We had the appt with the surgeon yesterday - and 2 nurses, one of which I believe was a wound nurse. Dr Briggs thought we had taken really good care of the burns and said skin grafting is only an option at the 3-5 day mark, so at this point would be too painful and too much blood loss, so he put on some longer term bandages only on his wrist and back of his arm that I will have to change every 2, but probably 3-5 days. They debated on sending us to the burn clinic but thought we were on a good path. They were all great and all ready for us to come in - like when reception called back and said 'your little guy is here' :) and they all called him the little guy, so they were ready for us!! He didn't even cry when they debrided it, probably due to the fabulous works of motrin and a sucker;)
We have our next appt next Tuesday with the wound nurse and she is the main person I have wanted to see all along (she is the person we saw with Corey once, sometimes twice a week after his foot surgeries last year for probably 3 months - and is GREAT) - so knowing we're seeing Sheri next week, I'm very happy with that and Colton is doing great. I'll post some pictures tonight...
Thanks,
Kelly
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Colton Dr. Update - Monday
Well I have to tell you...I love Meritcare Children's. Colt's Pediatrician was out today so I spoke to one of her nurses around 7:45am and by 10am she had called back and talked everything over with the on-call Pediatrician and they ended up double-booking Dr. Welle (great Dr. and the Ped for a number of people I know) and getting us in for his last appt of the day so as to give him some extra attention. That nurse (Anne) was just awesome - I talked to her 2x today and I had a strange feeling when we walked in, that the check-in people and some of the nurses were looking at us differently like they had been 'waiting to see us' - so I have a feeling Anne had probably mentioned our situation and that we were coming in. After we got in the room we got a knock and it was Anne the phone nurse and she said she just wanted to stop in and say hi and let us know she was thinking of us and that we can call and talk to her directly anytime and she would get us whatever help we needed:) She also told us a story about her grandson - she was just great! So nice. Welle came in and said, 'Wow, I can see it must have been pretty scary to walk in the room and see him in that situation (obviously from what he was seeing - as we had all the bandages taken off)'...We were with him and/or the nurse for an hour and he said we (or should I say Shelly and John) had been doing a great job at the bandaging and care and they all looked really good (except the 3 bad areas on his arm)...so we got to keep the bandages off his face, ear and back. He gave me some instruction on care for the side of his head (that went well tonight) and didn't seem to think he should have hair loss in that area and as S & J had also agreed, doesn't think he'll have any scarring on his face or back.
He took measurements, concentrating on the wounds on his wrist and back of his arm and decided we should bandage the areas back up, rather than try to debride any of it as he wanted to speak to one of the surgeons and also see if he thought Colt would need any skin grafting done (NOT good, so lets all cross our fingers for that). The surgeon on call wasn't available and it was about 5:15 so he just said he would get in contact with us. Anne the phone nurse called and left a long message on my of course dead cell phone around 5:30 or a little later stating Dr Welle got us in with Dr. Briggs, a surgeon, Tuesday morning at 9am and it will really be up to him how the wound care goes and if there would be any question of surgical wound care or skin grafting. Again, to attest to the greatness of Anne, she literally left me her working hours tomorrow and her and Dr. Welle's direct phone line to get through to her/them if we need anything. They said the wound nurses wouldn't typically see him being he's so young and these types of situations with young kids are then referred to surgeons. So other than all that, we'll have to see what Dr. Briggs has to say in the morning I guess and hope for the best. On a side note, when we got home we had like 2 missed calls from some home number in W. Fargo and then the phone rang again with a cell phone number with the same name, Corey answered it and it was Anne again, trying to track us down and said she knew we were in Casselton and being the appt is early tomorrow, she just wanted to keep calling us to be sure we heard her message...so she kept calling us from her home and cell phones...totally above and beyond of her to do and very appreciated!
Ok, more to come tomorrow...
