Daddy update again

WARNING- PICTURE BELOW may be too much for some folks to handle. Just skip over it if you can't take it.

Today they came in and let us know that he will undergo surgery for the orthopeadic part of reconstructing his knees in 7-10 days. They are hoping to take him to the rehabilitation wing tomorrow.

The must frustrating part of all of this is the different "teams" of doctors here that seem to talk a lot, but never really talk to each other. There's the vascular team, the ortho team, the rehab team and the trama team. And none of them give us the same information. One will say he will be in rehab next week, one will say tomorrow, one will say 7-10 days so we take what they have to say in stride and wait to hear the next "update." We all understand what it means to be a teaching hospital and we are all glad that they can have this hands on experience, but when a mass of 10 people come into his room every few hours, it's exhausting. Enough about that...

The physical therapists came in this morning and let him sit on the edge of the bed for a few minutes and had his feet almost touching the ground. This, they say, will be good for when he is able to get in a wheel chair because his body will be used to sitting up again.

They did an x-ray of his chest today to rule out pneumonia and the aides weren't really gentle so that caused a lot of pain for him. They decided that there is some fluid hanging out in his lungs, but no pneumonia. He has a contraption that he has to blow into slowly 10 times every hour that is supposed to help prevent pneumonia and help him to use all of his lung capacity. He's been dilligent with it so that's good.

His medicine is making him really hot so he's been sweating a lot. We put him in some t-shirts to help keep him cool but it doesn't seem to be working that much.

They fitted him with some specialty "boots" today that will help his feet to stay straight. They had started to droop a bit, just naturally going toward the bed. These will also help to keep the muscles active.

You can also see the wonderful red rubber bands that we have to leave on for two hours, then take off for two hours. They had to customize these to his feet so they took 2 1/2 hours to make using 160 degree water to mold the material to fit his foot.

The best thing that he has received so far is this brace that fits around his torso.
He has said that this will be the "secret" to moving around because it takes the pressure off of his back and allows him to keep his hip, back and legs in line and out of pain. He really dreaded putting it on in the beginning, but once they had it fitted on his body, he said it releaved a lot of the back pain so that's a blessing!

I forgot to mention yesterday that it was mom and dad's 29th wedding anniversary! What a way to spend it in the hospital, right? :) I think at this point, they are just thankful that they can spend it together.

We've received some beautiful flowers the past couple of days. Here's some pictures:
Cut flowers from Melissa & Darren for their anniversary, a dish garden from the Quality Management Team at Randolph Hospital.

The flower arrangement is from mom's boss Sherry for their anniversary and the lily is from Barbara Bennett. Thank you all for your kindness and generosity!

Thank you to everyone that has called, written, visited. It has all been good for his moral and good to keep us occupied. We are doing good and couldn't do this without y'all! Keep coming back for more updates and have a Happy Fourth of July!

Good news...

This morning the rehabilitation doctors came in and gave us an update. They recommend that he go upstairs to the 7th floor which is a totally different part of the hospital in a few days. It is all physical therapy/rehabilitation on the 7th floor which will help him to learn how to be independent when he returns home. We think he will be on the rehab floor for 2-3 weeks, but that is just a guess-timate from the doctors at this point. A lot of that depends on his ability to kick the oxygen and the morphine.

A physical therapist did come in today and helped to fit him with his hard plastic brace that he will have to wear in order to keep his back from moving. This will allow his fractured vertebrae to heal. They put on the brace and then she wanted him to sit up. We all had to help move his legs around and he used a the orange bar above his head to pull himself up. We moved him so that he sat up in the bed and we rotated his body so that his back was 90 degrees. He got a little light headed (as did some of us) and so we laid him back down. The physical therapist says this will help him to get used to sitting up again and to use his upper body strength. He did wonderful. She was impressed with his agility and dedication and we all think that he did better than expected. He even commented that it was a lot less painful than he thought it would be.

