Today's x-ray looked better, so that's good. He is considered to have pneumonia though and is still on oxygen. They have taken him off pain medicine through the IV, and when he starts getting agitated, we can give him medicine by mouth. However, he hasn't really been willing to take anything by mouth, so when the time comes, that may be a challenge. He is resting fine, and since he's off the pain medicine, he should become more alert before long, hopefully leading to more willingness to drink, more movement, and cleared up lungs. Just lying here on his back is not the best things for his lungs right now.
They came in and trimmed and padded his cast and this afternoon will do more padding and wrapping. When they put the cast on during surgery, they leave slits in it for a few days to allow for swelling. Then they go in later and fill in the gaps with cotton "stuff" and rewrap it.
Brian has been gone a couple hours to shower, eat, and play with Olivia for a little bit, but he's on his way back now. I just finished eating Ian's lunch- since he's not eating!
Will let you know his progress this evening. We're holding steady- Leah
Friday, November 6, 2009
Some Breathing Issues
Good Morning. Brian stayed last night, and I went home. He thought he was getting the flu Sat but fortunately he got some medicine and it was just a really bad cold. He is just about over it, and now I have it. I plan to stay tonight though.
Ian didn't have a very good night. One of his lungs has been partially collapsed, and he has been receiving oxygen and some breathing treatments all along. Then last night it got worse, and they put him on maximum oxygen-whatever that means. They also will be increasing his breathing treatments today. He ripped out his second IV, so they had to redo that too, and he had a little fever. The fever isn't uncommon, and the lung situation isn't too uncommon either. We haven't dealt with it before though. The doctor hasn't been in yet this morning, so I'll update after that. They're here to do the chest x-ray.
Leah
Ian didn't have a very good night. One of his lungs has been partially collapsed, and he has been receiving oxygen and some breathing treatments all along. Then last night it got worse, and they put him on maximum oxygen-whatever that means. They also will be increasing his breathing treatments today. He ripped out his second IV, so they had to redo that too, and he had a little fever. The fever isn't uncommon, and the lung situation isn't too uncommon either. We haven't dealt with it before though. The doctor hasn't been in yet this morning, so I'll update after that. They're here to do the chest x-ray.
Leah
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Day 3
All in all yesterday went great. Brian stayed the night upstairs, and I was able to get good sleep at home. There didn't seem to be any complications except his fever went back up a little. I was back here this morning a little after 7:00, and met Brian in Ian's room. The tube going through his nose to his stomach got coiled, so they had to remove that and reinsert it to get his medicine down, but they just removed it again, and he will hopefully start taking his meds by mouth tonight. They can do some meds by IV too.
They also just got him up on his feet a few minutes ago. PT brought in a stander, and he's upright strapped to a board with an oxygen mask and tubes running every direction. They wanted to get him upright so his lungs could start working better. He'll be in this position for an hour. We're also going to see if he will eat some table food in a few minutes. They're starting to ween him off some of the meds a little at a time. He has been so out of it the whole time, he hasn't been throwing any fits- mostly just sleeping with some moans from time to time.
At 1:00 I've got to go to a meeting at school to determine his homebound situation. I'm also going to go pick up some shorts at Target and drop them off at the house so Colene and Helen can cut them and make him some tear-away shorts to fit over his cast. Because there is a bar going across from ankle to ankle, they'll have to be modified.
Ian has now been taken off ICU status, so Brian or I will be in here at all times . That also means I can stay in his room tonight, and the nurses will only come in to check his vitals. He is in the same room though.
I think that's it for now. Colene and Helen brought Olivia to the hospital yesterday evening, and she played in the atrium area, which also has a huge play surface and some toys. They shopped during the day. She went to school this morning and will probably come up here again tonight for a little while.
Thanks for your continued prayers as Ian recovers and he continues to be more aware of his situation and surroundings.
I've got to get to the school for this meeting.
Leah
They also just got him up on his feet a few minutes ago. PT brought in a stander, and he's upright strapped to a board with an oxygen mask and tubes running every direction. They wanted to get him upright so his lungs could start working better. He'll be in this position for an hour. We're also going to see if he will eat some table food in a few minutes. They're starting to ween him off some of the meds a little at a time. He has been so out of it the whole time, he hasn't been throwing any fits- mostly just sleeping with some moans from time to time.
