Cast Away

April 26th will forever be a happy day in our memories. Ryan finally got the cast off!! Ty went with Shaun and I up to Shriner's hospital at 9:45 AM. They took a few X-Rays and... The nurse came back and told us that the cast could come off.

The nurse took us back to a room with a few beds and THE SAW. Ryan wigged the second she turned it on- which I have to admit- was loud. Ty threw his hands over his ears and gave Shaun and I both a panicked look. Ryan continued to cry- even with Shaun and I next to him... until Ty came up and sat next to him. It's still amazing to me the connection that those two have- I wish that I could make Ryan settle down the way that Ty can, and I wish that I could make Ty laugh the way that Ryan can. I guess that's the beauty of their relationship.

Ty HAD to save the bar that went between Ryan's legs (and I think that if he could have- he would have taken the cast home too- but I think we have memories enough without the cast), and I have to admit that I beamed with pride when the nurse told me that it was the CLEANEST cast she has ever removed. Of course- with all of the precautions that we took- really do you expect anything else?

Ryan was relieved when the saw finally stopped- and I couldn't believe how SKINNY he was! He literally has no butt anymore.

Anyway- he has been so miserable lately, and I am so grateful that we have reached the end of THIS part of his recovery process. We spoke to his Dr, and she told us that Ryan wouldn't be able to walk for a while because of how much muscle mass he has lost, and when he did start walking, it would be with a definite limp, at least until the muscles returned to match the left side. We will have to go back in about two months, and more X-Rays will be taken and the Dr will determine if any further treatment is necessary.

Days at Home (For Real This Time)

We did eventually come home to our house- despite what our neighbors may have thought. It was nice, even if it was a little daunting. And it helped that my mom came up a few days later and stayed the week. It also helped that Ryan is no longer stinky.

We took him to the hospital for his Orthopedic check-up and the surgeon took one whiff of him and told us that the cast would have to come off. Oh bummer. :) Our Orthopedic Surgeon that we met at Primary Children's Hospital was actually a Doctor from Shriner's Hospital (also in Salt Lake)- so all of our follow-up will be and has been at Shriner's. Dr. Hennessey took a minute to sit and explain the newest X-Rays for us- which was so interesting! Because of how crazy things were when we were first admitted to Primary's- nobody really took the time to walk Shaun and I through some of Ryan's actual injuries- beyond the fact that he was in serious condition. So, to be in a more relaxed setting and have the opportunity to look at the new scans was really kind of nice.

She showed us that when the right side of the pelvis was crushed (and you could see all the breaks)- it actually moved the left side of his pelvis- almost twisting it. So while the right side was broken- we were actually waiting for the left side to straighten itself back out. And because of all of these things- Dr. Hennessey would not just cut the cast off and recast. She wanted him put under anesthesia so that she could get the cast on tightly in order to hold both sides the way they needed to be held. We arrived at Shriner's at 8:30 in the morning and didn't walk back into my mom's house until 9:00 that night. It took ALL day- which was good- it just meant that they did things the way they wanted to- and they wouldn't release him until he ate and peed.

When we got home we set Ryan up on the loveseat in the living room with plenty of pillows and blankets (and chocolate milk- he was a rotten eater throughout the weeks he was in the cast- so the fact that he would eat ANYTHING was so exciting). We had buckets of toys set up around the room and anything else we could think of that he might want. Ty was the best big brother ever though- anytime Ryan wanted a car or a coloring book- Ty was the first one running to him with the requested toys. Ty always made sure that Ryan had enough to drink and would sneak him packets of fruit snacks when we weren't looking.

