Ben's Surgery

On Thursday Ben had surgery to remove the plates and screws from his arm. The doctor recommended doing this because there is a chance, espcially in kids, that the hardware could eventually cause problems.  It's a lot easier and less traumatic to remove them in a controlled environment than to remove them after they've caused a problem.

My parents came up Wednesday night so they could help out and watch our other four kids while I took Ben to the hospital and Bryce went to work.  We really appreciated them coming up and the kids loved having them here.  That night Bryce and Dad gave Ben a blessing that really helped him be less nervous about the surgery.

Ben and I left our house at 5:00 a.m. Thursday morning.  The most eventful thing that happened on the drive was when we saw a raccoon cross the road in front of us just after we pulled out of our subdivision.

We got to the hospital and checked in at our check-in time of 5:30.  When you show up at the hospital at 5:30, there aren't a whole lot of people there yet, so the waiting times were really short.  We verified all our information, they gave us each an arm band, then a guy came to walk us down to the surgery pre-op where Ben was weighed and measured and then got to change into a blue hospital gown and sit on the hospital bed for a bit. 

Here's a picture of him in the hospital bed, watching the TV they had in the corner:

Ben kept making all the nurses laugh with the way he would answer their questions.  They thought he was a pretty funny kid.  He really didn't like the IV too much, and when they put the medicine into it to make him a bit drowsy before they took him back to the OR, he would tell me each area of his body that was starting to feel tingly from it.  He was a bit nervous for the surgery, but not too bad.  I think he was really mostly nervous about feeling sick after, but we told the anesthesiologist that he had felt nauseated after his last surgery, so he said they would try to fix that.

It didn't seem like very long after they wheeled Ben back to the OR that they called me in the waiting room to let me know that he had fallen asleep well and that the surgery was under way.  About a half hour or so after that, they took me to the doctor consultation area to wait for a few minutes for the doctor to finish closing him up and then let me know how it went.  The doctor told me everything had gone smoothly and gave me some post-op instructions, then took me back to the waiting room to wait for them to come get me to take me to see Ben in recovery. 

Ben was a lot more alert in recovery this time and just kept asking when he could get the IV out and go home.  He wasn't in any pain because of the block they did in his arm and he wasn't feeling nauseated at all.  They gave him some juice and a popsicle, then got the IV out and he was able to change and go home.  They did give him instructions to take it easy and start with mild foods, so it was funny when he was asking if we could get lunch from Taco Bell on our drive home.

He really did very well this time.  He never had any pain after the surgery and was very happy that he never felt nauseated.  If it weren't for the big bandage around his arm, you'd probably never guess he had just had surgery.  And he did get Taco Bell for lunch.

We were able to take the big wrapped bandages of on Sunday and he was able to take a shower.  Here are a couple of pictures of his arm with the tape still on, since we were told to leave that on, and the bandages off.

This first one is the inside of his arm.  This scar was worse than the other one, so they also cut out the scar to reform it.  It may still end up being big, but they're hoping it won't be quite as big.

 

 

This second one is the outside of his arm.  This scar wasn't as big and obviously didn't bleed quite as much after the surgery.

 

 And just to show you that Ben wasn't the only one having fun, here is a picture of Abby finding a new use for the barf bags the hospital sent home "just in case."  We'd better watch out, she could start a whole new trend with these things. 

Year in Review

Yes, it has been over a year since I've last posted in the blog. I was actually waiting to download the pictures from my camera to the computer and just never did it. I have no excuse. It's been a crazy year though.

First off, from a year ago, Chris had his 6th birthday. Here's a picture or two:

Then Daniel started preschool. Here he is on his first day:

Then we had the usual Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

 Alex turned 8 and then was baptized the next day on New Year's Eve. It was fun seeing all those who came up for it.

 Here's a few pictures from that and from the cake we had to celebrate his birthday with the family who came up:

 

After the first of the year, we had a good month and a half before things really got crazy. I did start running again after the New Year and ended up losing a total of about 25 pounds and have managed to keep it off so far and actually have kept up with the running, which I'm pretty pleased with.

But then the fun began on Tuesday, February 22nd.

That morning I got a text message from my mom saying that they had taken my nephew to the hospital by ambulance and were trying to figure out what was causing him to really not be well. She and my dad decided to fly to my sister's house to help out where they could.

