Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Brayden's Accident , Part 2
After he ate some of his waffle mom and I left the hospital and went to the hotel leaving Greg with Brayden. Even though he was in a diaper, you would have to help him pee in his magic bucket because he wouldn't use the diaper flat out refused. He told the nurses then us he was a big boy and big boys don't use diapers or magic pants as they tried to convince him they were. My boy didn't buy that. Mom and I went back to the hotel tried to get some sleep, hoping Greg was doing the same. I slept some but the rest didn't feel restful. I was sleeping 7 or 8 hours at least a night a feeling like I got a 20 minute nap in.
After we got up and got a good shower and breakfast we headed back to the hospital. When we got there Greg had already seen most of the doctors on rounds and there was no real change in his condition. His eyes were swollen shut so he couldn't see. The swelling was so bad that the doctors couldn't make a decision on the surgery yet, waiting on that till the swelling goes down.At this point 36 hours after the accident he had been awake and aware for maybe a total of an hour, maybe. He was asleep , so he was healing which was a good thing. At lunch Greg and his mom went to the store picked up McDonald's and came back. Brayden who we thought was asleep said something we couldn't hear. We asked what he said , so he repeated himself very loudly " I said french fry". He smelt the french fries, he couldn't see them but he knew they were there and wanted them , now! We feed him the french fried. He ate all of mine , most of mom's. My baby was coming back just kinda sneaky;). HA!
He still couldn't see so all we could do was read to him. The staff at Children's was amazing they brought him tons of books. They brought him a Mater remote controlled car. They brought him a book that had a cd of the story and a cd player so he could listen to it at all times. He was awake a lot now excerpt we didn't know when he was. He was quiet and his eyes were shut. You would know he was awake when you would hear random " french fry , please!" or " muffin" or "waffle". It would come out of no where. You would be in mid sentence and he would interrupt with it. It was funny but it meant a lot more. It meant my baby boy was getting back to himself.
I was getting calls constantly. Emails too. We started updating facebook as much as we could because it was just easier, it could get the message out faster. One of our phones ( Greg, mom or me) was almost always on the charger. Mom said she would stay with him that night, which made her boy happy, he sure does love his sweetie. Greg and I went left for the night about 8. WE stopped at Outback for dinner because I NEEDED a drink . I needed to be out where people were . I needed a break. We had a nice dinner and we relaxed, if only a little . We got sleep that night and were back at it again in the morning. Dad had finally been able to book his flight and work out the details of coming up. At that point it had been decided that Kaitlyn would go back to Florida with mom when she went home. Tuesday want much change, random food requests and I got go potty a billion times ( he was still on IV meds ) and some read to me that Woody story or Lightning BaQueen ( as he says it) story. I felt that I could stay with him that night. I had been having a hard time being around him for long periods of time. Seeing my baby so broken was killing me. But I knew in my heart he was going to be okay now and that he would love to have mommy.
Mom and Greg went back to the hotel about 830 or so and did whatever they did ( I wasn't with them I don't know ! LOL) I went to the snack machine and got some chips and when I got back I was in trouble with a handsome little boy because I didn't bring him any. Guess who ate my chips and drank my sweet tea? You guessed it not me.HA! I would have given him anything at that point and he knew it! I got some sleep that night but like I've said I would sleep 7 hours , 8 hours and felt like I took a nap. It wasn't restful sleep. It was worried sleep. I would here nurses and CNAs come in doing there thing . I would here nosies in the hall or a light would get brighter in the hall. Plus sleeping on a small recliner type/size chair that pulls out to a bed isn't exactly the most comfortable sleep , either. And the whole yelling for french fries in the middle of the night things, not as cute now. When Greg and mom returned in the morning they brought me breakfast and had picked up Dad from the airport. I could see it in his face, when he saw Brayden. He hurt for my baby. I saw it in mom's face too. Other than that first moment they saw him, they didn't show it they were here and very supportive and for that I am grateful.
