Keeping Up With the Joneses

The kids are having a blast in Delta with their grandparents. They'll be back Friday-Sunday and then go again next week while I'm in the hospital. I hate seeing them go and not having them with me, but we figured that if we want to be ready emotionally and physically for this baby we need a good week to prepare. They are taking swimming lessons every day and are just like little fish--can't get enough of the water! Before they left on Sunday Mason told me he would miss me, that he loves me "better than Grandma", and that he would call me every day. Of course, I offered to let him stay home but there was no way he would pass up a trip to Delta. Well, whenever I call to talk to him he is too busy doing something fun to take the time to talk to his mommy! Mason is building trains out of cardboard and painting them, and has train tracks all set up all around grandma's house. Myles is getting all the back-hoe rides his little heart desires and soaking up the grand...

Mason had his follow-up doctor's appointment today and was quite upset when he found out where we were going. He said "I can't believe this!" and when I asked him what he was talking about he said "I can't believe you are taking me to the doctor's AGAIN". * His lungs and chest sounded great--no pneumonia. * Everything else (head laceration, bruises, sore joints) checked out fine * Because he was doing so much better and because his last blood test was so horrible, we did a quick toe poke to test his hematocrit . It was in the low range on normal and because of that we decided not to do a full-blown blood draw unless he stopped improving or started having problems. Right now his appetite is huge and so it is likely that he is doing alright making up for the imbalance himself. * Because of the hypoxia (without oxygen for probably 15 minutes or so) the doctor wants us to follow-up with a speech therapist (the temporal lobe that was swollen in the EEG in...

A few highlights from this past week of "getting back to normal." * Mason continues to do great. We really notice almost no difference from before the accident except he is a little more tired. His cut on his head is healing well and his bruises are about gone. He has a doctor's appointment Wednesday when we'll probably get another blood test to see if his hemoglobin and hematocrit are back to normal. * We took the boys swimming on Saturday. We were worried that they would be afraid of the water and that we would be more nervous, but they loved the whole experience and I don't think they had any recollection of the whole accident. We decided to go ahead and let them do swimming lessons in Delta in a few weeks. * Marshall is slowly starting to feel better but still has a lot of hip pain at night and isn't up for hiking or biking yet. It doesn't help that he banged it on the waterslide at the pool on Saturday. * My parents sent the stuff we forgot in Canad...

Here is an article in LDS Living about the accident. http://ldsliving.com/article/135300/4-year-old-Miraculously-Saved-after-Falling-over-Waterfall

So in the spirit of moving on with life, here is my first NON-MASON post. So those of you reading for updates on Mason's condition--first of all thank-you for your interest--and second, from here on out I'm hoping the posts will return to boring and mundane. And here is the first! This is the article in the Utah Baby Magazine that I was interviewed for last month. I think it is weird that they start quoting me before they give my full name, but whatever. . . Talk Health with Jamie: Women and Alcohol Many Utah moms have turned to alcohol for different reasons. “A lot of times there is a genetic predisposition. It is a poor coping skill to help them with stress. Some have been sexually abused or may have depression. Others have chemical imbalances and are self-medicating. It can be all of the above,” Camille Anderson, therapist of Provo Counseling Center summarizes of the problem. Understanding the types, causes and ways to manage addiction can help in recovery. There are two ty...

On Thursday night my family met a lot of Marshall's family for dinner at Red Lobster. It felt like quite a celebration of Mason's recovery and Marshall's heroism. When Mason found out they had fish on the menu he was so happy that he would get to eat fish since he didn't get the chance to catch one in Waterton . The manager brought out some shrimp ahead of time for him, and some Red Lobster baseball caps for all the boys. I think Mason's favorite part was sitting in between his two grandmas. We got Mason's blood test results back yesterday. The good news is that for the most part everything is looking really good. The bad news (but not if you have any perspective) is that his hemoglobin is still low and his hematocrit is still high. We don't need to do anything to treat it now as the doctors believe it is just an expected reaction to the kind of trauma Mason has been through. We are just keeping an eye on him and will get it tested again in 2 weeks ( augh...

