Number 3??

Hola!

"They Say" that adversity always comes in threes. I have the third one for you!

Let's re-cap; details are in previous blog posts.

#1: David's spinal surgery for scoliosis . OK, I admit, we planned that one. It was not a surprise. But it has been a big deal to work with David's surgery, hospital stay, and recovery.

#2: Torrential rains causing our basement flooding...twice. 10 inches in 3 days the first round, then 5 more inches in 2 days the second round. Everybody keeps saying "I've lived here 20 years and I've never seen water like this!" For approximately 3 weeks now, we have had varying (large) amounts of water in our basement.

Now for#3: Kara has been diagnosed with Lyme Disease. (Well...it's really not as bad as it sounds. Anything with "disease" at the end sounds frightfully bad.) It's a New England thing, passed along by infected deer ticks, for Pete's sake! These may be as big as a pinhead. You're supposed to check your kids for ticks all summer, especially if they've been playing in the woods where they may pick up ticks. Often there will be a bullseye rash: a ring with a dot as one symptom, or maybe flu-like symptoms. Or maybe they won't have those symptoms! It varies. Then it goes to their joints. I took her to the doctor with a swollen knee--no injury, no reason for the swelling. That was the cue, for the doctor. They did a blood test and it was positive for Lyme.

She has probably had it for weeks or even months, they say. The treatment is 28 days on an antibiotic. (Thank you, thank you for medicines, I say!!!)

So, if I may make a request, I would like that to be our #3. And that's all for awhile.

Here are some pictures of the flooding--you can click to enlarge. Our intersection 1/2 mile away is still closed (the one the kids are wading through).

We have a never-ending swimming area in the driveway...

Here are the yukky water-logged wallboards...

And what would we have done without the wet/dry vaccuum...

There is still water coming in the basement, but it's really slow now.

It's a beautiful Easter Morning! Maybe we'll focus a few minutes on that today. :) Kari

March Happened

Hello!

It has been a blurry month. I think I will not be sad to turn the page from "March" to "April."

I will do a 2-part-blog, starting with good news:

Part I: DAVID
David has made remarkable progress, from the actual surgery day to today, just 22 days after the surgery. In the hospital he surprised the nurses by getting up and around sooner than they predicted, reaching 'goals' of sitting up, standing up and then walking around the loop of the hospital floor, a day or two days before "average." Then he asked to walk up the stairs they had in the Physical Therapy room, two days before they expected him to be able to. This is also why they kind of "pushed him out" of the hospital a day early. He was doing very well.

Thankfully, he continues to do well. He has not had pain in his back, even though they opened up his spine and did a major, major surgery. Discomfort, yes. He has to shift after a time of sitting, and he is very careful when he is getting up or sitting or laying down. But not pain. He told me the other day that he has not taken any Tylenol for a week now.

He was in the hospital one week, then home one week, then last week he attended early morning seminary and he would come home after seminary. We started having tutors over here for his different school subjects last week, and he has been able to focus on catching up on some school work. His teachers send packets, DVD's they watched in class, and quizzes and tests with the tutor, so he can take them here. We are continuing that this week.

Next week he may start back to school, partial days. We'll see.

He has had lots of attention, from people visiting, having both his grandmas here over the course of 2 weeks, and gifts and notes and phone calls and cards. We have felt very supported, between family, friends, and church members. That part has been wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part II: WATER
An ongoing ugly process, vacuuming up water and pulling up the flooring and walls and insulation downstairs. Last weekend we had a POD delivered to the driveway, and had a move-the-boxes-and-bins-out-into-the-POD party. We had steady, intermittent help from church members and friends throughout the day--it worked out SO nicely, the timing. I am forever grateful for them for giving up a couple of hours on a Saturday to do a boring, lame job for us.

Now, it's raining again, third round in 2 weeks, second straight day, this round. Flood watches and warnings all over, and the water is coming into our basement again. Not nearly like it was! But it's there, pooling, in the garage. We'll watch to see if it starts again in the laundry room.


Now we make decisions, how much to do, how little, what to "finish" in the basement, this time around, and what to leave more "raw." How to re-arrange our use of the garage since the water threat is in some parts more than others.


This house is 60 years old. It needs to be bull-dozed and re-built! But we aren't in a position to do that--and would we want to, even if money was no object? Hmmm.

(Meanwhile, happy birthday to Frank, Kara, and myself this month!)

March happened. THAT is our update!

Kari

Nor-Easter

Hi--
Wow--it's been a very weird 36 hours.