Many people have been asking what they can do to help. For now, we have been trying to think of things that would help us out now and in the long run. The best thing we can come up with is either gas cards or Wal-Mart gift cards. We know that when he comes home, he will need things that we can't even begin to think of and we're sure those trips to Wal-Mart will be needed. We also know that between us kids and mom, we've already made several trips home and back so gas cards would be nice. Of course we're not asking for anything. Please don't go out of your way. I'm just posting it here because so many of you have asked what you can do to help and this is what we've come up with.

That's all for now, he's taking a nap and we're expecting visitors soon so I'll go. But do keep looking on here for updates! And keep praying... lots of prayers!

Pictures

Warning- if you click on these pictures, it will take you to Webshots where there are other, more graphic pictures of dad's legs. Again, they are graphic. Please only click on the photo if you want to see the others. Otherwise, just don't click on it.

Here's Dad in his fashionable gown. Yes folks, he still looks great even after all this. ;)

Here's Mom & Dad, they are both hanging in there so please keep them in your prayers!

Daddy update...

On Thursday, June 28th our dad, Kenny B, was involved in an accident at work. The long and short of it is that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when a part off a crane decided to break and fall on him. Skip over the rest of this post if you cannot handle gross medical details, you won't hurt my feelings.

The initial impact hit him in the chest and abdomen area and forced him to the ground. The part of the crane that fell then landed on his legs, causing his knees to hyperextend and bend the wrong way dislocating his knee caps. Fortunately, the adrenaline rush of another worker allowed him to lift this heavy piece of crane off dad's legs BY HIMSELF. Amazing. He was airlifted to Chapel Hill Hospital (which is where we all are now) where they took him in and did the first of many surgeries to come. He went in at around 8:30 or 9:00 pm and they let us know that their first concern was the artery in his right leg that had been damaged. At the time, they could find a pulse in his ankle of his right leg but not in the top of his foot which meant that the circulation was poor. If he continued to not have circulation, he could have lost his leg.

So they went in and did a vein graph. Basically, they took a vein from his left leg and put it into his right leg in order for the circulation to improve. They also went in and put pins and rods on the exterior of his legs in order to keep the knee caps in place. They also found a blood clot in his right leg, but when they opened him up, it moved and corrected itself. He has a gash behind his right kneed cap that is about 4 inches long that has caused a lot of nerve damage. All things that have troubled the doctors to no end.

At 1am Friday morning, the vascular surgeon came out and said that from his perspective, the surgery had gone as well as it could and he was positive that the circulation problem would be fixed. At 2am, the orthopeadic surgeon came out and said that they had placed the rods around his knee caps and that their part was done for now. However, more surgery would be needed to reconstruct his knees. They left him with a morphine drip that he could push a button and release as he needed. They also put him on blood thinners in order to prevent future blood clots.

At about 2:30 am, Mr. J, DK and I had decided we would head home and try to get some sleep. Then in the ICU waiting room over the loud speakers came a voice... "PAC-U Code Blue, PAC-U Code Blue." Mom's eyes got as big as saucers and she spoke up. "Your dad's in PAC-U, you're not going anywhere." So we waited to see if it was him. Fortunately, mom wandered around til she found PAC-U and asked someone if dad was ok and they assured her he was sleeping so we were all relieved. That was probably the scariest moment of them all so far.

On Friday morning, his kidneys stopped functioning properly and so he started retaining fluid. He swelled up like a marshmellow and just looked horrible. We got to start visiting him two at a time so we would lather up and walk into the Vascular ICU every so often. We had tons of guests and they brought food and drinks and were such a blessing.

They flushed his kidneys in order for them to start working better and luckily, they did. On Saturday, they moved him out of ICU and into a private room. This has been the biggest blessing because he has had more visitors than you can shake a stick at and the room has helped folks to come and go as they please.

They updated us on Saturday and told us that he had broken his back in two places. He fractured two of his vertebraes, L3 and T11. They don't know at this time if surgery will be needed, but they did fit him with a hard plastic brace that he will need to wear for a few months on his torso. Friday night he had bled pretty steadily because of the blood thinners so they took him off of the blood thinners on Saturday and put in a filter that would stop clots.

