Week 3 Update

I can't believe that today makes 3 weeks since the accident. It seems like it was forever ago that I received that call. Daniel is doing so well since he came home. He is getting home health about 4 times a week - 2 from a physical therapist and 2 from an occupational therapist. He will continue with this through Oct 22, when he sees Dr. Morvant again.

He did go to Dr Donepudi yesterday and everything is looking really good. Since he is the family doctor, the check up did not give much information. It was more to check his pressure and make sure the medicines are working for him. More appointments this week and next, but he is handling them all well.

We did get out a little this weekend. We made it to Glenn's birthday party. It was nice to be out, for us both. The boys had lots of fun as well.

Happy Birthday Glenn. For those of you that don't know, his birthday was Sept 5, but the hurricane parties interrupted his birthday party. This was his "rescheduled due to bad weather party." He received so many cute gifts.

Home, Sweet, Home (but not without chaos first)

Let's start with Monday. I met with the case manager and therapist first. We ordered the hadicapped items needed to bring Daniel home. That afternoon, we decided to take it somewhat easy. I went pick up supper around 6:oo so we could watch some of the new episodes on TV that night. When I came back, one of the nurses stopped me to talk about going home. When I walked back in the room, the tech was taking his pressure and pulse. This is when everything started going crazy again.

Daniel's pulse was racing at 178 beats per minute. The is equivilant to someone running a marathon. Since he was in bed not moving, his heart rate should have been 60 -80 beats per minute. After an EKG, the doctors decided to admit him back into the hospital
(rehab is a different admit, so he had to be discharged from rehab and admitted into the regular hosiptal). By the time they moving him down - this al took place in about 10 minutes - his heart rate had already dropped. The main reason for the move was that the medicine that they would have to give him to lower his heart rate must be given in ICU. We definitely did not want to go back there.

Daniel, of course, was very stressed. After a night in the step down unit, 3 EKGs, 2 rounds of blood tests, and an echo cardiogram, Daniel was diagnosed with SVT. This has to do with the electrical signal of the heart that causes rapid heart beat. This last only a few minutes for Daniel. It is a non-life threatening condition that we would have never known about if it were not for the tech coming in a the right (or according to Daniel, the wrong) time.

So, now on to Tuesday. After running the remainder of the tests ordered, we were seen by all doctors and discharged about 1:00. It is so nice to be home. There are definite challenges being home, but the idea of being home overcomes those challenges. We are racking up on doctor appointments already. Home health is supposed to meet with us today to schedule therapy for the upcoming week(s). We will then be going to out-patient rehab.

Here are some pictures of the last few days in the hospital. If it were not for the arm and leg, you may not even know he was in such a bad accident.

(OK, for those of you who have just beung reading this blog, it is so hard to get each individually with cute smiles. Aiden got the cute smile award today, but other days, I do put more pictures of the others rather than Aiden, depending on who is camera shy that day.)

The newly installed ramp in front the house:

Sunday Morning

We have been doing very well the past couple of days. I went to work Thursday and Friday while Daniel was in rehab. He is doing better each day.

He will be discharged Tuesday after therapy. From there he will have home health and/or outpatient physical rehab. Dr. Morvant said that it will take about 6 weeks for his arm to heal enough to start therapy. After he has strength back in his arm, then we can start his leg. All in all, we are looking at at least a 6 month process.

Yesterday, Uncle Blaise, BJ, my dad, and Kirby came to the house to build a ramp. Thank you!

We also set up everything around the house to be handicapped accessible. We had to move a bit of furniture around. We will still need to install handicapped bars in the bathroom and a different shower head so he will have an easier time taking a shower. A shower seat is also ordered to help him in the shower.

The kids are doing great as well. They have adjust well sleeping different places. It looks like they will be doing this a couple more weeks as Daniel regains some strength and is not in so much pain. It is hard for them to be away, but I have also come to realize I cannot help Daniel like he needs if the kids are around for me to bath, feed, dress, put to sleep, etc. There are just not enough hours in the day when I will be working as well.

Thanks to all who have gone give blood so far (I think about 7-10 people) and many of you are planning to give when the bus comes to Vacherie. Thanks!

We all received a cute goody pack from Jennifer. The boys got a couple of toys, coloring books and colors, and we received a couple of magazine and a Sudoku book. Thanks Jennifer, Scott, and Jack!

Our friends sent us some beautiful flowers! And we have received many prayer cards. Thanks! We are touched by your thoughts and generosity.

