Finally on the Road to Recovery!!!

After a VERY long week, I believe we are on the downhill side of all of this.
Caelum had his hospital follow up appointment on Wednesday and we got to meet his new Pediatric Urologist who is wonderful....I actually like him WAY better than his doctor in Texas.  I believe Jason will like him to when he gets to meet him at Caelum's next appointment.
Some have asked if we will sue or if we can fight against all of this since we are military and of course have TriCare. The answer is yes we can.  We are starting by contacting the Patient Advocate at the hospital on base, since this all originated in the Pediatric Clinic on base.  Our next step is to contact an attorney in that we make sure Caelum gets full compensation for this as there is no timeline for when the urethra is completely healed.  Dr. Routh said something may come up 10-15 years from now and we want to make sure that is one less thing Caelum will have worry with financially when he is an adult.
Instead of typing everything again, I just copied an excerpt from the letter we are sending to the Patient Advocate.....

On Wednesday, September 23, 2015, we made the almost 2 hour drive to Duke Children's Health Center in Durham NC for Caelum's appointment with Dr. Routh.  We arrived and he was already aware of Caelum's case as he had been speaking to Dr. Robertson (the head Urologist who took care of Caelum in the hospital) on and off since Saturday.  The plan for this visit was to remove his catheter and see if Caelum would urinate on his own and empty his bladder completely.  He was also ordering Pyridium for him to take for the next 7 days.  Dr. Routh explained that after talking to Dr. Robertson about where the trauma was from the incorrect placement of the catheter.  Dr. Routh said that where the place of the trauma of the urethra was is the most difficult place to operate on due to all the other important things around this area.  The area was at the top of urethra near the junction with the bladder. Dr. Routh stated there is no time frame for healing of the urethra. He stated we may not know for another 10-15 years if there is more damage than what is showing up now. He stated he may be infertile or have ejaculatory dysfunction or other issues may arise.  If surgery is needed it is the most difficult portion of the urethra to operate on.  After discussing the potential effects from this trauma, he then removed his catheter and asked us to hang around the hospital as he wanted to make sure he was able to urinate and then do a bladder scan to make sure all the urine had emptied out. Caelum was very afraid of urinating as he was afraid it would hurt.  While we were waiting for Caelum to urinate we received a call from Caelum's PCM Steve Gay, as he had seen we had been to the ER.   He was just calling to check on Caelum and ask if we needed anything.  I just expressed we would most likely only need a referral to continue to see Dr. Routh and Mr. Gay stated he would put in a referral.  After about 3 hours and much pleading he was finally able to urinate.  We headed back to the exam room and the bladder scan showed he had emptied his bladder completely.  Dr. Routh then came in and told of signs and symptoms to look for and to make sure he urinates at least every 2 hours and to follow up with him in 6 weeks.  We left his office and headed back to our home in Raeford. After leaving Dr. Routh's office he has been very afraid to urinate or have a bowel movement in he toilet.  He has had many changing of clothes and bedding.  As of today, Friday, September 2, 2015 he has finally starting urinating and having bowel movements in the toilet.  

I did ask Dr. Routh if we needed to go back for the test that was not able to be completed (the VCUG) and he said no he will never need that test again.  He stated it mainly will show about reflux and since Caelum has never had any urinary issues until the botched up catheter insertion, he is not concerned about reflux...it is not something you generally worry about much.  He did say that the nuclear medicine test he had seemed ok without seeing the actual disk, he only saw the written report.  He stated that for a Pediatric patient he does not worry about the number it is given but he worries about how well it actually drains.  He stated the report stated it does drain well and he is not concerned about his kidneys at all.  We will have to make frequent folllow ups in regards to the Urethra trauma, but in regards to his kidney he stated we just have to go once a year for an ultrasound for about the next 10-15 years.

Thanks again for ALL the prayers! And Thanks again to Teddy and Gramm's for all the loss of sleep and time you have given up to be up here!

And here are a few pictures from this week....

