Adam update

Since my last Debby Downer update regarding Adam, things are looking up! Adam is doing so much better and he is actually sleeping at night. He is working more and more each day from home. And he was very excited as he was allowed to resume driving today. I'm sure you heard him around town squealing his tires, doing donuts in Sonic parking lots, and racing other cars up and down the main drag.

Adam will go back to see his surgeon next week. They will do another X Ray and let him know how his lung is doing, i.e. expanding back to its full capacity. We expect to hear good things since Adam feels stronger each day. He is just so ready to start his work outs again, but he'll get there in plenty of time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our family, friends, co-workers and even blog friends who have sent so many nice notes to us and posted on this blog. Your support is a tremendous help to Adam, Holton and me.

Where to begin?

For those of you who may not know, our family has been through one heck of a time lately. In particular, Adam has been through quite an ordeal. It all started on June 3rd.

Adam was in Chicago for a business trip and ended up in the ER where they thought Adam was having a heart attack, but was thankfully given the all clear. After that Adam went through a good 5 weeks of not sleeping, being in constant pain, not eating a lot and generally just feeling very frustrated. His first doctor said it was a rib injury and sent him to the chiropractor. Then in mid June we found a new doctor who wanted to do a complete work up on Adam, but did not do a X Ray. This doctor gave Adam various medication and referred to him a cardiologist for a stress test. On Monday July 7th Adam found out from the cardiologist that he had fluid on his lung. They immediately sent him over to his primary doctor who did a chest X Ray and found that his left lung was almost completely covered in fluid! I saw the X Ray and it was very jarring. The doctor was very concerned with the amount of fluid and the cause of that fluid.

So Tuesday July 8th his doctor called and said to go immediately to the hospital to see about getting the fluid drained. Adam and I were so naïve. We just thought he’d be in and out in one day. Oh no… They admitted Adam and sent us to meet with one of the pulmonary specialist. We found out then that he had some type of fluid and puss (I know, gross) build up that would have to be surgically removed. They say it was all caused by Pneumonia and possibly some type of bacteria. The whole time Adam was in the hospital he was being pumped full of antibiotics.

Adam finally went in to surgery on Thursday the 10th. Right before they wheeled Adam away the surgeon told us that Adam’s left lung was collapsed! I was so rattled to hear this news. No wonder Adam has been absolutely miserable for so long. The surgery took more than 3 hours…..I won’t go into all the details. But the surgeon kept saying that someone older or in poor health would not have made it. He also said that Adam ran the risk of the infection getting into his blood stream and then going on to a vital organ.

Adam was in ICU for 4 days! He was on a ventilator the first day so that they could help his breathing and to properly/safely expand his lung. Adam then spent two nights in the Progressive Care Unit. He was released from this hospital Tuesday July 15th. Of course Holton and I are thrilled to have him home. Adam has a long recovery ahead. He can’t drive for two weeks, can’t lift anything over 10 pounds (especially Holton) for six weeks, and he can’t fly for at least a month. Poor Adam is in a lot of pain each day, but he says it better than before he had his surgery. The doctors keep saying that Adam is made of steel! I can’t believe he was in so much danger.

Thank you to all our friends and fantastic family for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! We still welcome them through Adam’s recovery. Adam has so many people that care about him and we know will get through this just fine! We love you Adam ;)

Moving on up

My parents are moving! They are leaving Alabama and coming to live in our neck of the woods - just a few minutes away. We all loaded up and went house hunting this weekend and they found a great house in a great neighborhood (great!).

Anyway, it will be so nice to have them close by as we'll have permanent babysitters. We can drop Holton off at their house to go see a movie, or go eat sushi, or heck, just to sleep in one weekend!

We are thrilled to have them back in this area. Here is a picture of their house!

Baby Back Rib

Oh, if it was only that easy. A simple little post about the delicacy known as Chili’s Baby Back Ribs. We're not talking about that kind of rib, we're talking about Adam's rib.

We don't know how he did it, but sometime over the past couple of weeks Adam's rib popped out of place wreaking all kinds of havoc. Adam has been in sooooo much pain with major tissue damage. He now has to get traetment at the chiropractor for the next 4 weeks.

He was really feeling bad yesterday, so I took him to the chiropractor to hear what they had to say. I guess it's the type of injury that takes time. But dang, everything you do causes pain in that region....breathing, sitting, standing etc.

To show my support for Adam, I took a picture of him while getting treatment yesterday.

I really hope he gets to feeling better soon! I'm open to any suggestions if anyone has ever experienced something similar. Poor Adam!

A new do

We finally did it. We finally took Holton to an official salon to get his haircut by a professional. Adam usually handles this job but has been out of commission due to an rib injury. That's a whole other story.....poor guy.

So, we thought we'd give Adam some peace and quiet yesterday by going to get a fancy hair cut.

Here is Holton before the cut, playing with the salon's train set.

Then it was time for the haircut. Holton didn't mind at first because he could sit in a cool car, watch his favorite DVD, but he hated the blue cape. He really cried when they put that on him. Nothing a good pacifier couldn't fix.

And here he is after the cut. See, he went short for the summer. You have to do this when we constantly hover at 100 degrees! Notice the train in his hand.
So, our first trip to the salon was a piece of cake. Except when we left the train set. He was extremely unhappy about leaving this new find! He did the whole kicking and screaming thing. He even tried to run back in the salon to get to the train set. I felt bad for the little guy, so we went to the toy store and got him his very own junior train set. Hey - you do what you have to do ;)

Finding Nemo

Adam was on the road last week and my parents were in town. So, I took a day off to spend time with Holton and the folks. We visited our local aquarium/rain forest. There were no lines and it didn't smell too bad in there, so I was very pleased.

It was a lot of fun showing Holton all the fish, turtles, monkeys and flamingos. He seemed to really enjoy taking in all of the sights but he did get scared a few times.

Notice the pacifier and the ball he's holding on to? That's like his new security blanket!

He loved the turtles and sting rays. He wouldn't move from this spot for about 5 minutes.

Holton and my dad in a tunnel of sharks. Holton was so impressed that he said "ohhhhhh" really loud. Too cute.

He was also really fascinated by the flamingos. Maybe I should get some of the plastic variety for our front yard....classy!

This and that

I am so behind on downloading pictures from our digital camera. So, I thought I'd post a couple pictures today from my camera phone. I will update soon with more details, but I thought this was at least decent for a Monday. Have a great week!

My two guys - Mother's Day Weekend

Holton thinks the goal is to dump all the water on the patio

Holton made a friend at Bass Pro Shops

Memorial Day Weekend - we went to this great lodge and wildlife park.