They call these storms "Nor'Easters," a big storm in March that mixes snow and sleet and rain...

For us, it was RAIN-RAIN-RAIN! And lots of wind and a little sleet, and about 10 inches of water in 3 days. This is all after ten days ago, when we had a 2-day rain, so the ground was already pretty saturated.

Combine those and other weird factors, and we had...lots...of...water. Flooding in streets and parking lots, closed roads. And the drumroll, please... Water...In...The...Whitesell's...Garage...And...Basement. AAaarrgghh!

Sunday night at 8 p.m. I went into the garage (lower level, same level as the basement) and saw water on the floor. Uh-oh.

Further study of the situation showed other places in the garage where there was water. Increasing levels of water. Water coming in through tiny dots in the cinderblock along the whole wall of the garage.

These walls are lined with storage shelves, of course, so it was emptying all those shelves to then move the shelves away from walls, to examine just where could this water be coming in...oh, look, there's a little stream coming from that hole, from that part of the wall.

That plumber's putty works to a POINT. But water was still getting in. Lots of putty patches later, it was still making puddles, which were still growing.

So when OUR lame wet/dry vac proved to be ineffective, we called the neighbors and luckily they had a bigger, better one. Two sump pumps going, and a wet/dry vac sopping up water. That was the first 12 hours, rain still pouring outside.

Morning came, after 3 of us (Frank, myself, and Frank's mom, Diane--here to help David, of course, but by the way, can you also stay up all night vacuuming up water??) had staggered through 3 hours of sleeping, in shifts.

Frank says, "Well, maybe you can stay home from work today after all...now it's coming into the laundry room and boiler room in the basement."

You can see how this went! Sit down and rest a minute, knowing you will pay for it in gallons of water when you get back up. Move stuff to a different location because here's a new puddle and that's a cardboard box, YUK!

12 hours ago, at 9:30 p.m., after 3 days and like I said 10 inchdes of water, the rain stopped.

Of course the water is still coming into our basement! But it is slowing down a LITTLE. The sun is out and it will be 50 for the rest of the week. There is hope! Kari

Here's Your Hat

Hello!

Again, no fabulously entertaining post with award-winning photos...just another update on David's status!

Drumroll please...he's home now! Yes, hard to believe, and actually he came home LAST NIGHT. Yes. Friday night! Just 4 days after having his back opened up and worked on, leaving a 9-inch incision to heal. They pushed him right out the door.

Actually, all the doctors and nurses have been VERY nice. Answering questions, apologizing for waking him up all the time, willing to do anything we asked.

But David just met all their requirements, on being able to walk around, walking up stairs, getting off the stronger medication and onto pills, and starting to eat real food. So they said "you can go home!"

He had one set of final xrays, and I asked Frank to get a copy of it. I'll post more of that later.

But the coolest thing is, they took X-rays DURING the operation--! Every 10 minutes!

So they put it on a disk for us (I haven't seen it yet), so we'll see glimpses of the hardware as it went in--here's one bolt, here's another plus part of the rod, etc., etc.

Anyway. I can also hardly believe that he's JUST ON TYLENOL now. No, I'm not kidding. It is uncomfortable to be in a car, and he changes position and shifts in chairs and laying down, but with this discomfort, he just takes Tylenol equivalent.

Diane (Frank's mom) also came yesterday. David actually beat her home! Thank you for continued thoughts and prayers. It feels so much better to have him here.

More later, Kari

Here We Go...

Just to keep you updated on David.

OPERATION DAY: DAY ZERO. The surgery went "without a hitch!" We arrived at the hospital around 6 a.m., and the operation "actually started" by 9:20. I was so happy and relieved to talk to the doctor around 2 p.m. when he was all sewn up again!

Relatively speaking, he had a pretty good night. Some nausea. They woke him up every hour to poke and bother, so sleep was pretty choppy. But he looks better than yesterday right after surgery, and the pain has so far been kept in check. Of course each hour/half-day will bring new challenges.

We have felt so much support from everybody. Thank you for fasting and praying in his behalf. I think there is more power in those 2 things than we realize.

Tuesday, DAY 1: A lot of people came in and out. Nurses check vital signs every couple of hours. The Dr. checks in, the anesthesiologist, the "C.A."--can't remember what that one stands for. Also the Pain Management guy.

He is encouraged to breathe deeply every hour, with a plastic tube thing, to expand his lungs and keep them active. They stopped the constant flow of morphine this morning; now he has only the pump. (When he's uncomfortable, he can press the pump button. He doesn't press it very much.) He hasn't complained or been in TOO much pain. Maybe he got Mom's "high tolerance" for pain after all. We hope.

