setbacks

I am so appreciative of your concerns and thoughts and messages and prayers!! Carly is as well.

I may have turned into an optimist too soon. Sorry that I am so delayed in getting an update with yesterday's (Wednesday's) info. Tues night, Carly was having visual hallucinations- seeing bubbles and fuzzy yellow and pink things. She started having fever again 102.7; also early early Wed morning her medication that she receives through her epidural RAN OUT and the nurses took a VERY long time (not completely their fault) to get the new one running. Carly was in a great deal of pain from that point on. It wasn't until 3:00 in the afternoon when the anesthesiologist came that the pain became more manageable. The thought was that either she was reacting to a medication or something was going wrong internally. SO a chest xray, CT scan, blood work, all sorts of tests were ordered in addition to discontinuing some of the medicines. So far, nothing has come back as abnormal, the CT scan actually showed some improvement in her kidney (hallelujah!). The numerous IV's that she has had in her hands and arms have not lasted very long, and so the Dr's wanted to place a PICC line- a more permanent and sturdy IV line but had trouble placing that as well. Things that should be routine are proving to be difficult, and this has been most frustrating to ME. Anyway, finally late yesterday Carly went to the OR and the trauma surgeon (we are making him earn his pay!) placed a central line. Please pray that NOTHING go wrong with this! She should be able to receive all her fluids, TPN, and IV medications through this. The best part is that you can draw blood from this line so hopefully Carly won't have to be poked any more.

All of this is wearing on Carly emotionally- she is so tired of being in the hospital, and feeling "tortured". There were many tears shed yesterday as Wed proved to be a difficult day. It seems that many of her issues yesterday MAY be related to a reaction to some medication she was on- the ones in question from my knowledge are Fentanyl and Gentamycin (I think that's what I heard... now I am not so certain).

Okay, I was trying to do a short update and I feel like I keep coming up with more to write, and I am sure that I am leaving things out too. I need some comic relief... so I will leave you with this Christmas themed video from a couple of weeks ago (I think it is going to have to post in another message).

Jingle Bells

Tuesday's been a good day

After a bit of a rough night last night... having more to do with the night nurse than anything else... Carly had a better day today. As I arrived at the hospital in the late morning, the Trauma surgeon was lecturing the nursing staff about proper maintenance of the tube in her nose... Following that drama, my Mom left and I stayed. Carly got cleaned up as much as she could- you know the basic things we take for granted everyday- teeth brushing, face washing, hair fixing. Her throat was still sore from having the breathing tube down her throat during surgery, but after awhile she was talking instead of using her dry erase board. We brought stuff from home: pictures of her dog and of horses (if you know her you aren't surprised) to decorate her room and I think she perked up after that. However, at one point she was upset and vocalizing how "the 18yr old driver (of the other car) has ruined her life." I guess that is good that she can talk a little about the accident now...

She got out of bed with the assistance of 3 nurses and sat in a chair for half an hour. This evening Carly was transferred to a regular room. She has a "salem sump"- a tube in her nose that is removing her stomach contents, at least 2 IVs in her arms one of which is feeding her (TPN) since she cannot eat or drink ANYthing, she still has the epidural that seems to be doing a good job of controlling her pain, and she still has her catheter of course. I think those are all the tubes she has today. Sorry if that is TMI, but I did that more for myself to take inventory.

My family has felt the prayers you have been offering up on our account, we feel blessed and are so happy to report that Carly is making progress. We are still in the middle of this mess however and continue to solicit your prayers.