At 1:00 I've got to go to a meeting at school to determine his homebound situation. I'm also going to go pick up some shorts at Target and drop them off at the house so Colene and Helen can cut them and make him some tear-away shorts to fit over his cast. Because there is a bar going across from ankle to ankle, they'll have to be modified.
Ian has now been taken off ICU status, so Brian or I will be in here at all times . That also means I can stay in his room tonight, and the nurses will only come in to check his vitals. He is in the same room though.
I think that's it for now. Colene and Helen brought Olivia to the hospital yesterday evening, and she played in the atrium area, which also has a huge play surface and some toys. They shopped during the day. She went to school this morning and will probably come up here again tonight for a little while.
Thanks for your continued prayers as Ian recovers and he continues to be more aware of his situation and surroundings.
I've got to get to the school for this meeting.
Leah
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Resting Peacefully
Surgery is over, and all went well.
There wasn't a lot of sleeping going on last night- about 3 hours for me and maybe 6 for Ian, but he wasn't crying and didn't start "asking" for a drink in the middle of the night. He wasn't able to drink/eat anything after midnight, so I lay there praying that he wouldn't want one. He can be quite persistent, to put it mildly. Of course the nurses were in and out several times throughout the night too.
This morning a nurse came in at 5:00, 5:30, and again at 6:00 to give him about 11 different medications. As expected, it was a major fight to get it down but three of us together were able to get him to take the majority of it. Apparently, it was enough because before they wheeled him up he was already in lala land.
Everything went smoothly during surgery, and I was able to sleep a little while we waited. They called us a few times throughout to let us know everything was going okay, and then afterwards the doctor came in to give us more details. He did not lose much blood, so they didn't even have to replace what they had taken out beforehand. They said he just did really well. Soon after that we were able to see him and they took him back to his room.
He is now in ICU with his own nurse in there with him 24 hours, so we are in the parents' lounge. It seems a little odd that we aren't in his room with him, but the nurse is in there monitoring everything, and there is really no reason for us to be in there too. He is sound asleep, although while we were at lunch he yanked out the tube going through his nose to his stomach. They also taped boards to the palms of his hands so he can't pull anything else out. We're just right around the corner from him.
The cast is, as expected, the spica cast. It goes from his toes to about the bottom of his ribcage. The bar goes across at his lower calves. They leave the cast split to allow for swelling for the next couple of days and then will seal that up and wrap over the current cast.
As soon as I finish here, I'm going to go check on him again. We've had lunch and will just hang out here until he starts to wake up. All has gone great so far. We could have had multiple problems but we've been able to avoid most of them.
Thanks for your prayers. We're out of the scarriest/dangerous part, obviously, but his reaction to the pain and the cast could be a major challenge. Will get back this evening and let you know.
Leah
There wasn't a lot of sleeping going on last night- about 3 hours for me and maybe 6 for Ian, but he wasn't crying and didn't start "asking" for a drink in the middle of the night. He wasn't able to drink/eat anything after midnight, so I lay there praying that he wouldn't want one. He can be quite persistent, to put it mildly. Of course the nurses were in and out several times throughout the night too.
This morning a nurse came in at 5:00, 5:30, and again at 6:00 to give him about 11 different medications. As expected, it was a major fight to get it down but three of us together were able to get him to take the majority of it. Apparently, it was enough because before they wheeled him up he was already in lala land.
Everything went smoothly during surgery, and I was able to sleep a little while we waited. They called us a few times throughout to let us know everything was going okay, and then afterwards the doctor came in to give us more details. He did not lose much blood, so they didn't even have to replace what they had taken out beforehand. They said he just did really well. Soon after that we were able to see him and they took him back to his room.
He is now in ICU with his own nurse in there with him 24 hours, so we are in the parents' lounge. It seems a little odd that we aren't in his room with him, but the nurse is in there monitoring everything, and there is really no reason for us to be in there too. He is sound asleep, although while we were at lunch he yanked out the tube going through his nose to his stomach. They also taped boards to the palms of his hands so he can't pull anything else out. We're just right around the corner from him.
The cast is, as expected, the spica cast. It goes from his toes to about the bottom of his ribcage. The bar goes across at his lower calves. They leave the cast split to allow for swelling for the next couple of days and then will seal that up and wrap over the current cast.
As soon as I finish here, I'm going to go check on him again. We've had lunch and will just hang out here until he starts to wake up. All has gone great so far. We could have had multiple problems but we've been able to avoid most of them.
