Thanksgiving 2010!

Since my sister was working and Bryce was in the hospital on Thanksgiving this year, we celebrated today. My parents are in town and Mom did most of the cooking and cleaning.

The Spread


Mom


Sheri made some yummy potatoes


Bryce just took his meal on the couch. We are glad that he was here to join us today. I took him in for a follow-up with the pediatrician this morning and she about sent us back up to the hospital. He has still been having some trouble with fever, and vomiting. He hadn't had a wet diaper since 10:00 last night. She thought he might be getting dehydrated. She decided to let me take him home and try a few things (mostly more praying). She said if he had not peed in the next 4 hours, or if his fever spiked again, or if he had any more vomiting, I needed to take him pack to PCH right away. Luckily, within a couple of hours he had a good, wet diaper, his fever was down, and he has been able to keep his food down! He is still pretty out of it, but he is here and we are very thankful for that!


Happy Thanksgiving!


There always has to be at least one olive picture!


After the meal, Bryce joined some of the others in some movie watching. He seemed to like being in this position.


With a lot of pillows, Bryce's new wagon works quite well.


These are actually pictures from Saturday. John bought this pocket bike at a yard sale a few months ago. Jacob has been trying to get him to fix it up since then. Finally, on Saturday they had some time and got the bike running. Jacob has wanted a motorcycle for as long as I can remember. He is very happy with this new motorcycle. He has only wiped out on it a time or two and loves that he can get it up to 15 mph.

Arriving at the Village!

When we arrived at the airport in Florida, there was a greeter waiting for us with a sign that said, "Welcome Bryce Clayton". The greeter helped us get our luggage and get over to the rental car area. I was a little nervous when they showed us the car we would have. It was a minivan. Now, I used to drive a minivan, but getting a non-folding wheelchair and all of our luggage into that van seemed like an impossible task. However, with a little effort, we did manage to get it all in. The boys only complained a little bit about being smashed by suitcases on the way to the Village!

Give Kids the World Village is where we stayed for the week. It is a place that is used just by wish kids and their families. By the time we got to the village, it was dark. These next few pictures are actually pictures that we got on a disk from GKTW village. This is what we saw when we arrived...only lighter. =) It was such an exciting moment to realize that we were actually here!


This is the House of Hearts, the first building that you come to once you are on the property. We had been told that when we arrived, the whole family was suppose to go in to check-in. We soon found out why.


Here is the check-in desk


When we entered, they had us all sit together at one of the tables in this lobby. They gave Bryce a big stuffed Micky Mouse and each of the other kids a small stuffed animal and told us a little bit about the village. Then they gave us our keys to our villa and our food cards and lots of little extras for Bryce and the other kids.


The back of the House of Hearts


This is the actual picture that I took as we arrived at the village.


On the ground in front of the House of Hearts is this Welcome. The kids all thought it was pretty neat.


After checking in, one of the volunteers took us to our villa and took these pictures for us.




When we went into our villa, we saw that our fridge had been filled with sodas, water, and little snacks. There was also a bag of treats on the table. I have pictures of the inside of our villa, but I forgot to put them in this post. I'll do it in a latter one, but for now I will just tell you that it magnificent and had everything there that we would need for the week!

We were all very excited to be there. We first went down to have dinner and then I attended the orientation meeting while John and the kids finished dinner and went to check out the ice cream parlor. Don't worry, as soon as the meeting was over I headed straight there and joined them in having some ice-cream. At the orientation meeting I received our packet for the week. It had all kinds of goodies in there including our tickets for the parks, a badge for Bryce that got us free parking at the parks, plus lots of other goodies. We received a 3 day park hopper pass to the Disney Parks, a one day pass for Sea World, and a 2 day park hopper pass for Universal Studios. Well, if you count the days, you will see that we already had more days of activities available to us then the number of days we would be there. And that didn't even include all there is to do at the village! There was no way we would get to everything, but we sure had fun trying! Don't worry, I have pictures of all of it that I will be posting here soon!

Plane Rides

Once we got to the airport, Mindy Clark, one of Bryce's wish granters, was there to help us get everything checked in and onto the plane. It was nice to have an extra set of hands there to help.