Early Thursday Morning

I am updating early this morning since I am heading to school today. Daniel has made remarkable improvements. Yesterday I attended therapy with him.

We started with a shower in the morning. This left him tired and sweating even before true therapy started, but he said it felt really good. Then, he got in and out of the van, but that was extremely hard and tiring. He also attempted getting into and out of a bed, but again very tough. This is so he does not need a hospital bed. He worked really hard and was very tired afterwards. The therapists said they are hoping he can stay at least until Tuesday of next week to gain some of the strength he needs for when he comes home. It is somewhat of an insurance game though. Every task is a major chore right now.

So I am trying to come to work today and tomorrow because I know that one day next week I will need to take of so I can take him home, and doctor appointments will also be coming up.

He is really improving, but it will take a lot of time. I can't get over how quickly he is doing so much of what he is though.

Tuesday Update

We are doing well still. Daniel moved up to the rehab floor yesterday afternoon. Here he will learn how to manage with putting no weight on this left arm or leg. He will learn to transfer from one seat to another. We are not sure if we will need to get a hospital bed and handicap accessible things for the bathroom. We know he will be in a wheel chair for a while. This means building a ramp and making sure our doors are wide enough to put a wheel chair in. All of this will come in time. We have a case manager to help with all of this.

He did well this morning with getting out the bed for the first time. He was definitely in pain, but that is to be expected. He will be working every morning from 9 till about 2 with lunch in the middle. At 2 he comes back to the room to put a machine on his bad leg for 6 hours. So pretty much he is working all day. Although a little scared, he is doing so much better than they could have imagined at this point. Each day should get better from now.

We were warned again of his high risk of blood clots. That risk actually increases as he starts moving, but then will begin to go down. This is his reason for still being in the hospital. He could not go home right now with this high risk.

Thanks again for the prayers, cards, and support.

Long Update

Since we have moved into the older part of the hospital, e do not have Internet access, so I will update as possible.

Saturday :
We moved into a room about noon on Saturday. That afternoon, the Morphine starting getting to his - he was having a few trips. He was restless, hot , and itchy. All are from the morphine. He took his last dose of morphine at 4. Great sign to show how he is improving. I will leave out lots of the funny hallucinations as to not embarrass him. He can share those later if he would like.

He took an ambian to help him sleep last night. At 2 this morning, the sleep medicine made him do nearly the same. He did not know where he was or what was happening. I guess he just does not have good luck with medicines. About 6 am he really started coming out of it all and doing well.

Sunday:
Dr. Morvant came check on him. He was doing wonderful. He decided to send him back down to surgery to close up some more wounds. When I say he is going great, it is in comparison with the other days. Daniel is still hurting a lot. This is the reason they decided to give him anaesthesia to close these wounds.

He is off oxygen now. He only receives the IV for antibiotics and fluid as needed, such as for surgery this morning). He did say that he is still not out of the woods. He continues to have a high risk of clotting, so we must be careful.

Dr. Donepudi also came in and said that his lungs are doing great - really clearing up.

He is still hurting and a little uncomfortable today. We were going to bring the boys to see him, but decided against it until a little later.

NOW FOR THE FUN PART:

My Saturday night was full of excitement as Alex got hives all over his face Saturday afternoon. When Benadryl did not help, Mom and dad called to say they had to bring him to ER. Sorry no pictures cause of the circumstances (no camera). He was put on a steroid for 3 days and is now doing great. Luckily, Daniel's parents were with us in the room at the time, so I could easily leave to take care of Alex.

AND FINALLY:
Thanks for all of who who have contacted us about donating blood. I cannot get over the family and friends who have contacted their families to help out. The support is more than we could have ever imagined!!!

Thanks for all the flowers, cards, prayers, and help! We cannot express how much it means to us.
We love you all.

Moving on up!!

Daniel will be moving to room 312 in about an hour. His chest x-rays and oxygen levels are improving. His blood count was a little low, but they will run another test in the morning before deciding to give him more blood.

YEAH!!!!

Saturday Morning Update

Daniel had a pretty rough night last night. He was agitated from being in pain and not being able to sleep. He also had to wear the oxygen mask instead of the nose piece. In other words, he was extremely uncomfortable.

His veins where the IVs are placed are also starting to fail, so they had to put a port in his neck.

Power went out at 10:00 last night. We did not even notice since the lights had been blinking a few times the last couple of days. Also cable went out. This had to be aggrivating to Daniel since he could not sleep.

