gingerheadman

when abe asked if he could get a vine account, the answer was, "YES!"  we knew it would be entertaining and some great post-op summer fun.  the best part about it is he calls himself 'gingerheadman'

here's a sample of his work.

enjoy!

#1-  TJ MAXX

my sister LOVES tj maxx so this is probably dedicated to her.  it's such a random store!  really, who is out searching for a ceramic frog on a mushroom?!  in case you can't tell, abe says, "perfect!"

#2-  lets get max dressed.

#3-  more of tj maxx's amazing product:)

and hunkman to the rescue.

 haha!  

my kids have made some pretty great stopmotion videos as well.  

i think i love it so much partly because it reminds me of the movies dave made when he was a kid....anyone remember the old bouncing bagel?  entertaining!

back at it

week 6:  abe headed back to soccer practice.  looked good.

when i asked him how he felt, he said he got a side ache, but that's normal:)

 week 7:  abe spent the week at BYU soccer camp.  

it was a big decision to send him or not, but decided it would be good for him.  dave made sure to tell the coaches and trainers to watch out for him.  i wasn't able to go see him, so i sent my parents to check on him.  my mom talked to his coach (who somehow didn't know about abe's surgery) and he said abe was playing awesome and that he would have never known!  

seven weeks post surgery and he's playing soccer for about six hours a day.  amazing.  he was so excited because he scored three times.   when i talked to him on the phone, i asked if he felt ok or if he felt anything weird.  he said, "i have a mosquito bite on my elbow and i got hit in the head by a door."  

haha!  

at this point in time, we love mosquito bites! 

follow-up

post-operation goal:  keep calm.  abe was feeling so good after his surgery that he wanted to jump back into being active.  i kept finding myself telling him to go have some screen time:)  unusual.

we went to his two week follow up appointment.  i was so anxious to hear what the doctors had to say. abe kept looking pale to me and i was pretty nervous about it.  

they tested him and said he looked perfect.  so good that we didn't need to come back because they didn't know what else they would check.  he looked pale because he had surgery and lost a lot of blood.  they told me i could give him iron if i felt like it, but that it would just a take a little time for his color to return.  they cleared him to swim, which he was ecstatic about because our family parties started the next day, but he still had to wait til the six week mark for sports to give his sternum time to heal.  overall, they thought he looked amazing.  yeah!  good news!!!!

 our first real "walk" post surgery.  

this summer was not what we expected, but has been a summer of faith and miracles and prayer.  it has taught us so much!  

miracle

saturday, june 8th, the infectious disease doctors rounded on us.  they were still waiting to hear back from the lab.  abe had been exposed to bacteria from the nail, so during surgery, they swabbed his heart and they were growing the bacteria.  it looked like it was something really concerning (can't remember the name) which would leave us in the hospital for about ten days with iv antibiotics or something not as serious and we would go home with oral antibiotics.

the lab paged the doctor when he was in our room....negative!  abe could go home with oral antibiotics.  that's it.  less than four days after getting shot in the heart with a nail and then open heart surgery, he was going home with a pill.  

miracle.

abe celebrated by doing the running man!!! 

yep, my husband has passed this awesome dance move down to his son:)

HAPPY DAY!!!!

 one last cardio check...sounds perfect.

 abe enjoyed a ride to the door, where he hopped up and walked himself to the car.

 what a ride!  

 our amazing neighbors had this sign waiting for us....and brought in dinners for a week.  my kids were thrilled to have good food for a whole week!

it felt good to be home!

and a little strange to do the ordinary....we experienced something so completely spiritual and miraculous.  but, at the same time, excited we still get do the ordinary and that i get to see this smile everyday! 

 i seriously love this kid.  he has a work to do...

and he's good to go!

visitors welcome

so many people visited abe and were concerned about him. 

sadie wanted to spend as much time in the hospital with abe as possible.  they had a good time chatting, eating all of abe's treats and watching movies.

(abe kept asking when his brothers and vivian were going to come.  he missed them!)
dave's family came and brought the little kids.  vivian was so excited to see abe.  she didn't waste any time.  she dove onto the bed, climbed up on him....

forget about the incision, she kissed and kissed him!

lori works for life flight and was on the helicopter with abe.  she was concerned and wanted to see how he was doing.  it was a pleasure to meet her and hear all about her side of the story.  i could tell when she talked about the 12 minute flight that she was determined to get him there.  

she couldn't believe how great abe looked.  

we had the privilege of visiting with her for about an hour.   after she left, i knew abe was in good hands during his flight to primarys.

i wish i had pictures of all of the cousins and aunts and uncles that came, as well as neighbors and ward members.  people brought treats and get well gifts.  i especially loved hearing about when they found out about abe and their experiences praying for him.  it was powerful and moving.  i'm pretty sure this miracle was not just for us.  i hope people realize that miracles still happen, that god has a hand in our lives, and there is a plan.  i know it and i feel it!~ 

some of abe's awesome friends.

the child life specialist also paid abe a visit.  they exchanged some pretty 12 year old friendly jokes:)
my fave was abe's:
(because everyone LOVES to talk about bodily functions in a hospital, right?)