Trying to keep him busy at the play area at the hospital so he will go pee.  And yes he still has part of his PJ's on......some things this past week have not been worth the battle. He was scared to take baths, scared to pull his pants/undies off, scared to change his shirts as that meant we were going to the hospital and more owies!!  And the list goes on!

 Finally after peeing at the doctor with a lot of screaming, kicking, spitting...he got to get a toy out of the treasure box.

 After getting home from the doctor on Wednesday, we had to change clothes once again for an accident...so the boys both wanted to hang out in their undies.

Caelum received a special surprise from Big Daddy and Gimma....an edible arrangement!!  He LOVES it!!

 Here is Teddy working in the yard for us!

 Here is Kerrick rocking Caelum!

 Here is the card all of Caelums friends and teachers from school made him. They also gave him a gift bag FULL of goodies for him!  It was too sweet.  I took him to see everyone yesterday afternoon and the minute he walked in they all came running to him screaming, Hi Caelum, We missed you Caelum and they all kept surrounding him and hugging him!  

A Little Spotlight for the Big Dude!

Amongst all that has been going on, Kerrick has been a wonderful big brother!!  I surprised him yesterday and went and had lunch with him at school.  His smile was sooo big when he saw me there!  Def made my day as I know he has been in the backseat a lot lately!!  He has been a trooper with everything going on around him.  Here are a few pictures from lunch.

 We had to take a second picture to get the Longhorns in the picture for Dada!!

A long few days

We had a few more complications over the weekend with Caelum this weekend. After Thursdays traumatic experience, Caelum was able to pee 3 times on Friday and his last time to go was around 5pm on Friday.  We woke up Saturday and he still had not urinated at all.  At about 1100, we headed to the ER. Caelum had to go but just would scream all morning.  We went to one of the local hospitals as that is where we were told to go.  After arriving, multiple attempts to pee, and lots of phone calls the ER doctor made, Caelum won a trip to Duke University in Durham via Ambulance.  He was soooo excited to finally get to ride in an ambulance.  The ER doctor was wonderful and just was not comfortable doing a blind poke into his bladder to get the urine out. After the 1.5 hour ambulance ride, we arrived at Duke for our direct admission to the Children's floor.  We were greeted by a huge team of wonderful medical professionals.  I probably had to tell his whole story at least 10 times, to all the different teams coming in that were going to be working with Caelum.  The plan was to initially go in with a  camera on a guide wire through his penis in which they can see what all is going on with his trauma and see how it was looking.  Next they would insert a catheter if they were able to bypass the trauma area.  If this was not successful they would then do an ultrasounded guided suprapubic catheter.  All of the ORs were full, so we had to wait as they wanted to do this around 9 or 10pm.  They were trying to wait a bit as he had ate 1/2 a cracker around 2pm and did not want to risk aspiration during the procedure.  Then the otherside was they wanted to get him in quickly as his bladder was continuing to fill and needed to get the urine out.
So Caelum was very uncomfortable and in pain while waiting.  We walked the halls, sat in the room, walked some more....he wanted you to hold him at all times and keep moving, not sure if the movement eased the pain or what?  But we all have gained some big muscles over the last few days.   After one long screaming fest he finally peed all over the floor.  I had a slight hope that maybe this procedure/surgery who be cancelled. But unfortunately he still had quite a bit of urine left.
About 9 pm, they came and got us and took us down to preop.  He rode in his bed as I followed along. He was so exhausted yet so awake as he was unsure of what all was going on.  We get down to Pre-Op go over a few more things. The Anesthesia team came and gave him some Versed to try to help ease him up before they took him from me.  Unfortunately it did not make him too drowsy as he was screaming and grabbing at me as they took him...that was hard.  So they took him on and went out to the waiting room.  I got to meet a wonderful lady who had been out there several hours waiting on her husband to come out of surgery...he had got a call the night before saying they had a kidney for him!  Very exciting, yet scarier as he has had lots of kidney issues and there were a few complications at the beginning of his surgery.  I was out there for about an hour before the doctor came out.  Caelums team had all Adult Urologist on it as the Peds doctors were not on. But they were wonderful. The lead doctor, Dr. Robertson came out and sat and talked for a good 15 minutes with me.  He was so calm and answered all the questions we had.  He said they were able to go in with the camera and just see that only his urethra had sustained some swelling only.  He bladder and tops of urethra looked great.  He had some blood clots in his bladder and they cleaned those out.  They then slipped the catheter over the guide wire into place and then removed the guide wire.  He is to keep the catheter in for 3-5 days.  And we are to followup with a Pediatric Urologist there at the Dukes Childrens Hospital.  We have an appointment set for Wednesday and will hopefully get the catheter removed.  We are just hoping a lot of potty retraining is not needed?!
It has been a long few days with lots of ups and downs....Bath time and bedtime are the worst with lots of screaming and pleading and bargaining from Caelum.
Jason and I are ever so thankful for all the prayers, as they have truly been felt. And a HUGE thanks to Teddy, Gramm's, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jen and Kerrick and Raelyn.  They have come up and helped out with everything....cooking, going to appointments, losing lots of sleep, holding, rocking, keeping Kerrick,  just being there, cutting grass and too much else!!  Thank you guys!!
And a shout out to big dude Kerrick, he has been in the backseat lately but being a good big brother.  Gramm's said he was offly clingy and really good on Saturday while all this was going on...he knew something was up.  He has been really helpful since we got home in distracting Caelum and keeping him entertained.  He has done a little bit of rocking with Caelum so we can get a few things done.
We will keep you posted...but keep praying as I think we will have several follow up appointments to stay on top of this to make sure it is healing correctly.

