St Paul Hospital

I guess I'm going for the Bad Blogger Award again. I looked at the blog this morning and realized I never even posted anything about Zeke's appointments. It's 6am and I've helped Zeke go to the bathroom and chased Anthony back to bed so if there are no further interuptions for a few minutes, I'll tell you about the doctor visits. Pictures later. Brittney stole the card out of my phone or I would have posted them now.
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We arrived at Gillette Children's Hospital around 10:30am. I got Zeke checked in and signed our life away againg. They gave us a buzzer kind of like what you get when you're waiting in line at Olive Garden. Because they have us set up to see so many different people during the day, we check into each area when we're finished with the previous appointment and then when the buzzer goes off, we know it's time to see the next doctor.
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Since we were few minutes early for our first appointment at 11:15am, we decided to try and find a friend who was having surgery at 11am. We went down to the 3rd floor surgery waiting room to see if we could find them but they were still back in the pre-op area. I was so disappointed that we missed them. Ryan was one of Zeke's buddies when we were in that Hospital for 7 weeks a few years ago. His parents, especially his mom, became a good friend while we were there. Ryan just happened to have a shunt revision surgery scheduled for the same day we were there. Since we couldn't find them, we went back up to the main waiting room to wait for our buzzer to go off.
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They called us in around 11 to get Zeke's casts taken off. We had the same awesome doctor that had been in the room to put them on. Zeke watched cartoons while the guy buzzed the casts off. After they were off, Zeke took one look at the cuts on his knees and said, "WHAT HAPPENED!" I had to explain the surgery to him again. I think it makes more sense now :) The doctor washed off Zekes legs/feet and sent us to our next appointment. I think the whole process took about 20 minutes.
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The next stop was for X-rays. Even though they were really good, it still took a while just because of how many X-rays they had to take. They had to have pictures of each of Zeke's feet, ankles, knees and legs and lots of different angles. Because he wasn't used to moving/bending his knees, sometimes I had to hold his legs and feet in certain positions while they took the pictures. We got out of there around 12:15.
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As we were coming out of X-rays, we literally ran into Ryan's parent's, who were looking for us! It was so great to see them and chat with them for a while. After a bit of catching up and a few pictures, their buzzer went off and we had to continue on to the next appointment.
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Four kids awake and counting. We'll see how much more I can get written.
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We continued on to the Height & Weight Department. Because Zeke couldn't stand, I lifted him onto a table. He is 4 ft 2 inches tall and weighs 65lbs. That area only takes a few minutes if you get right in. I think we were out of there by 12:30pm
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Then we were off to Blue 4, which was the main surgeon. First her nurse came in and asked us questions. Then an intern joined us and the two of them took off all the surgical tape that still covered Zeke's incisions. They looked over the X-rays and the incisions and declared that everything was healing well. Zeke didn't care much for the tape coming off. Think of wearing a bunch of big band-aids for a month and then someone pulling all of them off. He didn't scream or anything but he made it known that he wasn't happy with us! The most interesting part was when they pulled out the pin in his foot. Basically, the nurse held up a towel so that Zeke couldn't see what was going on and the other doctor got his big pliers ready. While the nurse held the towel and Zeke's foot, the doctor just grabbed the end of the pin with his pliers and pulled. It only took a second and it was out. Zeke winced and said, "Ow."
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Once they were done and had wrapped Zeke's foot where the pin had come out, the main surgeon and her people came in. She checked everything, talked to me for a few minutes, asked if we had any other questions and then sent us on to the next area. It took a bit longer than it appears in writing but I won't bore you with the details....yet.
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Even though the casts are off, Zeke still needs a lot of support in is feet and legs. When we were at the hospital 4 weeks ago, they took molds of Zeke's feet for new braces. Our next stop was in the orthodics department. And that's where we hit a bit of a standstill.
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I'll finish this story later.  Too many kids clammoring for my attention for me to be able to form a cohesive thought.
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Pics

Picture of Brit's new nails, as promised.

She wasn't very happy with me for taking her picture.

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Zeke's goofy new SpongeBob hat.

Sorry about the mouthful of food.

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Brittney's First French Manicure

I have a hard time spending money on myself but sometimes you just have to splurge for your kids!

This was something she really wanted to do.

I just realized that I never took a picture of the finished product.