After what happened with the last cast- I was a total freak when it came to keeping Ryan and his cast clean. And if any of you know me- know that this isn't a total surprise. I bathed Ryan in the kitchen sink- he liked soaking his toes (I think because he got some joy out of being able to splash me- maybe it was like a retaliation because I was making him wash his hair every day).
But like I said... he did NOT like having his hair washed. But wash it I did- every morning and he cussed me through every second of it. I kept telling him that I always win- but he didn't believe me.
For a change of scenery- once in a while we moved Ryan to Shaun and I's bed- where we would be immediately joined by Ty. They loved watching movies on the bed- our saving grace was Winnie the Pooh. Ryan has never been much of a movie/TV watcher and the fact that we found anything that he would sit still for was something you could almost kiss! Ryan's favorite is the "Super Sleuths" and we watched them over and over and over again.
As Ryan got stronger he also wanted to be more mobile (surprise surprise), so he also spent some time on the floor- where he kind of looked like a turtle laying on his back- his feet up in the air and the cast rocked him back and forth.
Anyway- we are excited for the cast to be off and life to move forward again. We are so grateful for what a trooper Ryan has been (even if he has been a grumpy little bear for the majority of the time) and even more grateful that it looks like things are going to heal the way they are supposed to.

Easter

Easter dawned bright and... snowy. Yeah. I keep trying to get Shaun to move me to Mexico so that I never have to look at the white crap ever again- but it's apparently a work in progress. Anyway- I wanted there to be a few pictures up of the holiday...

We started the day with airing Ryan out- he still stunk pretty bad because of the poop and we found that if we used my mom's hairdryer on the cool setting- we could kind of dry him out. It stunk to high heaven and we'd have to open all the doors to complete this "airing out" process (my poor parent's house may never be the same).

Ty had a blast running around in the snow looking for eggs. Because the snow was kind of fluffy- the eggs kind of got buried in the snow- making it more of a treasure hunt than anything else.
Ryan even got to be a part of the egg hunt- with dad's help of course!
Ty LOVES his new baseball mitt- and kept grandpa outside forever just so that he could keep playing.

Poop

So this last week was pretty eventful... On top of EVERYTHING else that has been going on, Ryan picked up a flu bug during one of his doctor appointments at the hospital. Yeah... Usually throwing up is enough for me to handle- but Ryan also got a case of the trots that was rather... explosive (I'm not trying to be gross... I just want to describe the situation). Wednesday night, we had poop up the back of his cast, out the sides of it and down the legs. It didn't really even get on his sheets or his pajamas. The cast pretty well contained it. I tried my darndest to reach up, in and around the cast to get everything out- but I wasn't even close. I could still see it and smell it- but there was absolutely NO way to get it all cleaned out. I called his orthopedic surgeon the next morning and she told me that there was a chance that once it dried out that he would be fine. The clean freak inside me wanted to scream at her- but since I don't have any initials behind my name (like M.D.), i decided to give it a try. Unfortunately- I don't think it ever really dried out- Ryan is such a sweaty little kid- that I think it just continued to be all moist inside the cast. As a result- anytime you walked past him- it was like walking next to an open sewer drain. I got to a point I could barely even hold him- if I got too much of a whiff- I had to make a run for the bathroom. It was awful. Props to my dad- he would still take Ryan for walks even though he smelled so bad.

This weekend was also Easter weekend- something that my boys really weren't ready for. Ty understands why we have Easter, and when asked about it- he promptly replied that Easter was about "Jesus being Resurrected," so I feel like we got the important message across- but neither of the boys even knew what an Easter Bunny was. Ty was totally confused as to why there was a bucket full of candy and eggs all over the place- but he was more than excited to find a new baseball mitt hidden in the basket. In fact- he immediately put it on and demanded that someone go out and play catch with him. He was not good- but improved upon practice- he and Grandpa even rallied to a total of 7 catches at one point! The Easter Bunny was also smart enough to make sure that Ty got a softer version of a baseball so that when it inevitably hit him in the face- it wouldn't hurt too bad...

Grandma Jacki and Papa Orllo also made the trip to Salt Lake to come and visit us while we were staying with my parents. Ryan thrives on visitors and lit up when he saw familiar faces. I think Ty was excited to see them too- they took him out for ice cream- and I think that the break was more than welcome to our little four year old.