They forced us to go to lunch that day, practically kicked us out of Brayden's room. I was mad. I didn't want to leave him. They were right though. We needed a break. We walked to get lunch 5 or 6 blocks away ( no easy task in Alabama in June , might I add). We had lunch sat and talked. On they way back it was time for another happy meal, Greg walked over to McDonald's I walked back to the room. When I walked in to the room , there was stuff all over his bed . He was sitting up and he said " Hi , mommy." I said " hi , baby " He replied with " I can open my eye now" After almost 5 days I could see his beautiful blue eye. It was only one then the left one but it could open. I hugged him was about to sit down next to him and ask where all the new stuff had come from, what department when I heard a noise I looked up and there was Kimmie ( Greg's cousin) and Aunt Cindy ( dad's sister). I was in shock gave them hugs and thanked them for coming. Greg got back about 5 or 10 minutes later at most. Same thing happened with him all excited about the one eye opening and then shock about Kimmie and Aunt Cindy ;). I volunteered to stay again that night. I know Greg when he and any of his cousins get together and when he's with Aunt Cindy. I was gonna get more sleep at the hospital than anyone at the hotel, anyway!HA!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Brayden's Accident , Part 1
One month ago yesterday my life and that of my family changed for ever. It started off great. We were having fun at Kaitlyn's team swim party for softball. We ate pizza and cookie cake and the girls got their trophies. We were all having a blast , swimming , shooting water guns and going off the diving board. Everyone was having a great time , all of my family included and then it happened and the world changed.
Greg was going off the diving board . Brayden was waiting till daddy got finished on the ground beside the diving board. I tuned away so not to get splashed by big boy. When I turned back saw the diving board falling in the pool on top of my husband. I felt sheer panic for him but he popped up said he was okay and was wanting to find the coach whose house we were at to apologize. Then I heard panic behind me. I looked up from in the pool to see one of the coach's holding my son who looked dead. He was limp and covered in blood. When daddy was going off the diving board he heard it creak he bent down to investigate and when the board broke it hit my baby. My sweet kind small for a 3 year but almost 5 year ole baby. By the time I swam to the stairs and got out they had already called 911. It still didn't hit me how bad it was. One of the other mom's is a nurse and kept telling the coach on the phone they needed to hurry. They asked me what hospital, I said RMC, still not realizing how bad things were. In what was only 5 minutes or so but seemed like 3 hours the ambulance arrived. The EMT took one look at my handsome boy and said " No,mommy this baby isn't going anywhere near RMC we are airlifting him to Children's" .
I sent Greg with the ambulance to take him to meet the helicopter. I understood we couldn't ride the helicopter with him but someone needed to go with him now, daddy was to upset to drive and I thought maybe I could. The ambulance took him to Word Alive's parking lot and waited for the helicopter , while we were waiting for the ambulance one of the moms called Greg's mom and dad, then Toni. Toni raced to me to get me to Word Alive. We spoke with the ambulance driver and EMTs. All of Oxford FD and police seemed to be there to help. The helicopter arrived and we knew he was in good hands, so we took Greg home to put on clothes and change. WE grabbed Brayden's Elmo ( his blankey) and his Blue's clues stuffed animal and raced to Birmingham. It was the longest hour in the car on the way down there. I spoke to Greg's mom who had been told it was Greg that was Hurst not Brayden. All I could get out when she asked if she needed to come was a squeaky " it's bad " .As we were getting off I 20 we got a call from the hospital that he was being brought up to PICU after his MRI and CAT scan. She told us where to park and where to go once we got in the building. We still got lost. We finally got up to the PICU and waited what seemed like an eternity.Mike and Britni got there thanks to Mike doing 100 on the way down. After about a half an hour the counseling staff came and spoke with us and then the pastoral services came. They finally brought him up from his tests and let us see him. It was a SHOCK.
He was covered in dry blood. He had a breathing tube in. He had a neck brace on. He looked so little and so fragile, and so broken. It was another 20 minutes or so before we could go back and see him. We went back saw him and my heart broke. He looked so tiny. He was in pain and they gave him meds to help but just seeing him like that , no one should ever have too see their child like that.We spoke to countless doctors, nurses staff. The plastic surgeon said when the swelling goes down he would have to do surgery, that would require cutting him from ear to ear across the top of his head and pull his face down to fix it. The optometrist said his one pupil was blown , and thought it was the trauma and he would recover but want sure. Internal medicine, neuro, and trauma were all brought in on his case.They all told us conflicting information. We were going in and out of the PICU. He could only have 2 visitors at a time. All of Kaitlyn's team who had been there parents came to see him and support us. Toni and Channing were there as our rocks. His mom was on her way. It must have been so scary for mom, driving 8 hours by herself to get to us to her boy. Visiting hours stopped at 10:30 we knew we would need sleep , we knew we had a long road ahead. We got a hotel room a few miles from the hospital. Greg and Channing went to get us some sleep clothes, some food and clothes for the next day. They got us some diner and Chris from Sunday school came and visited and prayed with us. Mom got in about 1 o'clock in the morning. I showed her the pic. She was upset. Sher called dad so he would know she got here safe. WE got what sleep we could . We ate some breakfast and went back up to the hospital. Over night they had stitched his nose ( it had been split like a lizard tongue) . They also called him mini Houdini because he yanked out his catheter twice, got out his restraints several times. We were in and out again because of only 2 visitors. At lunch mom went and changed our hotels to a closer and safer one. Brother Scoot and Mrs. Sheila came and prayed over Brayden. He had some more visitors from ball and from church.