"have you seen the movie, 'constipation'?"
no.
"that's because it hasn't come out yet."
haha!

she also gave him some homemade silly putty to create...

and hospital dolls to decorate and dress.  they came with a bag full of supplies to doctor your doll anyway you want.  she gave one to his little brothers and his cousins that were visiting.  it was awesome to see how each child 'took care' of their patient.

i decided not to analyze abe's too much since he colored his red all over the back--sunburned of course, gave him a six pack and an anchor tatoo, and said it was a sumo wrestler.  not sure what a play therapist would get out of that one.  it was entertaining, and they all really liked decorating their doll.

visiting the new playroom at primary's.  

when abe had some down time...

 he would try to get a new personal record on his incentive spirometer!

a new PR...2500 ml! woohoo!

looks who's walking

abe didn't waste much time.  once those chest tubes were gone, he wanted to be up and moving.  slowly the first time, but made huge progress fast!  

one of my favorite hospital memories was abe's humor and wit.  he and i think the same things are funny and he makes me laugh every day.  i crawled up on his bed with him thursday morning and we were talking....then laughing.  his sense of humor was well in tact, although it hurt to laugh.  he almost banned me from his room!  

even though we were recovering from a traumatic event, it was great to have dave around all week and spend time together.  we saw amazing things hourly and felt so much love and support!

'let your heart rejoice'

hospital days all seem to blend together.  i'm trying to remember what happened on what day, but it kind of feels like one big post-op day.  we were moved from picu to post op less than 24 hours after the surgery, which puts us to wednesday afternoon.  

abe started to move around, at least to go to the bathroom.  he moved slowly at first.  we had to support his back and help him up, but hour by hour he improved.  by thurday, he was pretty independent and moving better.  he was still in some pain, but mostly from his chest tubes that were draining from the surgery.  once he had moved around enough, with minimal drainage they could come out.  he thought they were annoying and uncomfortable.

 thursday morning they came to do take them out.  he wanted them removed, but was pretty nervous.

 our first look at his incision--it looked good!
(if you look closely at the bottom of his incision to the right, you can see a little red dot.  that was where the nail entered..aka the bullet hole)

 she took the pacemaker wires out, then the chest tubes.  abe said it felt like a worm being pulled from his body.  it hurt a little, but mostly weirded him out.  once they were out, he improved and felt so much better!

he didn't need any more pain medicine.  well, he took tylenol a couple times, but when they tried to give him more and asked him to rate his pain, he said, ".75"  the nurse laughed--never heard that response.  after that, he did not want tylenol.  he said, "i have no pain."  i will never forget those words.  less than 48 hours after his open heart surgery, where they completely opened him up (which included breaking his sternum) he felt no pain!    

they took another chest x-ray.  his heart looked great.  he continued to improve so quickly. 

his iv's bothered him so they removed one and replaced the iv in his hand.  when they took it out, i was surprised--it was huge!  no wonder it hurt!  primary children's has an iv team...they called the 'specialists' who were amazing!  they gave him an air pressure shot to numb the area, then they slipped the iv right in on the first try!  we were in awe!  they had heard all about abe, and told him he was famous in the hospital.  they asked if they could see the nail:)   

abe was given a priesthood blessing by his papa john the night before his echo cardiogram.  he told abe that people loved him quickly.  for some reason i remember that line, maybe because i could feel all the people that were concerned for him.  he also blessed abe that his body would be able to do everything it had done in the past.
we were anxious to get the echo cardiogram.  we thought the nail had not penetrated into his left ventricle, but were not completely sure.  from the first report, it looked like it did, but in surgery they thought it stopped at the septum.  this ultrasound was the tell all.  it would show what the real damage was and tell us how his heart was functioning.  

 i remember sitting there feeling way too calm.  i knew i should be nervous, but i couldn't even make myself feel nervous.  i still felt this strength that was not my own.  i would catch myself laughing at the movie on the ceiling (it was a funny movie-mega mind) and then i would remember that my son was having an echo cardiogram to show if his heart was ok.  

i watched the ultra sound screen and saw the valves of his heart.  it seriously looked like a cartoon abe would draw and i couldn't help but smile.  it looked like a fat guy on the left and a really skinny guy on the right and every time the valve would close it looked like they were giving each other high five...over and over!  i kept thinking abe's heart is high five-ing!   probably rejoicing.  really, it did it.  it made it through!  i tried to get a picture, but missed it.   i headed back to the room before it was finished because we had some visitors waiting.  i could feel so many people's prayers and knew heavenly father had a hand in all of this.  the spirit in the room was so strong. 

i didn't understand anything watching the ultra sound, but i just knew it had to be good....and it was.  the report came back-- his heart looked normal, was functioning completely normally and they couldn't even tell where it had happened.  miracle!  really.  a real life miracle.  it makes me cry to even think about it.