Thanks all,
Kelly
He took measurements, concentrating on the wounds on his wrist and back of his arm and decided we should bandage the areas back up, rather than try to debride any of it as he wanted to speak to one of the surgeons and also see if he thought Colt would need any skin grafting done (NOT good, so lets all cross our fingers for that). The surgeon on call wasn't available and it was about 5:15 so he just said he would get in contact with us. Anne the phone nurse called and left a long message on my of course dead cell phone around 5:30 or a little later stating Dr Welle got us in with Dr. Briggs, a surgeon, Tuesday morning at 9am and it will really be up to him how the wound care goes and if there would be any question of surgical wound care or skin grafting. Again, to attest to the greatness of Anne, she literally left me her working hours tomorrow and her and Dr. Welle's direct phone line to get through to her/them if we need anything. They said the wound nurses wouldn't typically see him being he's so young and these types of situations with young kids are then referred to surgeons. So other than all that, we'll have to see what Dr. Briggs has to say in the morning I guess and hope for the best. On a side note, when we got home we had like 2 missed calls from some home number in W. Fargo and then the phone rang again with a cell phone number with the same name, Corey answered it and it was Anne again, trying to track us down and said she knew we were in Casselton and being the appt is early tomorrow, she just wanted to keep calling us to be sure we heard her message...so she kept calling us from her home and cell phones...totally above and beyond of her to do and very appreciated!
Ok, more to come tomorrow...
Thanks all,
Kelly
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Colton's accident...
Hi all - well, it's Saturday night, December 26th. We headed to Bismarck a bit early for Christmas (Tuesday afternoon) and Tuesday night proved to be a scary one. My niece (4), Ty (4) and Colton, were all playing downstairs and we heard Colton start screaming - the 2 others came running up the stairs saying 'Colton's in the treadmill!' - I took off running down there and immediately saw him basically caught at the end of it on the ground screaming with his arm pinned underneath being pulled in the direction the treadmill was running. I started screaming for help and kind of had one of those superhuman experiences you hear of people having in accident situations (which is definitely the case being I am looking VERY pregnant!)...I should have shut it off 1st thing but I immediately tried to pull him out with both hands and all my strength and couldn't get him out and his shirt was also getting sucked into it and I knew it was going to choke him (it all happened so fast) so I grabbed him with 1 arm around his mid-section and lifted the treadmill up in the air with my other hand...again, this all happened so quickly. It's under debate how long it was he was screaming before I got to him, Corey thinks it wasn't more than 5-10 seconds and the time I was down there alone with him was also probably not more than 10 seconds. My brother-in-law, dad and Corey all got down there after my screams and John pulled the cord to shut it off and it took all of us to get him out as there is a stopper bar in the back underside that is what he was caught in, so we pulled his arm and his shirt out of it and it's kind of all a blur after that. Thank god Shelly and John have been around to 'doctor' him all the days and unfortunately they were supposed to fly out to Orlando Friday, and then again on Saturday, but due to bad weather their flights were canceled and the trip didn't pan out - but fortunately for me and my sanity, that means they have been there to give a ton of medical advice and assistance with the supplies we have needed and know how to dress all the wounds and burns. He has 2nd degree burns over the left side of his face, couple spots on the side of his head, cuts on the back of his ear, a pretty deep wound over his wrist as well as the back upper part of his arm (both will probably require seeing a wound nurse this week in Fargo), more burns on his upper bicep, as well as covering a large portion of his back. The poor kid has endured so much since Tuesday - lots of pain, being bandaged like a mummy, very uncomfortable daily changing of his bandages as well as baths for Shelly to clean his wounds. 3 of my favorite things this week have been motrin, tylenol and antibiotics...oh and a big shout out to an almost 2 year old that still has a pacifier - love the pacifiers. Ugh, I'll be uploading pictures when we are back in Fargo. What a terrible deal. I'm obviously a little, or some would argue, a lot, emotional due to being pregnant, but this whole deal has done me in. So horrible and scary and awful and any other word you can think of. I will for sure be keeping him home this week from daycare and on his meds to both prevent any possible infection, but also for the fact he has been living in zip up pjs for ease of bandage changes and his own comfort and also until we can get him into his pediatrician who we love and more than likely she'll refer us for secondary follow-up with a wound nurse for care and follow-up. I've done quite a bit of research on this and this is all too common and of course could have been horribly worse. I remember being so scared when I lifted the treadmill, as I honestly thought there would be blood everywhere or he would be missing 'something' - when I realized that wasn't the case, I was SURE he had a broken arm, but he has been moving around perfectly, with exception to anything that will cause pain by touching his burns of course.
