Got Air?

Ryan got to go outside today!! We are moving right along. OT wants to work on “getting out” this week. They want to teach Dean and I how to maneuver him around town!?! We went over his wheels (By the way, Ryan has decided he doesn’t want to name his wheelchair. He said he is not going to be in it that long!) and then we got on the elevator, took a walk outside, down the sidewalk, to the intersection–waited for the lights to turn, and then crossed over to the other side of the street. Ryan still has a halo on, so he is unable to move his head. For now Dean and I will be his eyes. It was kinda scary!!! You don’t realize how crazy traffic can be until you have a life that you are responsible for that is trying to maneuver a motorized chair by mouth and can’t move his head!!! The apartment Dean and I are staying in is just across the street, so we were able to let Ryan see where we are “living”. We made it back safe and sound – so all is good! While we were in the elevator, the tech asked him when he would get his halo off. He told her the end of July. She asked him if he was going to keep it. He profoundly said “NO!” Today has been the busiest day for Ryan since he has been here. He had PT, OT, and we are now starting classes that will be everyday for four weeks. The classes will involve: skin care management, wheelchair weight shifts, autonomic dysreflexia, bladder options, bowel management, Respiratory; Keeping Lungs Healthy, Mandala: Remembering Who You Are, medications, stairs, ramps, curbs, range of motion, and living in the community. One of the men in the class is about 65-70 years old. He had been injured some time ago and had been to Craig, but went thru rehab long enough to be placed in a home where he could be taken care of. After some time (I’m not sure how long) he decided he had had enough of that and wanted to become independent again. So he is back! He said he had felt like he was a “rock with lips” and wants to do more with his life. He also told the younger guys if they had a hard time having someone else shower them get over it and get on with your life. He had a funny way of looking at things, but was truly an inspiration for all of us in the class. Ryan had is cuff down for four hours today and sat in his chair for about three and half hours. He was pretty tired when we got back to his room. The tech’s are trying to keep him up longer each day because his schedule is going to get busier and busier. His appetite is lacking. He doesn’t eat much, and doesn’t seem to be hungry either. The dietitian came and told him that he needs to start eating more proteins and consume more calories. He said it is really hard to eat when you are not doing anything all day. We are going to have to work on that! After we got back to our room, Harold Jones, Terry’s cousin came by to see how we were doing. Harold and I were just visiting when the alarm went off on the respirator. Ryan mouthed that he needed to be suctioned. So I called for the nurse. I noticed that his chest was not moving and that he was turning a little pale. I asked him if he was getting any air. He said, “NO!” I pushed the call button again for respiratory STAT and still didn’t get a response. At this point he was turning a little blue. I asked Harold to go out in the hall and get some help. The nurse finally came in and asked what was wrong and I said, “Ryan isn’t breathing!” She came over to the bed and saw that he wasn’t getting any air. I told her that we needed to get the “abmu” bag and get some air going, because he wasn't getting any air from the respirator. She reached over and took the vent hose out of the trach, and I managed to get the ambu bag onto the trach and started pumping air manually into his lungs. The nurse then hit a button somewhere and called respiratory STAT. About 15 people were behind me at this point. One nurse said, “Let me take that (the ambu bag)." I gladly handed here the bag and weaved my way to the back of the room and sat down because I was shaking so hard!!! I couldn’t hear all that was going on, but I did hear the on-call doctor ask for the “crash cart” to be brought in!! I thought, "what is a crash cart?" At that point, I couldn’t hold the tears any longer. I tapped Harold on the elbow and asked if Ryan was breathing. He said he thought so. One of the head nurses said that Ryan’s numbers looked good (she could see the respirator), so yes he was breathing. It took them a few minutes, but they finally got some pink back into his cheeks! They think a mucus plug in the trach was the cause of Ryan not getting any air. The doctor ordered chest x-rays and blood work to make sure things were OK. After everyone left, Harold said I needed to go and talk to Ryan. I got my “big girl” face on and asked him how he was doing. He looked at me and said, “That was kinda scary,” and then smiled at me with that big smile of his!!! Later in the evening I asked him what he was thinking as I kept saying, "Ryan can you breath, Ryan can you hear me." He said, “I was just trying to stay calm, so I wouldn’t use to much air!!” What a thinker!! After things had settled down a bit, I ate about a half a pound of chocolate covered peanuts. I wonder if I can count that towards Ryan’s calorie intake?? I also found out that a crash cart has one of everything you would need for a dire emergency. Luckily, they didn’t have to use it. Dean made it back from Farmington, just in time for dinner!! We are grateful to have him here and tomorrow will be a better day. Love to all, Dean, Terry and Ryan

