Alex's hospital stay - Day 4

Alex has spent today shedding some of the things that have kept him tied down to his bed.  He was finally able to get rid of his oxygen, heart monitors and IV medications.  Things are looking hopeful that he will be able to come home tomorrow.  The last thing he has to get rid of are the fluids that he is still receiving via IV.  He hasn't had much of an appetite while in the hospital and those fluids have been his only source of nutrition.

I took the kids up to see him again today.  They each had fun taking turns feeding him some apple sauce so that he could take his pain pill.  We actually saw a smile because the kids were cracking him up trying to feed him.  Smiles from Alex have been rare in the hospital.  A smile generally leads to a laugh and laughs lead to a sore belly.

Jaime, Adam and Ethan also had a chance to make cards, pictures and other items to hang in Alex's room.  I think it makes his room feel a little more personal and special.  Maybe we should've done it a little sooner than the day before he goes home.

Alex gave me permission to share the following picture.  This was the first glimpse I had of the incision because they were changing the bandage that has kept it hidden.  The incision is about 4 1/2 inches long, begins just above his belly button and has 17 staples in it.  The hole in his intestine that made this surgery necessary was about the same diameter as a pencil eraser.

Hurts now, but a cool scar and football injury story later.  We love you Alex.

Alex's hospital stay - Day 3

Thank you again for all the love and support we have received.  It has really touched our hearts.

Today is day three.  Alex was able to eat five bites of pancake this morning.  I was so proud of him.  He still doesn’t have an appetite.  He is receiving fluids via IV, but we are still trying to have him eat and drink.  Monday he was only allowed to have clear liquids, yesterday liquids and today soft food.  The highlight of my day yesterday was when I secretly asked a family friend to feed him some jello because I knew he wouldn’t eat it if I asked him.  Sure enough he ate the whole thing.  Yeah!!

Today he had his epidural removed.  He is tolerating the Loritab which is a blessing.  It makes his dad so sick so we are glad Alex can take it.  As we speak he is having his first shower.  They don’t let you shower with the epidural due to the risk of infection. 

Alex has to be out of bed for 360 minutes today.  He is very tired once he does his time.  He and his dad will enjoy playing video games a little again today and then we will all go for another walk. 

I am so proud of how well he is doing.  He is getting himself up and down more by himself.  He’s tough and doesn’t complain much.  It is so sad to see when he has to cough.  It really hurts him.  He has a breathing machine he has to blow in and make it rise.  It looks so easy so I decided to try it.  It is actually pretty hard and I can’t get it much higher than he can. 

The doctors and nurses are being great and really monitoring his heart.  So far everything looks great.  It gives us great peace of mind.  They did an EKG today and it all seems fine.  His heart rate does lower at times when he is resting but we have been told that it is typical with healthy teenage boys.  We do have appointments for our entire family to see cardiologists the first week of July.  We will be praying for good results.  I received Ryan’s genetic test results today and they are inconclusive.  There is still so much research that needs to be done so they do not have any answers for us.  They are going to keep the DNA sample for us and it can be retested at any time if new information becomes available.

We got to see Alex’s incision site.  We weren’t prepared for what it would look like.  It is at least 4 inches long and I counted at least 17 staples.  Yes, staples.  Poor guy.  He isn’t too thrilled to have it and I did reassure him the scar would heal less noticeably.  We joke with him that we will be able to play tic- tac- toe on him stomach.  I did ask if this surgery was similar to a C-section.  I was told it is much worse.  It is much more painful and takes longer to heal because stomach muscles are cut into.  You don’t realize how much you use these muscles until they become injured.  They are used to move, blow your nose, laugh, cough and about everything else.  He will be pretty sore for a while and the doctor said everything won’t be completely healed for about 6 months.  Wow.

Thank you again for all your prayers and concern.  I know we are once again being lifted through this trial because of all the prayers and love.  We will continue to show faith and know that we can make it through anything that is thrown our way- we do hope we can get a break for a little bit.  May Heavenly Father continue to bless us all.

Love,  Catherine and Mike

Alex's hospital stay - Day 2

So I figured I would take the chance to update the blog.  I know people had told us they wanted us to continue to make entries but we never figured it would be about another hospital stay.  We are all holding together pretty well.  This experience is night and day from the last one; however, it is hard to see another of our children here and in pain.  We are so thankful for miracles we have had and that Alex’s condition was caught early and wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  He is a tough kid and has been through a lot.  He will now have a nice three inch scar on his abdomen to show for it.  Right now he’s not too thrilled about the scar but I am sure later he will enjoy showing it off.