By looking at these pictures, it looks like Brit has Halloween fingers!

I'll try to get a good picture of her hands today but she's still sleeping right now.

The nail aren't long, I promise. :)

Made It!

We made it safely to St Paul. Once we turned off the interstate onto the highway, the wind was at our back and we got almost 29 mpg in our loaded-down minivan. We made a stop at Mall of America, where Brittney shopped until I dropped. She got her first french manicure (pictures later) and some t-shirts. Zeke got a SpongeBob hat. We had an uneventful night at the hotel and now I'm going to either make some coffee in our little pot or hunt some down in the lobby!

Leaving for St Paul

I'm getting ready to leave for St Paul today. Even though I was extremely quiet, I currently have 3 children awake with me. I think they sense that I'm leaving so they're trying to get as much "mom time" as possible. Which is hard when I'm trying to get everything together for the trip.
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Zeke's casts come off in the morning around 11am and then they'll do a bunch of X-rays to make sure everything is healing correctly. We'll meet with the doctor and the physical therapist in the afternoon.
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I'm taking Zeke, of course, Brittney, the baby, and the baby's mom. I asked the baby's mom if she wanted to go with us and she said yes. What made it even better was that we let Zeke ask if she wanted to go to his hospital with us. Steve will stay home because he needs to work but his mom is coming over today so everyone else will be well taken care of :)
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I'm hoping to leave around noon today. I hope the weather cooperates a bit and we don't get blown off the road!

Quick Updates

• Zeke started going to school full days this week, starting yesterday. He fell asleep in Social Studies.

• On Thursday, Zeke's casts come off in St Paul.  They'll also take lots of X-rays and then we meet with the doctor and physical therapist.

• Baby's mom's court date is postponed again so no court this Wednesday. Looks like another month or so before the next court hearing. Baby will be staying with us for quite a while longer.
• Steve and I cut a giant hole in the wall underneath our stairs between Riley's closet and the storage room. Reason: to eventually make more room for all the people in our house. 1100 sq ft can go a long way if you divide it correctly. We're trying to make the best use of our space. Our storage room is the size of a bedroom but there's no window and we accessed it through the laundry room. So we're going to put a wall up to divide the storage room in half. The back half will be a closet that is accessed through the closet in Riley's room. Steve and I will move down to Riley's room but the room itself is only big enough to fit our bed. We'll use the new "closet" we'll build to hold our dressers and clothes. Then Riley can move into the little girls room upstairs and the girls can move into the bigger master bedroom. Part of the problem is that the baby has been sleeping in a pack-and-play crib, which was fine when she was really little and we didn't know how long she would be staying. Now we need to set up the crib for her and even with my great organizational skills, there just isn't enough room for both of them plus Grandma Sandy in the room they are currently in.  Hopefully, the project won't cost too much since we'll just be doing it ourselves. I just need to finish cleaning out the storage room.

Dubro's House Dedication

On Sunday afternoon, my sister's new Habitat for Humanity House was dedicated. 

Taylor is holding my nephew Coby at the bottom of the photo. 

The house is finished on the outside except for landscaping and finished on the inside except for the appliances. They close on Friday morning and then we'll be able to help them move in.

Grandma Lori Visits

Grandma Lori and the boys

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Guard and The Hobo Day Parade

Brittney posted Riley as a security guard outside her door.

He took his job very seriously.

He's even got little ear-buds in his ears, just like the big guys!

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Anthony waiting for the parade to start on Saturday morning.

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We sat near Taco Johns.

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Still waiting for the parade to start on a very drizzly sort of day. I took all six kids by myself because Steve was doing something with the sports guys for the Alumni Association.

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Still patiently waiting

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Zeke hanging out in his wheelchair.

I got there early so I could put his chair right by the curb.

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The nice lady beside us let Zeke borrow her umbrella.

It was big enough that all the kids could huddle under it when it really poured.

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Potatoes!

We came home the other day to a huge box of potatoes on the deck. Brittney had been home so I asked here if she knew who brought them. "Yep. Some guy from church."

That narrowed it down to about 600 people!

