Follow up with the doctor today...

Today was Drostan's first post-op appointment. The doctor was still raving about how it was the coolest surgery of the year and that they'd be talking about this one for a long time. He seemed very happy with how Drostan was healing and now he just has a small dressing over the stitches and gets to wear a boot. They will take the stitches out in a week. Drostan seems to be doing better with the pain today and we're able to stretch the pain meds out a little longer. Yay! I thought I'd take a picture of the incision since many have asked how big it is. Again, only if you want to look. :-) It's not as bad as the other photo, I promise! The small hole above the stitches is where they had to have a drain for a day.

Click here to see the stitches

We went on a walk around the block. Drostan thought is was fun to try to go faster than I could keep up. He's pretty good on those crutches! He got a little scooter thing to put his knee on but right now it's hurting him to use it so we'll stick with the crutches for a little longer.

Just for fun, I thought I'd include a picture of the baby. He's getting so big and loving the stairs so we had to get a gate. He's been pretty good around Daddy's foot and is being amazing with how little I've been able to be with him. All the kids have been so helpful and really patient through all of this. It sure helps to have Nana here this week helping out!

What crazy things come out of our mouths when we're high!

I woke up at 1 am to give Drostan his pain meds and he was higher than a kite! lol I tried to sit him up and he just sat there with his eyes shut and this big ol' grin on his face. I was laughing so hard. He wouldn't open his eyes, just smile and give me double peace signs. So we barely make it into the bathroom without him falling over and he sees himself in the mirror and says, "wow, I'm sexy!" Kind of with a little accent. Then, washing his hands, he falls onto the wall a bit and his eyes get huge and he says, "how did I get here?" So we finally make it back to the couch (barely) and he sits and puts his leg back up and says, "wow, my ankle really hurts? Why does it hurt so much?" I tell him it's because he needs another pain pill but he is just totally confused. I go make him a piece of bread since he needs to take it with food and he says, "ooo, it's warm! You're pretty! Did you get all made up to come down here for me? Seriously, you're hot!" lol Then he starts talking about how he has a Sting song stuck in his head and then says, "do you remember our first kiss? It was to a Sting song! That was one of the 5 best days of my life."

He really is funny but I'm so glad he's not normally like this! It's kind of freaky.

Some people have asked to see a picture of him that isn't so gory so this is my sweet Drostan as he is now at home.


We set up the stools around his foot so the kids couldn't get too close and bump it. So far it's only happened once but that was enough!

His cousin brought over his guitar hero game for him to play so he's been working on his rocker skills to keep him from getting too bored.

Small update on Drostan

We are home now. Last night was tough for Drostan though. The pain meds just were not working and he was pretty miserable. He suggested changing the medicine to the orthopedic doc and he agreed. The new medicine has been working great so he got to come home tonight! Yay!!! 

Again, thank you so much for everything that is being done for us. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing family and friends!

Our exciting weekend of ER visits and compound fractures!

What a weekend this turned out to be! Saturday morning, I playing in 3 volleyball games only to have our team lose in the very last game of the tournament. We had a great time though and I've been loving getting back into playing volleyball. Right after the game was when the guys came in to play basketball. Our ward had 2 teams and they played each other in the first game and then we had another game right after to play another ward. So the kids and I stayed and they were running around playing and I was on the stage watching Drostan play. About 10 minutes into the second game, I was doing something with the baby and someone grabbed my arm and said, "Jenn, it's Drostan!" I looked out on the court thinking he was shooting a free-throw or something and that's when I saw him, down at the other end of the court screaming in pain and just crawling around on the floor. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen and heard in my life! Someone yelled for someone to call 911. I ran to my phone but couldn't get my fingers to work. I was shaking too much. Then someone else told me that it was already being taken care of so I ran over to be with Drostan. 

We have a chiropractor and a physical therapist on the team and they were working to stabilize his foot. I looked down and saw that his foot was no longer facing down, but it was at a 90 degree angle facing the other foot! It was so gross! Drostan was going into shock because he was in so much pain and we were all trying to help in any way we can. Thank goodness we had so much priesthood around us. They immediately found some consecrated oil and gave him a blessing. I was pretty shaken and having a hard time with all of it but so many close friends were there taking care of us. Some had immediately gone to make sure my kids didn't see Drostan like this, (thank goodness they were playing in the nursery room at the time), others were taking care of my baby, and others were just trying to help calm me down. 

