A little worn out

It has been a while since my last post. I have been completely exhausted lately! Taking care of Kaden takes a lot of energy. On top of that, he has fallen about 5 times now using his walker. Two of those times he hurt his leg bad enough to cry. The second time it happened, Brian ended up taking him to the ER at Children's Hospital to have it looked at to confirm no further damage had been done. They said it looked okay and was probably just sore when he fell. It makes me very nervous for him to use the walker.....and I think it stresses Kaden out that he is going to hurt his leg again.
The weather here is changing and starting to get cold. We actually had frost a couple of mornings this week. But, along with the cold weather, Cassidy's asthma flares up in the form of a horrible cough. Also, I have been sick with a cold that seems to be passing on to Brian. Brian and I have been discussing all the reasons that this year has been so rough for us. Let's take a trip down memory lane for a minute: January I had to have tests done on a thyroid nodule, February (Cassidy's Bday to be exact) I had an episode with kidney stones....worst pain ever, later in February I ran over our dog (he survived with 1 bone in his paw missing), March Brian had strep throat, April, May, June, July, and August were pretty uneventful, September Brian got a staph infection, and now October Kaden broke his leg and had to have surgery. I feel like I have aged about 10 yrs from all the stress!! I am hoping that things will go better for us in 2009.

I am very excited that tomorrow is Halloween. The kids are ready to wear their costumes. I will post tomorrow with some pics.

Kaden's broken leg

These are pics from Kaden's surgery on his broken femur. The surgery took about 2 hours. Kaden's fracture was transverse with complete lateral displacement and shortening. In layman's terms....it made me want to cry to look at it! It was a clean break right in the middle of the femur. The surgery was successful and he now has 2 flexible titanium nails in his Left femur. In about 9-12 months they will be removed in another surgery. The pics here are from right after his surgery. He was in a LOT of pain at the time and his blood pressure was really high. So, they tried to keep him well medicated and comfortable after he woke up in so much pain. It has now been 11 days since the surgery and we had our first follow up today. They did X-rays and said that everything seemed to be on track. He took the bandage off and the incision s looked clean. I asked that they put another bandage on for my comfort. Kaden can now start to put pressure on his left leg while using his walker as long as he is comfortable. We talked to him about it tonight and he said he was scared to use his hurt leg. This really broke my heart! Our poor baby has been through so much in the last 2 weeks. Please keep him in your prayers for a speedy recovery and healing.

The First Break

Another day in my life with KIDS!! Yesterday, about 3:45pm, I got a call from Kaden's After School. The conversation goes like this: "Mrs. Wines, this is Truman after school program. Kaden fell from the Jungle Gym and hurt his leg. It is swelling and he says he can't move it......and, we don't want to move him." So, I say I am on my way, hang up, and call Brian. We both head to Truman. I get there first and go to the playground where Kaden was laying. I could see the swelling underneath his shorts. It was on the inside of his leg between his knee and his groin. I instantly knew that I would not attempt to move him. So, I called 911 and Brian. An ambulance and fire truck came. During all of this he had not even cried! I thought I might cry just looking at him. So, we go to Norman Regional Hospital via ambulance. They get him stabilized and get X-Rays. They come in a while later and tell us that they are moving him to Children's Hospital in OKC. They said it will need surgery and that Children's has Pediatric Ortho Specialists. So, we get in another ambulance and take a very bumpy ride to Children's in the City.
Once we are at Children's Hospital (about 8:30pm) then we go to the ER there. We are there until about 1:00 am. They access him, talk about his x-rays, and our options. Our options are this: a full body cast from the chest down both legs or they could put two flexible titanium nails in his femur. Later they tell us that they have to move the current splint because it is getting uncomfortable. They give him more pain meds and start to move him and he starts crying and shaking. It was horrible and his little lips were quivering uncontrollably. His blood pressure got really high, from the pain. They FINALLY gave him a medicine that made him rest. They finished splinting the leg and they told us that we could get admitted to a room soon. They also say that he is in the schedule from surgery Friday morning about 9 am.
We get admitted to a room about 1am, then they have to do a traction boot. Let me give you a visual of this: The attach a soft boot around his splint on his leg, the boot has straps to which they attach a rope, and at the other end of the rope is a 10 pound weight. This boot pulls the leg out and hels the bone realign to relieve pressure. WHATEVER! It sounds painful to me. And, my stress level goes back up at the thought of doing this.
Now it is about noon on Friday. Kaden is currently in surgery. So, here we are.....just waiting. It seems like forever. Please pray for our little boy.

Mom of the Year

I just want to start off by saying that I am counting up the reasons why I should be mom of the year. The first reason would be that Kaden wants to be a vampire for Halloween and we cannot find a costume that we like. So, I decided to buy some material and make him one. Granted I will buy black pants and a white dress shirt and the only the I am making is the cape.....it's still questionable as to whether this is a good idea. I went to Hobby Lobby today and scoped out the fabric section. I found some shiny red and black fabric that I thought looked "vampirish" and did what any girl would do....I called my Mom to ask how much fabric I needed for my attempt at making this cape! She told me what to get so I got it. Now I am sitting at home looking at my fabric and waiting for it to tell me what to do. I forgot to mention that I don't have a sewing machine, nor have I ever had the desire to have one. I have always lived close to my Mom who could sew anything so she took care of those things for me! WAAAAH, I want my Mommy! But, it would be a long trip to get a cape made so I will try to figure out what to do.
Back to my point about mom of the year. Second, I have been designated as Kaden's class Homeroom Mom. I am thrilled to get to be involved, but WOW, this is a lot of work for a kindergarten class! I think we took naps in Kindergarten and picked our noses. Now they read, do math, and have a lot of extracurricular activities that I have to plan, coordinate, and execute. We are currently working on a field trip on October 14th, Fall Carnival for October 24th, a silent auction that will coincide with the Fall Carnival, and a Halloween party on Oct 31. Did I mention that I have to make a cape for my son for Halloween!
The good news is that we have activities for the kids 3 nights a week, Brian has school 2 nights, a week, and I have my online class. So, there should leave meplenty of time to squeeze everything in.
Now you may not really feel that this makes me Mom of the Year, but if you know me then you know that I don't really have any talent (especially sewing) to pull these things off.................so the fact that I am even trying should at least put me in the running for Mom of the Year.