Tuesday 8/1/07

Myles' finger is doing better. It continued to get worse for quite a while and our fear of the graft taking was increasing. Yesterday during wound care and bandage change it miraculously looked better, Hoorah! We will probably go back to Salt Lake next week. There seems to be a solemness in our family this past week. I think that the length of time and stress is really starting to show. It has been 7 months now since my sister's suicide and we have not had any reprieve since that time. I'm sure that the court issue, Myles recovery, and me being unable to work right now, has a dark cloud hanging over us. Things will get better (I seem to keep saying that a lot) but we are all tired. Come on 2008, it has to be better than 2007!

The Detour

Myles and I decided to take a detour on the way home after Monday's wound care at Salt Lake. His finger wasn't looking any better than on Saturday and the thought of going through all that for nothing was pretty tough. We left SLC on Monday and drove to Montana for some wide open skies. We stayed in a cabin lodge that was right on the Snake River. Watching the fly fisherman from our room was completely awe inspiring and just what the doctor ordered for our soul. We got up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday and spent 12 hours driving around in Yellowstone park in Wyoming. So majestic, so beautiful. We drove home yesterday and were welcomed with open arms by Aaron and Tuyet last night. Twenty four hours of driving in forty eight hours but it was so nice to have something good in our memory to bring home. We met some great new friends from Portland Oregon and are going to keep in touch with them. We changed Myles' bandages last night on his finger and it is looking a little better than Monday. Wound care appointment today in Boise (I am not looking forward to getting back in the car!) and if all continues to heal we will be FLYING back to SLC next week to get the stitches and pin removed.

Wound Care went WELL!!!!

Just got back from the hospital and everything went well. A little painful but tolerable. Buggies finger didn't look as well as the Doctor had hoped but he thinks it will look better by Monday's appointment. The large pin sticking out of his finger is pretty intimidating and gave both Myles and I the creeps. The doctor says that the pin and the thirty plus stitches on his finger should probably be able to come out in a week and a half or so. If that is the case, after Mondays visit I think that we will drive back home on Tuesday and fly back here for the day for the removal. Myles has to keep his hand elevated so we really can't do much but hang out in the hotel. I AM GOING CRAZY........ I was so busy getting ready for the trip, packing all the factors, syringes, wound care stuff, etc., the drive, the surgery, to all of a sudden just sit in a hotel room is like running into a brick wall for me. Anyone who knows me knows that I never ever sit down. At least at home, Myles can be comfortable and I can do SOMETHING. Type A personality you think! All for now and will update after Monday's visit.
Claustraphobic Mom

Surgery is over!

Surgery went well, kinda. It was postponed for a few hours and anyone who has laid on a gurney waiting for surgery and it gets delayed knows the anxiety that that can bring. The surgery itself lasted almost two hours and went well as far as we know. Myles had some kind of reaction to the meds they gave him and when he woke up in recovery was itching from head to toe. It wasn't simple itching but blood curdling screaming itching. They gave him an IV of Benedryl but it was taking to long to help so they kept knocking him out until it kicked in, about three hours. We couldn't leave until last night because his blood pressure was 240 over 180 for quite a few hours. Myles promised me before we left to come here that he wouldn't allow his body to do all of those things that happen in February but I think that he "needs to be special". Last night went well and all the itching stopped. His hand is painful today but not that bad. They put 9 stitches in his groin area where they took the donor skin but that doesn't seem to bad for him. He is in great spirits today and is eating like crazy since he didn't eat anything yesterday. I have to feed him, again, as you can see in the picture (sorry it's small, phone pix) his left hand is useless and we have IV's in the other so I can give him his factor which is often. Tommorow is the day we are dreading more than the surgery as it will consist of his first "wound care" on his newly grafted skin. Myles and I (and Aaron and Tuyet, for that matter) all dread wound care but it is part of the healing and recovery process. Well I need to get back to Myles as I am using the hotel computer. We are staying at the Little America hotel in Salt Lake City and it is beautiful. Please send a prayer of strength for tommorow.
Much love
Sherry

Bowl-a-thon

We had such a great time yesterday bowling, especially Myles who bowled great (he actually got quite a few strikes). I think that is was the most fun that Myles has had in a long time. My love and gratitude goes out to all that came to make the day so special. Our family made so many new friends and enjoyed the time spent with old friends. The hemophilia foundation did a spectacular job at putting this together and allowing all of us to have a blast. We have a new friend and family member.... Daniel LiVolsi came out from Illinois to attend Myles' bowl-a-thon. He belongs to the Illinois hemophilia chapter and blessed us with his company at our house. What a remarkable man at the age of seventeen. Daniel has severe factor eight hemophilia. Daini you are an angel for us as always. Again I want to thank everyone for all that you do and Myles and I will bring all of your love to Salt Lake City with us on Tuesday.
Much love from our family

Salt Lake City Bound

It looks like we are headed for Salt Lake City next week for another surgery. We saw Dr. Saffle (who is the burn surgeon from SLC) yesterday in Boise and he says Myles is ready to get his finger fixed. Myles' little finger on his left hand never healed because of his blood infection, etc. and it went into contraction. His finger is bent and he can not straighten it. They are going to remove the skin on this finger and replace it with some thigh skin and numerous pins to keep it straight. I'm glad that we are getting this done with time to heal before buggies goes back to school in late August. It looks like we will be there for a little over a week if all goes well. Hopefully we can stay at the Ronald McDonald house, it's such a great place with great people. We are looking forward to this Saturday and Myles' bowl-a-thon. It should be lots of fun. Will keep you posted.

The Farm

We had a really nice fourth. A few friends over and a BBQ. Myles didn't want to get any where near a sparkler. It's been real hot up here in Idaho, over a hundred the last few days, even breaking records. I thought that I would tell anyone who hasn't been here about our animals.

Toby - our black quarter horse who "owns" the ranch. He is our watchdog as if anything is happening within a few miles of our house, he knows.

Chelsea - Our white Arabian horse. She is Toby's "kick the dog" as anytime Toby is mad he bites Chelsea's butte.

Wendy and Donkey - our two miniature donkeys who's EEEEAAAAWWW can be heard for miles.

Teetzie - the love of my life, she is a miniature horse that stands about 28 inches high. She's brown with a blonde mane and tail. I also call her my surfer chick.

Mamma, Tristen, Kassie, and Phil - our pygmy goats. Kassie will be having babies in about a week. The babies are so cute and small, only about 7 or 8 inches high when they are born. Phil is a cry baby, we are all going to get shirts made that say "SHUT UP PHIL" on them.

Cinnamon, Egore, and baby - our baby cows who are still on the bottle.

Sadie and Ged - Sadie is our 100# golden retriever and Ged is our 140# yellow lab.

Tina, Lucy, and Jazzabelle - our three cats, Jazzabelle (or Roo as we call her) belongs to Tuyet and Aaron. Tina and Lucy are Angels babies that we decided to keep after Angel died of an infection. We also have Ebony who came with the house. She stays outside and comes around every once in a while for food.

Birdie and Figero - our two parakeets.

Ferris and Chicabay - our two albino ferrets.

Saucer - our black pygmy rabbit.

Seventeen chickens

Eight homing pigeons that live in the barn.

An aquarium full of fish. Only two are named, Bruce is our Black Red tailed shark, and Ralph is our albino cat fish.

A pond full of koi and goldfish.

That's all, as least for now