The Wish Boy...excited and ready to fly!




Mindy playing with Annalise


Annalise sporting the new princess backpack from Grandma. My mom got these little backpacks for each of the kids and filled them with activities and snacks for the trip. They were a lifesaver on the plane.






Annalise got into her pack and got one of her toys out early.


We had some time for a Wendy's breakfast before boarding the plane.


We flew on Southwest...which I love when flying with kids. On the flight out we had a two hour layover in St. Louis. On the way back we had a 35 minute layover in NC. We were a little concerned about making the connecting flight, but as it turned out, we were on the same plane, just a different flight number and crew. So we had to get off the plane and then were able to get right back on. Kind of a pain, but at least we made the flight just fine!

Jacob ended up sitting by a very nice lady who ended up asking us about the church. It was neat to be able to share a little bit with someone who was interested.





Bryce loves flying. The take-off and landing are his favorites. He also really likes looking out the window and watching the other planes.




As the plane landed in Florida, Spencer noticed the trees with all the different colored leaves and said, "hey, it's really Fall here!"

These next pictures are from the trip home. Annalise and Bryce both feel asleep which was great since this part of the trip was a 5 hour flight.

The Day Finally Arrived!

One year after hearing about Make-A-Wish, the day of Bryce's Wish trip finally arrived on November 14, 2010. We knew it had truly arrived when at 4AM John walked outside and said, "hey, there's a limo out here. I think it's for us!" Sure enough. MAW had sent a limo to pick us up and take us to the airport. It was a little tricky getting all of the luggage and Bryce's wheelchair in there, but with a little maneuvering it worked. When they came to pick us up at the airport after the trip, they had a van behind them to carry the chair and luggage. That worked much better.

I didn't have my camera on me for the trip to the airport, so these pictures are from the ride home from the airport. The only real difference was that we were all much more tired on this ride home than the day we left.

Our limo!








This is a picture of the ceiling. It had a bunch of these lights that periodically changed color. Bryce and Annalise especially liked these.


Jacob, John, and William loving the limo.


I like the way Annalise is looking at the lights on the ceiling in this picture. She was mesmerized by them.


Rocking out to Christmas music.




Being in a limo was very exciting, but on the trip home, everyone was tired...


and most everyone was soon sound asleep.


Annalise never did fall asleep. Unfortunately she just cried most of the way home.


The limo ride was only a small piece of all the fun that was soon to come!

Back at Home

It's actually now Saturday morning. We got home about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. It's good to be home. It looks like John and the kids did great while we were away.

Bryce was discharged about noon, but he was sleeping so they said we could just stay and let him rest. About 2:00 he began waking up, so I began packing the last few things away. When I had my back turned to him, I heard him making some noises and turned around to see that he was throwing up again. Poor little guy. The nurse called Bryce's doctor to see if it was still OK to let him leave. She said that she thought it would be fine, but that I would just need to watch Bryce really closely and if he had any signs of dehydration or breathing issues to bring him right back. I was very ready to get out of the hospital, so I was glad we got to go although it made me nervous at the same time.

It took some work to get Bryce out to the car and into the special car seat they had for him. It didn't really support his legs to well, so I had to get kind-of creative. We may not be going out much in the next few weeks! Even just moving him is quite the ordeal...for him and me.

All ready to head for home.




Since we've been home, he has done well overall. We had some trouble getting his prescriptions filled, but luckily we had those by 7 last night. By that time though, he had spiked a fever. It was almost 103 degrees. I gave him his lortab and within an hour it had brought it down to about 101. I called his doctor and the nurse said that she doesn't think it is related to his surgery, but that he probably picked up some type of flu vires while in the hospital. Grrrr! So we alternated Lortab and Ibuprofen throughout the night for the fever and pain (along with his antibiotic for infection from the aspiration and Valium for muscle spasms). He is also just taking pedialyte for now instead of his usual formula to help him keep everything down.

He seemed very happy to see his brothers and sister this morning. He is pretty out of it still with all the meds he is taking, but the boys actually had him smiling and laughing a little bit. I think being home will help him a lot. As for me, I'm tired, but very glad to be home.