They took out the drain tube that was collecting fluids from his back. Now the body should start absorbing that fluid, they say.

They say the more active the kids are after surgery, the quicker they feel comfortable doing things. They encouraged him to sit up today: the nurse brought in a big recliner-type chair, and they got him sitting up on the bed and then into the chair. Upright is better than laying down, they say. Once in the morning and once late afternoon, for a total of 3 1/2 hours in the chair. For "Day 1," that is great, they keep saying.

The movement made him nauseous but they put a dramamine-type patch behind his ear. He hasn't been nauseous since. Movement wipes him out completely. His eyes droop and he's out for 60-90 minutes after exerting the energy.

He has "air-boots" on his calves, pumping air like a blood-pressure cuff. It's supposed to keep the circulation active in his legs while he's lying there so much.

Another HUGE blessing is that he's in a room by himself! For now. No guarantees, of course, that he'll stay here the whole time. There are only 6 single rooms on the floor, and they are reserved for kids who will be here for extended (long, long) periods of time, or contagious kids.

He has been drinking water and apple juice this afternoon. Maybe we try crackers tomorrow. :)

Winter Break Week!

Here's an old concept in New England: the public schools get TWO spring breaks: one in February, one in April. (Now you know why we go to school through the end of June, here.)

I think maybe because winters are so long here, they like to give people the chance to vacation away where it's warm, or vacation to somewhere where there's really good skiing. They have resorts here, of course, but no huge mountains.

(Now that I've offended all the New England skiers, I'll backpedal a bit with "Your national parks are beautiful--great hiking trails everywhere! Cross-country skiers have it made, too! It's even fine to learn to downhill ski here. It's just not the Rockies.")

So, for those of us who do NOT plan big, expensive vacations to Carribbean waters, we stay in town for the week. (Frank, of course, does not get the week off. He works, same as every week. A thousand thanks for that, Frank.)

To give us all some variety, I put on my Activities Director hat. One day we played indoor mini golf, another day we went to Disney on Ice. We also visited Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), and tonight we'll try Rock Climbing at a rock climbing gym.

Here are a few pics from the ICA, the INSTITUTE of CONTEMPORARY ART. It's right on Boston Harbor, and some of the top floor even hangs out over the water.




From the top floor, you can see the bridge and the skyline. Yesterday it was clear and sunny--really pretty. (The long, skinny picture is from the ICA website , and the boat/bridge picture is mine.)

Teresa and Kara tried their hands at creating contemporary art: see Teresa's mound of flowers on a base, and then here at home she let Komodo explore the artwork.

P.S. Just got back from the Rock Climbing Gym--awesome! The kids have so much energy, they could probably have stayed longer and longer. Me? I'm beat! I think everybody had fun. Friday night is "Family Night" and they cut rates a little for you. Here's a picture from their website:

Well, it's Friday! (After a week of Saturdays, that doesn't mean that much.) Have a happy weekend! Kari

No Snow for Us, Knock-on-Wood

Hola!

After reading about the frenzy the D.C./Virginia/Maryland area was in this weekend, it is with more than a little relief that I tell you that it missed us. We were too far north for THAT storm! It's been sunny and clear in Massachusetts for a few days now.

Our consultation with David's doctor was Thursday. We had lots more questions for him, and he answered them all. He was almost offended when I asked "Would you have your son have this same surgery?" He gave a very quick "OF COURSE--do you think I'd recommend something I wouldn't do on my own kids?" Made me chuckle a little.


This doctor has done over 1000 of these surgeries. Not that he still counts, he tells us! It's just that for the first 5 years you DO have to count, and report on your surgeries, to get into some National Association or other. He just knows that his numbers have not gone down from those first five years, so he can estimate.

The good part is that David's curve is very basic, and "simple." And he has good bone structure: plenty of room on each spine segment to attach the rods to the sides of his spine. They'll go in the back, which is "quickest recovery," as opposed to going in from the side.

He'll spend 5-7 days in the hospital. After 1 day, they have him sitting up. After 2-3 days, he is standing and walking around. By 5 days or so, he'll be walking up stairs. That's the criteria for going home: to be able to walk up stairs by yourself.


He'll go in to give blood for himself (should he need it during the surgery) tomorrow, and then it's quiet for a couple of weeks.

Then a pre-op day the first week of March, and the surgery will be March 8.

Now you know the calendar!

Onward to Monday--have a great week, Kari