We baked some that evening and then I peeled, cut and froze some so I can just pull them out this winter for scalloped potatoes. I put the rest downstairs. And I did eventually find out who brought them :)

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Saturday

We got soggy at the Hobo Day parade but came home to a great afternoon with Grandma Lori.
Pictures to come!
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New Discovery

The kids have a lot of time on their hands during vacations from school and I never know what they'll come up with. I don't have to worry about entertaining them because I've taught them to entertain themselves.

We haven't had a land-line phone for almost a year now. We've gone completely to cell phones. Steve has one, I have one and Brittney has one. It's worked wonderfully and saved us a ton of money. I put away most of the regular phones last year but since I have been cleaning the storage room a few more have popped up. The kids discovered that if they plug them in the phone jacks, they can talk to each other through the phones. Taylor even sets all the phones to speaker and then talks into one phone like a radio announcer. You can hear it all over the house!

Yesterday during Taylor's "news", she was telling people to pray for Obama 'cause he took God out of his life. I think she was paying attention when I was listening to a speech of Obama's where he didn't include the God portion in the Declaration of Independence and the announcer let us know.

Pumpkins

The kids are home during a four day weekend so not a lot of time for blogging so here's a random picture for the day. It's some of the pumpkins that we sold at the Berndt Produce Stand. I've helped out there on Wednesdays since school started. Love it!

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Thursday

Good workout with good friends this early this morning.

Bonus: I remembered to stop at the grocery store for cereal on my way home.

Double Bonus: I still had a gift card for Starbucks so I got a really good drink this morning at the store.

Triple Bonus: No school today so I don't have to lug any kids out at all!
                     I think we'll have 8 here this morning. Could end up with more later, you never know :)

Princess Poops-A-Lot Strikes Again

Steve was giving the baby a bath this morning when I hear, "You've got to be kidding me!!!
She pooped in the bathtub. Hee hee!!!

Yikes!

This morning I nearly had a heart attack. I've been back to doing my early morning workout with my friends for a couple of weeks now, ever since I convinced the baby to sleep through the night again. I generally leave at 5:20am and it's still really dark outside. When I walked in the dark out to my van parked in the driveway , I saw movement inside my vehicle.
I hesitated a moment but then decided I must have imagined it or it was a trick of the light or something. But as I moved closer to the van, something went wild inside! All I could see was a blur of movement and then a few seconds later a big black cat came flying out of my window. I guess I forgot to roll up the window yesterday and the cat found a warm place to sleep for the night. Definitely got my adrenaline going before my workout!

Family

I read this quote from a friend this morning and thought it worth reposting, especially since I sometimes struggle with certain family members who only seem to care about themselves and don't take any real interest in my life:

"A family isn't who you were born to, or what color you are, it's who has your back."

So thank you to all of you, family and friends, who have "had our back"! Sometimes you're the ones carrying us when we can't walk by ourselves. You mean the world to us and we couldn't do it without you!

Zeke's Amazing Seamstress

A wonderful lady from our church found out that I needed any easier way to clothe Zeke. I had been using scissors and duct tape. Not kidding. She purchased all these pants, shorts and boxers and adapted them to what we needed.

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Zeke showing off his muscles and his new boxers.

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The clothes were all cut down the side of the legs and then our amazing seamstress attached velcro with a snap at the top.

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I'm able to put the clothes down and Zeke can just plop right on top of them. Here he is sitting on top of the pants from the previous picture.

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Then we just wrap the pant legs around his legs, snap the top snap and attach the velcro.

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Here's a closer view of the velcro down the sides.

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It's also great because Zeke can do it himself!

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Here he is with the new pants on. You can't even tell that she's adapted them.

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With the casts, it used to take me a half hour to get him dressed every day. I had to unscrew the bar across his legs and carefully pull everything up by shifting him back and forth from one side to the other while trying to avoid putting any pressure on any incisions. And then we'd go through the same process whenever he had to go to the bathroom.

Now it only takes us about a minute!

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Thank you to our amazing seamstress!!!
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Three Short Bits

Coming soon to a blog post near you:  Zeke's amazing seamstress and the potato delivery.

Steve now calls the baby Princess Poops-A-Lot.

Tune in tomorrow, when you'll hear Tricia say, "Welcome back family. Farewell clean house."

