Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Fun times together!


Sorry it has been a while since the last post, I won't even pretend like I have an excuse. Tayton has been trying to win the Biggest Aggie fan and he is getting pretty close. He loves getting votes and he makes me check my facebook at least 5 times a day. He just wants to win the title so bad so if you can go on facebook, like the website and go vote for him! You vote by clicking on all 5 stars. You can vote once a day!! l.inkto.it

 Things have been going good for the most part. Tayton recovered well from his last surgery and is gearing up for his next surgery which is on March 15th. This next surgery should be a fun one. So basically his vocal cords got damaged from being on the ventilator that long. There is a lot of scar tissue and that caused his vocal cords to get stuck which is blocking his airway. There is nothing they can do to really get the vocal cords moving again, so what they have to do is laser off the portions of his vocal cords that are blocking the airway. The problem with that is he will lose a lot of his voice. He will still be able to talk but it will sound like a whisper the rest of his life. It was heartbreaking to me at first but looking at it now I am grateful that the problem is fixable and he should be able to breathe a lot better. The doctor said it isn't a one time surgery that will fix this but a marathon of surgeries for at least the next six months. They are starting with this procedure and they will see how it goes and go from there. I'm hoping it all works the first time but it sounds like they will have to keep removing scar tissue for a while. He has to be put back on the ventilator during the surgery but the doctor is hoping they can remove it by the end of surgery. He will be in the PICU at Primary Childrens for at least 24hrs after surgery. Then hopefully he will only have to stay at the hospital a couple of days after that. Our social worker from the burn unit says in the 20 years she has worked there she hasn't even seen this happen. The specialist says the last time he did this surgery was 6 months ago and it happens but it isn't common. It is pretty rare that they don't even have the laser they need at the hospital and they have to rent it. What can I say except I knew my kid was special!

I tried to explain it to Tayton the best I could and he wasn't too happy about loosing his voice but he seems to be dealing with it a lot better. On Sunday for church at home time we watched the Joseph Smith Story. When the prophet was seven he had leg surgery. Tayton was almost in tears watching it because he couldn't imagine being awake during the surgery. Tayton said he was so happy he got to sleep during his. Then we watched President Spencer W. Kimball bear his testimony. Spencer W. Kimball also had vocal cord surgery so he talked really quiet. Tayton thought it was neat that he could relate to these prophets and didn't seem to scared after that. He even thought President Kimball sounded neat and he thinks it might be fun to talk like Yoda. I have been busy trying to record him as much as possible and I had a little break-down at Hallmark the other day. I went in to buy one of those recordable story books. The woman asked me what kind of book I was looking for and I started crying. Poor lady must think I'm crazy, or hopefully my huge belly might explain things. There are a lot worse things that can happen besides loosing your voice, I am just grateful he is still here and I get to hug and kiss him every night. I remember praying to Heavenly Father and saying I don't care what happens or how long it takes, I just need him here. So even though we still have hard times ahead, I am so happy Heavenly Father answered my prayer and that I still have my sweet boy with me.-----

 On a happier note, on the 16th I celebrated my 31st birthday. I remember thinking 30 was so old and now I'm passed that, but I don't feel old at all. We had a great time on my birthday. We just stayed home because I'm still worried about getting Tayton sick, but staying home was so fun. I decided I wanted a Fiesta for my birthday. We ordered a yummy take-out dinner from Bellas, a local Mexican restaurant. We had horchata and I got a Pina Colada drink. I tried to find some Fiesta decorations but the only thing I found was Dora the Explorer plates and napkins. I thought she speaks Spanish so it fits right. Yep I turned 31 and had Dora the Explorer decorations. And what is a Fiesta without a little Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We all had so much fun playing and the kids now say they want to have a Fiesta for their birthday. Such great memories. Here are a few pictures. The winner of round 1 is Tayton. Tayton helping spin his dad around. Tannas turn, she was the winner of round 2! The birthday girl or her hubby never won the round, maybe next time. Oh and my sweet husband got Tanna some flowers for Valentines Day. He asked Tanna to be his Valentine. I had all ready been asked by my little guy to be his Valentine so I was taken. The kids both got Valentines from school and they were so excited. It was a pretty good day. As you can see she was pretty happy about getting some flowers! She loved smelling them!I swear my blog might be haunted. Now it lets me put spacing between paragraphs and I didn't do anything different from the last posts.  But the pictures are alligning up funky. One day I will be smart like my 7 and 4 year old and figure out electronics, in the mean time just hang in there with me. Thanks for listening.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Surgery day