Saturday night they were able to find a pulse in his right foot on the top so that was the first of many answered prayers. His swelling in his face and upper body went down pretty dramatically and he was able to talk more and got a good nap (as did mom, finally). Being in the private room has given him more chance to sleep and there's a wonderful chair that folds out into a bed so mom can sleep. This has been the biggest help for all of us children, knowing that both of them can get their rest.

Today is Sunday and they have taken his cathader out which has been a blessing and a curse. He's had a hard time with the bed pan so this is the first of many struggles to come. Again, visitors have been arriving steadily so he's taking time to talk to all of them which is good. He's been coherent the entire time and says he remembers every detail of the accident. Says it's just a freak, random accident that could have happened to anyone.

Moral seems to be good all around. We all know that he has a long, uphill battle ahead of him and we don't know how long he'll be in the hospital or how long til surgery. I'll keep this blog as updated as possible so that you all will know what we know. If y'all have any questions, please email me or post a message on here. I will answer it to the best of my ability. Our cells work at the hospital so we can take calls, but with so many visitors, it's been hard to make all of the appropriate phone calls. Please don't be upset if we haven't called you. We're doing all that we can given the circumstances.

The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful network of family and friends and we are so blessed to have them all here. Thank you for taking the time to read this... I'll put a few pics up shortly.

SPF- Back

Kristine is having some back issues this week and has been wobbling around the house in a state of distress... so she wants us to tell her about our "back" for SPF this week. On a different take, I thought I'd show you the people in my life that have always had my "back" so here you go:

In honor of Father's Day, here's my dad. He's probably the smartest man I know and has always pushed me to do the best that I can. Happy Father's Day dad!

Next is mom, who has been my #1 cheerleader my whole life. What a woman, let me tell you. The one word I would use to discribe her is selfless and that is what I strive to be everyday in her honor.

Of course, Mr. J. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me. And he just so happens to be leaving today for VEGAS!! He's so excited.

These pictures were taken at Taste of the South, the annual charity fundraiser I helped to plan and raise money for this year. It was awesome and I am so ready for next year when we plan on raising over $100,000 from the state of North Carolina. If you want to know more, here's the Taste of the South webpage.

Well, I'm off to Detroit tonight to visit some family friends and meeting my mom, grandma and brother in Michigan. I can't wait to see them. Y'all have a good weekend!

Wild Card Wednesday

The Kept Woman has given us a letter to use this week for our Wild Card Wednesday assignment: the letter K. So here's my submission (which I really want quadroople bonus points for)

At the Korean grocery store in Fairfax, VA, Mr. J stumbles upon this sign for the "white peaches." Yep folks, it's that easy. White Peace is only $1.99 a pound. How flipping funny is that?

Now I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers, I know it's a misspelled word, but isn't it a funny one?? How's that for a WCW pic?

SPF- Brush

Kristine wants to see our brushes today for SPF so here goes:

Ok so she didn't want us to clean them but honestly, I am OCD when it comes to my hairbrush. I clean it multiple times a morning. I hate when I look at it and see long hairs hanging out so I clean it... over... and over... again. What's that? You think I'm strange? Yeah, I'm sure it is a little overboard but it keeps me sane so whatever. If my old roommate B sees this, she may wonder how in the world I have this brush considering that it's HERS and I stole it from her in college and still use it everyday... oh well. Somethings are just worth getting caught over.

So if you look closely, you'll see my brush is lying on top of my carry on luggage because I'm flying to Arkansas today! I'm going to visit my best friend R and her husband and daughter. R was my hair stylist and confidant when she lived in DC and since August, I have missed her more and more everyday (especially when I have to suck it up and pay $75 for a haircut). So you'll be seeing a new 'do on me soon and I'll be sure to post fun pictures. We're supposed to go to a lake on Sunday, fun times!

One more shameless plea... Mr. J is taking the GMAT tomorrow in hopes of getting into MBA school. Please send up all your prayers so that he does well enough to get into George Mason so that he can make enough money to support my lazy butt!! Thanks everyone!