After agonizing about the decision, yesterday I agreed to let KSL interview my dad and Marshall on camera. It was a hard decision for me because I feel like there is a fine line between exploiting your child for publicity and sharing our experience of receiving a miracle. I feel like my family had some very sacred experiences and received some amazing tender mercies in the last week that couldn't be captured in a 30 second news-byte. But in the end I felt like KSL would treat us respectfully and they ran the story last night on the 10 PM news. It is a good story, but I'm left feeling like it didn't quite capture all of the miracles. Aside from all the qualified personnel, it was Marshall pointing him out in the lake, my dad making the devestating decision to leave Mason and get the boat, Marshall knowing how to do CPR correctly, and all the prayers we received that helped us get to this outcome. Anyway, here is the news clip. Video Courtesy of KSL.com

9-10 AM: Melissa's doctor's appointment. Aside from some dehydration the baby and I are doing well. 10:20-11:45 AM: Mason's doctor's appointment. He continues to do great. He had a slight fever but we're hoping the antibiotics will keep working their magic. He got his stitches out and thought they were just picking bugs from his hair. We talked with the doctor a lot about long-term care including seeing a neurologist and neuropsychologist, but he agreed we could wait a few weeks on that until we are feeling a little more relaxed. We talked about the likelihood of Mason having flashbacks and that we will just have to take things as they come. We left again feeling amazed that he made it out of this so well. 12-12:30 PM: Interview with KSL. After agonizing about the decision for days, I decided to let a KSL reporter interview Marshall and my dad on camera. I didn't want them interviewing Mason and they were respectful of that. I feel like it is a fine line between...

I'm not posting "before" pictures because they are a little too scary, but this is a pretty good "after" picture if you ask me! Mason had another amazing night. Yesterday he wouldn't stand on his own (we think because of all the bruising, pulled groin muscle, swollen foot) but he slept really well all night (and kept his oxygen levels up without help) and this morning he woke up with a lot more energy. He ate 3 little boxes of fruit loops, 2 containers of milk, and is working on a muffin now. He's gone potty by himself, and walked back and forth to the playroom down the hall two or three times. He seems completely back and in the playroom used potato heads to re-enact a scene from Toy Story 2. The pediatrician just came in and told us that he feels good about going home as long as we follow-up with our pediatrician by Wednesday morning at the latest to get the stitches out, re-write prescriptions (can't fill Canadian ones in US), and decide where ...

The pediatrician came in this morning and gave me more answers than I have had for a long time. He said that kids who have experienced trauma tend to improve much better and faster at home, so they don't want him staying here any longer than necessary. They don't want him leaving until he has successfully been off oxygen for 24 hours, bowel movement, and walking around. I asked about the lethargy and quietness/slowness and he said that it wasn't likely to change for a while and that we could work on after he was released (we'll know the full extent of a brain injury in 6 months if there is any). He doesn't want us flying for at least 2 weeks since he said Mason will likely have really bad pneumonia for at least a month and flying is bad for oxygen saturation. After he releases us he wants us to stay local (Lethbridge is okay) for a few days and see a doctor there until the doctor feels we are ready to travel. When we get to Provo we need to get some labs, x-rays...

Mason had another amazing night. Last night while eating dinner I was so discouraged because Mason was hardly talking, seemed in pain, was really tired, and couldn't stand up. It was like we were torturing him to get him to take a sip of water and he would hardly eat. I took the first night shift and Marshall slept. Around 10 the nurse said we could try solid food if we want (so far I had just been offering him jello, juice, Popsicles ). I asked if he wanted crackers and he ate two, and then I said I had some cheesecake in the fridge (from dinner) and he wanted some. He ate about a third of the piece and drank a lot of water. We had a good night alternating sleeping with stroking one anther's arms and face. He is scared but knows everyone is trying to help him feel better. I went to bed around 4 when Marshall relieved me and when I came back in at 6:30 I was thrilled to see Marshall and Mason sitting up in bed, eating cheerios and crackers, and looking a lot more peaceful. ...

