Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Little Set-Back

Ammon had a little set-back this past weekend. On Saturday night, as Todd was getting Ammon ready for bed (Todd is our night nurse), he called us in to look at Ammon's left leg. About 3" above his knee redness began and it was swollen twice it size all the way down to his very purple foot. Todd told us this looked like cellulitis and we needed to get him to a hospital right away. I really didn't want to go to another hospital and he had to convince me that it was very serious. So I decided to go to Mt. View Hospital in Payson and have them assess the issue. I figured they would send us to PCMC if they felt it was needed.
He does, indeed, have cellulitis. They gave us an option - admit him or put an IV in and have us come back every 8 hours for an antibiotic injection. I chose to go back every 8 hours, which proved to be harder than I thought - there isn't a whole lot of time in between those 8 hours, believe it or not.
We took the IV out at home last night after having been to see Dr. Valdez. He put him on a different, powerful oral antibiotic. Because Ammon doesn't have any feeling in his leg, he seemed to feel fine. He even insisted on going to church to pass the sacrament after having only about 5 hours of sleep. (I slept through most of the talks because I only got 4 hours!)
He missed school yesterday but has gone today. The leg looks better above the knee, but it's rock hard below the knee and the foot still goes a little purple. We have to keep a close watch on it because this is very dangerous for a normal, healthy person. We're hoping that the swelling goes down throughout the week and he's back to normal.
It seems like we take one giant leap forward and about 55 baby steps backward.
If there was to be a blessing in any of this, it is the fact that Todd was there to see the leg and to realize the dangerous situation. I probably would have waited until Monday to see the doctor due to my intense dislike of hospitals. I am positive (!) that Ammon has more than one guardian angel looking over him.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

New Hope

Today Jim took Ammon to PCMC to meet with Dr. Smith, the ENT that performed the tracheostomy. The doctor did another endoscopy to look at the vocal cords and found that the one that works is working well. There is a little piece of tissue at the bottom but everything else looked good. They discovered that he could breathe well and talk just fine by blocking the tracheostomy today and so it was decided that on May 8th they will perform another surgery to remove that one small piece of tissue and take a closer look at the cords. If all is well, they will remove the trach tube and he will be able to breathe on his own normally.
That means no more ventilator. He will have to always be on a bi-pap, but that's really do-able. He can go somewhere overnight with that. We are trying hard not to be too excited because there is still a possibility it won't work and there's a possibility the sleep doctor will try to keep the trach in place just so we can have Ammon on a ventilator. I think we can win that battle.
At any rate, there is new hope in our household tonight and Ammon nearly jumped out of his wheelchair when he realized he might not have to be hooked up to the ventilator in the future.

Monday, February 9, 2009

OUR HEROES

Everybody has a hero - we have a lot of them. It dawned on us today that we have never included a photo of Dr. Valdez and his staff who are definitely on the top of our "hero" list.
Judy Humphries - she's been a friend for 13 years.

Sharon (Wride - her dad, Marion Wride served in the MTC while one of our boys was there)grew up in Benjamin and we've known her since she was a little kid. She knows all the Teicherts and even used to have a crush on my cousin.

And here is the hero of all heroes - Dr. Orlando Valdez. We met him when Ammon was just 2 months old. He has literally saved Ammon's life multiple times and these two guys get along really well. Thank you would never be enough to say to Dr. Valdez. He has been the doctor for our last six children and has been phenomenal. We aren't thinking about what will happen to Ammon when he has to leave this clinic - actually, we're hoping they will allow him to go there forever.
Thank you a million times over! What would we do without you?!


Thursday, February 5, 2009

joke of the day

What's the difference between a rooster and a poodle?

Cockopoodledoo

joke of the day

whats the difference between a rooster and a poodle coockapoodledoo

School Days

Learning to play the ukelele. Mrs. Minson watching.
I love Mrs. Minson!

Mrs. Gordon and some of my classmates. Richard, kneeling by me, is the nurse. It was Mrs. Gordon's birthday today.

Two girls in my class.

Kaitlin is the girl on the right. She has Muscular Dystrophy.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Toby Tracheasaurus

Here I am all ready for my first day back to school. I am so excited to go back! The Passy-Muir Company sent me Toby Tracheasaurus - a dinosaur with a trach! He's cool. We now have to take pictures and a video to send to them so they can use it for their educational training.