Some Kids Get All the Breaks!

Luckily we made it 10 and a half years without a broken bone.  However, William changed all of that on Wednesday Oct. 26th.  

Wednesday morning I was expressing my extreme happiness at the fact that all we had on the schedule for the day was a couple of therapies, no doctor or hospital visits all day.  This was an especially wonderful thing this week because over the previous 9 days, we had been to some type of doctor/hospital appointment 9 different times.  I was ready for a break.  A day to take the kids to school, come home, get a shower, do the therapies and then have all afternoon to catch up on a few things around the house.  

Well, 12:01 (approximately) came, Bryce's therapist had just left, Annalise was just finishing up with hers, my friend Heather, who also happens to be Bryce's respite/habilitation/attendent care worker had just arrived to spend a few hours working with Bryce.  I was happily anticipating feeding Annalise, getting her down for a nap, and then enjoying some me time to clean out my closet, do some laundry, and maybe even blog a little, when the phone rang.  It was one of the teachers at the boys' school who said that she had William in the office.  She explained that he had a little accident on the playground.  I didn't think anything of it at that point because the school they attended last year would call me every time one of the kids would get any little scratch.  But, Mrs. Pickett went on to say that as they were putting ice on William's wrist it just didn't look quite right and it seemed to be very swollen and that maybe I should come over and pick him up.  

So, after laughing at me for thinking that I would actually have a doctor free day (what are good friends for right), Heather agreed to watch Annalise as well, while I went to get William.  I picked him up and after looking at his hand, knew that we needed to get right to Urgent Care.  William was a little trooper through all of this.  He hadn't even cried at the school.  Once he saw me he broke down a little bit, but really held it together until we were in the car.  Once we were in the car he said that it really hurt and cried pretty hard all the way to Urgent Care where, luckily, they were able to take us right in.

They looked at William's wrist, instantly put it into this sling and said that they needed to transfer him to Cardon's Children's hospital where he would most likely need surgery to repair the break.  They told us to be very careful not to move his wrist.  They explained that this was a very severe break, and that any little movement could pinch off the artery in his arm and stop the circulation to his fingers.  William has always been one to do a job well, and this break was obviously no different!  =)  So, they helped William get back into the car and we headed off to the hospital.  On the way, I called John and let him know what was happening.  Once we got there, I sent a text to Heather and told her we may be a little longer than I had originally thought.    

When we arrived at the ER, they got him registered and into a room.  They then removed the splint and took some x-rays.  That was by far the most painful part for William.  Still, he did not even cry!  I felt so bad for him.  Once we got back to the room, they hooked up his IV and gave him some morphine.  It helped some, but he was still in a lot of pain.  They also told us that he had indeed broken both of the bones in his forearm and we would need to wait for the orthopedic surgeon to come and let us know if he would need surgery to correct it.  

These pictures don't really do it justice, but you get the idea anyway.  

After a second shot of morphine, he was feeling a bit less pain and we spent most of the afternoon watching TV and waiting for the doctor.  When he finally arrived around 5:30PM, we were happy to get the news that William would not need surgery.  They would need to do something called conscious sedation so that the doctor could put his wrist back in place.  They did it right there at the bedside and I was able to be there the whole time.  They gave him the medicine through his IV.  A few seconds later, William said that he felt really weird, and then he was out.  It was kind of weird, his eyes were open the whole time, but he was totally unaware of what was going on.  It took about 10 minutes to fix his arm and about 45 minutes for him to begin to come out of the sedation.  It was funny as he was coming out, because about 20 different times he looked over at me and said, "hi Mom" all sleepy like.  It was obvious that he was still out of it.  He also said one time, "Mom, you're nice."  and asked us multiple times how long he had been asleep.  He of course doesn't remember any of that!  We finally made it home about 9:30.  I tucked William into bed and went out to fill his prescription for pain medicine.  

 They had to put his arm in a splint since there was so much swelling.  We will go back this Wed. to get the real cast put on.

His fingers swelled up pretty good over the last few days and he has not been able to move them, but as long as he is using the sling, he hasn't been in too much pain.  Last night was the first night that he did not wake up asking for more pain medicine, so I think he is on the mend!

 

William has some great friends that have been worried about him.  On Wednesday when we got home, there was a plate of cookies for him that his cub scout leader, Brother Rogers had brought over.  Friday, Christopher Pickens came over with these cards that he had made.  And Friday the boys brought this poster home from school.  It was one that William and some of his classmates had been working on and they wanted him to have it.  Also, one of William's classmates goes to our church and she told him today that the whole class had wanted to make get well cards for him, but that they ran out of time.

William is loving all of the attention he is getting!

So, how did he do it you ask.  Well, he was at recess playing a game where you jump over a jump rope which is being held by two other people.  If you make it over the rope, they raise it a little higher.  Well, William had gotten pretty high and so he had to "jump at a funny angle" (those are William's words).  He made it over the rope, but landed wrong on his arm.