Thanks for your prayers. We're out of the scarriest/dangerous part, obviously, but his reaction to the pain and the cast could be a major challenge. Will get back this evening and let you know.
Leah
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Day 1 Coming To An End
If you haven't read the previous post, read it and you'll be up to date.
Today has been good- long but good. We started this morning at 6:45, so everyone got to sleep in! Brian's mom and aunt are here, so they got Olivia ready for school while Brian and I finished last minute necessities before taking Ian to the hospital. The morning went smoothly, and we made it on time, no problems. Check in went great, and we soon started making the rounds of consults- primary nurse, social worker, physical therapist, anesthesiologist, resident, x-ray, blood draw, molds for new splints, and finally the surgeon came in around 6:30 or so this evening. Ian did great during all the appointments except rehab and x-ray. By that time, he had pretty much had it, and was needing a break. We got through it though, and he quickly recovered before we moved on to the next thing.
Nanna and Helen brought Olivia up for dinner, and she had had a good day and was enjoying all the attention. She does great with change and just goes with the flow, which is about a necessity in this family! Tomorrow will probably be lots of shopping and maybe a trip to the library.
Back to Ian and his surgery. The overview of the surgery is in the last post. We have a few more details, which involves taking some bone from where they make the cut on his leg and inserting it into the top of the cup. I was under the impression they might be scraping the inside of the cup, but that isn't correct. They insert this bone, kind of reforming the cup and extending it and then stitch some cartilage (or tendons I always get those confused for some reason). They make sure the femur is good and secure in the cup, so that it can't slip out. That's what I understand to be the procedure. One thing we were hoping not to happen that is going to is he is going to have to have the spika cast- body cast. If you aren't familiar with it, it will come to the waist area and got to the tips of his toes on both legs with a bar in between. The other option was less restrictive, but we were not given the choice, which is probably best. Of course we'll manage, and I just don't think about it too much. My reaction when he gets out of surgery tomorrow may come flying out, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Who knows, with Ian, he may be fine with it. I just don't think about putting myself in his shoes because I don't think I would do so well!
Anyway, the plan for tomorrow is meds will start at 6:00 am, wheel him up at 6:45, and surgery starts at 7:00. It should last about 3 1/2 hours. We will wait in the family room, and they will call us throughout to let us know how he's doing. He will be in intensive care about 24 hours with his own nurse and respiratory therapist in his room at all times. We will be allowed in during the day, but at night Brian (who is at home tonight) will stay upstairs in a guest room. Thursday night I will stay and be able to stay in his room with him. Looks like we'll leave Friday night or Sat morning- depending on how he's doing and how comfortable we are. One of the many great things about Shriners is they aren't in any hurry for you to go home. You can stay as long as you feel like you need to. When we are ready to leave, they will loan us a special harness for the car since of course Ian won't be able to sit. I don't know how it works, but with the cast, he'll be flat, so he'll be stretched across the seat. They will want him to stand at least one hour each day (in a stander) and be up and about (in a reclining wheelchair) as much as possible- which I guess means around the house and going for walks, because I can't imagine going too many places!! If he does as well this time as he did with the ankles, we'll be good in good shape. It is a lot more involved surgery, but we have no reason to think he won't be a trooper again.
It's after 10:00. Ian is sound asleep so I'm going to get ready for bed, and read my book for a little bit. They'll be in at midnight to check vitals and then again at 4:00 am, and then two hours later we'll be rocking and rolling!
Say your prayers, and we'll be back on here tomorrow with an update or two.
Leah
Today has been good- long but good. We started this morning at 6:45, so everyone got to sleep in! Brian's mom and aunt are here, so they got Olivia ready for school while Brian and I finished last minute necessities before taking Ian to the hospital. The morning went smoothly, and we made it on time, no problems. Check in went great, and we soon started making the rounds of consults- primary nurse, social worker, physical therapist, anesthesiologist, resident, x-ray, blood draw, molds for new splints, and finally the surgeon came in around 6:30 or so this evening. Ian did great during all the appointments except rehab and x-ray. By that time, he had pretty much had it, and was needing a break. We got through it though, and he quickly recovered before we moved on to the next thing.
Nanna and Helen brought Olivia up for dinner, and she had had a good day and was enjoying all the attention. She does great with change and just goes with the flow, which is about a necessity in this family! Tomorrow will probably be lots of shopping and maybe a trip to the library.