Thank god it happened so quick and thank god we were all right there and thank god it wasn't something even worse. That has been the sticking point for me this week, I can cry at the drop of the hat at even thinking about every second from the time I heard the screams, to running down the stairs to the kids saying he was in the treadmill to seeing him to wondering how to get him out...it was all just so bad and I keep thinking about his shirt and how it was starting to choke him to the point he even had small marks on his neck from the tightness. Horrible. I know I have to stop thinking about the what ifs, but it's hard and it puts some painful and real reality into how lucky he (I)...we...are...that it wasn't worse and how easily the outcome could have been different - whether that be losing a finger or hand or ...worse. He's doing so well and I have to stop thinking all these things and just be happy, so I'm just happy for every day that passes at this point to get it 1 more day closer to healing and 1 day farther away from that night and 1 day under my belt to let it all settle and stop thinking about it so much. I haven't been able to talk about this to anyone except a couple people right away and at this point don't yet want to have any conversations about it...which is partially why I'm making this post...to let you all know what happened, let you know he's doing very well (and I'll update more after his dr visits this week) and to get the word out to be SO careful with home workout equipment.
This stuff all has the warnings, and I am a crazy, overly cautious mom - but accidents do happen and hopefully the teach a very good lesson to all of you reading this. Keep your workout equipment away from your kids if possible, continuously preach to them about safety and at the very least, keep the electrical stuff unplugged and away from the little ones.
Please sign up as a follower to our blog if you'd like to get notified when I have updates, specifically to this situation.
Shelly and John think he'll heal really well from all the burns and will definitely need follow-up on the wrist and back arm wounds, but it looks like all will turn out well. From what I've read he will need major sunscreen coverage for at least a year on all areas of the burns, which will mean sunscreen, sun hat and long sleeve sun shirt for sure this next summer and he'll probably heal for the most part over a couple of months. He should look fabulous for his 2nd birthday pictures in a few weeks, but we'll always have a story to tell from the pictures and a major lesson learned. I wish Colton didn't always have to be teaching us lessons though! What do they call it? 2nd child syndrome?! Yes, that's it. Most people I know are hoping our 3rd ends up being a girl - not as much cannonballing off things, serious injuries and nerve-racking anxiety for mommy;)
PS: sorry if there are mis-spellings or grammar issues above, like I said, I don't like discussing this or thinking about it more than I have to and quite honestly, I don't even want to re-read what I just wrote...
Thanks all - please send your good thoughts Colt's way:) Hope you had a Merry Christmas and here's to hoping 2010 is a fabulous and healthy year for us all!
Kelly
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Happy Holidays from the Cruchet's!
So, life hasn't gotten any less busy so we have scrapped our website and are going to see if we can keep a blog up to date. Our first blog will be our 2009: Year in Review (mostly to replace our Christmas letter and get this blog rolling:).
Nov 2008 through May of 2009 proved to be challenging at best. Corey ended up having major corrective surgery on each foot which ended up with 3 surgeries during that time and on crutches through the entire Winter! It was interesting with weekly and sometimes twice a week appointments we both had to goto, no driving for him the entire time and even though I tried a few times to shovel along with running the house...all I can say is - thank god for neighbors with snowblowers and tractors as well as paid snow removal services! I also ended up having surgery in January, so we definitely had our medical challenges to go through. We had lots of help from our families and a huge thanks to my dad, Rick, who (also thanks to retirement:) probably spent a total of 6-8 weeks with us over that time helping us out during surgeries, around the house and with the kids.
In the middle of all the medical craziness we did end up getting season Tar Heel basketball tickets and went to Chapel Hill for the Rutgers game in Dec and Duke in Feb - nothing says fun like pushing Corey through the Atlanta airport in a rinky dinky wheel chair! ;) They were great trips though and we did get to visit the new Tar Heel basketball museum for the 1st time at the Duke game which was unbelievable!