He did settle down and began to rest. That is what he needs the most right now. His pain is definitely getting better, but it will take some time.

Friday night

We went back at 8:00 for the last visit tonight. He is looking much better than after surgery. He is still in a bit of pain but all of his vitals are looking really good. We are hoping everything stays really good so we can move to a room tomorrow. That beats these chairs in the waiting room to sleep on.

We meet with the doctors in the morning again. Until then . . .

Post Recovery

Well Daniel always like to make things interesting.

When they let us in after recovery, his oxygen level was low and kept dropping. He was in extreme pain, but because of his oxygen level, they had to take away his morphine pump. His blood pressure rose very high as well. Then his resperatory rate dropped really low. It seemed as if alarms just kept going off and he just wanted medicine for the pain.

About 1 1/2 hours later, he has finally calmed down. His oxygen level is back up not with the mask. All other levels seemed to be much better. His blood pressure is still a bit high, but that could be because of the pain. We will monitor it over the night and check with Dr. Donepudi in the morning if it continues on the high side.

He is taking a little nap right now, but we will go in to see him soon.

They let me stay in to try to keep him calm, but unfortunately everyone else had to leave. I hated them leaving without being able to update them. I snuck on the side the bed to text an update, but felt like I was breaking rules.

Thanks for the prayers and support today. I will try to update one more time tonight if I have a chance.

Surgery Update

Daniel came out of surgery about 12:30. The surgery lasted about 4 1/2 to 5 hours. Everything seemed to go well. He has plates and screws supporting all of the broken bones. He has fluid in his lungs now, so we will have to watch that. He said his bones were strong and his age helps to know that it will all heal well.

Again, Dr. Morvant warned that he is still at high risk for clots, which could be fatal. He is still far from being clear. Typically, each day he has a better and better chance, but he had to get through this surgery first. I thought it was just the first 48 hours, but apparently, it is still very serious right now too.

He also received more blood today with the possiblities of more tomorrow.

He is moving to recovery and then back to ICU until tomorrow or Sunday.

Surgery Started

Daniel went down into the surgery room about 6:30. At 8:00 we got word that they had begun and all looked well. The nurse just came again (9:15) and said he is doing well and they are still working.

We are lucky that we know many of the nurses that are back there with him. One told us that she would call me often to update since she knows we are worried.

I heard from many of you about your rayers this morning - Thanks!

What? Another Hurricane?

Can't believe it! Keena called me tonight to tell me good and bad news. Good: No School tomorrow (I don't have to use a sick day) and Bad: No School tomorrow (I need a babysitter for Wes). Of course her first words after that were that he could stay with her, but she has done so much for the the past few days I will never be able to repay her. She needs a day off to rest.

IT just so happens that the twins' babysitter also could not babysit tomorrow because her AC went out with Hurricane Gustav and tomorrow they will replace it. Mom had already set up Michelle and Maci to come watch the boys at the house, so Wes can go there too.

Again, I cannot get over the support from everyone! The boys are all doing so well with going from place to place. Somehow it seems that they are better with everyone else than with us. What is that telling me:) hehe:)

We should only be getting tropical storm strength winds tomorrow, no real bad danger. I guess the worse is that so much debris is still around and some still do not have power. The winds were definitely strong today. As we were eating in the little open foyer area, the wind took my plate. The lights also blinked quite a few times here.

Hopefully my next update will be around lunch time when he finishes with surgery. He goes in at 7, so please say a prayer or 2.

Oh, and sorry no pictures lately, but I know it is for obvious reasons. Daniel can pose when he looks and feels better. Mrs. Hattie said that she did bring her camera for the "party" tomorrow. We have so many that want to come tomorrow to give their best for the surgery - thanks and we appreciate it! It is so great to have such wonderful family and friends. We are truly blessed.

Thursday Afternoon

I know my titles are a little bland - sorry!

His day went well. We saw Dr. Saal for the broken bones in his face. Yes I said bones. He has more fractures than we knew about. First, he has a broken nose (we found this out last night). We thought he had one break in his cheek bone, but he actually has quite a few fractures in many bones on the left side of his face. Each of these are small fractures, but they are bothering the way his jaw lines up.