Mason is doing great. Afer removing him from the ventalator last night they monitored him for most of the day. He stayed on some oxygen and did well. This morning we were able to each hold him and it was one of the sweetest moments of my life to see his him cuddle up to his daddy and to see Marshall's face when he held his son again. When we try to take him off the oxygen he doesn't quite keep his levels high enough, but that will take time. They cleared him clinically for a spinal cord injury (he had already been cleared radiologically). This afternoon we finally got him to eat a popcycle which was the last thing they were waiting for before discharging him from the Pediatric ICU and moving him to the general unit at the Children's Hospital. He made the transfer pretty well and seems a lot less scared in the new sunny room with fewer machines. Mason is pretty quiet, only answering questions every hour or so, but so far things seem good. The best things he's said so fa...

We had an amazing night. Yesterday the doctors said they would take out the tube in the morning unless he was clearly awake and tried pulling it out (because they wanted to go home--understandably). We had two wonderful nurses who have been working with him who really believed he was ready and would be happier with it out and so they irritated him to wake him by taking out his cathetar, brushing his teeth, suctioning him over and over until he really was awake and fighting them. The doctor finally said they could take it out and after grabbing a team of about 10 and a crash cart just in case they took it out. He threw up a lot, coughed a bit, whined a little, and then fell back to sleep (perfect because all he has in him is tylenol and is probably in pain). He woke up 3 or 4 times during the night absolutely frantic kicking and crying and each time he would eventually say softly "potty, need to get out". He was wearing a diaper and we would all just have to encourage him tha...

Mason's CT scan and MRI looked great so they gave him a steroid and are going to start waking him up and excabate him. He is a trooper. We still have a long road ahead of us but things are looking up. Just a note to family members/friends/aquaintances. People have been getting calls from reporters and I would prefer if no one talks to them. The stories thus far in Canada have been grossly inaccurate and I don't think give justice to Marshall and my father's heroic efforts. We all know the news has a tendency to sensationalize things and that is not what we need right now. Also, we think the news is getting information and family member's names from this blog so if a reporter wants accurate information they can email me at imapsyc@gmail.com and I will soon make this blog private.

Last night was a good night. At about midnight everyone sent Marshall and I to bed to really sleep for the first time since the accident and my dad stayed up with Mason. About 30 minutes later my dad knocked on the door to where we were sleeping and told us to come quick. Mason was wide awake and very responsive. When the nurse asked him to point and flex his toes, open and close his eyes, etc. he obeyed. My dad asked him questions and he responded yes by squeezing his hand or no by shaking his head. My dad asked if he wanted his mommy and daddy and he squeezed really hard. He was so great. When we got there he needed to be suctioned and he opened his mouth when the nurse told him to and squeezed our hands and looked at us. He looked at the balloons that my siblings sent and tried to hold the strings. I think neurologically this is spectacular! It also gave Marshall and I the faith we needed to be able to sleep for a full 4 hours straight and get in showers without worrying about losin...

Mason--still fighting. They lost the iv line and tried 6 times to get another one in with no success. He still has the arterial line for meds but they need to try to get another one as a back-up. They did an EEG and it was mostly good with some swelling on the left side in the temporal lobe. They will do an MRI tomorrow to assess the brain more. At this moment his blood pressure is below where they would like it and heart rate is a little too high, so they are adjusting meds and temp to see if they can control it. He is still occasionally opening his eyes and moving which is an awesome sign. I asked the doctor when she could say that he will most likely survive and she said that with the improvement over the last 24 hours she would be very surprised if he didn't make it, but that right now we still need to be very concerned about a head injury and his lungs. Marshall--doing good. Lots of bruises on the bottom of his feet make it hard to walk (he lost his shoes when he jumped in the...

First of all, thanks for all the prayers we know are received. I'm going to make this update quick and dirty since I have a hard time thinking about it and I want to get back to Mason. I also don't know if every detail is completely accurate but this is the way I understand it. Yesterday afternoon my dad and Marshall took the two boys hiking at Boundary Bay in Waterton . It is a short flat trail that you access through a boat ride and goes for a mile or so and crosses over a creek. They were hiking along and when they got close to the creek the boys stopped and Mason held my dad's hand while Myles held Marshall's. My dad and Mason were in front and to get onto the bridge (just two cut logs with a hand rail on one side) you have to step on a rock. Mason and my dad both stepped on the rock and Mason was so excited to see the water that he jumped up onto the bridge. He slipped, causing my dad to loose his balance and Mason spun around causing my dad to loose the grip on hi...