About 3 they said they were moving him to the BURN unit ( also infectious cuts) and that he would be in a private room and we could stay with him . They also were finally able to explain his injuries. His face had been fractured all over the place, where there had been impact from the board . The fractures were like cracks in the cement and not displaced so they weren't worried about those as much as his nose . Across his nose, above his eyebrows, his bones under the tear duct, his orbital socket . His nose was broken badly in the bridge and the cartilage was displaced. He was going to need surgery at that point there was no idea when or how invasive. Before they could move him to another unit he needed to be cleared by all departments involved in his case. Plastics, internal, Trauma, respiratory and Neuro . The removed the breathing tube about 5 and and checked his lung functions. He was breathing great. Then Neuro came in. He removed the brace . He asked does this hurt does that hurt. Brayden's answer was always " No, my toe hurts". He had a pulse ox monitor on and didn't like it. He kept asking for them to take it off.
He was all cleared and moved to his room about6. They got him a tray of dinner in case he got hungry. Greg ran to the hotel to get some sleep clothes for him, he was staying the night. A nurse came in and he said he was hungry, we tried to offer him what we had in the room. The stores were closed. The cafeteria was closed. But no my boy wanted a waffle. Incidentally that's when I knew he would be okay. Baby boy loves waffles. We didn't have any. We were getting ready to have Greg run to the store to get some, when the unit clerk came in and said " I have some great news for you. I bought myself in a box of waffles today, if it is okay with y'all I would like to give him some" Most wonderful words I heard all day.The nurse brought back in a waffle and baby boy ate three quarters of it. I got chocked up. I knew we had a long road ahead but things were looking up.
This has been harder to wrtite than I thought going to break it up into several sections, but will try to do it all this week before I start to forget. I want to document this, get it all writen down. I dont think I will ever forget but I am not taking any chances.
I sent Greg with the ambulance to take him to meet the helicopter. I understood we couldn't ride the helicopter with him but someone needed to go with him now, daddy was to upset to drive and I thought maybe I could. The ambulance took him to Word Alive's parking lot and waited for the helicopter , while we were waiting for the ambulance one of the moms called Greg's mom and dad, then Toni. Toni raced to me to get me to Word Alive. We spoke with the ambulance driver and EMTs. All of Oxford FD and police seemed to be there to help. The helicopter arrived and we knew he was in good hands, so we took Greg home to put on clothes and change. WE grabbed Brayden's Elmo ( his blankey) and his Blue's clues stuffed animal and raced to Birmingham. It was the longest hour in the car on the way down there. I spoke to Greg's mom who had been told it was Greg that was Hurst not Brayden. All I could get out when she asked if she needed to come was a squeaky " it's bad " .As we were getting off I 20 we got a call from the hospital that he was being brought up to PICU after his MRI and CAT scan. She told us where to park and where to go once we got in the building. We still got lost. We finally got up to the PICU and waited what seemed like an eternity.Mike and Britni got there thanks to Mike doing 100 on the way down. After about a half an hour the counseling staff came and spoke with us and then the pastoral services came. They finally brought him up from his tests and let us see him. It was a SHOCK.