Shaun was able to stay until Monday afternoon, since this was his Spring Break (yeah... we were supposed to be in St. George this weekend). We were all sad to see him go, but knew it wouldn't be too much longer before we were home for good. Shaun is such a huge help and comfort to me- I always hate it when he has to go.

Tuesday we had an appointment with Ryan's Orthapedic surgeon, Dr. Hennessey. She is actually from Shriner's Hospital in Salt Lake- which I have never really heard a whole lot about or had a lot to do with. We actually had to MapQwest it in order to find the right place. My mom came with me, and so did Ty, not thinking that it would be an overlong appointment. We checked in and talked to the Orthapedic Resident about Ryan and the pooping incident (we had him all but covered by a blanket in order to keep the smell contained and at a minimum). We also got to have new X-Rays taken, and the Resident took a minute to sit down with us and explain the pictures. When Ryan's right side was crushed- it broke his pelvis in three places on the right side- but at the same time- it also moved the left side- almost twisting it, and kinking the spine at the same time. This totally made sense- but no one had taken the time to explain all of this to us before. It was nuts seeing how much progress Ryan's body had already made in correcting the problem- but it was also a little sobering to see how far it still had to go in order to be back to normal.

It took Dr. Hennessey all of two seconds to decide to re-cast Ryan. I told them to make sure they take in their gas masks when they took the old one off. We were actually taken right upstairs and checked into the hospital. They couldn't get Ryan into surgery until 3:00 that afternoon, and it was only 9:00 in the morning- so we had some time to kill. But Shriners was absolutely AMAZING! They had a HUGE play/rec room for kids to play in- and we took Ryan for wagon rides to and from the gigantic space and Ty was in heaven! He got to see a magician, a banjo player, he made a butterfly and played basketball. Ryan was a trooper- he couldn't eat until he was out of the operating room- so we had to come up with some ways to keep his mind off food. The Dr was actually going to have him put out under general anesthesia again before she would even think about re-casting him- so the prep for that seemed to take forever too. Once he was finally in the OR- it only took about 45 minutes before he was wheeled back into his room- and he totally flipped out. Ryan apparently has a hard time coming out of anesthesia- and couldn't stop crying. A carton of chocolate milk helped a little bit- but it took some time before he finally settled down.

The nurses had to make sure that Ryan could eat and pee before they would let him be discharged- and we didn't get back to my mom's house until about 9:00 pm... We were ALL so tired. I still can't believe how good Ty was the entire time. He is so amazing- and I think that he may have a future in medicine- he is soo nosy!! He has to know what every machine and wire is for and doesn't rest until ALL of his questions are answered.

We spent the rest of the week gathering up our things and on Friday, we loaded up in my mom's car and drove to Logan where we met Shaun. We had a quick lunch and then our family headed on up to Montpelier. Home has NEVER looked so good. We all slept so well Friday night. We spent Saturday cleaning up and trying to figure out the best way to situate Ryan for the next three weeks. We ended up putting half of a mattress pad on the loveseat and covering it in blankets and pillows- trying to pad him enough to make him comfortable. He seems okay when he goes back and forth between his loveseat and the recliner- in fact- we even took him out to Sacrament Meeting this morning. He actually did really well (granted it was only an hour- but it was the longest he's been out for any period of time that he wasn't just laying down), and everyone was so happy to see him- we have had a wonderful support group up here and I am more than grateful for all of the love and concern that we have had from the people here.

It looks like things will be pretty quiet for the next couple of weeks- I don't think we really have plans to go anywhere, and I'm assuming that care-taking for Ryan and Ty will take most of my energies anyway.

I'll keep you updated and hopefully we'll get some pictures up from the last week. Sorry it was just text this time, but I'm on Shaun's computer and don't have access to my pictures.