Sunday

Both kids have had breakfast and both kids have pooped. The good news is that the coffee is in the pot and all I have to do now is get them both bathed and dressed and to church by 10:30. I even snuck in a shower for myself :)

7am and All Is Well

Yesterday was a bit of a chaos day but today looks to be a bit calmer. Zeke continued on his half day at school on Friday but I kept Taylor home since she had still been throwing up during the night. She was feeling good enough in the afternoon to lay in my room, watching cartoons and calling for me every 5 minutes. I'd go see what Tay wanted, then Zeke would need something, then because I walked away from the baby, she would start crying/yelling, "Mumumumumumum!" Which I guess is her version of mom. It gets my attention anyway. My sister picked up the two kids still at school and then at 4:30, I picked up our friend Misha. His dad is still in the Ukraine waiting on the 4th set of fingerprints to clear so they can get their visas and come home. He'll be bringing Misha's new brother with him and then they'll go back in a few weeks for his new sister. I can't wait! I think Misha is ready for his dad to be home too!
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Today is the opening day of Pheasant hunting season. That wouldn't mean much to me except for the fact that a bunch of Steve's hunting buddies come up from North Carolina and that's the one time a year Steve can see them. So every year Steve heads to Redfield around this time and go hunting with the boys for the weekend.
We had a bit of a communication problem this year. Seems to happen a lot when there are tons of kids that need attention, help with homework, etc. So even though Steve and I took an hour and a half by ourselves (the first time in months :) last Wednesday specifically to talk about upcoming schedules/plans, we neglected to discuss this weekend.
I assumed that Steve was going and was taking the older kids. The date's been on our calendar for almost a year and he goes every year. Steve assumed, like a good husband, that he needed to stay home because we have one kid in a wheelchair, one baby and a really sick kid. I learned that he wasn't planning on going when Brittney stomped into my room and started yelling about Dad not taking them hunting. So at lunch yesterday, we finally discussed it and I convinced Steve that I could handle the remaining kids. The end result was that I packed up 3 kids and had them ready to go by the time Steve got home at 6:30 last night. When he got home, I ran to the store to pick up some more baby food because that's the one thing I didn't want to run out of and Steve fed the kids. Taylor was feeling fine by then and really wanted to go too so I helped her get her stuff together and by 8pm, Steve, Brittney, Riley, Taylor and Anthony were out the door and packed into the car. That left me with only 3, Zeke, Sophia and Misha. I parked the two bigger boys in front of a SpongeBob DVD while I the fed the baby her night time cereal. While I was changing her and putting on her pajamas, Joni came to pick up Misha. We chatted a few minutes, they left, I put the baby to bed, turned off Zeke's DVD so he would go to sleep and then I went to bed too.
I'm looking forward to all the things I can get done today with only two kids!
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Headstart Story

Taylor continued throwing up during the night and still has a pretty high fever. I hope she feels better today! I'm stil keeping her home either way.
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Absolutely nothing on my schedule today so I really hope I can get something done.  ie. laundry, kitchen floor, filing, bills. We'll see how it goes.
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Zeke is doing fine and even threw a big temper tantrum yesterday when I made him "lay down and rest" after lunch.  The kid amazes me. His legs and feet are all cut up, with plates, screws and pins all over. Itchy casts and having to have his legs straight out even though they are full of incisions. He's not complaining a bit. He just takes every day as it comes and pain for him is all relative. He just does something else so he's not thinking about it. And he's never once mentioned being stuck in his bed and wheelchair and not able to get up and play with everyone else. His good attitude is so contageous people come over just to laugh and smile with him!

I remember when Zeke was in headstart. He could hardly walk with his walker and couldn't stand up by himself. Everything he did took extra effort and lots of times things we take for granted were painful for him. Not to mention the fact that everytime he lived somewhere, he was moved to a different place with different people who were strangers to him. He had so much to bring him down, yet he just kept smiling and sharing his life with everyone. People were so taken with the little boy who had so much to complain about and yet kept smiling and shuffling through life.

In fact, when he graduated from headstart, the teacher gave me a letter written by one of the mothers to Zeke. I put it away for him to read when he's older. The mom came from a very disadvantaged backgound, both emotionally and economically, and was currently dealing with a lot of issues in her life. She wasn't sure she could go on or that life was even worth it. But then she would see Zeke, the little boy who kept smiling despite unspeakable odds and innumerous challenges. He would struggle through each day with a smile on his face. She wrote that seeing Zeke gave her the courage to go on. If a little boy could do it, so could she!