Family In Low Places

We had a gorgeous day here in Denver, Ryan wished he could go outside, but the weekend staff, is just that!!! The weekends are really hard. We have techs and nurses that are either new or they only work one or two days a week or month. It gets really hard to retell why Ryan’s chair needs to be tilted back when he is transferred from the bed or the extra length in his vent line needs to be put in line with the mobile unit, etc. etc.!!! It was 3:30 and Ryan was uncomfortable (I still have a hard time figuring out how he can tell that!!) and wanted to be turned. So I called the front desk to let them know, because we haven’t been trained how to do that yet!!??? The tech came in and said that he couldn’t be turned until 4:00 because they had changed the length of time for turning from two hours to 2 ½ hours. He had been turned at 1:30!! I told her that it would be OK to go ahead and turn him, but she said she needed to go check with the nurse and check the schedule, because, “His time to turn is 4:00!” I told her that would be fine J J. She came back and brought her clip board and “showed” me where he wasn’t supposed to be turned until 4:00!! I said that it was only 20 minutes to 4:00 so wouldn’t it be OK to just go ahead and turn him, PLEASE!!! She went ahead and turned him but reminded me that he wouldn’t be able to be turned until 6:30!!! Sure enough, here she came at 6:30 and turned him!!! I will be glad when we can get certified in turning him, so that we can move him when he wants to!!! We are defiantly learning PATIENCE!! I am just the mom, but my thinking is if any patient on this floor wants to sit on his head, I would let them!!! They bumped Ryan’s talk time to up to four hours today; they double it each time he can go for the allotted time. He made it for three hours today and then got really tired. We understood that they would just increase it five or 10 minutes each time; so before you know, he will be talking all day!!! He said he doesn’t have that much to talk about!! It is so good to hear him. The nurses and techs come by and talk just to hear his voice – I think they enjoy seeing the progress of their patients. Yeah, the last IV!!! The sputum (mucus) infection in his lungs has cleared up. There is still some sputum infection in the windpipe, but the docs say that is normal and will just watch very close. They discontinued the antibiotics thru the IV --- and took the machine out of the room, I love it when we can clear “stuff” out and clean up!!! We had a great Sabbath day. Ryan commented several times how nice it was outside, no wind and as we were sitting here this evening, he could see the beautiful sunset – pink and purple colors!!! He has a nice view from his room. His ward here in Denver came by and brought him the Sacrament and shared a thought or two. He really enjoys being able to take the Sacrament each Sunday. One of the Elders (which are between the age of 19 and 28) reminds me of Elton John!!! He is an art student here at one of the Art Schools. He is so flamboyant in his personality and his dress; he is really a fun kid and brightens up the room!! He left Ryan and I with a challenge that he gave to his Sunday School class; which was, choose one thing in your life that you want to work on (prayers, scripture reading, writing in journals, etc.) to be more Christ like and over the next 40-days DO IT!! It was a great challenge and Ryan said that he would do it!! He is so amazing to me. Several of the kids from the ward (it is a singles ward) came by to see him, they are a great bunch of kids. To come to a hospital and visit someone you don’t even know!!! I got a call earlier in the day from a Sister in one of the Wards right near the hospital. She is the Compassionate Service Leader in her ward. She said that the Relief Society President had asked her to make a call and see if we were doing OK. She wanted to know if she could come by and visit because she had been thinking about Ryan so much. I told her that we would love to meet her. Her and her husband came later in the afternoon and introduced themselves, Doran and Joye Whitaker. I introduced Ryan and he said, “My grandma’s last name is Whitaker!” Ryan turned to me and asked what Grandpa Whitaker’s first name was. I am so bad with names and couldn’t remember, but I said his wife’s name was Dora. Still trying to think of Grandpa’s name! Joye turned to her husband and said, wasn’t there an Opal. He said, "No, I think that was Lewis and Jean." I said, that is his grandparents!!! Ryan’s grandmothers name (Dean’s mom) is Opal Jean Whitaker Griffin! Come to find out, Doran’s dad Tom Whitaker and Opal Jean are brother and sister. We had a great chuckle and then had tons to talk about. It is such a small world. When they left, Joye said again that she just hadn’t been able to get Ryan off of her mind. I said maybe it was because we needed to catch up on all the family!!! We are grateful to such a loving family and so many wonderful and supportive friends, new and old. We love you all and THANKS again for the love, support, faith, prayers, friendships and e-mails!!!! Ryan said to tell all of you THANK YOU so much and he appreciates you all “VERY VERY MUCH” and “I enjoy the e-mails, it helps get thru this”. Love, Ryan, Dean and Terry