48 hours after surgery and cardio-wise, there was no reason for him to be in the hospital.  we were now just waiting on labs to see what abe had been exposed to by the nail and what course of antibiotics would be needed.  the lab could tell something was growing and there was a chance we would be in the hospital with iv antibiotics.  so...we were extremely grateful, improving, praying for no infection, and waiting.

sadie took this picture of the nail...pretty crazy!

bless abe's broken heart- part 4

the PICU was different... i'd never thought about it before, but if i had, i would have imagined it the set up differently.  abe wasn't awake yet but out of surgery and we could finally go see him.   around 9pm we entered the PICU through two huge doors, then wound around to a room surrounded and enclosed with curtains.  there was abe.  he looked small compared to the wall of machines he was hooked to.  he was intubated and had so many monitors.  still sedated, you could tell he had been through a lot....but he was there and alive!  he made it through.  he looked so pale and very still except the machine breathing for him.  i talked to him because i knew he could hear me.  my dad, dave's parents, and my brother pat, took short turns coming back to see him.  my mom was in europe and we couldn't get a hold of her. everyone else went home, relieved that abe was to this point.

abe had a nurse sitting at a desk at the foot of his bed at all times.  this was comforting.  they seemed thorough, and a little more relaxed than i would have imagined-- being the picu and all.  around 10pm dave's sister and her husband brought us a bag of stuff from our house.  it was greatly appreciated since we were both still in our dirty yard work clothes.  about then, abe started to wake up.  he was uncomfortable with the breathing tube.  later he told me how stressful it was to wake up with something down his throat.  so as soon as he was awake enough, they took it out.  that was hard.  it made him cough (ouch) and it was super painful to even breath.  his throat was sore and every time his chest moved it hurt.  they gave him his pain medicine pump that he could push every few minutes. he was thirsty, but still couldn't drink anything.  

dave and i both wanted to stay right by abe, but in the picu, only one of us could sleep in his "room".  they didn't mind if we both stayed as long as one of us was awake.  we decided to do shifts.  i wanted to stay awake and watch abe anyway so the deal was that i would wake dave up at 3:30am and we would switch.  dave was exhausted and fell asleep.  

abe was pretty out of it, but would wake up in awful pain about every hour.  i sat huddled in the bottom corner of his bed.  i wanted him to know i was there and i wanted to comfort him, so i rubbed his legs and feet almost the entire night.  i needed to watch him breath, watch his heart beat, and be there when he woke up.  finally, around 5:30am, the nurse was checking him or something and dave woke up.  he wanted me to lay down, so after he promised me he would stay awake and watch abe breath, i fell asleep.

i woke up a little after 7 to the sound of abe and dave talking away.  it was a completely different scene than i fell asleep to a couple hours earlier!   i couldn't believe it.   abe remembered everything and looked so much better.  my brother pat stopped on his way to work to see us and he couldn't believe it either.  he did not expect to see abe looking so good.  it was amazing.  

abe kept improving and by the end of the day, they were ready to release us from the PICU!  

 prepping him to move to post-op

 pat gave him a hat so he wouldn't have crazy bed head in every picture:)  

 later, abe told me he was nervous in the ICU.  he shared a room (divided by a curtain) with a three year old boy that cried and cried. i talked to the boys mom and luckily, he was going to be ok and i was happy to give abe that report....but, between his concern for the little boy and being hooked up to all the monitors, it felt like a pretty intense place. 

 happy to be leaving the ICU--and making progress!

bless abe's broken heart- part 3

 i pulled into the primary children's parking space and my phone rang.  it was dave's dad.  he told me he had just seen abe, he was stable, but pretty nervous.  papa john was able to talk with him, comfort him, and be a familiar face before he headed back to surgery.  I think john said abe even smiled at him.  i am so sad i wasn't there when abe got off the helicopter to comfort him, but i think back and am amazed that john made it there in time and i'm so thankful he was there so abe could see someone he loved.   it was a tender mercy for sure because i didn't call or text him.  i must have, in my shaky, hurried, first text, sent the message to my sister-in-laws email.  she quickly saw it, which is amazing to me, called tim, dave's brother who was in a meeting.  he left and called john, who answered which he doesn't do at work.  john left work and drove, making it in time to see abe.  a lot had to happen for him to be there.