Disjointed Blog

Seems like we just got back from the hospital but it's been over a week already and two weeks since Zeke's surgery. I thought I'd have a bit of time today for laundry, cleaning and blogging but that didn't happen. First I got all the kids to school, quite a challenge with Zeke and his wheelchair. Then the baby had a visit at 9am so I delivered her and headed to HyVee for the milk we had been out of for 2 days. After I got back home, Jen, David and Kassy came over to chat for a minute. Which was good because I needed some adult interaction. The baby came back a little after 10:30am. Fed her, rocked her and laid her down for a nap. Picked Zeke back up at noon. (We're just doing half days this week and next week so we don't wear him out) I pulled in the driveway, got the wheelchair out of the back, screwed the bar across the back, put on both of the leg things, put the pillows and blanket in place, manuvered Zeke out of the van and into the wheelchair and pushed him up our ramp and into the house . Then my phone rang. I let it go to voicemail while I was helping Zeke. Turns out it was the school letting me know Taylor had thrown up. So back to the school I went! Brought Tay home and got her settled in bed for a short nap before she threw up again. Went back to the school at 3:20 to pick up Anthony (Riley had football and walked home after that) and then hurriedly made some veggies for supper before leaving for my 5:30pm meeting of the InterAgency Council. I would have skipped it tonight but they were voting me onto the board so I kind of had to be there. I'm glad the day is almost over. I forgot to mention that I'm back to exercising with my crazy friends at 5:30am everyday so the days start pretty early.
Definitely a disjointed blog entry today but that's kind of day I had :)

Yay Dad

My dad saved the day yesterday and helped me unload Zeke from the van at 11am after school :)

Back to School

After a long weekend, all the kids are back at school, including Zeke. I would be at bible study instead of on the computer but the baby was ready for a nap so I laid her down a few minutes ago.
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Zeke's teachers and friends were all excited to see him this morning. Steve helped me load Zeke into the van and then his teacher helped me get him out at school. It was interesting because the wheelchair hardly fits into the van so I have to take it apart every time we take Zeke somewhere. I'm picking him up at 11am today. The teacher will help me get him into the van again but I just realized a few minutes ago that I'm not sure how I'll get him from the van into his wheelchair by myself when we get back home. I might have to drive around for a while until Steve has lunch at 1pm. Just hope Zeke doesn't have to go to the bathroom  :)

My Little Men & Brit

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Grandpa Larry & Grandma Connie took everyone out for lunch at Pizza Ranch on Sunday to celebrate Zeke and Grandpa's birthday.

The kids got little stick-on mustaches from a vending machine.

Pics the First Week Home

Zeke having fun in bed by dressing up.

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Holding our friends' baby, Ancora. Who, by the way, made a spectacular supper of chicken and rice for us! (The friend, not the baby)

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The twins and a neighbor girl playing on the trampoline with Taylor. They got to play for a while when their mom brought over supper.

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Melody signing Zeke's cast

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The boys favorite place to play - In the dirt!

After I posted this, I decided I better do a bit of explaining about this picture. The body parts you see in the dirt are not leftovers from Zeke's surgery. Brittney had a bit of fun at the new dollar store and purchased a bunch of Halloween stuff. Then she half-buried plastic body parts in front of our house. The boys didn't seem to mind at all.

Later, I was trying to get rid of them so I asked David (2 years old as of Friday) if he wanted a foot to take home. He slowly looked down at his feet and then looked up at me and matter-of-factly said, "No. I already have some."

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Pictures of Zeke's Legs During Casting

Fair warning:

If you are squeamish, you may want to skip this post.

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Preparing to take off the "soft" casts

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Pulling apart the soft casts. It's like cotton to avoid pressure during swelling after surgery.

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If you look closely under the square of foam under his big toe, you can see the metal rod that is running nearly the length of his foot. They bend over the end of the rod in a hook shape and put on a yellow tip to avoid catching it on anything.

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The doctors and nurses were worried about excessive pain during the casting procedure but as long as Zeke was allowed to watch TV, the most we heard out of him was about what channel we should be turning to!

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Before putting on the hard casts, the doctor wanted Zeke to be fitted for new orthotics (the braces he wears on his legs). So as soon as the soft casts were off, they put a big white nylon sock over his foot.