He was covered in dry blood. He had a breathing tube in. He had a neck brace on. He looked so little and so fragile, and so broken. It was another 20 minutes or so before we could go back and see him. We went back saw him and my heart broke. He looked so tiny. He was in pain and they gave him meds to help but just seeing him like that , no one should ever have too see their child like that.We spoke to countless doctors, nurses staff. The plastic surgeon said when the swelling goes down he would have to do surgery, that would require cutting him from ear to ear across the top of his head and pull his face down to fix it. The optometrist said his one pupil was blown , and thought it was the trauma and he would recover but want sure. Internal medicine, neuro, and trauma were all brought in on his case.They all told us conflicting information. We were going in and out of the PICU. He could only have 2 visitors at a time. All of Kaitlyn's team who had been there parents came to see him and support us. Toni and Channing were there as our rocks. His mom was on her way. It must have been so scary for mom, driving 8 hours by herself to get to us to her boy. Visiting hours stopped at 10:30 we knew we would need sleep , we knew we had a long road ahead. We got a hotel room a few miles from the hospital. Greg and Channing went to get us some sleep clothes, some food and clothes for the next day. They got us some diner and Chris from Sunday school came and visited and prayed with us. Mom got in about 1 o'clock in the morning. I showed her the pic. She was upset. Sher called dad so he would know she got here safe. WE got what sleep we could . We ate some breakfast and went back up to the hospital. Over night they had stitched his nose ( it had been split like a lizard tongue) . They also called him mini Houdini because he yanked out his catheter twice, got out his restraints several times. We were in and out again because of only 2 visitors. At lunch mom went and changed our hotels to a closer and safer one. Brother Scoot and Mrs. Sheila came and prayed over Brayden. He had some more visitors from ball and from church.
About 3 they said they were moving him to the BURN unit ( also infectious cuts) and that he would be in a private room and we could stay with him . They also were finally able to explain his injuries. His face had been fractured all over the place, where there had been impact from the board . The fractures were like cracks in the cement and not displaced so they weren't worried about those as much as his nose . Across his nose, above his eyebrows, his bones under the tear duct, his orbital socket . His nose was broken badly in the bridge and the cartilage was displaced. He was going to need surgery at that point there was no idea when or how invasive. Before they could move him to another unit he needed to be cleared by all departments involved in his case. Plastics, internal, Trauma, respiratory and Neuro . The removed the breathing tube about 5 and and checked his lung functions. He was breathing great. Then Neuro came in. He removed the brace . He asked does this hurt does that hurt. Brayden's answer was always " No, my toe hurts". He had a pulse ox monitor on and didn't like it. He kept asking for them to take it off.
He was all cleared and moved to his room about6. They got him a tray of dinner in case he got hungry. Greg ran to the hotel to get some sleep clothes for him, he was staying the night. A nurse came in and he said he was hungry, we tried to offer him what we had in the room. The stores were closed. The cafeteria was closed. But no my boy wanted a waffle. Incidentally that's when I knew he would be okay. Baby boy loves waffles. We didn't have any. We were getting ready to have Greg run to the store to get some, when the unit clerk came in and said " I have some great news for you. I bought myself in a box of waffles today, if it is okay with y'all I would like to give him some" Most wonderful words I heard all day.The nurse brought back in a waffle and baby boy ate three quarters of it. I got chocked up. I knew we had a long road ahead but things were looking up.
This has been harder to wrtite than I thought going to break it up into several sections, but will try to do it all this week before I start to forget. I want to document this, get it all writen down. I dont think I will ever forget but I am not taking any chances.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Uncle Billy
The other day I talked about growing up catholic and now being Baptist.I love my church family and going to our church. I have a few issues with the church though , not everything or everyone is perfect. A major issue I have with the Baptist faith is their stance on Gays. I have never and will never see anything wrong with it. Being gay is how God made them, and in his eyes they are perfect. Who are you to say that, because they are born gay that they are going to hell. It bugs the crap out of me.
My Uncle Bill is gay. I have always, always known. In fact I don't remember not knowing. I do know that I marched in a gay rights parade with him when I was 5 or . I have seen his art work that he proudly displays and I know where he stands politically and what he believes in. What he stands for. We may not agree on everything but we do agree on a lot.
My uncle is one of the most genuine, wonderful, amazing,and loving human beings that I have ever met and had the pleasure of knowing and I am so grateful to not only know him but call him family. He, has given me support financially, physically, emotionally whenever I have ever needed it my whole entire life. When hurricane Katrina happened he was living in New Orleans, right outside the French Quarter. He was in danger. He luckily left in time to be safe. He came to my house which was a 6 hour drive that turned into 10 because of everyone trying to leave and be safe with us .He stayed with us for 3 months before it was safe for him to go home. Whenever he got money from FEMA red cross he gave us half to help us.he bought dinner every time we went out he paid , he paid for groceries all the time. A man this good and amazing , I just don't see how he could burn in hell for something he didn't chose for something that was not his choice.He was born gay , he didn't chose it,God made him that way. And for that I am grateful.
My Uncle Bill is gay. I have always, always known. In fact I don't remember not knowing. I do know that I marched in a gay rights parade with him when I was 5 or . I have seen his art work that he proudly displays and I know where he stands politically and what he believes in. What he stands for. We may not agree on everything but we do agree on a lot.
