Surgery Tuesday

Myles will have surgery on Tuesday to have another port implanted. We are destroying his veins with too many needlesticks. It's been a hard decision to make especially with it being "our choice". All in all, Myles, Aaron, Tuyet and I have all agreed it is the right/best decision. With much consultation with the surgeon, he is going to put the port near his shoulder blade and shoulder. He feels that this position is the best considering that buggies is going to be in high school (won't get bumped so much). The only down side to this placement is the extened pain for healing. Wow, Myles in more pain, what a concept! You could cut off both my legs if I could take his pain from him. The recovery time could be as long as two weeks but hopefully this will be better for him in the long run. His surgery is at 9 am and he will remain in the hospital for the night (if all is good). I pray that it all goes well and his pain level after surgery is tolerable.
Love to all,
Sherry

The Garden

The vegetable garden is coming along well, delayed by the cold spring that we had. It seems that we went from winter to summer. I got really behind when buggies was in the hospital but with a lot of very hard work, I seem to be catching up. Myles and his friend John started to "work" for me yesterday for a few hours a day. I have them digging some beds and today they will build my green bean tepees. I don't have enough veggies to open my stand yet (lettuce, spinach, and turnips) but it will be soon. Hope, my darling goat, decided that she loves bell pepper plants and ate around 10 of my 35 plants (along with 25 organic strawberry plants). I grew them all from seed so I kind of took it personal. I put up a hot wire fence about 6 inches from the ground, well you get the point, she hasn't been in my garden since, my poor little darling was SO MAD when she got zapped. I need to get going on the shed to finish it off, at least the hard work is over on that (see before and after pix). I also recieved my small freezer so I can sell Italian Gelatto Ice Cream. I told the boys yesterday that they could make frozen chocolate bananas and sell them but they have to be in control of the business on them. We'll see. Well just an update on the garden. Love to all.

Home from Burn Camp

Hey everybody this is Myles,
I just wanted to give an update on how I have been and how burn camp went. Life has been good, I've just been hanging out and being really sleepy because I just got home. Burn camp was so more than what I expected. Last Friday was full of anticipation, I woke up from hardly sleeping and sat around just waiting and waiting. We left for the airport at around noon and my flight took off at around 4 pm. The first day was filled with introductions and meeting new people. I met a friend, named Drake, and we ended up hanging out together all week. We were both the new guys on the trip. Second day was more exciting with rapids and kayaking, mosquitoes were pretty bad. The third day, was even more fun since everyone started to get the camping spirit and playfulness. Rapids got a little bigger and water fights got more crazy. We camped along the shore every night, the food was great (we even had pork tenderloin with halibut) and sat around in a big circle and talked about the day and each other. The fourth day was one of my favorites because it had the biggest rapids and I was one of the first new campers to go on them in a kayak. That day I was really sore because of all the paddling and rowing. We used an Eskimo blanket to fling people in the air, we flipped over the rafts and made a water slide with them, we lined up the kayaks and tried to run across them without falling in the water, and fun stuff like that. The hardest part of the trip was leaving my new friends, but we had a great time and are going to keep in touch. The fifth day was hard because it was the last night that we got to spend together but we made it count by doing all of the fun stuff. We woke up early on the sixth day so we could get on the bus and take the six hour drive to Salt Lake City. Then I flew home. I had a really great trip and can't wait for next year.
Will post some pictures when I get them done. I even had my toenails painted by the girls!
Love to all,
Myles

It is Time

I was not allowed to tell everyone how Myles lived. His name is Dan. He did not want me to tell anyone what he did, how he saved Myles' life, but I think the time is right. With all of the media surrounding buggies accident, he did not want to be in on all of that. Things have calmed down and I think that only friends and family see this blog.
I'm not too sure how to write about Dan. God placed him in the right place, at the right time, for Myles to live and every time I am in his presecnce, I am in total (don't know what word to use). Dan is a wrestling couch here in Nampa. According to his sweet and loving wife, Jennifer, Dan has never missed a wrestling match in years. That day (2/17/07) Dan decided to not go to his wrestling match. Jennifer says that she couldn't believe that he would miss a match but she accepted his decision, but Dan couldn't explain why. They ended up going to the gas station to get gas, their car was in the next bay of where Myles was. When the explosion happened, everyone was looking at the car and the flames. Out of the corner of Dan's eyes, he saw a flash of flames running. He said that the flames were so big that he could not see what was on fire. Myles ran behind a building, in his frantic, and Dan ran after him. He says that Myles was running so fast that he could not grab him so he tripped him to the ground. He layed his body on top of my son to put out the flames. The flames were so big that they wouldn't go out so he took off his shirt and smothered them. Dan received some burns but not enough to merit hospitalization. This is the first time I have told this story, at Dan's request. He is the heroe from God that was supposed to be there (a guardian angel?). No one else saw buggies on fire and with him running behind a building, would of certainly burned to death. My gratitude to God and Dan is beyond anything that I could write. To Dan, no words can describe my gratitude for you being on this earth, my son is alive because of you. My other son was not charged with manslaughter. He doesn't feel that he has done much, little does he know how much he HAS done for us. THANK YOU DAN!

Taking A Deep Breath

Well I just back from the airport........Myles is on his way to Salt Lake City for burn camp. We spent all week with Orthopedic surgeons, hemophilia doctors and surgeons for his up an coming port. Our calendar has been full to the brim and the second I walked away from him at the airport there was this eary screeching halt. Sleepless nights have seem to be the norm for both of us lately, him in utter exitement, and me in "Oh my God, he is going to be in the middle of no where for six days" worry. No hospitals, no hemophilia specialists, no cell phones, No, No, No.... He has been driving me crazy for the last two days. "48 hours till I go, 36 hours till I go, 24 hours"..... I am not sure if he is excited about white water rafting 92 miles in the middle of no where or getting away from me. It has been a lifetime (exageration, a year and a half) since buggies and I have been away from each other (excluding his time at school) for more than a day. Poor kid! Poor me! Trying to figure out all the medical supplies he needs "in the middle of no where" has been tough, factor, syringes, ASEPTIC SUPPLIES, ice packs, extra needles, hope I got it all. His camp counselor met us at the airport, he is from here, and I think I overwhelmed him some with all the motherly instructions. It wouldn't be so bad if Myles wasn't such a daredevil in ALL that he does. Is this a Ganley trait? Doug (his counselor) reassured me that they already have Utah lifeflight informed and waiting.
Myles was very quiet on the way to the airport compared to the last few days of irritating excitement. When we hugged our goodbyes, he just said "Mom, just remember, there is finally something good about being burned". I quickly hugged him (again) turned away and started to cry. How true. I am still crying (half for happiness, half for sorrow).
P.S. Myles just called me to tell me that they have a limousine to pick them up from the airport. My love is never ending to the people that acknowledge the pain and suffering that burn victims go through and want to make it better. Now I am really crying!!!!!!!!!!!!!