I feel bad for William,  but once again, I am so thankful for all the little tender mercies that the Lord has shown us through this whole experience.  I am so, so, so glad that this happened on a day that I was at home and not in Phoenix at some appointment.  I am so glad that Heather had arrived just before I had to leave.  She and her husband were a lifesaver that day.  They watched Bryce and Annalise, picked our other boys up from school, and made dinner for John and the kids at home!  Heather is the greatest and I am so glad that she is working with us again!  I am also thankful for the understanding ladies that I work with in Cub Scouts.  We have cubs on Wed. and I totally forgot to call and let them know I wouldn't be there, or have the treats ready that Jacob was supposed to bring.  I felt bad when I remembered, but they of course were fine with it.  We also received many well wishes and prayers from our friends as we were waiting in the hospital and I am so thankful for that as well.

From Van to Bus

The time has come to sell our beautiful, big red fire truck.  We have only owned it for about 1 and a half years, but a lot has happened in that time.  We bought it and then had the wheelchair lift installed so that we could get Bryce in and out easier and so that he could have the support of his wheelchair even as we drove.  It took a bit to get used to the bright red color, and the fact that everywhere I went someone recognized me or would stare and wondered about this huge, red van.  However, it didn't take long for me to really like this van.  It gets great gas mileage for the size that it is and it is amazingly easy to drive.  I love this van!

However, like I said, a lot has happened in the past year and a half.  Last summer we realized that the rear air was not strong enough to keep the back of the van cool in this summer Arizona heat.  Since Bryce's body has trouble regulating temprature, that is a real problem.  We planned to put in a stronger, roof top air conditioning unit before the following summer.  But, before that time came, Annalise began having trouble and we soon realized that before long, we would need a vehicle that would hold two wheelchairs instead of just one.  

So, we began to look at our options.  As we did, we found that our options were very limited!  We began to look into mini buses.  One guy that John talked with in April said that he knew just what our family needed and then came out to show us this lovely Turtle Top Bus.

I do love that this bus had two seats up front.  That would be nice.

The turtle top really was a nice bus and the boys instantly loved it and thought we should buy this one immediately.  There were just a couple of problems with that though.  First, this one was not wheelchair accessible and we really didn't want to have another lift installed...if possible.  And, a new bus like this would cost us around $75,000!  Just a bit out of our price range!  

So, although we had decided that we would need to go with a "mini bus" (a name I find quite misleading), we knew that we still had some searching to do.   I'll spare you all the details of  the following months of searching, but finally we found one that was within our price range.  It was a 2006 and looked really nice.  The only problem was that it was not running at the time.  Minor detail ;)  Anyway, since it cost less than we had budgeted for, we bought it for $3500 and had it towed to the shop.  Just $600 later, we brought the bus home.  We were so happy that we had gotten such a great deal.  However, one week later, it once again would not start and it was towed back to the shop.  A few weeks and $8000 later, the bus finally came home...hopefully to stay!

Jacob and Spencer checking out the lift

Annalise liked the lift as well

It seats 13 in the back or the seats fold up and there is room for 5 wheelchair!

Bryce's first impression was NOT a good one!  He was terrified of it.  He has gotten used to it now and seems to be fine when we travel in it.

The signs throughout the bus crack me up.

The wonderful air conditioner!  My favorite part of the whole bus.

It is large and will take some getting used to, but hopefully it will work for what we need.  I will continue to search for a bus that is a bit smaller and still meets our needs, but for now, this is our new family vehicle.

When I realized what we were going to have to drive, I knew that I needed something smaller to drive when I didn't have all the kids with me.  I just couldn't see driving the bus every time I ran out to get some milk!  We looked and found a nice 2000 Jetta that should do the trick.  What we went through to get that is a whole other story for another time, but it is a nice little car.

It does get dirty quickly, but the boys love washing a nice small car!

So, now that the bus is out of the shop, we cleaned up the van and have listed it on ebay motors.  As much as we will miss it, we hope it sells quickly and goes to a good family who will come to love it as much as we did.  And then we can move on to the next phase of our life.  

Good-bye to our Big Red Fire Truck! 

Launch Tonight!

Well, things did go well in VA for John and he was able to return home briefly.  He arrived home last night at 9PM and was gone again this morning by 5:30.  Most of the kids were sleeping the whole time he was here and didn't even get to see him.  He and I did spend a few minutes talking and eating the penuche that he brought home before he left again.  It was quite yummy!


Below is a post that John wrote on the Clayton Family Website and I wanted to add it here.  It explains a bit of what he has been working on in White sands over the past month.  Enjoy.