it was good news that abe made it through the flight and was stable as he headed into surgery.  i got out of my car and saw dave walking through the emergency room doors.  we met and checked in, then someone led upstairs to a waiting room with john.  they also said two of my brothers were already there but were in a different waiting area.  they left to find them.  i was surprised that pat and kelly were there- and so quickly.  they dropped everything and came.  the waiting room seemed tiny, closed in, with no windows.  i remember thinking it was not a good spot to put someone who had a long wait with an uncertain outcome.  also, i wasn't sure i wanted a lot of people around me, not knowing what would happen, but when i saw family, i was so glad they came.  it was nice to know they cared so much and that people were praying for abe.  we had a lot of social workers checking on us, and giving us instructions.  i'm sure i didn't hear much of it.  i waited intently for the updates.  i was grateful when they came.  the first one i remember came in the tiny room.  they told us abe was doing fine.  they were prepping him for the surgery.  i didn't realized that the prep was so involved.  they put pace maker wires in, there was a by pass machine all ready to go in case they needed it, plus all kind of precautions.  they were prepared for just about anything.   

my brother marty, dave's mom and brother tim, showed up about that time.  they moved us to the conference room next to the waiting room.  more space and chairs.  it felt good to breath without the walls being on top of us and it was nice to know that our family dropped everything and came.   dave's siblings were gathering at our house with our kids also.  that was comforting.  i felt a lot of support from people and still felt strength from divine help.

an update came ten minutes into the surgery.  he was still stable and doing well.

i prayed.  walked the halls with my brother.  i can't remember what we said, but i was grateful he was there.  i sat in the hall by myself, needing a minute alone and just wanting to be the first to see the doctor's face and hear the update.  it was a long wait and so strange that somewhere in the hospital, my abe's life was in a stranger's hands.  somewhere he was having open heart surgery and i was waiting.   i remember sitting in the conference room alone with dave for a few minutes.  dave cried more than i have ever seen him cry.  i told him that i knew heavenly father was in charge.  i felt it so much.  dave told me abe was going to make it.  i wanted to believe him. 

every time the door opened, i wanted it to be an update.  mostly it was social workers asking if we needed anything.  the only thing i needed was to know how abe was doing.  i didn't want to drink or eat.  finally (it was a four and a half hour surgery) the door opened, and one of the doctors came in.  i was trying to read his face.  he quickly said,  "first of all, he did great."  i was so relieved.  they didn't have to put him on by pass.  his heart kept beating throughout the surgery.  

we had family prayer with all of us together in the conference room.  my brother kelly said it and the spirit in the room was so powerfully strong.  my sister in law showed up with sandwiches for everyone and the mood lightened a little.  everyone was relieved, and hopeful.  

the surgeon came in and sat down with us and drew out the whole surgery on paper.  they removed a two and a half inch nail from the right ventricle of abe's heart. this was the first time we knew what it was- a nail. he said it looked like the septum was bruised but not punctured and may have stopped the nail from entering the left ventricle.  he had blood in the sac around his heart, but his heart had formed a blood clot around the nail and the nail had acted as a plug so that abe didn't bleed out.  he felt like the surgery went as well as it could have gone.

i remember sitting there listening to him in awe.  i felt so small.  i knew he had prepared for so long so that he could be prepared for this surgery.  i was so grateful that he had worked hard and prepared well and that he was ready when abe needed help.  so grateful.  i told my kids later to prepare to do something awesome.  work hard so they can make a difference.  (sadie text me the nicest note about how i prepared to be their mom and how i make a difference for them--it was so thoughtful)  he gave us the nail he removed.  crazy.  also, listening to the things he said about the nail and abe's heart,  i knew abe had been protected and blessed!  

we still had a long way to go, but we made it! i didn't know what the recovery would be like, but i knew i was grateful for one!  after one of the updates when i still didn't know what would happen (and a few other times later when we hit little milestones in the hospital) i had the words "let your heart rejoice" go across my mind.  it was a scripture from relief society the sunday before.  i did.  i LET my heart feel and rejoice.  i recognized heavenly father's hand and the miracle that had just occurred.  i felt the strength of prayer, family and faith and i was so humbled and so, so grateful.  throughout the hospital stay and even now, i think about that scripture that went through my mind and realize that heavenly father wants my heart to rejoice and i know abe's heart will too.