My uncle is one of the most genuine, wonderful, amazing,and loving human beings that I have ever met and had the pleasure of knowing and I am so grateful to not only know him but call him family. He, has given me support financially, physically, emotionally whenever I have ever needed it my whole entire life. When hurricane Katrina happened he was living in New Orleans, right outside the French Quarter. He was in danger. He luckily left in time to be safe. He came to my house which was a 6 hour drive that turned into 10 because of everyone trying to leave and be safe with us .He stayed with us for 3 months before it was safe for him to go home. Whenever he got money from FEMA red cross he gave us half to help us.he bought dinner every time we went out he paid , he paid for groceries all the time. A man this good and amazing , I just don't see how he could burn in hell for something he didn't chose for something that was not his choice.He was born gay , he didn't chose it,God made him that way. And for that I am grateful.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Big Game
Okay so have y'all heard that there is a big game on tonight? LOL> Yup I live in Alabama but I don't roll with the tide. I don't Geuax Tigers. I am GO GATORS. I bled orange and blue.But tonight and for tonight only I will ROll TIDE. Keep the National championship in the state where it belongs if the Gators don't have it;o) . I also am rooting for the Tide because I hate LSU> They are mean and they suck and their coach is very cray cray like eat the paste ( or the grass) cray cray. Could be locked up in Creedmore and people would go whoa. Should be intresting. I am glad it is finally here though, so I don't have to hear about it anymore. And i will leave you with this and for today and for today only
"ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!!!!
"ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Growing Up Catholic
I was born in NYC into a very Catholic family. My parents weren't overly religious in fact I don not remember my father ever being in church nor my mother, other then weddings funerals and my First Holy Communion, and maybe my reconciliation. My grandmothers went to church. Grandma Jeanie when she was healthy enough and Grandma Nellie all the time. I never went to church much in fact in all my teenage years and young adult years I was wiccan.But then I grew up and things changed. When we moved to Alabama we found out there was no real catholic churches around here , plus Greg refused to go to a catholic church because of the rigidity and the reputation. We attended an Episcopal church when we could with Greg's schedule and that whole pesky i couldn't drive because I didn't know how thing.Eventually that faded out with a busy life and a growing small child.And then being pregnant and working full time in a restaurant there was no church for a few years.
Right after Brayden was born we were invited to a friends Baptist church for an Independence Day BBQ cookout and service. I had never been to a Baptist church before. It wasn't how I imagined it. Not even close. I thought like most catholics think of the crazy "praising" and laying hands and what not kind of thing you see in the movies. It was nothing like that at that church. It can get a little much sometimes but not like I had imagined. We never went every week. We did go most off and on for 2 years at that church. We stopped because i could not take the preacher railing on gays every week ( my pet peeve about ch Baptists they hate gays). A few months later we started going to a vary big very loud Baptist church about a half hour away.That was great until the pastor betrayed friends that we have known for as long as we lived here. Did them more wrong then I ever thought a pastor could. So we left and didn't go to church again for a few weeks.
After a few weeks we went to a church with friends of ours from the original church who had also left and whose son played tee ball with Kaitlyn. That was almost a year ago and we have only missed a few Sundays since.I am even a teacher for the Bible drill team there. Things all happen for a reason . I love my church. It makes me happy and it makes the Lord happy. Still have a problem with gays being attacked for how the Lord made them but that is a story for another day.
Right after Brayden was born we were invited to a friends Baptist church for an Independence Day BBQ cookout and service. I had never been to a Baptist church before. It wasn't how I imagined it. Not even close. I thought like most catholics think of the crazy "praising" and laying hands and what not kind of thing you see in the movies. It was nothing like that at that church. It can get a little much sometimes but not like I had imagined. We never went every week. We did go most off and on for 2 years at that church. We stopped because i could not take the preacher railing on gays every week ( my pet peeve about ch Baptists they hate gays). A few months later we started going to a vary big very loud Baptist church about a half hour away.That was great until the pastor betrayed friends that we have known for as long as we lived here. Did them more wrong then I ever thought a pastor could. So we left and didn't go to church again for a few weeks.
After a few weeks we went to a church with friends of ours from the original church who had also left and whose son played tee ball with Kaitlyn. That was almost a year ago and we have only missed a few Sundays since.I am even a teacher for the Bible drill team there. Things all happen for a reason . I love my church. It makes me happy and it makes the Lord happy. Still have a problem with gays being attacked for how the Lord made them but that is a story for another day.
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