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Then they placed the yellow rubber tubing down the length of his lower leg and foot. Once that's in place, they wrap his foot in a type of cast material. It's harder than the soft cast but softer than the hard cast.

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Within a few minutes, that cast hardens and the orthodic doctor runs his knife down the length of yellow tube and pulls apart his mold. That mold is what he will use to form Zeke's new braces.

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After that doctor had his molds complete, the casting doctor could begin the hard casts.

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 The small metal circle you see was placed on each cast. A bar which holds Zeke's legs in place screws right into those spots so that we can remove it if we need to. It's a pain to do, but it can be taken off. The white velcro wraps on his legs are Knee Immobilizers. The doctors opted to use those with the boot length casts instead of casting his entire legs.

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Suprise!

I'm in the running for the world's worst blogger again. I really didn't mean to leave everyone hanging with the "suprise when we got home" post. But I've been a tad bit busy. And when I'm not busy, I'm tired. And I don't like to post when I'm really tired because I never know what I might say or how many mistakes I might make. I'm still tired but I'll try to write anyway :)
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When we arrived home from the hospital with Zeke, our kids made us sit down on the new front deck and then they yelled, "Suprise! Look up!"  As we looked up at the sky, they all started yelling, "No! No! At the house!"
It was then that we realized our house had been re-shingled while we were gone! Our church friends are amazing. We still can't get anyone to 'fess up to who was responsible. What an incredible load off our minds in the middle of the surgery and recouperation. Every time I start to worry about money and time schedules, God takes over again and through great christian friends, shows me that I don't need to worry. If people out there are trying to make me cry just to prove they can, they're doing a fine job!  :)

No School!

No school is fun for the kids but sometimes my mom goes crazy

She made me blog so bye


Brittney Marie Wilkins

Riley Says

Apparently Riley has been telling kids at school and the Boys & Girls club that Zeke died.

Don't worry. He didn't :)

Hopefully time tomorrow to post more

Home

Made it home safely
Zeke traveled well
Awesome suprise when we got home!

Will post more tomorrow :)

Why?

Why do I always get caught in the same trap? Again thinking I can handle everything myself. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed this weekend and lots of little things had to be sorted out/handled. Yesterday my mind was reeling from all the things that I will have to juggle when I get home. I was trying to figure out if Zeke's wheelchair would fit/turn down the narrow hallway of our house. Thank you God and Pickards for making the deck wider then even I imagined so I don't have to worry if I'll be able to get him into the house. I decided that it's probably going to be easier to move his bed into the dining room. Plus that way, he won't be stuck in his room and he can be out where more of the action is.
Then I started worrying about getting Zeke to therapy. Even though we won't be starting school again until at least the 18th, I'll need to take him to physical therapy at the hospital three times a week. It's a bit complicated getting situated in a vehicle because his legs pretty much stick straight out and his back needs to recline. He also has to have his legs propped up on something soft during transport (not resting on a folded-down seat in front of him) In addition, it really takes 2 people to get him in and out, one holding his top half and one holding his legs/casts. I was begining to panic about how I was going to be able to do all of that myself and take the baby. Let's just say that lots of worrying was going around and around in my head the last few days.
Then I finally realized that I've fallen in the same trap again of thinking I have to do it all myself. I'd forgotten to hand it over to God. I'd turned the surgery over but once that was done, I was back to my own controlling self. So last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I envisioned all my worries about returning home circling around in my head like a giant tornado. It was litteraly making me sick. It was huge and seemed to take over my whole life. Then I gave the whole thing back to God. The whole enormous tornado just swept right up to Him. And the funny thing is, once He had it, it was just a little mini tornado that he stuck in a tiny little jar and watched over. I feel so much better that He's got it all taken care of and I don't have to worry about it anymore!

Are You Tired of Pictures Yet?

Bath time!

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Brothers

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Anthony

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Presents

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More presents & cards

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Cake

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Eating cake while surrounded by lots of his stuff 

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Riley & Anthony enjoying Zeke's cake

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The Child Life Specialist bringing Zeke a birthday present,

SpongeBob dominoes

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One of the nurses doing a sand art project with Zeke

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And the night was made complete with a phone call from Grandma Lori to wish Zeke a happy birthday.

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