We celebrated Colt's 1st birthday with a Tar Heel theme - great time all adorned with a UNC cake, everyone decked out in Tar Heel gear and complete with a game that night on the big screen...what more could a 1 year old ask for right?!;)
Another big part of our Winter and Spring were the Heels winning the National Championship in April!! Very exciting and I had gotten Corey a ball signed by the entire Tar Heel team and coaching staff which he proudly has displayed in the basement.
In April we made a trip down to Puerto Vallarta with the boys and Corey's parents, Al and Gisela. Was a great time and a nice reward to such a long, crazy winter! He was able to get around with only 1 crutch at that time so we made it work. We had lots of sun and fun in the pool, on the beach and (Ty's favorite) going to the marina to feed the fish and iguanas! Colton had the most fun around lunch time at the pool wandering from person to person at the pool and stealing fries off their plate - yes, he's our little eater!
In May we celebrated Ty's 4th birthday with a pirate party - all 4 of us dressed up in full pirate costumes and had a huge pirate cake along with a full treasure hunt in the backyard!
The Summer brought a ton of lake time at Lake Elsie with Corey's parents and family and we also ended up purchasing a motor home!! Definitely a blast, but lots of work! We ended up taking the motorhome(s) with Shelly and John to We Fest in August in Detroit Lakes, going to the PGA Championships at Hazeltine with Al and Gisela in Minneapolis and heading down to SD with the Hessingers and Botsfords over the long weekend in Sept to stay at Elkhorn Ridge by Rapid and enjoyed lots of family time...fires, swimming and going to Reptile Gardens. Our brother-in-law, Derek Hjelseth, also was deployed to Kosovo for a year in August - so we are all counting down the months until he is home!
The fall has just flown by with everything from Bison football (lets all just be glad the season is over;), Tyler going to his first basketball camp/lessons at the Fargo Basketball Academy, starting pre-school and going to swimming lessons with dad. Colton has also kept himself busy watching his big brother and trying to keep up with him...the boys both enjoy lots of football and wrestling nightly with Corey and Colton has really got into shooting hoops and true to his roots (daddy and Grampa Al)...if he misses 1, he takes off running to the stairs and throws himself down in a fit! On top of loving football, basketball and baseball - Tyler has just loved learning about dinosaurs (I've got some funny stories I'll share about that in later posts). Corey has also started playing in his weekly league basketball and they happen to be tops in their league right now and he loves having the boys there watching him shoot his 'half court threes' (as I would call them!).
We just celebrated Thanksgiving at our house in Casselton and had lots of food and fun and got to talk to Derek in Kosovo over Skype so that was great! We also found out Derek gets to come home for 2 weeks in Feb so he'll get to be home for his daughter Jayla's 2nd birthday!!
Oh my goodness...ok yes, we have lots going on...and I totally forgot to throw this in earlier, so I should probably backup to July...when we announced we have baby #3 on the way!! Due March 11th - and nope, we don't find out what we are having, yes it was planned, no we aren't having any more than 3 and no, I could care less what we have...a boy would probably be easiest as we seem to be quite a boy type of family, but I also have 4 neices and would be fun (probably not as easy though:) to have a girl as well!
Tyler has his 1st pre-school Christmas program on Monday, December 14th so we can't wait to see that! And Christmas will be spent in Bismarck with the Hessingers and Botsfords this year - followed by Christmas with the Cruchets and Hjelseths a week later (along with celebrating Corey's birthday) on New Years Eve/New Years Day.
Well, that's about all for now! Please sign up as a follower and you'll be notified whenever we have any new updates or pictures.
Hope you are all having a great Winter and Holiday Season and hope to talk to you soon!
The Cruchets - Corey, Kelly, Colt (almost 2), Ty (4.5) and baby #3
Nov 2008 through May of 2009 proved to be challenging at best. Corey ended up having major corrective surgery on each foot which ended up with 3 surgeries during that time and on crutches through the entire Winter! It was interesting with weekly and sometimes twice a week appointments we both had to goto, no driving for him the entire time and even though I tried a few times to shovel along with running the house...all I can say is - thank god for neighbors with snowblowers and tractors as well as paid snow removal services! I also ended up having surgery in January, so we definitely had our medical challenges to go through. We had lots of help from our families and a huge thanks to my dad, Rick, who (also thanks to retirement:) probably spent a total of 6-8 weeks with us over that time helping us out during surgeries, around the house and with the kids.
