Craig: Week 2

Tuesday

Well, today they ordered Josh to get a 'post chest tube' MRI. Since he had one when he first got here, not that he remembers, they figured he would be just fine. Well, he wasnt. He lasted not even a minute! I guess they didnt realize how much valium he still had in his system. Haha. So they rescheduled it for tomorrow. :/ This time they will sedate him. But he still got to do stuff with his therapists afterwards.

He got hooked up to this FES bike for the first time. That was awesome! They put electrodes on different parts of his leg muscles to stimulate them and after a while they actually get to where they are pedaling on their own! It's a great workout and it helps keep his leg muscles so if he does regain any feeling, he will not have to start from scratch.

Oh, and Chase left today. So it just got a little more lame around here:/

 

Wednesday

Josh got his MRI done with no problems. ;) By the time he got done and the sedation all wore off, he just had time to work with Joe, his PT, and Makenzie, his OT. They had him work on car transfers. And even though they don't usually introduce that until much later, they felt he could do it. Well, it was super hard for him, but with a little help, he surely impressed them!

Thursday

Today was Josh's first fit class. He got an hours worth of total upper body strength training. Since that is what will be getting him around for now, he's gotta get it stronger than ever!

After fit class, we met with our psychologist, Lester Butt. Lol. But, we call him Les for short ;) His job is to make sure we don't lose it while going through all of this, and to have someone to yell at if we do lose it. Haha. He's been here at Craig for 33 yrs! Josh said he will probably go into retirement after a few private sessions with him. Hahaha!

After our visit with Les, we ventured outside for the first time with Joe. He's having Josh try out a different wheel chairs, so we took it for a stroll around the hospital. It was so nice for Josh to get some fresh air! And real sun! :D The wheel chair was real tippy, but after some adjustments, it was perfect! Way better and lighter than his last one. He will be trying out a few more before choosing the one they will make for him to take home. Well, we got back to our room and they did an ultrasound on his right leg because this morning it measured 2 cm bigger since he's been here. That is how they check for blood clots. Well, the ultrasound found a small blood clot in his right femur, so he was put on 24 hr bedrest with restrictions like keeping that leg straight, no blood pressure, I.V.s, or labs! And he was put on some serious blood thinners. What happened was when he got here, they took him off blood thinners because they were taking out his chest tube and stuff. Well, the Dr. ordered him to go back on them two days after, and the pharmacy totally dropped the ball. SCARY! So glad they found it, but another minor setback:/ So that ended our day at 1pm.

Friday

Josh had been sleeping better lately, so I sleep in my own bed at my apartment last night for the first time since being here!!! Soooooo much better! I honestly don't know how in the hell I had been able to sleep in this fold out chair for the last 10 days!? I guess you do what you gotta do...

So bed rest in the morning. Lame. But they let him get out of bed at 1pm so they were able to fill up his afternoon real good. That way he will go into the weekend stronger. :D. He got to get into this contraption that let him actually stand up straight. Josh really liked that.

It's not a high chair....

They have some really neat stuff here. Especially for those who start to get ANY feeling back. They say it is so critical that you start "walking" as soon as that feeling hits your legs. I took some pics of other people in those walking contraptions. So don't mistake them for Josh...

 

The Long Weekend...

So we had to watch some videos and take tests on them before they would give Josh an off-campus pass. Well, we just finished them up last night, so now he gets to go outside or over to my apartment or around the block if we wanted, etc. So, we spent most of the weekend at my apartment, which is a lot more cozier. That was so nice. :) The Gordon family came down to visit Saturday. :) Their little guy was totally making me miss my baby :'(. Hes the same age as Jaxyn. We were so glad they stopped by though.

Sunday I should have found a church to go to, but didn't want to leave Josh just yet, so we just watched a few more LDS conference talks that we missed last week and called it good. Later that day we had a few more visitors, which was super nice. It makes the long weekends go by so much faster since there is no therapy. We got our schedule for next week and it is jammed packed! Hopefully there are no more setbacks...

Monday

Josh had a full schedule today. This morning he had FES bike and mat class, which was tough! He had to stretch on his own and the worst was balancing. Lots of different balancing moves that are very hard when you don't have the strength of your abs:/. It'll be amazing to see him improve on that!

Then we had a conference meeting with all of Josh's team. They showed us CAT scans and MRIs they had taken. Went over his rapid progression. Told us mostly what we have already been told, and gave Josh a discharge date of June 6th. But it was so nice to hear all the good things they had to say about Josh.

