A long saga continues

On October 15th, 2006, I was in a serious motorcycle accident. Although I was ruled to be 0% at fault, I was left with a double compound fracture of my right leg. I spent 10 days in the hospital, undergoing 3 surgeries to put me back together. The orthopedist put a titanium rod in my tibia, and set the fibula to heal on its own. The 6 and 12 month x-rays showed that the bones were starting to heal properly.

By January 2007, I went from a wheel chair, to crutches, to a cane. A month later, I was walking on my own power and finished up with all my physical therapy. I was on my way to recovery. I got back into shape quite quickly (for my injury) by trying to continue with all my normal daily activity, despite my injury.

Over the last several years, I have been working towards living a normal life, despite the pain that I had from walking and working. I've been unable to jog, run, or do anything much more than simply walk from place to place. This summer, I vowed to push through my limitations and do the work that I needed to fix the house, build a playset for the kids, and the things that my family need from me as a father and provider. This new level of work, unfortunately led me to new levels of pain.

I finally asked my doctor about what would lead to me still having pain in my leg from 4 years ago. She recommend that I see an orthopedist to review the case. The x-rays blew me away. The fibula, the bone without the rod, had only partially bridged. This meant that it was not able to carry my full weight, and explain the pain that I had from any strenuous work. I needed surgery

I'll be off my feet for the next 6-8 weeks, while I heal up. And I'll be out of work for 2 weeks. As I only have 9 sick days, I may loose 1/2 days pay, but that's not too bad. Baby #3 is expected in 9 weeks, so we are both hoping that my recovery will be swift. I looked at the situation was that Laura couldn't handle a newborn, 2 toddlers and me at the same time. It was either now or never.

My surgery was schedule for November 9th, this Tuesday. The plan was to remove the bad section of bone and take a bone graph from my tibia to bridge the gap. Steel plates were to hold everything together while it healed. I went in at 9am and was out by 10am.

I woke up at about 1:30. The surgery took quite a bit longer than expected, that is because I was in worse shape that the surgeon or I expected. My fibula was not just partially bridged, it was only partially connected. Even though the two bone sections were connected together, as the orthopedist put it, "they were wiggly". After I heard that, I was glad to have gotten this taken care of.

Thankfully, because of the malunion, there was sufficient scar bone tissue that I didn't need a bone graph from my tibia. He took all the scar tissue, ground it up and stuffed it in the gap after the plates bolted me together. In order to get all this done, he had to strip several muscles aside, which has left me with quite a bit of pain.

The doctor provided me with a rather strong narcotic to dull the pain. Unfortunately, I became violently ill. I could not keep down crackers, let alone the pain medication. The constant nausea was nearly as bad as the pain. After calling the doctor, he prescribed me a lesser pain medication, but I was unable to keep that down as well. As I couldn't even keep down water, I became quite dehydrated.

As of 3pm yesterday, I decided that the most important thing was to get some nutrition and get hydrated. At 3:30 am this morning, I was finally able to keep down a half glass of water and a hand full of crackers. Although the pain came back with a vengeance, I've been feeling quite a bit better, and was able to take some Tylenol with breakfast. Things have been up ever since. Tylenol is not really enough for post-surgery pain, but I'm doing a lot better than yesterday.

Things are beginning to look up and we are both hoping that I'll be back on my feet to help when baby #3 arrives.

And it's a.....

So, the last time I wrote, I was trying to update about everyone in the family. Brian has been delinquent about updating. But to be fair, he has been busy with the house, the family and his thesis. I took Miles in for his 12 month check-up. The big guy was 23lbs 8ozs and 32.5". That puts him in the 60th percentile for weight and still off-the-charts for height He's growing like a weed! Gwenna and him now weigh the same. At least she still has a couple of inches on him :-) Recently, Brian had a stranger ask him if they were twins! In a year, I would bet that Miles is going to be bigger than Gwenna. She better start being nicer to him :-P We spent some time visiting our college family this month. Gwenna enjoyed re-meeting and hanging out with all of her 'Aunties' and even started warming up to her Uncle Matt by the end of the trip. Miles, unfortunately, developed a cold on the way down there, and was miserable for a good bit of the trip. Overall, we had a good time and enjoyed seeing all of are friends!

On the 9th, we went back for a repeat ultrasound to see the baby. This time, the baby opened up and showed the world to all. And, for once, a baby decided to show the goods for us to see. Well, Gwenna is now going to have another girl to compete with around the house :-) Although, I've realized recently, that it's probably a good thing that Gwenna has a side-kick. As I mentioned above, Miles is quickly outgrowing Gwen, so maybe there's safety in numbers! Everything else about the appointment was good. Her heartbeat was 156bpm and my blood pressure was 116/70. They did mention, based on my ultrasound, that the placenta is low. Which, right now, is no risk to either the baby or me, but if it happens to migrate lower, there is a potential for a c-section and bedrest closer to the end. The chances of it migrating lower are slim, as it tends to migrate up to a better blood supply. I'll be going back for a follow-up ultrasound when I'm 32 weeks so see which way it has migrated. So, I'll be back in a few weeks with my next update. I'll be back later with pictures :-)

Where has the time gone?

So, I've been totally neglectful about keeping up with the blog. The last I wrote we were uprooting from our old house. We spent a month in a little apartment with minimal everything, just the basics to get us by. The day after Christmas we got the keys to our new house, and within two weeks we had all the comforts of living that we were accustomed to! The kids adjusted well and so did Brian and I.