 Getting ready to leave the ER in the Ambulance!!

 Snoozing in the ambulance!!

 This was Post Procedure/Surgery

This was today....he wanted to ride his car with his big smile and new accessory...the BAG!!  Poor Gramm's was chasing him around the culdesac!!

An Update on Caelum's Test

Yesterday was a day I wish to never have or relive again!  Gramm's came up to go with Caelum and I to his radiology appointments (Renal Scan and VCUG.)  We knew he was getting a catheter inserted and and IV placed.  We arrived at 0830 for the placement of everything in which got pushed back to 1200 so  he would not have to have a catheter in for such a long time since one test was at 0930 and the other at 1330.  So I was thankful for that.  So we went to the mall to hang out and eat a snack before heading back.  We got back to the Peds clinic 30 minutes early and Caelum had pottied when we got there.  We went back for the placement of IV and cath.  The IV went in on first try and was flushing nicely.  They inserted the cath and had no urine output.  So I said he did have something to drink about 45 minutes ago and did just go to the bathroom about 30 minutes ago.  So they said ok and then took us up to Nuclear medicine.  We got there and Nucelar Medicine Techs said, he has no urine coming out of his cath and seemed a little concerned.  So they called one of their doctors and they gave the ok to proceed on with his testing as the doctor said if he pees it will just go around the cath and exit like normal.  So they proceeded on in which he had to lay still on the bed for 30 minutes after they gave him Lasix (which makes you pee) and the nuclear medicine.  I did give him some Benadryl as he did not want to lay down, so he finally passed out for only about 10 minutes and they had to strap him down on the table to try to help him lay still.  They finished up with their test and he still had no urine output in his catheter.  They took us over to another department in Radiology for the VCUG.  The Pediatric Radiologist came in and looked at that catheter and became concerned as there was no urine.  He attempted to inject some fluid in the catheter but had resistance. So he then injected some contrast in so it would show up as to where the catheter was.  The catheter was in his Urethra and not his bladder.  And if you don't know much about catheters, some have balloons you inflate once it is in place  to help hold catheter up in bladder.  So the catheter was in his urethra and inflated.  The Radiologist deflated catheter and pulled it out and the blood came gushing out.  We got Caelum down and took him to the bathroom and tried to let him pee on his own.  And he tried and tried and could not go, just blood was dripping out.  We got him dressed with gauze in his undies and the Radiologist called the Urologist that is here on base.  He came up and tried cathing him at least 15 times with no luck and blood is everywhere.  As they had to get his urine out.  The plan was to cath him and he go home with a cath since his urethra had been slit from the original catheter. Him going home with a catheter in place will give his urethra time to heal.  Thankfully at one point he "peed" out a huge blood clot that went all over a few people.  Then a little bit later, he finally was able to pee on his own in which was a ton of urine.  So they finally released us to go home and keep an eye on him.
SOOOO Thankful Gramm's was here, as I would not have made it through the day without her.Today, I went into work and Caelum is staying home with Gramm's.  Gramm's was supposed to go home yesterday after the test, but thankfully has stayed to help out in case an ER visit is needed.  Gramm's said he has been a bit clingy today and a little tired, laying around a lot (which is NOT like him.)  But I know he is exhausted from all the trauma yesterday.  He has been peeing some and Gramm's has had to pull out the bribing tools to get him to go.  He is really scared to pee now because it hurts a lot.  But he has been a big trooper.
If Gramm's only knows how much of a life saver she has been to us!!!  And Praises to God for letting us lean on Him during all of this

