Missy

The top ten reasons why I love my sister Missy:

1. When I was little she used to play house with me. She was always the dying mom and would lay on the couch and make me feed her. I loved it.

2. She always makes me extra caramel's at Christmas time.

3. She always gives me beets when she is canning them from her garden. Mmmmm they're good!

4. She used to judge dance competitions for me and Annie when we were little and would always say we tied, even though it was clear Annie won. ( apparently it looked like I was having a seizure on the tramp )

5. She would have me and Annie come stay with her for weekends in College. That's where I feel in love with Utah State and knew that I was going to go there someday so I could be just like her.

6. She would stick up for me when my brothers would make fun of me.

7. She came to alot of my track meets while I was in high school, and came to a few basketball games to watch me just sit on the bench. Her and MaCayle were my main supporters and I could always hear them cheering me on.

8. She is nice to everyone.

9. She is a wonderful mom and I look up to her because of that.

10 Because she is 32 years old today:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!

Also.....

HAPPY 29th KARI!!!!!!!

Night Terrors

The thing I have hated the most during this whole ordeal is that at night time when Brad is heavily medicated he has night terrors. He started having them in IRMAC when he was staying there, but they just consisted of him trying to get out of bed because he would have dreams of airplane crashes. When we got home last week he had one where he awoke and started telling me that his chest was hurting and he couldn't breath so I started freaking out about blood clots ( who knew he would actually get them ) but when he woke up he told me he had gas bubbles and it was his stomach that hurt, not his chest. The worst one was last night though. I awoke to a weird clicking sound and it was really bothering me. I asked Brad why he was clicking his tongue and he didn't respond so I preceded to ask a few more times. After he never answered but kept on clicking I noticed that his hand was waving me over, so I climbed out of the recliner and went over to him. I was trying to ask him questions but he just kept on clicking in response and squeezing my hand and he had a look of terror in his eyes so I started freaking out thinking he'd had a stroke. We called in the nurses and when one came I told him what was going on and he went and got a doctor and Brad's main nurse. While he was off fetching them Brad proceeded to start talking and asked me if I could hear him. He had finally woken up and didn't stroke out after all, but was just having another night terror. Oh how I hate night terrors, I think they scare me more then Brad.

On a happier note:

The vending machine here at the hospital has these little gems and I have fallen in love with them.

Also at night time before bed the Bingham Memorial Hospital gives the patients milk and cookies and tonight I snagged some for myself. I guess the hospital isn't that bad.

Clots

Yesterday afternoon Brad started complaining about his shoulder. We were pretty sure it was just because he had used his crutches a bunch on tuesday for his doctors appointment so we wrote it off as him being sore. Later on in the evening he started saying that it hurt him to breath because his broken rib was hurting him. I thought this was pretty weird because he had never complained about it before because of his pain medication. Around ten o'clock I started to worry because he had taken his pain pills an hour before and should of been feeling fine but the pain wasn't subsiding and was slowing getting worse. Throughout this whole process I have been deathly afraid of him getting blood clots because a great friend of mine from high schools mother died from a blood clot and I new how serious and quick it could come on. As I started googling symptoms and getting even more nervous I made Brad call our favorite soon to be doctor, Nate and ask him about what he thought and he told us to head on into the E.R. By the time we got to the doctor it was around 11:45 and by one o'clock in the morning, after a CT scan they found that he has several small blood clots in each of his lungs. He is on Lovenox and Coumadin both right now to start thinning his blood and he is checked back into the hospital until probably Sunday. Throughout this whole process I have never seen him in so much pain. It hurts him so much to breath that I cannot imagine what it would be like if the clots would of been larger. I feel so fortunate that we were able to catch them when we did and that they are small.

Its Been Two Weeks

Since Brad "fell out of the sky"

So I thought I would share the few photos I've taken during the whole thing.

This was the evening after the surgery on his L5 so he is still kind of swollen in his face.

This is what his right leg looks like. The cut on his knee is where the doctors put the rod in and the zig-zag cut is where his bones came out of his skin.

In his bed at the hospital

His back incision. If you look close you can see the drainage tube in his back that was draining out the bad blood.

His HUGE bruise on his right side

His stomach incision when we got home.

He had his first follow up appointment yesterday afternoon with doctor Allen to take out the staples in his stomach and to take a chest x-ray to check his lungs and make sure he didn't have pneumonia or blood clots. His X-ray looked great and they were able to take out most of his staples. They couldn't take out all of them because of top layer of skin started to separate when they were taking them out, so they left a handful of staples and steri strips on the whole incision to keep it closed until next week.

After his doctors appointment.

Taking a walk with his brace and walker

His sweet setup at home

Kari this picture is for you, Brad is flexing on his pull-up bar.

Everyday I am amazed by how much better he is doing. The past two weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions for me. Two weeks ago we didn't know if he was going to have permanent nerve damage or if he was going to be able to walk again. I am so grateful for how well he has been doing and the blessing we have received throughout his recovery thus far.

He's Home!

Day Seven: Wednesday,

Tuesday night wasn't so good for Brad. While sleeping I awoke to find him escaping his bed, twice. It horrified me and the nurses because if he would of fallen it would of been BAD! He was also able to walk with the PT ( physical Therapist ) once and went 250 feet, which was awesome. His right foot is looking a lot less swollen and he is able to move it more then he ever was able to. He walked later that night too with the help of Josh and Dan and did a wonderful job then also.

Day Eight: Thursday,

Wednesday night was a lot better then all of the nights before. He still mumbled in his sleep a little at first and a bunch of times he took off his oxygen and so all of the machines he was connected to would start beeping, but at least he wasn't trying to escape. First thing in the morning doctor Allen came and said he was ready to go home, which was like music to my ears. I was really nervous to get him home because its nice having all the nurses helping and machines to know he is okay, but the doctors said he would be fine and so we started the process of getting him home. To be able to go home he needed to be able to use his crutches and learn how to go up and down stairs with them so he could get into our house. After that Dr. McCowin came in and said that he would be able to get the staples in his leg out and so we waited a few hours, got the staples out, signed the discharge papers and we were on our way. Thanks to all of our wonderful family members we now have a sweet set up of a hospital bed, shower seat, toilet riser, and many more things to help us on the rest of this journey of getting Brad all healed up.

Thank you everyone who has been praying for Brad, I know each and every one of them has been a blessing to our family.