Hi everyone, I wanted to post an update on my recent exciting work at White Sands Missile Range.   I was asked to participate directly in a specific rocket launch campaign for the first time in my career, WOO HOO!   Some of my recent work is a hardware device and associated compiled MATLAB code which provides a display of the "Flight Termination" telemetry for some small research rockets.   In other words, my stuff is part of what the range operators use to blow up the rocket if it veers off course for any reason whatsoever.   Let's hope they don't have to use it! To be clear, the part I personally built is strictly the telemetry "decommutator" and display software, the part which stays on the ground.   The display is showing information gleaned from a radio signal that the rocket sends out to the ground station during its first 60 seconds of flight. The other part, which flies in the vehicle, I did not build.   It is something that my group already has tested and flight qualified.   Also, after T+60 seconds, the motors are all burned out, and the second stage motor, along with the vehicle flight termination stuff separates from the payload, and becomes irrelevant to the rest of the mission. Want to play "the acronym game" for a bit? On the vehicle there are two command destruct radio receivers (CDRs), and two "flight termination logic units" (FTLUs) coupled to a single "Conical Shaped Charge" (CSC) via some awesome "flexibly confined detonating cord" (FCDC).   The CSC contains about one pound of C-4 explosive material which, when detonated, punches a giant hole in the top end of the second stage solid fueled rocket motor.   Once that happens, the rocket disintegrates, and the pieces fall pretty quickly from the sky.   This is a rare example of using C-4 explosives to ENHANCE SAFETY, since it represents insurance against possible damage to people and property from the occasional rocket that may wander into forbidden trajectories. ....Actually, the conical shaped charge focuses a stream of plasma in one direction powerful enough to punch a pinky sized hole directly through eight one inch thick steel plates stacked together...   So it's pretty powerful, and it's what we use on some much larger rockets.   If detonated on this research rocket, it may end up punching holes through both ends of this little rocket motor.   That's just a conjecture; we haven't tried it. For the first few launches I'm being asked to support the launch directly as the "qualified console operator."   That's me!   When it comes to "qualified console operators", I'm the best!   (And the humblest.)   Just kidding, actually I sit there and click a mouse a few times, and pretty much watch some numbers.   It's just that simple.   The range operators have their twitchy fingers on the destruct button, not me. Anyway, the rocket is 57 feet long, weighs about 3 tons, and is composed of machined aluminum body sections mostly 18" outer diameter.   Our "flight termination" body section is about 16" long, so it is just a small segment of the overall length.   Also, the payload will be recovered via parachute deployment, while our section remains with the solid-fuel motors, and will be smashed to leetle tiny bits after re-entry into the atmosphere. The payload is an experimental telescope from Boston University.   It has a star-tracker and a one million dollar deformable mirror.   Once in space, the telescope is supposed to orient itself using puffs of compressed nitrogen gas through tiny directed nozzles, then point toward a particular star, and start taking pictures.   It is supposed to be able to block out the light from the star, and image items orbiting the star, such as "exoplanets." All of this must be done before the rocket plunges back to earth.   It is "sub-orbital."   This means that while it does go into space, it falls right back out of space in about 8 minutes time because it is not moving sideways very fast.   The apogee for this one is approximately 125 miles. For any interested rocket fans, the first stage is a Terrier MK70, which burns for ~6 sec. and the second stage "sustainer" is a Black Brant which burns for ~42 sec.   The vehicle coasts for ~6 sec. between first stage burnout and second stage ignition. Well, wish me luck.   I'm going back to White Sands Missile range on Friday to help launch it. Tammy - you deserve special praise through all of this.   You are truly wonderful.   I'm planning to be home tomorrow night, and I'm bringing a few special gifts with me.   Can't wait to see you and the children!

We hope that all goes well with the launch tonight.  We are looking forward to having John home for a bit longer this time!

Here Today...Gone Today.

That's how it has felt here over the past three weeks.  We haven't seen much of John lately.  He has been doing a lot of traveling for work.  He first went to Chincoteague island, VA.  Then home for the weekend and then out to White Sands in New Mexico.  They were supposed to have the launch this past Saturday morning and then he would be home for a couple of weeks before heading back out to NM.  Well, on Thursday he called and said that the piece that he designed that is being used in VA is having some trouble and that he would need to go out to help with it.  So, he got home yesterday at about 3:30, took a quick trip with the boys to the candy store, attended the Priesthood session of conference, washed some clothes, slept, watched the morning session of conference with us, packed, and was out the door by noon today.  Back out to Chincoteaque Island!  The plan was that he would be in VA until Friday, but, the launch in NM (from last week) had to be postponed.  So, now if things go well in VA this week, he should be back for a quick stay Thursday night and then he will head out Friday morning so that he can be in White Sands for the Launch late that night/early Sat. morning.  THEN, he should have a whole week at home before he heads back out again.  Whew! 


My Parents have also been in California this past week and will be throughout the upcoming week.  Luckily I have had some help from our respite worker, but it has been a bit of a challenge getting everyone where they need to be and doing what they are suppose to do.  During the past couple of weeks we have also had some sick kiddos with pink eye and strep throat.  Hopefully that is all over now and we will have a well week this week.


Bryce is out of school for the next two weeks for Fall break and the other kids will be out next week.  It will be nice to have a little break from school and homework for a bit.  Annalise will love having her brothers home as well.  She gets so bored when they are away.  Tomorrow Annalise has an appointment at CRS and then we will go to the wheelchair clinic to pick up her wheelchair.  She is still doing a great job with her walker, but she does get tired if we are out for long periods of time, so it will be nice to have the chair also.