So we just are asking for prayers that Caelum's Urethra heals and he has no side affects in his future from this.  And pray that he will just pee, he only peed 2 times today as he is so scared to pee.

We will go on Tuesday to follow up with his Urologist on the one test that was able to be accomplished and check on the status of his trauma.

Fun times and some house updates!

First off....Happy Grandparents Day to our wonderful Grandparents - Nanny, Grandpa, Nonna and Poppa!  And a BIG Happy Grandparents Day to our parents, Teddy and Gramm's and Big Daddy and Gimma!! Thanks for being wonderful parents and grandparents to our lil dudes!

Gramm's came up this weekend to celebrate Grandparents Day with the dudes at their school. And then yesterday, we all got to go do a little indoor skydiving at a place that is near our house!  FUN TIMES!!  I had been talking to boys all week about going to "fly!" So all week they kept asking how much longer until we get to wear our flight suits!  So Saturday was finally the day.  We all got there attended our class and put on all the gear.  We entered the waiting area inside the tunnel.  They wanted me to go first so I did and had a blast.  Then the boys were next, and they were standing back at first then Kerrick took the lead and headed to the instructor and Caelum went in with them with the other instructor.  Caelum lasted about 30 seconds in the 1.5 minute flight and he was done.  Kerrick stuck it out the whole time, but once he got out he said he did not want to go again.  Gramm's was up next....despite her looking scared in this picture, I think she had fun!!  After everyone in our group went once, then we all went out again and first minute we were with the instructor "flying" low, then the other instructor took us in and took us to the top of the tunnel and back down twice....wow, amazing!!!  Great memories and fun times!!  Next stop....out the airplane!!!  Unfortunately, we could not take the camera in with us, so these pics are pre-flight!

And this pic is of Caelum watching one the guys practice their skydiving performance....there is a competition coming up soon so we got to see them practice some.

We have been getting a few updates on the house this week....we got curbing around our tree, flower beds and added some down the side of the house.

Here is Kerrick enjoying the 70 degree weather we had today...VERY nice.  We got to finally open up the house and clean it out!

And lastly we added onto our patio and had a fire pit installed.  Still waiting on the fence guy, long story short we are to month 2 of getting them out here.  Hopefully they will come soon!!

The boys are very excited to roast some marshmallows and hot dogs and of course camp out in the backyard!!

Last weekend, we went to the library one day and found some books on paper airplanes...

Here they are showing them! off

And our Flight School Board for Points at flying our new airplanes!

 It rained a bit on Labor Day weekend, so we did a lot of indoor stuff!  Ol Lefty here practicing his letters.  And both of them coloring their power rangers!

We did have a small window of no rain, so the boys got to paint their ChooChoo Trians.

 And we moved to the sunny grass so we did not spill the paint on the driveway!