Maya's Birthday Extravaganza

Our little Miss Maya will be three years old Tuesday, but we celebrated in style with a big birthday party on Saturday.  I don't know if I was overdoing it because we didn't do much for her birthday last year, or if I just like punishing myself.  It doesn't matter either way, because the party was a success and the birthday girl had a great time!  We had a big inflatable bounce house and slide in the backyard and a magician performed tricks, made balloon animals, and painted faces.  We ate pizza, ice cream, and cupcakes, and no one got hurt when we took a bat to the piñata.  The only downer was the mosquitos, but we survived.  A good time was had by all, and Maya appreciates all the nice gifts she received.  Thank you!

Maya makes a wish!

Daddy helps Maya with the piñata.

Maya shows off her face artwork.

Jaida and a friend have balloon tiaras.

The big girls didn't escape without a face painting.

Maya prefers to view the magic show from her sister's lap.

Noah hopes no one will notice that he's shoving a second cupcake into his mouth.

Noah found someone's ice cream on the kid's table and didn't want it to go to waste.

A lot of progress in a week

Ryan is feeling much better as each day goes by. He no longer requires the strong pain medication he was taking after surgery and was able to resume driving at the end of last week. That was a big improvement for me, because I've had to take him everywhere he needs to go for the last month. So now we both have a little more of our independence back. Ryan's face is healing nicely, as are his shoulders. He's not completely closed up yet, but he's almost there. He did have a little bit of graft loss, on the left side of his upper lip and small areas along his suture lines. But that happens and there's not much we can do about it. We're just praying that it heals in a way that won't require surgery to revise it. We can already see how the results of this surgery will make Ryan's face less tight and less painful, but for now we laugh because his face doesn't move much when he smiles or laughs. I imagine that's what it's like when someone gets a face lift, just kind of stiff. But once the swelling is completely gone, I think his face will move more.

He's been able to go out in public more in the last week, than in the last month. On September 11th, we attended a luncheon with Retired Army LtCol, Brian Birdwell and his wife Mel. Brian was working in the Pentagon on September 11th, 2001, when terrorists flew an airplane through his office window. He was walking down the hall when he was engulfed by a wall of flames, but his three officemates were killed instantly. It is a miracle that he survived and he shares that miracle with his ministry "Face the Fire" and book "Refined by Fire". It was great to meet Brian and Mel because we had already read their book and were encouraged by it. Later that night, Jaida and Ryan attended a free Tim Mc Graw concert on Fort Sam Houston. It was within walking distance of our house, so while I didn't get to go, I could hear everything. Jaida and Ryan got the VIP treatment, with great seats and free food from Chipotle! The concert was great and they had a lot of fun. At one point, one of the soldiers put Jaida up on his shoulders and Jaida swears Tim smiled and waved at her!

On Saturday, Ryan took Maya to gymnastics at The Little Gym and was impressed to see her tumbling and hanging on the bars. On Sunday, Jaida, Ryan, and I went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Yokonyu, and then to the Majestic Theatre for the Broadway musical, The Color Purple. So, it's been good to get out a little after being home so much lately.

Jaida started soccer this week and Maya is a few weeks into the semester for gymnastics, so I'll try to get some pictures of my girls in action posted soon. Maya's birthday party is tomorrow afternoon. She turns 3 on Tuesday. Noah's latest trick is hiding his sippy cup. I've found old cups of milk in the toy box, trash can, bath tub, and pantry. I haven't caught him drinking 3 day old milk...yet.

Jaida at the Tim McGraw concert.

Ryan loves Maya's face in this picture. I love her crooked pony tails.

Noah explores the back yard with a stick in hand.

Still going in the right direction

Ryan had a follow up appointment in the Burn Clinic today and everything is looking good.  They removed the bolster from his upper lip and took all the staples out of the xeroform on the donor site on his thigh and the skin graft on his shoulder.  So, now he's staple free.  (Well, except for all the staples left under his skin from the skin grafts last year.  We see those on x-rays from time to time.)  The skin graft above his lip looks great.  That's the first we've seen it since surgery last Tuesday, so we're feeling pretty good about how that will turn out.  He still has a lot of swelling and all the suture lines and areas that had dermabrasion are scabby.  That's pretty much everything below his eyes.  As he heals all that will clear up and we'll really get to see what Ryan's face looks like.  We're looking forward to being to that point.  So, now it's just a matter of healing and getting back to the therapy routine.  We're just taking one day at a time.

Walk this way

My sister, Angie, has been begging me to upload a video of Noah walking.  So here it is, Angie.  He looks a little like a drunk guy, but he really can walk.