The paramedics got there and were able to start an iv and give him some morphine for the pain. It was kind of freaky to see his eyes get all glassed over but I was so glad he was doing a little better. They slowly started to cut off his sock and realized they had to cut his shoe off too because any movement was just excruciating. After getting a few inches down on the sock, we saw some blood and that's when we found out it was a compound fracture. That means that his fibula (one of the long bones in your lower leg) had gone clear through the skin and was poking out about an inch! We did the best we could to help him get through the paramedics cutting his shoe into a half a dozen pieces to get it off and them checking to see if he could wiggle his toes (again, excruciating) and if his foot had a pulse. Thankfully it did so they stabilized it in a pillow and got him into the ambulance and we were off to the hospital. 

In the ER, it was kind of funny to see all of the nurses and other hospital staff trying to come by and take a look. I guess you don't see that kind of thing too often. I had my camera with me because I had been taking pictures of the volleyball team so I snapped a shot of his foot because I knew he'd want to see it later when he wasn't in to much pain. I thought about posting it here but then decided to just post a link for anyone brave enough to look. :-)

Click to see Drostan's foot

They x-rayed it and then gave him some more pain meds and a sedative to put him half asleep (they couldn't put him totally out because he had eaten recently) and they set his foot so it was facing the right way. Thankfully he doesn't remember that! They did some more x-rays and then the orthopedic surgeon came in and said there were a few people ahead of him in the O.R. and we'd have to sit tight for a while until they could operate. That was at about 4:30pm and they finally got him into surgery just after 9! 

The doctor said it went very well. He was kind of geeked up over it saying he had never seen anything that bad. Technically, the talus bone had completely torn away from the fibula... in English, that means the bone in your ankle that your leg sits on had completely torn off of the leg bone and all the ligaments with it and so his foot was basically being held on by skin and a few tendons. He said that he was able to bring all of the tendons back together where they were supposed to be anatomically and patch them up. There was a muscle/tendon that ruptured and could not be repaired so he took that one out. It was the one that makes the pinky toe flex or come up so he'll just have to live without that. :-) 

All in all, he's doing as well as can be expected. He's in a good amount of pain and today, physical therapy was getting him up and teaching him to use crutches and making sure he can do stairs before he comes home on Monday. He has to be completely off of it for 6-8 weeks and then they will reassess his progress and see if they need to go in again and put pins or anything else in there. Thank you for all of your prayers and kind words. Thank you so much to all those who have already helped so much with the children and with meals. We certainly have felt very loved. He's going to be pretty bored here at home for a couple of weeks so any calls or visits are welcome. We're hoping he may be able to go back to work in a couple of weeks but we're not going to push it. Cross your fingers that we don't drive each other nuts! ;-)

How long has THIS been going on!? :-S

Yesterday I was busy making dinner for us and another family with sick kids. I was a little later than I wanted to be so I was a bit hurried and not paying attention to the kids. I noticed Megan drinking a drink and thought to myself, huh, I never heard the sink go on. So I asked her where she got the drink and in such a matter-of-fact voice she put her hands out and said, "the toilet!" Like Duh, that's where you get drinks from when you are my size! I was mortified. Drostan was on the phone and just about lost it trying not to bust out laughing. So, I wonder how long that has been going on! :-S

And a photo just for fun... Dallin making faces and Jaron lovin' his older brother...

The strength we all have inside of us...

This past year has been a toughy but has been one of the biggest growing experiences of my life. I have learned what a strong person I am and what I can accomplish if I put my mind to it. I think I learned that most because of my amazing husband and the faith that he has in me. 

I think it started when I decided to have our 4th child naturally. I had always thought that women who did that were nuts! :-) Boy was I wrong. With Drostan's support and faith and encouragement, he helped me to see that I was just as strong as every other woman out there who had been doing this for centuries! After Jaron's birth, I felt like I could conquer the world and I have tried to not let anything get me down since. 

My next goal I'm trying to accomplish has to do with my health. Having 4 babies in 6.5 years does a number on the body and this past year really showed it. When I was about 32 weeks pregnant, I decided to move the living room furniture around by myself and ended up really straining my back. Nothing much could be done until after the baby was born so I just had to last for those final 8 weeks. Ever so slowly, I was able to start working out again, teaching aerobics, and trying to strengthen my core to help my back. In the process my feet were giving me problems and I ended up with orthotics from the Podiatrist. Yeah, now I'm really feeling old! Slowly but surely, I was getting stronger and able to do more. 