Monday's update

So today has been yet another eventful day- she continued with fever overnight and actually seemed to be doing worse this morning. The urologist consulted with the pediatric trauma surgeon chose to do a 3rd CT scan of her abdomen (and the 1st CT of her neck) which showed more free fluid (fluid that is NOT supposed to be there) than the last one did, and I believe it showed the Right kidney to be more swollen than before. The urologist decided it would be best to do laproscopic surgery to insert a stint into her damaged right kidney that would help drain the urine to the bladder and in consulting the trauma surgeon wanted to determine what fluid was free floating in her abdominal cavity and what the source was. While they were examining surrounding areas through the scope, they found the extra fluid to be blood which was coming from 2 blood vessels that supply blood to an area on the Right side of the colon. SO the trauma surgeon had to make a larger incision than he initially intended so that he could repair those vessels. Both Drs came out to speak with us separately- giving great detail, being very thorough, and being kind enough to answer our questions. It appears she will be in the hospital for several more days at best... Carly's dealing with a lot of pain and fear right now. The poor thing has so many tubes, wires, and machines hooked up to her! Please pray for healing, comfort, strength, and rest for Carly. Oh, and also please pray for my Mom who has hardly even left her side through this whole ordeal -she looks pretty pathetic herself with her arm in a sling and all her bruises. My Dad is doing well, although he is still pretty bruised up too... I think between the two of us (my Dad and myself) we might be able to talk my Mom into coming home tomorrow for a little break as long as things stay as they are or improve. Love you all- Thank you for your concern!

Another Carly update

I first want to apologize to all the people who I have spoken with on the phone and told I would call back... and never did. Today, no, ever since my last post, things have been hectic. The Dr in Brownwood announced that Carly was stable enough that he wanted to transfer her to the Austin Children's Hospital (something I was earlier told wouldn't be an option) and that she would travel via helicopter.
I could write a lot about the details, but it is very late/or very early- so to sum it all up, Carly is now in the ICU at the Dell Children's Hospital. I am sure that she needs to get rest, however I am eager to get to the hospital myself and annoy the staff and hopefully get some of my questions answered. It is a blessing for our family that everyone is back in Austin- praise God! Thank you again for your continued support.

Carly update

I was hoping to be able to report that her condition was improving enough to where she could be transferred from the ICU to a regular hospital room. However she has been running a fever all day and there is a little concern about her heart rate being a little higher than it was before- which could possibly be related to the fever, but my initial thought is "is she still bleeding somewhere?" On the seemingly positive side, she has not had any blood in her urine for almost 24 hours now.

Please keep praying, I personally don't feel like I know enough about her current condition to be giving any sort of update, things are still fairly unknown right now. I believe that my Dad and brother Ryan may be heading up there soon both to be there for Carly and to give my Mom a little break. Maybe I can give a better update later...

I have appreciated your responses- prayers, thoughts, phone calls. As I asked before, please continue to pray for healing for my sweet little sister.

Emergent prayer request

My brother Ryan graduated from ACU last night, but my parents were in a car accident on the way there. Both my parents are bruised up - my mom has a hairline fracture in her shoulder blade and my dad's thumbs are so swollen as his laptop's screen was broken over his thumbs when the airbags engaged... But my sister who was in the backseat sleeping suffered internal injuries, the most serious of which is an injury to one of her kidneys and is now in the ICU in Brownwood, TX. I haven't been to see her yet, we are headed there this morning. I am not certain of her diagnosis/condition and hope to know more once we've been to the hospital. Please keep her and my parents in your prayers...

New Tricks

Oops... I meant to include this in the previous "6 months old" post.

6 months old!!

Here are several recent pictures of my sweet baby boy who is half way to being one year old- so very hard for me to believe!

He has accomplished SO many things in this short time! I love you Benjamin!!!

Now this could be in a separate post, but I will go ahead and include the picture the kids took with Santa:

Ashlyn was so excited to go see him... that is until we got there. She did agree to sit in his lap for the picture, but she was so stiff and awkward the whole time. As you can see in the photo, she kept her shoulders squared so she could keep Santa out of view. As more pictures were taken, she kept slumping over farther and farther. We went with our friends Carie and Colten who did their photo after us. Once their turn was over, Ashlyn mustered up the courage to walk over to Santa again, to tell him that she wants a "princess bike" but kept back a safe distance.

Later she told me with great disappointment, "Mommy, I used my manners and asked Santa for a princess bike, but he didn't give me one!" I felt a little guilty that had neglected to properly explain how a visit to see Santa works. By the way, this is the very first year we've gotten a picture with Santa with a smile instead of tears.

Paul's 30th birthday

Thank you to my dear friend Carie who did all the work to put this video together for Paul's party. I know it is late, but better late than never!

Happy birthday Paul, I love you so much!