11/30/2008

Snapshots of the long weekend. It felt great to spend a few full days with the family. Carol is soar from all her rehab. We got the tree up and decorated. Thanksgiving was great....lots of food. We are still working on the leftovers. Thanks to all the inlaws for a great holiday, and to the members of my family who were there as well. We made a trip to Target to get Christmas decorations. Challenging little trip, but we made it. Chloe continues to be a little of a challenge with Carol. Since Carol can't do alot as far her needs right now, we are working on ways that she can. It's tough...it seems as if Chloe see's mom as competition for my attention. We may be wrong, but that seems to be what is going on. She is great around Carol when I am not around...in any case we are working on that. Safiya remains stellar. Just the happiest kid eva!!! Thanks everyone!!

Scott

11/27/2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Thanks for all the support this year...we have a lot to be thankful for!!!

Scott and Carol

11/24/2008

Well got the main tasks done for the night and thought I would post an update. Carol is progressing pretty well still. She got refit with her prosthetics and seems much more comfortable on the legs. She walked outside for the first time last week with the walker. The therapists are trying to step up to just a can soon. She still fights immense pan daily. She takes meds for that every few hours still. She has phantom pain, which is semi controlled with medication. I think that med is probably where the hair loss comes from (Lyrica). But she def prefers no phantom pain to hair loss. If that tells you how extreme it is. We had a great weekend. Got to go out to dinner..thanks mom and dad for babysitting for a bit. Her left arm seems to be healing well. The doctors at Harborview are thinking of doing another surgery on her right arm to relieve some scar tissue and tendon tightening, if I understand it right. We are psyched for bird day. Love Thanksgiving!!

Scott

couple new, and one old...just felt like posting it. All is going well. Carol had a busy day of seeing doctors again in Seattle. Her brother and father took her up as I worked. A follow up from her arm surgery on Monday, a visit at the burn unit to check on her wounds and back healing, and a visit with her prosthesist. Her arm looks good, and apparently since I know how too, I get to remove the sutures instead of her going back to Seattle:). Her back is looking great....the borders of the donor sites look much like her normal skin, and is healing from the outside in. For all intensive purposes it is healing well. No open wounds or anything. Her right hip..which is the only large area they didn't graft is almost closed. Originally the wound was about 10 -12 inches long and about 2 inches wide at the biggest but closed to almost a v shape. Over the months they have allowed it to heal on it's own, as the graft didn't take there. We have had to change the dressing on it daily this entire time. It look great only 2 small 1 inch or so long by 1 cm wide scabs remain. It looks so good...you almost wish they would have let all her wounds heal this way...but infection undoubtedly would have occurred. She spent awhile at the prosthesist and things were tuned up a bit. She is not ready for a new socket yet, just a new liner inside of them. She thinks they feel much better. We were given the be patient talk from the prosthesist, and that in time, better, smaller, cooler, sockets will be there for her, but that she is changing so much right now, that putting a lot on money into something that may only last a couple months isn't worth it. Debatable, as long as she can keep progressing...it's ok.


scott

11/17/2008

Surgery went well, very fast and no complications!!!

Scott

11/16/2008

Well I haven't been able to post for some time...apologies. Carol has been remaining busy at home with in house rehab, although her progress walking has seemed to slow, mostly we feel to her prosthetics not fitting as well as they did originally. Her legs have shrunk quite a bit, as expected. They are supposed to do that. Hopefully she will have some new sockets for them made very soon. She is essentially walking in and out of the sockets, which is pretty painful for her over time while walking. Hope that makes some sense. Her hot flashes have stopped, but hairloss hasn't unfortunately. She has surgery tomorrow at Swedish for a revision on her left arm. She has some bone protruding abit. Something that has been there since early at Harborview, and I thought was bone, but Harborview kept saying it was just a scab. She the hand surgeon who did her amputation, late last week take a look, because I really was feeling it was bone, and sure enough it is. It should be a simple outpatient procedure....well as simple as something like that can be. Carol's family continues to help out quite a bit at home, which is nice. Chloe and Safiya are doing well. Thanks for all the support everyone. Carol wanted to make sure I said thank you to you all.


Scott

Another Fundraiser to post about...thanks Tammie:)

TASTEFULLY SIMPLE FUNDRAISER

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FUNDRAISING DEADLINE: Monday, November 24, 2008
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with your order and it will count towards the fundraiser. Please contact Tammie Gilley,
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· Total due = Sub Total + Shipping ($0 - $49.99 = $6.99, $50 or more = 10%) + tax (if applicable)
· Taxable items include any non-food items (books, gift sets, etc). Tax is 8.3% in WA, otherwise there is no tax on the food itself. Checks can be made payable to: Tammie Gilley

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more pictures from the weekend

Pictures from the weekend

11.8.08

Well we are having a great weekend. Got Carol up on her feet and walking a couple times today. We are settling in nicely. It's so nice that we don't have the looming trip back to the hospital this week. I will try and post pictures this week!!

Scott

11-5-2008

So today is the big coming home day for Carol. I will post on how that goes. She is abit nervous about it, but more excited than anything. She is nervous that she won't keep progressing in her recovery. We have in house rehab continuing for the forseeable future. Making goals I think is the key...at least for us it usually is.

A few people keep asking about her vision. She just knew I didn't put enough makeup on, she can't see. Her optic nerves, which are nerves that come right out of your brain to your eyes have degenerated. Her visual cortex in her brain is fine, and her eyes are fine. Having your optic nerves degenerate is much like a spinal cord injury in that the body doesn't allow them to regenerate, unlike the nerves elsewhere in your body like her right hand. Her right hand is gradually getting more feeling back in it and more motion becuase the periphal nerves regrow. Science and medicine is working on regrowing optic nerves and all other cranial nerves for that matter. But it is pretty complicated. In any case, the moral of the story is that, it would pretty much take a miracle for her vision to "come back". That is, without medical intervention. Much research is being done in this aread right now, both with stem cell, and other chemical means. Hopefully in her lifetime...other things are being worked on like retinal chips and things of that nature. Hope that clears things up.

Scott

11-2-2008

Carol got out of the hospital for the weekend on Saturday morning. I was able to spend both Thursday and Friday night up there with her. We are both really excited for her to come home this Wednesday, and for the formal hospitalizations to be over. Hopefully for a long long time. Carol is able to walk 300- 400 feet on her prosthetics with the help of of a walker, and shorter distances on her own. She is getting what she calls a better "ryhthm" as she walks, and less like John Wayne. Not sure what exactly that means, but I a impressed after seeing her walk. She was pretty tired for the day up there on Friday after a pretty physical Thursday. She is getting pretty proficient at transferring from her wheelchair to almost everything you can think of, if space allows. The walking thing is going to take some time to perfect and not hurt as much as it does, although she improves daily. Being able to transfer from a wheelchair is a needed in the mean time, and for the future as well. With the right set and right foods she can eat 99% on her own. With the right set up she can shower/groom herself about 70-85% herself. I have learned the makeup part, although she wants to do it herself eventually. She is def not shy about telling me I didn't put on enough blush or what have you. Things are progressing well with her and the girls as well. She can get on the floor..slowly, and play with them. She fed Safiya 2 bottles over the weekend from start to finish, and burped her. That will only get better I think. Chloe and her relationship seems to be getting back to normal. Which is great.....her relationship change with Chloe has been I think the hardest part of all of this for Carol. Carol is a much better parent than I will ever be, and it's great having her back around the house. Chloe doesn't act out as much, and all in all, the childcare I think is much improved when she is here:).


thanks for all the meals.....and everything.

scott