Good news: for now, we will not do surgery on his face. The jaw may feel this way because of swelling in the joints, or the fracture in the top jaw bone, or the impact and other fractures may have caused his bone to bend slightly. Dr. Saal said to think about if a piece of paper or small piece of food gets caught in you tooth. Even though very small, it causes discomfort. These little fractures may have just caused his teeth to move ever so slightly, but he notices it. Again, it could also be from the swelling which will correct itself in a few weeks.

We are going to see him in 4 weeks after swelling has gone down. Daniel can then see if he is still uncomfortable with the way his jaw falls. At that point a decision can be made. If he does something now, he would have to break a bone first in order to reposition it. I think we all agree that waiting to see if it heals on its own is better than another broken bone!

Daniel lucked out for lunch today. He was sent seafood gumbo with lots of okra. Those of you that know Daniel know he would not eat that!! So he called up his brother at Flanagans to send over some food. Boy are we getting spoiled!!!

Wesley came visit this afternoon. They enjoyed seeing each other, but it was short lived. We took the oxygen off for the visit so Wes did not have to see that. We also covered up one of his burns/cuts on his face with a bandaide. I was also amazed at how good he looked after that. That oxygen tube always makes someone look so sick. He wants to come back tomorrow, so we will see how things are going. He said he really misses his daddy.

We are getting people to donate blood. It may take about 10 donors to get credit for one pint that he uses. I know insurance will cover this, but we feel that it really is a good cause. So many want to help out, and this is one way we can take you all up on it.

Donating Blood

Here is the informaion of donating blood if you are in Thibodaux:

United Blood Services

2000 Audubon Ave. Suite E

Thibodaux, La

985-625-5433

Hours:

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 11am-7pm

Mondays and Fridays 8am-1pm

You need to give Daniel's name and his birthdate (June 26). You will also need your ID. Please let us know if you are planning on going so we can keep track of how much is donated. Daniel is a member of the KC who also does a blood drive so we are looking into that as well.

Thanks for the support.

Thursday Morning Update

I saw both doctors today. Everything is looking good with his previous surgery. He is scheduled for 7am tomorrow (please light a candle and say a prayer). There will be 3 surgeons in on this surgery. He has 4 major breaks and all near major nerves. It will be a long complicated surgery. He can move his fingers now, but Dr. Morvant said this is a complicated surgery, and he can have complications.

His blood pressure was really low and a low blood count, so they are pumping him with more blood. I will post more info on where those around here can donate. Their blood supply is low because of the hurricane. This will help replenish what he used and he will be given credit for the donations.

He ran a little fever last night as well, but he has been on antibiotics since he came in to prevent infection.

Otherwise he is doing well still. The medicine definitely is helping the pain.

He is starting physical therapy on his knee and hip today. The therapy is very low key right now, but they want him to start moving so he is not so soar afterwards.

Our next visit is at noon.

Wednesday Night Update

I was able to stay in ICU with Daniel last night (sh! I was snuck in by the nurse). He has still been in pain, so the nurse called in for an additional medicine for pain. The medicine is similar to a prescription strength Motrin, or taking 4 Motrin at once. He also is taking another medicine before his bath, when they change is dressing and clean his cuts, or whenever they move him a lot. This medicine puts him in la-la land, and he does not remember much for the hour afterwards.

He slept alright until about 3 pm, but was then pretty restless. The extra medicines definitely seem to be helping as well.

The blood work taken during the night showed that his blood count is low, and he may need more blood. We are waiting for the doctors to come in for more information.

Wednesday morning update

This morning we saw both Dr. Morvant who did the surgery yesterday and Dr. Donepudi who is our regular doctor. They are still amazed that he looks so good.

Everything from the surgery looks great. He still has swelling, so they may have to make more little cuts to relieve the pressure. He has a pin in his hip, along rod in the bone from his hip to his knee, a few screws by his knee, and a brace on the bone under his knee (sorry for the lack of technical terms).

He is still in pain even though he only says it hurts a little. He is on a high dose of morphine for now. He is very alert. He doesn't remember any of the accident.

The surgery for his arm looks like it will be Friday.

Thanks for the continued prayers. I am telling him every person that calls, texts, or emails. He looks forward to visitors.

The boys are wonderful. We are so luck to have such wonderful family that has taken over taking care of the kids.

We realize how serious this is and could have been. Yesterday was really a "fog." I don't really know how else to describe it. I just went with the motions. We are so lucky to be where we are and to be so loved. Thanks again for the calls, emails, visits, help, prayers, and thoughts.