Surgery

Happy Thanksgiving! Bryce and I are spending the day in Phoenix Children's Hospital.

Yesterday morning Bryce and I arrived at the hospital at 6AM. On the way to the hospital we passed the airport and it made me wish we were heading there instead. But...not this time. We checked in, did all the paperwork, met with everyone who would be involved in the surgery and then at 8:00 I gave Bryce a kiss, handed him over to the nurse, and went out the other door to the waiting room.

Here is my adorable boy with his bunny that he received when we arrived. He also has the stick with colors that we could choose for his casts.


While I was waiting for Bryce, I got a text message from a friend of mine from our ward. She said that she had seen our van and wondered if we were in the hospital. It ends up that she and her husband were here with their oldest son who was having a procedure done. I ended up going back into the admitting room to see them for a bit. It was good to see them, but sad to hear what they are going through. Hopefully everything will go well with their son.

About 9:00 Dr. Schrader came out and told me that the surgery was successful. He said that once Bryce was asleep he realized that most of the tightness Bryce is experiencing is not because of his muscles, but rather due to his brain not telling his muscles to relax. So, again his main condition is what is causing this problem as well. So, that meant there was some good news and some bad news. Good news was that the Dr. decided not to clip and lenghten the Achilles tendon since it would not really make any difference. The bad news is that the clipping of the adductor muscles may not even help his hips. He decided to go ahead with that part of the surgery though with the hope that the clipping and the casts will actually help. It kills me to know that he might be going through all of this for nothing, but I'll just keep praying that something worthwhile will come from this surgery.

About 9:45 I was able to go back with Bryce. He was just waking up and was quite cranky. I couldn't hold him so I just rubbed his little face and arms and talked quietly to him. Soon he calmed down and slept until they took us up to our room.

Shortly after arriving in our room Tiger, the dog, came around to say hello. That really made Bryce brighten up.





Tiger even got a slight smile out of Bryce.


Here is Bryce resting with his new bunny. Bryce was given a shot in the back that numbed him from the waist down which really helped with pain for the first 5 hours or so after surgery.


One of the nurses suggested we go with Christmas colors for his casts. Since he will be in them for 6 weeks, he will have them right through Christmas. I'm glad we went with that. I think they are cute. He may be uncomfortable this Christmas season, but he sure will be styling!


His legs are spread so far apart that he will not fit into his wheelchair. We were given a loaner, but that will not work either. A physical therapist came in to help us figure out how we will get him around and after trying many different options, we decided that using a wagon and lots of pillows is really the only option for him. So, they gave me a special car seat to borrow for him and once I get home, I will go out and get Bryce an early Christmas present...a wagon!


Last night Bryce had a very rough night. He was having trouble keeping his oxygen level up and his heart rate down. A little after midnight, Bryce threw up. The nurse left to go get new sheets for him and he began choking. Luckily that nurse and two others came rushing in and helped me get Bryce turned to his side and he threw up some more. He was still having a lot of trouble breathing, so they had to suction his mouth and nose. He really hated that, but it seemed to help. Since he had choked though, they decided to do a chest X-Ray to check for aspiration. Unfortunately he had, so they started him on antibiotic right away to help ward off any infections or pneumonia. He was also very uncomfortable once the numbness wore off. He has been on round the clock pain meds since then.

By this morning, he was doing much better. His levels have been fine most of the day. He is still on constant pain medication and the antibiotic, but he has been able to rest a bit more today. He has been asleep basically since about noon today.


Multiple doctors have been in to check on him today because of what happened last night. They considered sending him home this evening, but have decided that since he is such a fragile little guy anyway, they should keep him through the night. As much as I would love to go home and see the rest of my family, I am glad that we are staying one more night. I would be really nervous taking him home right now. Hopefully it will be an uneventful night and he will be ready to go home tomorrow morning.

On an up note, I went down to get dinner tonight and not only did they have a wonderful turkey dinner spread, but they were giving it away for free. I missed sharing Thanksgiving with family, but at least I got my turkey and pie! I have also had time today to go through our pictures from Bryce's MAW trip, so I am just about ready to blog about that wonderful trip!