This is an MRI of Josh's spine right now. The metal kind of distorts it, but you can see where the spinal cord is damaged. :/

Then this afternoon Joe had him practice bed transfers, toilet and tub transfers, and another car transfer. He did awesome! It's amazing how much improvement he has had in 1 week!!! He got in and out of that car with pretty much no help! We will be out on the town in no time! ;)

After that Josh had his first wheelchair class. They really stress the importance of learning and mastering wheelies! He was not excited about that. Even though he's probably super good at wheelies on a quad, this is way out of his comfort zone. So they want them to be able to hold the wheelie for at least 30 sec., then work their way up to 2 min! They said it usually takes a couple of days to get up to that. At first, he could barely do 15 sec. Then after 20 min of trying, he had held it for 3 1/2 min! Show off! :P Then he had to pass off 3 full circles while in a wheelie. That was tough too, but he passed that off also before the end of class! What a stud!!!

Well it has been snowing most of the day, with more to come:/. It's SPRING! HELLO!!! This is so why I live I the desert. I need some vitamin D so bad!

 

 

 

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CRAIG HOSPITAL: Week 1

Tuesday, April 2

We arrived at Craig around noon. As soon as we got into Josh's room, his nurse, Sara, started the 1 hour total evaluation on him. She ran tons of tests, asked questions that I had to answer because he was still heavily drugged up from the flight, cleaned up his dressings on his owies, cleaned him up and sent him on his way to get a MRI, which he does not remember. Our buddy Cam Asay, who we went to school with, showed up out of the blue! I forgot they moved from New Mexico. Anyways, he hooked me up with a truck so I could get around a little easier. What a stud!

After all the evaluations and tests and stuff, they realized that the chest tube was no longer working properly, so it needed to be replaced, with two tubes! One to drain fluid at the bottom of the lung and one to drain the air pocket at the top! So, here we were thinking he was going to get that dang chest tube out so he could hit it hard here at rehab, but now he has to get it replaced and be bed-ridden even longer:( he can't sleep, he's drugged up from so much pain in the chest, he can't get comfortable....but, they think he would only need it for a day or two. Just a speed bump...

Wednesday

Josh got his chest tube out and it was replaced by 2 smaller ones. He still had some discomfort, but not like before. So that was good.

Before...

After...

 

He still gets the shakes so bad and they last forever! We have to cover him up with lots of warm blankets to get him to settle down....then he gets a high fever. We just can't win. But, as soon as he warms up, we take the blankets off and his temp goes back down.

TMI you've been warned...

There are some other problems he's had as a result of his spinal cord injury. One is he is so backed up from just laying around and all the narcotics he's been on. They have tried so many things and it just results in him feeling even worse. :(. The second thing is he had a priapism, which can be very dangerous. Look it up if u really want to know what that is. But they did about 2 different abrasive procedures to help it, and none of them worked! I was sick! And even though he can't feel anything, his body can so after each procedure, his body would go into convulsions! At this point, I was starting to lose it. I didn't think I could take any more bad news. :( Just another speed bump...

Josh's new "Green Monster". Lol! 3 weeks clean!

 

Thursday

Josh got his chest tubes out today! Yay!

During...

After....tube free!

This was his first day out of bed in 3 days! His Dr. let him get the neck part taken off. Thank goodness! That thing was so annoying. Now for a hair cut and shave....

This is the hallway that connects the east wing to the west wing. Lots of nice sunshine:)

So the way this rehab works is, when you first get their, you are admitted to the west side where the nurses are on hand all the time to help you. Spinal cord injuries on the 3rd floor, brain injuries on the 2nd floor. All I can say is thank goodness he's not on the 2nd floor! Anyways, once you become more independent, they send you over to the east side in an apartment like setting and that is where you transition into living at home. I get to move in with him at that point, even though I have slept in his room since he got here, but then I won't have to run to my apartment to shower n stuff. :) There will still be nurses if he needs them, but they encourage him to take care of himself.

Friday

Finally got a dang haircut! Thank goodness for one of Josh's nurse techs bringing in her own pair of clippers for me to cut his hair. He even shaved! He's a new man!

My sister Charity made that banner in the background. We love it!

Saturday-Sunday

Josh's brother Chase flew in Saturday night. He hadn't got to see josh yet since he lives back east and was in the middle of his work week. So he was excited to finally get to spend time with his big brother. Even if its just sitting around staring at each other. Hahaha! Then Sunday we just hung out and watched/listened to LDS conference when we could. My favorite talk was by Elder Holland. "All things are possible to them that believe". That is so what I needed to hear. Even though we were all spiritually lifted, I could tell something wasn't quite right with josh. He just seemed really bummed. It hurts me so bad to see him like this. I'm sure it's because of 2 days of doing nothing after an unproductive, trying week, valium out of his system and more time and a clear mind to "think", which isn't the best at this point. Monday has to be better!

Monday: Training Day!

