an interesting day. Anne and her kids came over today and I went and picked up Sarah. Other than the fact that I got lost it went well. It sounded like everyone else at the house had fun and they ended up playing a bunch of Rock Band and Denise and Anne made banana bread. So tomorrow Desirae goes back to school and Devin should have his first day of home school. Hopefully everything will go well!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Somewhat back to normal...

Well, life is somewhat back to normal. Denise caught Devin and Deanna hanging out this morning and was able to capture a photo of it. Devin is doing pretty good (considering) and is adapting well. He actually seems to have more movement of his right foot toes which is pretty cool. Not sure if that is something that should have happened but anything positive is nice right now!

Nana and Max left today. We REALLY appreciated Nana's help and I don't know what we would have done if she wouldn't have been able to come down. We are just really grateful that she was able to do that.

I pick up Sarah tomorrow from Bakersfield and Anne is coming over tomorrow with her kids so everyone can play together - and Anne will be able to help move Devin if he needs to be while I am on the road.

We did try today moving Devin into the wheelchair with one person. It worked but was cumbersome. I don't really think one person could move him onto the potty though...

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanks Giving!

Happy Thanks Giving to everyone out there! We had a really nice Thanks Giving and the food was outstanding! Max took the train down from Livermore so she could also spend the holiday with us, then her and Nana will leave on Saturday.

Even with Devin's surgery we all have a lot to be thankful for and this was a nice time to sit back and remember that.

Sarah, Denise's niece, is coming out to help out and that is really going to help. I really don't know what in the world we would have done if my mom hadn't come down and with Sarah coming out. The problem is that it takes too people to move Devin around. Hopefully Sarah and Denise will be able to move him around while I am at work.

Speaking of Devin everything is going well with his recovery and he has migrated off the pain medication and is doing pretty good. He does have moments every once in a while - but for the most part he is doing good.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

End of soccer...

Today was Desirae's end-of-soccer party at the park. They had a BBQ, played a game with their sister team and handed out some awards. Desirae is pictured above receiving her award with her coaches. I stayed home with Nana and Devin and Denise took Desirae and Deanna. It sounded like it was a fun time and Desirae was pretty happy when she came home. Denise said it sounds like Desirae will have the same coaches and considered how focused and good they were with the kids I think that is a pretty good thing. Denise took photos of all the kids getting their awards and I will try to post them tomorrow.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Starting to settle in...

Devin is doing better today and we had an opportunity to move him out into the living room. While there we played a couple of video games and watched some television. Also while he was out there he had his first visitor come to see him and drop off a package. Ms. Gina Sprague and her daughter Madison who are in the picture. At Devin's old school Gina decided to setup a basket for the faculty to leave presents for him. The idea/plan is that he can only open one a day and it gives him one more thing to look forward to. They also put a present for Desirae and Deanna in there. It was an incredibly nice gesture and Devin REALLY appreciated it!

Anyway, Devin is doing pretty good and the swelling he was having in his right foot is starting to go down. We have kept an eye on it and we were pleased that it started shrinking. At least the color was always good.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Devin's home...

I would like to report that our experience at Children's Hospital Los Angeles was extraordinary, but I can not. The surgery went well and I have great confidence in Dr. Kay's ability and success but the administration of the hospital has something to be desired. LIke I mentioned before Devin was not placed in a real room, and he never was. He spent his entire time in the post-or recovery area. This is the place that patients are supposed to be for maybe 2 hours before they are sent to their real rooms. Devin unfortunately spent his entire time there so every time someone came out of surgery you could hear the cries and screams from the other children as they awoke. It was VERY stressful and hard to relax. We keep buggy the staff about Devin getting a room but by mid-morning he had enough and was crying to leave. He got to the point that he was doing everything he could to meet the requirements to leave and refused to eat lunch because he didn't want to spent another moment in the hospital. By this point Denise and I were throughly pissed and started taking it out on the staff. When we finally had him setup to leave and I met them at the lobby with the van Devin still had his IV in and they had to come take it out in the front of the hospital. It was a real mess and neither one of us was impressed by their operation. The staff was very friendly but that doesnt' make up for an unpleasant experience for Devin (or the other four families in the same boat). I did hear the next morning that they canceled the scheduled surgeries because of the lack of rooms.