  

Looking good

We went in to see Ryan's surgeon today and they are very happy with how things are coming along.  It's so hard for me to tell with all the swelling and crustiness, but the doc says it looks good, so I guess it looks good.  They took down his wound vacs, so that makes getting around a lot easier.  His left shoulder is just all stitched up, but his right shoulder has a meshed split thickness skin graft stapled to it.  That is the first time I've seen such a graft so soon after surgery, and certainly the first time I've been responsible for caring for it.  CRAZY!  But the doctors trust me, so I guess I shouldn't worry.  Ryan doesn't seem too nervous either.  They left the staples in the xeroform on the donor site on his thigh, but they will take those off on Monday when they take down the bolster on his upper lip.  Ryan is still feeling pretty good with all his body has been through these last few weeks.  And even though it's hard for me to imagine right now, he's already talking about when to graft his eyelids, de-bulk his ears, and do any necessary touch ups.  Probably not real soon.

Surprise, surprise

So, I'm getting to the blog a little late today because things did not go as expected yesterday.  When I brought Ryan his McDonalds at noon, his PA said he'd been waiting for me.  That always makes me a little nervous, but this time it was for good reasons.  He said Ryan was doing great and his pain was really well managed, so they said he could go home if he was ready.  We went in and asked Ryan and he was ready!  I couldn't believe it.  After only one night in the hospital, after a major surgery, Ryan was ready to go home!  So, after getting paperwork, supplies, and a ton of visitors, we packed up and were home by 4:30 pm.  He still has wound vacs on both his shoulders and a bolster (pressure dressing) on his upper lip, but the wound vacs will be removed on Friday and the bolster on Monday.  He's relatively comfortable and just so happy to have some movement back in his neck.  His eye pain is gone and now the thing that bothers him the most is the donor site on his right thigh where they took the skin to graft his shoulder.  He's happy to be home and we're happy to have him home.  He hasn't been up and around a whole lot, but that's to be expected.  We're watching his face for any signs that things aren't going well, but his surgeon said that if it's going to fail at home, it's going to fail in the hospital and there's nothing we can do about it.  It's hard to tell what looks good and what doesn't, but so far things look pretty good.  Before when he would get skin grafts he was always bandaged up for several days.  So I don't really know what a skin graft is supposed to look like on day 2.  His PA did say that it's going to look worse before it looks better, so I try not to worry about it too much.  We'll be in the clinic tomorrow so they'll let us know for sure.  Just keep Ryan in your prayers and I know we'll be just fine.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

The title of this blog was selected by Ryan when we talked about it last night.  He was referring to the three weeks of living with his facial flaps and he was being VERY sarcastic.  Those flaps were no fun!  But we are happy to report that they no longer exist.  Ryan's surgery to disconnect them yesterday was very successful and the doctors are happy with the results.  In addition to disconnecting the flaps and finishing off his cheeks, they grafted his upper lip, did some dermabrasion on his nose, chin, and cheeks, grafted his right shoulder that was open when they took his flap, and reversed the pedicle to close his left shoulder.  A lot of that probably doesn't make sense to most people, but just know that he is doing fine.  His right thigh is sore where they took the donor skin for his right shoulder.  But the graft on his upper lip came from one of the pedicles of his flaps.  Just like last time, the thing he's been complaining about the most are his eyes.  We've learned that when they operate so closely to his eyes it disrupts the lymphatic drainage and causes extreme dryness in his eyes.  This time we've been very proactive and made sure we began lubricating his eyes as soon as possible after surgery.  I think it is working because he's not having near the eye pain that he had last time.  It's funny to look at him right now and say he looks great.  Most normal people would think he looks terrible.  He's kind of purple, swollen, bloody, and stitched up, but you can already see how nicely everything is going to heal.  And after three weeks of staring at his jiggly cheek flaps, he looks down right beautiful!

I spent over 14 hours at the hospital yesterday and was very tired when I came home.  So, I'll probably be updating Ryan's status in the mornings since I can't go and see him until noon anyway.  He's already called me this morning to give me his McDonalds order for lunch.  And he said he had a pretty good night, except for all the lights and beeping in his room all night long.  He's only sharing a room with two other people (so far) this time.  And I knew he was doing a lot better than last time last night when he was quoting lines from Jim Gaffigan's comedy routine.  All he wanted for food yesterday was popsicles, jello, chicken broth, and ice cream, but he told me he ate a big breakfast tray this morning and of course, he's already calling for his McDonalds.  

Please keep praying for Ryan.  I know it is working.  Once the flap is disconnected, even though it had three weeks to set up it's vascular structure, it is essentially a graft.  And grafts can retract and fail.  While everything looks really great now, I know your prayers will keep it that way.  My sister, Stephanie, is in town this week helping out.  So the kids and I are doing good.  Thanks for all your calls, emails, texts, and well wishes.  We appreciate them all!