We are here until Friday and are so thankful to all those who have come to our aid once again.  Football is a dangerous sport but Alex loved it so much and was so excited to play.  I am sad that he won’t be able to play this year now.  His coach has been great and still wants him on the team to help in other areas.  Some of his teammates came up today for a visit and I know that meant a lot to him.  As a mom it touched my heart to see these big, strong young men take time and come to show love and concern for my son.  Thank you so much.   And thank you to those others who have come to visit.

The doctors and nurses here are out of their element caring for a young man with this ailment.  We have been told that this type of injury is found more typically in older people.  We have been told he is recovering very well and tolerates pain quite well.  Guess all the years of rough housing with his dad and Ryan has built up his pain tolerance. 

The condition that Alex was treated for was a perforated bowel.  He also had a piece of his small intestine removed that could later have caused a condition known as diverticulitis. 

Alex has been super tired.  Usually a mom wouldn’t care that her teenager isn’t talking or teasing and is quiet.  I do admit it has been hard to see him this way.  Yesterday he had many visitors and we appreciate it.  I know it touched his heart seeing everyone’s concern for him.  Yesterday, under the doctor’s order, he was supposed to have 180 minutes out of bed either sitting, standing or walking.  This sounded impossible, but he did it.  He spent a while sitting in his chair and was able to walk around in the evening for about 15 minutes.  He actually looked much better once he was out of bed.  Today he has to be out of bed for 240 minutes.  It’s 5:00 pm now and he has made his quota.  We will get him walking again later. 

His coloring is much better today.  I even combed his hair and now the nurse won’t make fun of him.  He smiled for the first time when someone mentioned bringing a PlayStation in for him.  As we speak he is playing some race car game with Mike.  It is music to my ears hearing him complain as he loses.  Come on Mike… cut him some slack!!  He doesn’t have an appetite and I feel like a bad mom trying to make him eat ice cream.  Yes, it’s crazy I know.  He needs to eat and drink and he really isn’t hungry.  I know he is nervous because he doesn’t want to throw up because it hurts so much.  I even tried to do the airplane thing with the spoon to get him to open his mouth and that didn’t work. 

The little ones came to see him yesterday and they were all excited to see where he got cut open.  We only could show them the bandage for now.  Sorry boys, maybe in a few days.

Thank you for all the love and support everyone continues to give us.  We really appreciate all the prayers and concern.  We are well taken care of and are so blessed.  I guess we still have so much to learn and are so thankful to our Heavenly Father who does love us and help us.  We realize trials are important and we will learn from this one as well.  I would encourage everyone to consider what is truly important and live life to the fullest.  Love a little more.  Forgive a little more.  Have more faith.  Serve more.  I am trying to do this myself.   Don’t let a day go by without telling someone you love them.  Thanks again to everyone.  Lotts of love,   Catherine and Mike

Alex's football injury and subsequent surgery

Alex has had a long hard weekend. After being injured at football practice on Friday, he has had some pretty significant pain. Michael and Catherine said he has been walking around all hunched over, like a little old man. Yesterday he had a low-grade fever and in the evening Catherine brought him back to the emergency room at McKay-Dee hospital. Over a period of 2-3 hours, Alex had to drink fluid (contrast, or dye), then they did a CT scan. This one showed that he had a perforated bowel. He was taken to surgery around 10:00 p.m last night. The doctor said the injury wasn't as bad as he feared it would be. The doctor repaired the tear in his small intestine and cleaned him out good. He has a drain tube in his abdomen now and it will be there as long as he has excess fluid in his gut. He has peritonitis (infection in his gut - from leakage from the bowel). The doctor gave him an epidural and they are controlling his pain with it. His mom told him you usually have to have a baby to get an epidural! Alex is also able to push a button when he needs additional pain meds. He is resting comfortably now, and has been awake on and off all morning. 