Devin is now home and he is doing pretty good. We did have a bit of an overlap (or underlap) of the pain medication so he was in a lot of pain the first night. But we got him under control and have been making sure he receives his regular doses of pain medication. He spent his first day in his room and we just adjusted him from there. He is really uncomfortable about moving and right now doesn't want to mess with the wheel chair. I imagine tomorrow we will move him around move and probably get him in the living room. He did try to play a video game today and had a bit of a breakdown when he realized that any jerking motion from playing the game was extremely painful. The little guy is doing exceptionally well and we are all very proud of him but this is going to be a long recovery period of him.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Surgery is complete...

Well, today was the day for Devin’s surgery. Fortunately we headed down last night because they called twice (at the house – not Denise’s cell phone) to push up the surgery. That was good because Devin didn’t have to wait as long – but it did stress things in the morning because we went from leisure to chaos in an instant. Fortunately we were close and made it down to the hospital when they needed us there.

Devin wanted Uncle Brad to pray for him before he went in and Denise was able to connect with him right before they started the prepping him for admission. It really meant a lot to Devin and Denise and I were grateful that Brad was able to do it.

During the pre-op stuff a bunch of folks came in to speak with Devin, and us. Doctor Kay also came back in and went over everything that they had planned for him for the surgery. After getting him ready and providing some pre-sedation medication they wheeled him off and Denise and I went and waited until it was over.

After about 4 and a half hours Dr. Kay came down to give us the out-brief on Devin’s surgery. Everything went well and he was able to do everything that he needed to do. It was quite a bit and I can’t really remember everything right now but needless to say it was a LOT of work on Devin. Shortly after that they called us up to the recovery room. The one (well there are many) unfortunate incident is that Devin was awake before we got up there and he prompted freaked out. We were able to get him some additional pain medication and calmed him down but he was really freaked out about the entire thing.

The other unfortunate incident is that for some reason they were unable to provide rooms for many of the children who had surgery today. So right now, Denise and Devin are still in the recovery area and they are sleeping there tonight. They did bring in a hospital bed instead of the gurney he was on. Denise, however, gets to sleep on that same gurney.

We are still not sure what the plan is for tomorrow. They are kind of planning on sending him home tomorrow, but he neither of us is really sure that is a good idea. Devin still hasn’t eaten anything and up until just recently every time he drinks something he throws up. So we want to make darn sure he is stable before we get him home (hours away from the hospital).

Anyway I am REALLY beat and thought I would try to do a blog before I crash… As usual, more to follow!

Monday, November 17, 2008

In Los Angeles...

Well, today was the day we headed down to Los Angeles to spend the night in preparation for Devin's surgery tomorrow. Our plan was to get down here, get settled and then go do some fun stuff with Devin. We let him choose what he wanted to do so we used the marvel of the iPhone to find an Olive Garden for dinner. After a pretty good dinner, where we ate way too much, we headed over to a Borders Books to pick up some reading to occupy our time tomorrow. The one irritating thing of the day was when we were almost in LA and we got the call that they scheduled his surgery for 2:45pm tomorrow. It isn't so much the time, but the restrictions on what he can and when he can eat. So as it stands right now after midnight he can only have clear liquids and then at noon he can't have anything. Considering we are going to Children's Hospital everyone is pretty much a kid but it is still frustrating that he is going to have to go the entire morning without eating anything.

So with that in mind we also (again using the iPhone) found a Cold Stone and had more ice cream than ANY of us should have had. But it was a pretty good time and it was a nice evening.

Now we are just hanging out in the room reading and such.

At least since the hotel has internet access (free even) I should be able to keep up on the blog. Nana has done us the tremendous favor of coming down to watch the girls and give me and Denise the opportunity to both be here for Devin and each other. She is also going to stick around until Thanks Giving when Max will come down. That should REALLY give us some help when Devin gets home.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Getting ready...

Friday Denise took Devin down to Children Hospital to do the pre-admitting and xray stuff before his surgery next Tuesday. As you can imagine we have been a little bit preoccupied about this and I have really focused on the blog or anything for a while. Devin is still excited, and a bit nervous, about the surgery but he is handling everything very well. The plan is that we will head down to LA on Monday and get settled so we can be there early on Tuesday. They still haven't given us a time for the surgery on Tuesday, they are going to call us on Monday for that. So more to follow on that.

I do have some old blogs that I need to write and post so hopefully in the next few days I will be able to post some...