It's Josh's birthday today and it's snowing!!! That is crazy because Saturday it was in the 70's! Crazy weather here. We didn't do much for his birthday today. We are lame. But he got a couple of packages, so that was exciting! This is the first day of actually doing therapy with his Physical Trainer, Joe. Last week all they did was tests. They did this one test called the ASIA test. They use a Qtip and both ends of a safety pin to brush, touch and poke different areas of his body to test the sensitivity and document exactly where he has all, partial or no feeling. They repeat this test before he goes home. So today Joe had him work on transfers and did some stretches to test his range of motion.

He also worked with his Occupational Therapist, MaKenzie, on a couple of different transfer moves. Like getting into bed and back out. It's crazy how difficult that is when u don't have the use of your legs or abs! Josh's upper body is going to be taking a beating! So that is why he will start working out his upper body to get it even stronger. But, both his trainers are impressed at how strong he is for being laid up for the last 2 weeks. He is a stud! Happy birthday baby!

 

 

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Sunrise Hospital

Thursday, March 28th

Today was my birthday. I had better plans, but the day turned out to be a fun and surprising day. Josh had TONS of visitors as did I! :D

They must have got the word that he didn't look so bad any more. Haha

I knew three of my sisters were coming in to take me to lunch for my bday, but when they showed up, I was so surprised to see ALL 7 of my sisters, 2 babies, my mom and my grandma!!!

Then later on I got to go out to dinner with some of my sweet girlfriends!

Then ended the day with my fam going to see The Host :). The day turned out 100 times better than I had imagined. When I got back to the hospital for my night shift, Josh had had 55 visitors just that day! He was out cold!

The rest of the weekend was full of friends and family from all over, coming in to see Josh. It was so wonderful to see all the love support we had. When we left for Denver, he had a total of 187 visitors at the Sunrise hospital! The guy at the help desk quit asking who people were going to see when they asked for help. He'd just tell them Josh's room number and send them on their way! He asked someone later if he was a priest or something. I guess priests are pretty popular? Lol! I gave him one of my wonderful gourmet cupcakes I got for my bday from Justin and Breana Water's. ;)

Jax n daddy

Josh n the kiddos

Buddy Williams n Josh. :)

So because josh was flying to Denver, they couldn't take out his chest tube till he got there. It has been such a pain....literally. It hurt to breathe, blow his nose, lay in any position, and especially where his turtle shell! No wonder he was always drugged up!

Gross!

The trip to Denver was uneventful. Josh was passed out, thank goodness. If he thought his hospital bed was uncomfortable, he was strapped down on a gurney for 3 hrs!!! He would have freaked out! Haha!

Maddy got to ditch school to come say goodbye to us:'(

Locked and loaded!

Josh's flight beating heart nurse and breathing nurse.

We made it to Denver!

In ambulance on the way to Craig Hospital.

We made it! Here we gooooooo! :D

 

 

 

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NOVEMBER 2010

MADALYNN
Madalynn is growing up way to fast!!! She will be getting baptized next year! She is a lot of help with her brothers and usually patient...she will be a great mom some day. She wishes she was my mom so she can tell me what to do. Hahaha! Gotta love her. She is so smart and even though she is the youngest in her class, she is one of the top students. She has an exceptional memory which is great for school, but sometimes not too great for me. I cannot get away with anything I promised or told her I would do, even if it was years ago! She is a great actress and puts on plays all the time for us. She keeps us entertained and on the edge of our seats. Her mood changes so quickly we secretly nick-named her our Sour Patch Kid! At least her clothes don't make her freak out any more :). We love, love, love our little girl!

GAVYN JOSHUA
Gavyn is now 4 years old. He loves to learn new things. He is so smart and can figure out just about any game on the computer on his own. He loves the challenge and gets a "big-boy" feeling when he passes a level. Believe me....he constantly reminds me of it when it happens. He is so affectionate and loving. He has always told me and Josh that he likes us. Sometimes he'll even throw in a "like and a love". He loves to be hugged and I soooooo enjoy his loves. He does get his heart broken so easily that we can't even spank him lightly. His love language is definitely 'touch'. We love our big snuggle bug so much!

JAXYN JAMES

O.k. so after what...over a year, I am finally updating my blog! Ya, well, we shall see how well I do. So my baby is 13 months old and has been such a joy in our lives. He is a jabber box! We don't know what he is saying, but he sure seems to. He will carry on a conversation with you as if you understand exactly what he is saying. We just love him to pieces!

EASTER 2009

Easter egg hunt in our yard.

The Frederick Family annual Easter egg roll.

Madalynn helping Randon up the STEEP sand hill!

Josh-Air-Jordan!

My egg won!

Me and the kids at the parks and rec Easter egg hunt.

Madalynn got the first caterpillar painted on her face.