Gwenna update: Gwenna has blossomed over the last 8 months. She talks a mile a minute with a handle of language that surpasses most of her age-mates. We had a quaint little party for her when she turned two. Just a couple of her best friends and her grandparents shared the day with her. Her current obstacle is potty training. She's doing surprisingly well in a short amount of time. It is a complete novelty to wear underwear, so she's willing to sit on the potty all day to wear her princesses and her froggies! Gwenna is such a sweet little snuggle bug too, she'll run up to Brian when he gets home from work and tell him "Daddy I wuv you" and ask to snuggle with her :-) She's taking to her baby doll(s) and starting to help out a little more with tasks that Mommy asks of her. She's really becoming a big girl...... and it's happening too fast!



Miles update: Well, you can only imagine the leaps and bounds that Miles has made over the last 8 months. He is definitely mister motor skills! He started army crawling around 6 months and worked up to walking by 11 months. He's got a knack for destroying things - much to his sister's dismay. And he's awesome with connecting two-and-two together, like we start to recite his favorite book, and he searches through a stack of books until he finds the one we're reading :-) Miles turned one today too!!!!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone and how much he's accomplished in that year :-) It's sad to say that my baby is now a toddler ::sniffle:: It has been one awesome year with him though and I can't be more happy and in love with my little man!



Laura update: I guess we can say a new year another pregnancy! That's right, we're working on cooking #3, and almost half way done too :-P Yesterday, we went to have the anatomy ultrasound to make sure that everything was happy and healthy with the baby. While everything looked great from what they could see, the baby stayed curled up in a little ball and refused to cooperate. So, I get to have another ultrasound in 4 weeks to see if the baby will cooperate that time. Gwenna, when we tried to explain that Mommy was pregnant again, called the baby "Happy", so that's what we have taken to calling the baby until we know otherwise. I'm sure I've this mentioned before, but Brian and I have decided from here on out to let the baby decide if they wanted us to know their gender before their birthday. Well, the baby decided not to show us at yesterday's ultrasound, but I think we'll try to take a look at the next appointment just because we get a second chance. Everything else from the appointment looked great.



Brian update: I guess he will get on later an update himself :-)

Moving

To start off - the kiddos are great! :-) We had Gwen in to the doctor's for her 18 month check-up on Friday. She's still a petite 21 lbs 5.6 oz, but she is 32.5 inches tall, which is not petite at all. She just keeps growing and being the sassy toddler that she is, but we love her and figure that we'll keep her for a little longer :-P Miles is growing like a weed himself. I don't take him back for another month though, so I don't have any status update on his growth. Although, he's figuring out how to work his hands and arms. It is really fun to watch how excited he gets when he's able to catch the object of his eye :-) He's turned over about a dozen times now, but he still hasn't gotten the hang of it. He will get there though.

We're in the process of moving everything out of the house into the SAMs containers that we have in our driveway. A lot of our friends helped us out this weekend getting all the big items out of the house. So now we're down to just bare essentials - cribs, one couch, a mattress for Brian and me, the TV of course ;-) Two more weeks, then we're out of here! These last couple of months have breezed by. I can't wait until we are able to get into the new house, then hopefully we can settle down and not have to worry about a thing - at least for a while :-)

Halloween Pictures

Here's some pictures of the kiddos in their Halloween outfits :-)

Me with my beatiful children.


Brian with his sassy princess.


My two main men.


Miles and Gwen having a conversation.


Gwenna getting ready to dance.


My bright-eyed Miles.


Gwenna giving the camera some personality.


Miles scrunched up in Dada's arms.

The leaves are falling...

So another month has gone by. Miles is two months old already, and Guinevere is 17 months. Miles had his two month check-up yesterday. He weighed in at 15 lbs 5.6 oz and he is 25.25" long! The nurse remeasured him twice, she didn't believe the over 25" measurement. I'm guessing she doesn't see two month olds that big very often! But he's staying on his curve, which is what the doctors like to see, and besides, he's perfect in every other way :-) Unfortunately, both Miles and Gwen have had colds this week. Gwen got her cold first, and then it eventually passed on to the little guy. Neither of them have been worse for wear though - which I'm very thankful for. It is still hard to watch though.

On the house front.... well... as most of you might have heard, the previous owners for our current house were denied the short-sale, so that means they can't sale it to us and the bank will more than likely foreclose on the property. But we're done with this place. We've learned in the 13 months that we've lived here that it is just a money pit and we're lucky to get out while we still have a chance. That being said, we did look at many other houses and found one that is in GREAT shape; that we can move in to and relax whenever the kids are napping and be constantly thinking of the next project we have to do to improve the house! Our closing date, as of right now, is set for November 20th. Although, the current owners have not found a place to live yet, so we've agreed to let them live there for up to 60 days past closing. We'll be lucky if we get in there by Christmas - so that definitely means we won't be traveling for Christmas or the New Year. I think the only thing we're going to miss is the current neighborhood that we live in and our neighbors. I can only hope that our new neighbors are just as nice and maybe on the younger side with kids.

Once again, I'm unable to post pictures. I need to find the cord for the camera to upload the most recent ones. Once I find that, which might take a while since we've been packing like crazy, then I'll post a few of the kiddos and of the house.