In the middle of all the medical craziness we did end up getting season Tar Heel basketball tickets and went to Chapel Hill for the Rutgers game in Dec and Duke in Feb - nothing says fun like pushing Corey through the Atlanta airport in a rinky dinky wheel chair! ;) They were great trips though and we did get to visit the new Tar Heel basketball museum for the 1st time at the Duke game which was unbelievable!
We celebrated Colt's 1st birthday with a Tar Heel theme - great time all adorned with a UNC cake, everyone decked out in Tar Heel gear and complete with a game that night on the big screen...what more could a 1 year old ask for right?!;)
Another big part of our Winter and Spring were the Heels winning the National Championship in April!! Very exciting and I had gotten Corey a ball signed by the entire Tar Heel team and coaching staff which he proudly has displayed in the basement.
In April we made a trip down to Puerto Vallarta with the boys and Corey's parents, Al and Gisela. Was a great time and a nice reward to such a long, crazy winter! He was able to get around with only 1 crutch at that time so we made it work. We had lots of sun and fun in the pool, on the beach and (Ty's favorite) going to the marina to feed the fish and iguanas! Colton had the most fun around lunch time at the pool wandering from person to person at the pool and stealing fries off their plate - yes, he's our little eater!
In May we celebrated Ty's 4th birthday with a pirate party - all 4 of us dressed up in full pirate costumes and had a huge pirate cake along with a full treasure hunt in the backyard!
The Summer brought a ton of lake time at Lake Elsie with Corey's parents and family and we also ended up purchasing a motor home!! Definitely a blast, but lots of work! We ended up taking the motorhome(s) with Shelly and John to We Fest in August in Detroit Lakes, going to the PGA Championships at Hazeltine with Al and Gisela in Minneapolis and heading down to SD with the Hessingers and Botsfords over the long weekend in Sept to stay at Elkhorn Ridge by Rapid and enjoyed lots of family time...fires, swimming and going to Reptile Gardens. Our brother-in-law, Derek Hjelseth, also was deployed to Kosovo for a year in August - so we are all counting down the months until he is home!
The fall has just flown by with everything from Bison football (lets all just be glad the season is over;), Tyler going to his first basketball camp/lessons at the Fargo Basketball Academy, starting pre-school and going to swimming lessons with dad. Colton has also kept himself busy watching his big brother and trying to keep up with him...the boys both enjoy lots of football and wrestling nightly with Corey and Colton has really got into shooting hoops and true to his roots (daddy and Grampa Al)...if he misses 1, he takes off running to the stairs and throws himself down in a fit! On top of loving football, basketball and baseball - Tyler has just loved learning about dinosaurs (I've got some funny stories I'll share about that in later posts). Corey has also started playing in his weekly league basketball and they happen to be tops in their league right now and he loves having the boys there watching him shoot his 'half court threes' (as I would call them!).
We just celebrated Thanksgiving at our house in Casselton and had lots of food and fun and got to talk to Derek in Kosovo over Skype so that was great! We also found out Derek gets to come home for 2 weeks in Feb so he'll get to be home for his daughter Jayla's 2nd birthday!!
Oh my goodness...ok yes, we have lots going on...and I totally forgot to throw this in earlier, so I should probably backup to July...when we announced we have baby #3 on the way!! Due March 11th - and nope, we don't find out what we are having, yes it was planned, no we aren't having any more than 3 and no, I could care less what we have...a boy would probably be easiest as we seem to be quite a boy type of family, but I also have 4 neices and would be fun (probably not as easy though:) to have a girl as well!
Tyler has his 1st pre-school Christmas program on Monday, December 14th so we can't wait to see that! And Christmas will be spent in Bismarck with the Hessingers and Botsfords this year - followed by Christmas with the Cruchets and Hjelseths a week later (along with celebrating Corey's birthday) on New Years Eve/New Years Day.
Well, that's about all for now! Please sign up as a follower and you'll be notified whenever we have any new updates or pictures.
Hope you are all having a great Winter and Holiday Season and hope to talk to you soon!
The Cruchets - Corey, Kelly, Colt (almost 2), Ty (4.5) and baby #3
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