Back to Ian and his surgery. The overview of the surgery is in the last post. We have a few more details, which involves taking some bone from where they make the cut on his leg and inserting it into the top of the cup. I was under the impression they might be scraping the inside of the cup, but that isn't correct. They insert this bone, kind of reforming the cup and extending it and then stitch some cartilage (or tendons I always get those confused for some reason). They make sure the femur is good and secure in the cup, so that it can't slip out. That's what I understand to be the procedure. One thing we were hoping not to happen that is going to is he is going to have to have the spika cast- body cast. If you aren't familiar with it, it will come to the waist area and got to the tips of his toes on both legs with a bar in between. The other option was less restrictive, but we were not given the choice, which is probably best. Of course we'll manage, and I just don't think about it too much. My reaction when he gets out of surgery tomorrow may come flying out, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Who knows, with Ian, he may be fine with it. I just don't think about putting myself in his shoes because I don't think I would do so well!
Anyway, the plan for tomorrow is meds will start at 6:00 am, wheel him up at 6:45, and surgery starts at 7:00. It should last about 3 1/2 hours. We will wait in the family room, and they will call us throughout to let us know how he's doing. He will be in intensive care about 24 hours with his own nurse and respiratory therapist in his room at all times. We will be allowed in during the day, but at night Brian (who is at home tonight) will stay upstairs in a guest room. Thursday night I will stay and be able to stay in his room with him. Looks like we'll leave Friday night or Sat morning- depending on how he's doing and how comfortable we are. One of the many great things about Shriners is they aren't in any hurry for you to go home. You can stay as long as you feel like you need to. When we are ready to leave, they will loan us a special harness for the car since of course Ian won't be able to sit. I don't know how it works, but with the cast, he'll be flat, so he'll be stretched across the seat. They will want him to stand at least one hour each day (in a stander) and be up and about (in a reclining wheelchair) as much as possible- which I guess means around the house and going for walks, because I can't imagine going too many places!! If he does as well this time as he did with the ankles, we'll be good in good shape. It is a lot more involved surgery, but we have no reason to think he won't be a trooper again.
It's after 10:00. Ian is sound asleep so I'm going to get ready for bed, and read my book for a little bit. They'll be in at midnight to check vitals and then again at 4:00 am, and then two hours later we'll be rocking and rolling!
Say your prayers, and we'll be back on here tomorrow with an update or two.
Leah
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wow! It's Been a Long Time
Now, coming up to the end of September, and all is well with the Haynes household. We had a great summer, which flew by, and are looking forward to fall and dare I say the holiday season!
The kids are doing great. Ian did not go to summer school this year, so it was nice being able to sleep in and not having to be on a schedule. We swam about everyday and had a great time. It makes Brian and me very happy to see Ian totally relaxed and overjoyed to be in the water. We started him on some new medicine for his stomach in July and a gluten free diet in August. We also adjusted some other medicine he has been on, and the result seems to be a happier and more content boy. Walking has been a struggle the past several months, and in fact, because of his size and his unpredictability to walk, we began using a simple transport wheelchair when we're away from the house. But last night, for the first time in several months, we had him walk from the car to the church building. He did great- did not sit down a single time. He has also been taking a few steps by himself in the house. I am very hopeful that one of these days he will be walking on his own- or maybe just with a sighted guide. Now that I say all that, I have to mention that one little detour in his improvement is coming up in November. That is that he is having surgery on both hips Nov 4 here in Shreveport at Shriners. They will be breaking both legs (femurs) and inserting wedges, plates, and screws to reposition the bones. Once they go in, they will determine whether he must have a spika cast (one that goes from the waste to ankles with a bar in between ) or one that is less restrictive and made of metal and leather. Of course we are praying for the less restrictive cast. Second only to his safety and a successful surgery, I am most concerned about the cast situation. After 6 weeks with the cast on, we will return to the hospital for daily rehab for several weeks. This is typically in-patient, but since we live so close to the hospital, we are hoping we can do it out patient. So, it looks like we will have the cast until about the 16th of Dec.- off just in time for Christmas! I often here me telling myself that we can do anything for 5-6 weeks. . . and I know we can. This should keep Ian from having severe pain in the future and will hopefully help his walking. When the time gets closer I will probably be updating our blog regularly.