Just after my kids got home from school that day, I got a call from a woman at Bryce's work saying that they had called an ambulance and were taking him to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. They were calling Katie to see if she could come watch my kids so I could go meet him at the hospital, which she did. She told me she would call back and let me know which hospital. She called back, and I left, and the proceeded to wait because they didn't have him there. Then I called another hospital, who also said he wasn't there and kept waiting. Jarom showed up a while later and they still hadn't found him and the people in the ER called the paramedic dispatch to see if they could tell us where they had taken him, and it ended up being the hospital I had called. So we went over there where they still didn't know much, but Bryce was in a lot of pain. Jarom eventually left, while I stayed. We found out that Bryce had pancreatitis. Since he doesn't drink, so alcohol couldn't have caused it, it was determined to be caused by gallstones. They admitted him to the hospital and kept him pretty drugged up and kept him off any food or water until his pancreas seemed to calm down.

I really had a lot of help from people in my ward and neighborhood during that time, and it really was a blessing. It was really hard to go see Bryce in the hospital and see him in that condition, so the support I got from those around me really helped.
 
The following Sunday they did surgery to remove Bryce's gallbladder and again I had help from other people watching my kids and taking them to church while I went to the hospital. They sent Bryce home from the hospital on Monday evening, although he had a fever, so they really shouldn't have.


The next day, Ben was jumping off the trampoline to come inside when he slipped and fell and broke his arm.
I should say here that I was really impressed with him through that. He broke the one bone in two places and broke the other bone in one, so it must have really hurt, but he hardly cried or anything. Yes, we could tell he was in a lot of pain and could see him visibly feel better once they got the IV in him with some pain medication, but he was really quite brave.

Here is a picture of his x-ray:

I've got to say, I was not a fan of Tuesdays at this point.

The very next Tuesday, we had to take Bryce back to the ER because his fever had spiked to 104 late the night before and he wasn't getting any help from the surgeon's office who just kept telling him to watch his fevers, that they seemed reasonable. They did say after the 104 fever that if it spiked up again like that, he should go to the ER. The surgeon did a good job with the actual surgery, not so good afterward.

And Tuesdays really stink by now.

We also decided to go to another hospital, the one I had originally been told they were taking him when they took him by ambulance. There, it was determined that he still had pancreatitis, but also had some necrosis of the pancreas and they were very concerned about him. So again he was admitted to the hospital and not allowed to eat or drink anything. Because he had already been two weeks without really eating or drinking much, his body needed nutrients, so they eventually put a pic line into his heart to give him the nutrients he needed. This hospital stay was much better, although it was still hard to see him there. He was able to come home a week later on the following Tuesday.

That Tuesday was much better than the previous 3.


So after Ben finally got his cast off from his broken arm, there was still a problem. His arm looked like this:

The orthopaedic doctor kept saying that the arm should eventually straighten out because kids' arms do that, but then he would feel it and say how he really didn't like the look of it, so he ended up referring us to a pediatric orthopaedist. We liked this guy much better.

We had told Ben that the chances were that he would have to have surgery on the arm, but he was still really hoping that he wouldn't. When we got to the doctor's office, they took Ben back for more x-rays. When the doctor came in the examination room after looking at the x-rays, his first words were, "Oh, boy." Yeah, that's never a good sign. So yes, he said that Ben needed surgery, and it was scheduled for 2 or 3 weeks after that appointment. Ben really wasn't happy.

In the surgery, they ended up putting in 2 plates and 12 screws. The doctor said he really had to chisel away at bone to even get to the area to fix it, so apparently Ben grows good bone. Here's an x-ray of after the surgery:

And here's Ben in his cast after that surgery. His favorite colors are blue and orange, so that's what he picked for his cast.

Then Abby turned 3, so here's her with her cake. She wanted it pink.

I ran my first ever 5K in May, running in the Race for the Cure. Here's a picture of my friend Wendy and me before the race. Don't I look all skinny?

Then Chris graduated from kindergarten and Daniel graduated from preschool, but I'm not going to post the pictures from those.


Then Daniel had a birthday and turned 5:

Then Ben turned 10 and he and Alex shared a birthday party:

After that, the boys all started school. Ben started the 5th grade, Alex 3rd, Chris 1st, and Daniel Kindergarten. They were pretty excited.

Then Chris had his 7th birthday and wanted an octopus cake:

This last weekend, the boys and I all ran in the Harvest Classic Fun Run. Alex had been begging me for a couple of weeks to sign him up, so I eventually gave in and did it. The boys all ran the one mile fun run, which wasn't timed. I was really impressed with them as they all decided to help encourage Daniel to keep running, so they all stayed behind him and let him go in front and cross the finish line first. I have some great boys.

I ran in the 2 mile timed race and was actually really pleased with my results. I got 16th place overall, 4th overall women's, and took first place in my age division.

Ben has surgery again this Thursday to take out the plates and screws in his arm so they won't cause problems in the future.

So now we're up to date for the year. Here's hoping this next year will be more uneventful than this last year.