The rest of this story is that Michael flew to Houston yesterday afternoon. He had a big audit there that was supposed to take the whole week. He had just landed in Houston when he received a text from Catherine that she was taking Alex back to the ER.  Shortly after arriving at his hotel he received a call from Catherine that they were going to perform surgery.  He was just sick! When Ryan collapsed at school, Michael was in California - and it was agony for him being there when he was needed at home. He went through the same agony last night, knowing Alex was here having surgery and he was stuck in Texas. He took the first flight out this morning and should be to the hospital soon. 

Catherine told the doctors about Ryan's condition (Cardiomyopathy), and they are monitoring Alex's heart - just in case.

The doctor said Alex will have to be hospitalized for several days. I guess we just take a day at a time and hope he makes a quick recovery. 

We are grateful for promptings of the Spirit. Catherine had the impression that she needed to bring Alex to the hospital, and she acted on it. Her quick action has probably made a big difference on the severity of the infection Alex had, and also his recovery time. 

We would sure appreciate continued prayers for this dear family.
Love,
Grandma Jeri

Lott's of excitement this week

Well, the excitement doesn’t end for the Lott family.  Yesterday Alex was making a tackle at football camp and got a head or shoulder to the stomach.  (He did get the guy down before it happened and he’s proud of that.)   We had him checked out at McKay Dee Hospital ER just to be safe.  He had a Cat Scan to rule out possible spleen damage.  We are very grateful no major damage was done.  His intestines are bruised and his liver and spleen are a little swollen.  He is very sore and we joke with him that he walks slower than an 80-year old man.  His pain level is much less today and we are very pleased with that.  Guess he has an excuse to be a couch potato this week.

Don't let the smile fool you, he's pretty drugged up...

On a happy note, this week Ethan learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  He and Ryan were both three when they learned.  It really brings back memories of when Ryan learned.  It is just another one of many similarities between Ethan and Ryan.  He really is super fast now and has too many scrapes and scratches on his legs and knees to count.  This hasn’t stopped him though.  Guess I’d better pull mine out so we can race. 

Also, Ryan used to always tease me whenever I would buy a new purse.  Believe it or not this really didn’t happen as often as he thought.  Well, I saw a cheap, cute one at Wal-mart and had to get it in his honor.  It’s orange so I couldn’t resist.  Ha! Ha! Ry.   This one’s for you!!!

I noticed something interesting as I look back at the pictures we took on June 12^th with us all wearing orange.  In both shots there is a space left for where Ryan would be standing.  We didn’t do this intentionally.  I’d like to think that he is in those pictures wearing a Longhorns shirt and we just can’t see him.  We love you Ry.  You are never out of our thoughts.

How Do We Look Ry?

Today we wore orange in honor of Ryan.  Surprisingly, Mike didn’t have an orange shirt.  As luck would have it, he just happened to find a practically new one in Ryan’s closet.  Thanks Ry.  Today we also started the tradition of going to Ryan’s grave and releasing orange balloons.   Ryan, I am sure you are smiling at us from above and popping those balloons.   You would also be so proud that my Suburban now has a Texas Longhorn logo on the back and I also have Longhorn earrings… and you never thought I liked sports.   We love you Ryan.

One Month

Today my heart is heavy as Ryan has been gone for an entire month.  We have received much peace and comfort during this hard time; however, it is hard to imagine this earthly life without him.  I am reminded of Ryan every time I see the color orange and that makes me smile.  I find myself wearing it very often in his memory.  Today our family and many others will wear orange in honor of him.  A friend of mine came up with this and it seems fitting.  OurRyanAngelNearGodEveryday!!!

Thank you to all those who are still reaching out to our family and serving in so many ways.  We truly appreciate all that has been done for us.  It has eased our burdens and lightened our load.  Today as you are remembering Ryan and our family I would ask that you turn your thoughts and prayers to another family in so much need at this time.  They live in Hooper and are friends of ours.  Their little girl McKennlie was in an ATV accident on Friday and is in Primary Children’s Hospital with brain injury and they are going through the same heartache we felt.   They have set up a blog http://mckennlie.blogspot.com and it is my prayer that they receive all the love and support as we did.  Prayer is powerful and miracles do happen.  We have witnessed so many ourselves. 

 

We love you Ryan.  You will always be in our hearts.  You have touched our lives and have made us better.  We will miss you and look forward to being with you again someday.  Until then we will just try our hardest to make you proud as you have made us so proud of you and all you stood for and all you did.  I know you are smiling down on us and will be with us forever. 

I love you sweet boy,   Mom