As for Olivia Kantika Jane Haynes, she is doing great. She also became quite a little swimmer and jumped off the diving board a couple of times. She talks constantly at home, but you would never know it when we are out and about. We can hardly get her to say "hi". We took her to her first football game the other night, and she really enjoyed that. I think what sold her were the peanuts, coke, and M&M's! We just returned from Washington DC a couple of weeks ago, and she was a great little traveler. We had to go to the Thai embassy to get her registered, so we spent a few days seeing as much in Wash. as we could. We had a great time. Ian stayed with my parents a few days and Brian's mom and aunt a few days. He did fine and stayed happy most of the time, I think. Olivia is in pre-school a couple days a week, and she loves it. It is the same place she attended mother's day out last year, so the transition was easy. She would like to be going every day I think, but I wanted to keep her home a little longer!
Brian and I are both doing fine. He has not had any overnight trips for several weeks because of a project he has been working on close to Shreveport; however, that has come to an end, and he is going back to Chicago for a couple of nights this week. We have enjoyed having him home all the time the last couple of months. The minute he walks in the door, Olivia asks him if he is ready to play games! Ian sometimes holds on to him and won't let him go!
My morning is getting away and I have 6 mums to plant so I need to get out there. We have had so much rain lately, the ground is really soft, so it shouldn't take long. I hope all is well with anyone who ever thinks to check our blog. We would love to hear from you- Leah
The kids are doing great. Ian did not go to summer school this year, so it was nice being able to sleep in and not having to be on a schedule. We swam about everyday and had a great time. It makes Brian and me very happy to see Ian totally relaxed and overjoyed to be in the water. We started him on some new medicine for his stomach in July and a gluten free diet in August. We also adjusted some other medicine he has been on, and the result seems to be a happier and more content boy. Walking has been a struggle the past several months, and in fact, because of his size and his unpredictability to walk, we began using a simple transport wheelchair when we're away from the house. But last night, for the first time in several months, we had him walk from the car to the church building. He did great- did not sit down a single time. He has also been taking a few steps by himself in the house. I am very hopeful that one of these days he will be walking on his own- or maybe just with a sighted guide. Now that I say all that, I have to mention that one little detour in his improvement is coming up in November. That is that he is having surgery on both hips Nov 4 here in Shreveport at Shriners. They will be breaking both legs (femurs) and inserting wedges, plates, and screws to reposition the bones. Once they go in, they will determine whether he must have a spika cast (one that goes from the waste to ankles with a bar in between ) or one that is less restrictive and made of metal and leather. Of course we are praying for the less restrictive cast. Second only to his safety and a successful surgery, I am most concerned about the cast situation. After 6 weeks with the cast on, we will return to the hospital for daily rehab for several weeks. This is typically in-patient, but since we live so close to the hospital, we are hoping we can do it out patient. So, it looks like we will have the cast until about the 16th of Dec.- off just in time for Christmas! I often here me telling myself that we can do anything for 5-6 weeks. . . and I know we can. This should keep Ian from having severe pain in the future and will hopefully help his walking. When the time gets closer I will probably be updating our blog regularly.
As for Olivia Kantika Jane Haynes, she is doing great. She also became quite a little swimmer and jumped off the diving board a couple of times. She talks constantly at home, but you would never know it when we are out and about. We can hardly get her to say "hi". We took her to her first football game the other night, and she really enjoyed that. I think what sold her were the peanuts, coke, and M&M's! We just returned from Washington DC a couple of weeks ago, and she was a great little traveler. We had to go to the Thai embassy to get her registered, so we spent a few days seeing as much in Wash. as we could. We had a great time. Ian stayed with my parents a few days and Brian's mom and aunt a few days. He did fine and stayed happy most of the time, I think. Olivia is in pre-school a couple days a week, and she loves it. It is the same place she attended mother's day out last year, so the transition was easy. She would like to be going every day I think, but I wanted to keep her home a little longer!
Brian and I are both doing fine. He has not had any overnight trips for several weeks because of a project he has been working on close to Shreveport; however, that has come to an end, and he is going back to Chicago for a couple of nights this week. We have enjoyed having him home all the time the last couple of months. The minute he walks in the door, Olivia asks him if he is ready to play games! Ian sometimes holds on to him and won't let him go!
My morning is getting away and I have 6 mums to plant so I need to get out there. We have had so much rain lately, the ground is really soft, so it shouldn't take long. I hope all is well with anyone who ever thinks to check our blog. We would love to hear from you- Leah
Monday, March 30, 2009
I Forgot. . . .
That last post was TODAY. I started it Feb 3rd, have forgotten how to get it changed to read March 30th, and don't have time to figure it out right now! Leah
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