Update on Daniel

Well I guess this blog will serve a little different of a purpose for the next few weeks. From looking at the live feed, it seems that some of you were looking for an update on Daniel here. The hospital does have wireless access, so hopefully I will be able to update nightly (but no promises).

Here's the story:

A little before 7am Tuesday morning, Daniel got in an accident about 3 minutes away from home. He hit a large truck that was being used from debris pickup from the hurricane (from what I understand). It is the type of garbage truck that loads the large dumpsters.

I received a call probably about 7:05-7:10. I was told that he was pinned in but okay and talking. I quickly loaded the boys to drop off at the babysitters and Wes at my grandma's. Shane met me at mom's to drive me. Traffic was extremely backed-up, so we parked and ran. My mom was about 1 minute ahead of us. As I told Shane to run ahead to check on him, Uncle Blaise ran with me. The police officer and my mom met me well before the scene. They would not let me go near and instead send me to the hospital to wait. It took 1 1/2 hours to remove him from the vehicle. Due to the horrible fog and other circumstance, Air Med was not yet at the scene. The decision was made to put him in the ambulance instead to get him care as soon as possible.

He has extensive injuries on his left side. He underwent surgery on his hip, femur bone (thigh area), and tibula (right under his knee). This is giving him the most pain right now.

As of now, he is scheduled from surgery Friday for his left arm. His 3 bones (the one above the elbow and 2 in the lower arm) are broken and elbow fractured/broken. He also has a bone in his face (cheek bone I guess) that is fractured. I am not sure the extent right now.

He will be in ICU for a few days. They are concerned about blood clots and fragments or other things that may travel. He had so many bones broken.

I am still a little unsure about everything as yesterday was such a blur. So much happened so quickly, but yet not quickly enough. Everyone's prayers helped. He was lucky. Bones can be fixed; it just takes time. He will have a long road ahead with probably 2 weeks in the hospital and then move up to the rehab unit.

I have had a lot of questions about calls. Please feel free to call me. If I am unable to answer, I will try to call you back. I am communicating this way since I am not able to tap into my hotmail account using this wireless service.

I have had so many offers about the boys (obviously they do not know the twins hit terrible twos!) I know they are in great hands which is a relief. We are so lucky to have such large families and plenty great friends. I don't know how I could handle this alone!

Again, it will be a long road, but he is doing great. He made it through surgery wonderfully! I am telling him about everyone calling and coming by. I think he was really moved by the amount of people that love him so much (I will leave jokes for later).

Please continue praying. Leave messages here or email me at my school account as I cannot check hotmail. Also call. So much time alone in ICU will drive him nuts but letting him know who has been here has made him feel better!

I love you all and will try to update sometime today/tonight.

Aiden

Pictures from Tennessee

The condos in Gatlinburg were very nice, and the view was breathtaking! We spent only one day in Gatlinburg, and much of that was stuck to the TV and phones (when we could get through), but it is a beautiful place.

We went to Ober Gatlinburg which had the large lift over the mountains. It was gorgeous! I have more pictures on a disposable cameras since mine broke. I will get those on a CD as soon as possible.

Update

We do now have power, but cable is down, which also means, for me at least, internet is down. I am actually able to tap into a neighbor's wireless right now, but it is a poor connection, and I am not able to always connect.

With the exception of a few singles lost, we faired pretty well. Other family members lost a lot more off their roof, but we were all lucky.

We're Back

It was a long trip to Tennessee, but after seeing the aftermath of Gustav, I am glad we went.

The trip there took 19 hours. Traffic was back to back as 2 million people decided to evacuate this storm. In any other conditions, Gatlinburg would have been a beautiful place to stay. We are actually thinking of it for a vacation soon, but under different circumstances.

We traveled with a huge group:

• The 5 of us
• Mom and Dad
• Kirby, Shannon, Glenn, Brandon, and Shannon's mom
• Keena, Camden, Brody, Aunt Tana, Becky, and Zack
• Aunt Tana's parents and her sisters and their families
• Aunt Brenda, BooBoy, Aunt Bee's parents and 2 nefews
• Brad, Tiffany, Christopher

We were nearly 40 total.

Pictures of our trip will follow soon, although I do not have as many as I wished since my camera broke on the trip. But I did want to share the reason we left:

This video was taken near our home. You can see how strong the winds were. This storm hit as a category 3 but dropped down instantly to a 2. I am hearing over and over from those that stayed that they will not stay again for something like this (and it was supposed to be so much worse!)

http://www.sky-chaser.com/gustav08.htm

Boarding Up