There is Sunshine in My Soul Today

There is Sunshine In My (Our) Soul – even if it is cloudy and rainy in Denver. We had a tornado watch yesterday. An announcement came over the hospital intercom that told everyone there was a tornado watch and if they received a notice of a warning, they would make the another announcement and all the patients would be moved into the hallway. Dean and I had run a couple of errands when they made the announcement and Lisa and Meredith were with Ryan. Lisa was a little nervous about the announcement, but Ryan and Meredith thought it would be kind of cool!!! Ryan said, “It would have been great to have a little excitement!” Luckily, it did not happen! It seems that the weather can be bad in one area of town, but nothing in another area. We didn’t see anything, no rain, no wind, nothing!!! Today we did get a thunder, lightening and hailstorm. Dean had to take me to pick up Ryan’s car and there were rivers of water running down the streets of Englewood! There were five or six cars stalled in intersections because the water was so deep and had flooded their engines. When I was driving back to the hospital, I saw six wrecks – believe it or not, the hospital seems to be the safest place in town! Occupational Therapy posts a calendar on the door each month to let the patients know what activities are scheduled for the month. Some of the activities have to be planned, scheduled, and approved before the patients can go depending on their level of injury and rehab progress. Some of the things they do are, Ice Cream Socials, new release movies, decorating tiles, attend Rockies baseball games, Air Ballooning, wheelchair tennis, fishing, outing at the mall (one of the guys at Red Mesa said if he had to go to the mall, he would shoot himself), canoeing, manicures, stained glass projects, and most anything else you can imagine. When they announced the decorative tiles class yesterday, Ryan’s eyes lit up and he asked if he could go!!! NOT!! We all had a good laugh! Actually, they do try to do a variety of activities to try to reach out to as many patients as possible. It is fascinating to see the effort that the hospital goes to in helping their patients adjust and get back into real life. Yesterday, as I was walking to the “apartment” (which is on site), several patients were outside having a summer evening picnic in a patio area that had a built in Bar-B-Que grill and shaded with lots of trees and flowers! I know Ryan will be glad when he is able to get outside more. He had his cuff down three times today for one hour each time. We had him read his e-mails, cards and anything else we could find!! He said it is hard to find something to talk about after not being able to talk for four weeks, the nurse said that girls would not have a problem!!! The RT said tomorrow they would leave the cuff down for two hours at a time and see if he is able to handle it. It is SO nice to hear his voice. He is doing more and more physical therapy and occupation therapy each day. I guess I did not know that physical therapy is from the waist down and occupation therapy is from the waist up. So, PT works with his legs and hips, and OT works with his arms, shoulders and neck. OT also deals with the emotional and physiological effects of the injury, trying to help him get back into life. Ryan will have to have his eyes checked, he usually wears glasses, but since the accident his glasses do not work for him. They probably will have to check his eyes a couple of times, to see if his vision changes over time. The change in his prescription could be from hitting his head, or from the spinal cord injury itself. If the change stems from the spinal cord injury, his eyes may return to where they were prior to the injury, only time will tell. Lisa has been up here this week, Dean left with her tonight to take her home. She is going to be off to BYU-I the end of June to start “her life”, so she needed to get home and get things ready to leave. She was a “highlight” for Ryan. She is so bubbly and fun to be around – I know she is going to miss me when she leaves home!!! Ryan sent one of his missionary companions an email tonight and told him he would see him at the October 2005 Mission Reunion! The missionary reunions are usually held the weekend of General Conference. I was thrilled to here him say (the cuff was down so we actually heard him say it!) he is planning to get out into the real world. I told him that we would make SURE he got there! I could not get this Hymn out of my mind today so I thought I would share it. Music is wonderful and can bring so much peace and comfort. There is Sunshine in My Soul Today There is sunshine in my soul today, More glorious and bright Than glows in any earthly sky, For Jesus is my light. [Chorus] Oh, there’s sunshine, blessed sunshine When the peaceful happy moments roll. When Jesus shows his smiling face, There is sunshine in the soul. There is music in my soul today, A carol to my King, And Jesus listening can hear The songs I cannot sing. There is springtime in my soul today, For when the Lord is near, The dove of peace sings in my heart, The flow’rs of grace appear. There is gladness in my soul today, And hope and praise and love, For blessings which he gives me now, For joys “laid up” above. Aunt Geralyn and Aunt Linda sent Ryan and the rest of us very nice e-mails, helping us to see the “forest for the trees” after our Family Counsel Wednesday. We have received many blessings in the last month, we have seen so many miracles already. Just the fact that Ryan is with us is a miracle. We continue to thank our Heavenly Father for all that he has given us, most importantly a wonderful family and awesome friends who continue to love and support us on this road to recovery. We pray that He will be with each of you and your families and that we may all come to know Him personally. Love, Dean, Terry and Ryan