I know last time I posted surgery was off, well on Tuesday Tayton started having problems breathing again. I took him to his pediatrician and he gave him some steroid shots and said if that didn't help we needed to go to Primary Childrens ER. I called his ear, nose, and throat doctor and he decided Tayton couldn't wait that he needed surgery to see what was wrong. The steroids worked pretty good and he had an ok night, so we took him to Primary Childrens Wednesday morning. He was not too happy for surgery to say the least. The doctors were thinking they were going to find scar tissue and just remove it and that would help his breathing but what they found was a lot worse and a lot more complicated. His vocal cords are basically stuck and don't move at all. And they are stuck in a spot that is blocking his airway which is why it is so hard for him to breathe. The doctor said it is like trying to breathe through a straw. He said it is very rare and he doesn't see it that often. So now we have to go to another specialist and have another surgery to move his vocal cords. I am not sure how that surgery works but I know it is going to be a rough one. The doctor talked to me about putting him on a ventilator again during the procedure and I just lost it and can't really deal with that right now. Hopefully the specialist will go through more in detail with me and have some good news. In the meantime we have to keep Tayton inside and he can not get sick. Even a slight cold like what he had can cause horrible breathing problems. They are thinking surgery will be in about six weeks which is three weeks before my baby comes. (Love the timing.) When we meet with the specialist I will explain it better but they said the complications are he will have a quiet voice the rest of his life. It will definitely be a lifetime problem and that breaks my heart. It has been very hard for me to process all of this but like I said hopefully the specialist will have more positive things to say. I was hoping this was our last surgery and this would have fixed his breathing issues. I just feel so bad he has to go through so much. I know Tayton doesn't do anything by the book so he may prove everyone wrong and come out of this better then anyone expected.
But on the happy note, Tayton had a special visitor come to wish him well before surgery. He was so excited to see him. I told Tayton earlier in the day he had someone coming to surprise him and he asked if it was the Physical Therapist. I told him it was way funner then that. So here was our special visitor.
Thank you to Levi's aunt for setting this up for us, and thanks to Big Blue for cheering up a little boy. Go Aggies!
Look at this cute smile, I love it!
For some reason Tanna is not a big fan of Big Blue. She saw him and ran up into her room and put the covers over her head. We brought her back down to try to tell her it was ok and this is how happy she was to be back in the same room as Big Blue, and no she is not laughing. Don't worry, we will work on her.
Mom, Tayton, and Big Blue.
Big Blue was showing us his handstands. I totally would have tried to beat him but it's a little harder to do handstands when you are super huge pregnant.
Big Blue was so fun, they were playing catch together. We need Big Blue to come do therapy every day.
Having fun with his new best buddy. It was so fun to have him come visit and it was so amazing to see how happy Tayton was. This kid deserves it, he has been through so much and still has so much he has to do. I am so happy every moment I get to be with my family. We have a lot to go through but at least we have each other to help us get through it.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Winterpoluza

So we have been cooped up inside and have been going a little crazy. I was scared to take Tayton out because I did not want him getting sick but emotionally we all needed it. So we found out that the same Star Wars characters who came to visit Tayton in the hospital were going to be at Winterpoluza at the south towne expo center. Tayton was so exctied to see them, he wanted to show them how much better he was and that he could walk. Tanna wanted to go so we could see the princesses. Anytime you can combine Star Wars characters and princesses in one place we are there. We got in and of course we had to find all the Star Wars characters. There were a few of the same people but a lot more characters. Taytons favorite were C3PO and Chewbacca. I took pictures and I would put them on here to show you, but someone, not naming and names accidently was adding pictures on from another SD card and erased all the Star Wars pictures. I feel sorry for this person because they have to deal with crazy, emotional, pregnant woman. I was really sad and almost in tears about loosing those pictures. Tayton doesn't know yet. But hopefully we can find them again and get some more pictures. It is just sad that was the main reason why we went and I have nothing to show for it. Tayton was even talking about putting the Star Wars pictures on his wall in his room. Oh well, not much I can do about it. But here are the few pictures that didn't get erased.
Tanna and her princesses.
Tayton enjoying the bounce houses and slides.
Then after Winterpoluza we met my sweet Grandma for her 90th Birthday Party. She is the sweetest lady in the world and so happy to have her here with us. Happy 90th birthday Grandma, we love you!
This is my grandma with her three children and their spouses.
Here is the group of us who could come. Tayton was so tired by this point he was not going to be in any pictures. Also this weekend I feel like I lost another grandma. For about the past two years I go every Thursday morning to Sister Walkers house and play Rook with her and other amazing women. When Tayton was in the hospital, Marilyn Walker had surgery and ended up in the hospital too. She was able to come home and we did get two rounds of our Thursday Rook in before she returned back to our Heavenly Father yesterday. I will miss her, she was such a great example on how to live an amazing life. She has left such a great legacy and I am so lucky to have spent the time with her that I did. She was great friends with my other grandma and taught me sunday school back when I was 15. Thanks for all the wonderful memories, you will be missed.---------------------- The other bad news of our journey out is that Tayton did get sick and has a pretty good cough going on. So he is not going to be able to have his surgery on Wednesday because of his coughing. He is happy about it, me I am ready to get him breathing good. Guess we are back to being quarantined in our house again. Hopefully they can reschedule it soon but as on Monday night the surgery is off. Other then that he has been doing a lot better. Therapy is still hard for him, his right hand is doing really good but his left wrist and fingers are really tight still and he is in a lot of pain. I do therapy at home with him 3-5 times a day (depending on how tight he is) then we go three times a week to the Brigham City Hospital to their physical therapist. It is a nice break for me when someone else can do it. He got new burn gloves in but his left hand it caused some huge blisters so we have to wait until those heal until he can wear the burn gloves again on his left hand. So he has one arm in a glove and the other is just wrapped up in tight bandages. Emotionally he is doing a lot better. He is smiling more, but he is not the same boy he was. He is less cuddly and creative. He used to love to draw and make up his own stories but now he has no desire. Hopefully that little creative spark will come back in him. He is still the sweetest thing ever and so happy I get to be his mom.-------------- I am just feeling really pregnant. I feel the past two week my belly has grown like crazy. I am really uncomfortable. I did get to hold a 7 week old little girl and for the first time during this pregnancy I was actually baby hungry. I feel bad I haven't been more excited for our little Blakeli to come but things are so stressful I am not sure how a newborn is going to fit in with everything else going on. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for her to come, I just want to be a good mom to all three of my kids and I just don't feel like if she came right now I could give her what she needs. I know I just need to trust our Heavenly Father and we will make it work somehow. I love being a mom and so happy for all three of my beautiful children and I pray every night I get to spend more time with them.