A friend asked me to be part of a group that was running a relay race in Northern Utah in June '08. I am NOT a runner and never have been but I knew that if I put my mind to it, I could accomplish anything! Hey, I had over 8 months to train! So, I signed up and became part of a team that was going to run the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay.  There are 12 of us and we will end up running the 178 miles from Logan to Park City! We each run 3 legs of the race; my legs are 5 miles, 3 miles, and then 5 miles again totaling about 13 miles. Yeah, that's a 1/2 marathon! Crazy? Yes! Doable? Absolutely. So, I've been training and running and have only gotten up to 4 miles but by the time June rolls around, I'll be ready! I'm so excited. Another side effect from this is that since last June, I have lost 25 lbs and 11% body fat! I'm still not to my goal but I'm closer than I ever have been in the past 7 years. I feel amazing! I feel strong! Again, I feel like I could conquer the world if I just put my mind to it!!!

How about an overview of what we've been up to!

Here is a picture of our home when we moved in in June, 2006. We've changed the landscaping and are no longer the only ones in the middle of a huge field! Yay! Now that we have neighbors though, Drostan is feeling a bit claustrophobic. He really liked having some space. 

Soon after we moved here, we found out that baby #4 was on the way! Here is Jenn at 40 weeks and 1 day. (Day before delivery)

Our 3rd sweet little boy, Jaron, was born on May 3rd, 2007. Early in the pregnancy, I had felt very strongly about preparing to do this labor and delivery completely naturally. I had had epidurals and inductions with my other 3 and had done just fine but I just felt like we needed to prepare differently for this one. To make a long story very short, I did a home study course on Hypnobirthing and was able to not only go into labor on my own, but have a completely unmedicated and absolutely fantastic birth experience! It was the most intense thing I've ever been through but was just perfect. From the first contractions that made me think it could be the real thing (I went on a walk with Kyle, then 6, around the block to keep the contractions going) to the time I was done delivering was only 4 hours. Only 1.5 of those were in the hospital room. Drostan was so incredibly supportive and my Mom and sister were also able to be there. 

Ok, enough about that... on to the kids! Kyle has loved playing soccer...

... and enjoyed his Kindergarten class last year.

He has gotten so tall and towers over all of his classmates at over 4'2" in 1st grade! He's very into Magnetix and Legos and building things and making up stories. He is currently going to a Magnet school that is run by the district but focuses on math and technology. He is doing great!

Dallin was able to try soccer this past Spring '07 and T-Ball and did very well...

He is so much more shy than Kyle is. It's amazing how different siblings can be. He started pre-school in the Fall but would be perfectly happy staying home with me all day every day if I let him. He just loves to be with his family. One day, while climbing on the bathroom counter, he slipped and hit his front tooth. Over the next few weeks, it started to go black and cause him pain so he got to take a trip to Daddy's work and lose his first tooth before Kyle did. That was pretty cool! 

Megan was such a sweet little girl. :-) She's always loved to let Mommy play with her hair.

Then she turned 2 and Jaron was born and she decided to get an opinion... on EVERYTHING! lol It took a few month of tantrums to get her back but we've pretty much got our sweet Megan again, but she has kept her strong will! I wonder where she gets that from? She was adorable on Halloween as Jojo, from Disney's Jojo's Circus. 

Cute little Jaron was Squirt from Finding Nemo...

Not the greatest pic of him, but you get the picture. I guess I should go back a bit and show some shots of him from the beginning...

He's definitely one of ours! I think we have 1 basic mold for all of our kids. :-) He's been the best baby we've had so far. So sweet and good and smiley! 

His favorite thing has been his 2 middle fingers. They have been a built in pacifier from about 4 weeks old!

At age 4 months, he just stopped growing. He was the same weight at his 6 month check up and then again at 7 months. He wouldn't take a bottle but only wanted to nurse for about 3 minutes on each side and then he would scream. He didn't want solids either. After trying hard to get him to eat and a couple threats of feeding tubes, the doctor decided to try Prevacid to see if maybe it was silent reflux. He never spits up but the acid in his stomach would start acting up and hurting him when he would eat so he would just stop. After 2 weeks on the Prevacid, he gained a pound and a half and there has been no turning back! He'd now gaining just fine and even happier than ever, if that was even possible. He is such a joy!

Ok, this is turning into a HUGE post. I'd better wrap it up. I'll update about Drostan and his practice and about me and a race I'm training for in a few days. At least this starts us out! 

Testing, testing...1,2,3

Just trying to join the rest of the world! More to come...