Fisher's preschool pictures

May 2013.

Fisher's first year of preschool was so much fun.  I am so thankful for the other moms that made it possible to do a co-op preschool.  Fisher has really enjoyed it.

Look at my handsome guy!

 

Kaylee, Mason, Kate, Brody and Fisher

 

 

Jedi Justin

May 2, 2013.

Before going to school Justin came in the kitchen and asked if I would play Jedi with him.  Of course I said I would but I didn't quite now what this game consisted of as this was the first time he requested to play.

He was throwing "BB pistol" and "mega-blaster" and "the force"!!! Haha. Where does he learn this stuff? I told him he needed to play Jedi with Dad and he said, "Oh, Dad's good. But I can still beat him."  

  I love this kid!

Jorgen and Heide Surprise

April 30, 2013

This morning my mom called me and said, "You'll never guess who is here?!?! Jorgen and Heide!!!"  What????  Jorgen and Heide are mom's cousins that live in Sweden.  That's right.  They just showed up in the USA and surprised all of us.  What a pleasant surprise! 

Jorgen and Heide went to mom and dad's house and no one was home so they went to Gerber's office and David called Dad at work and told him he had a surprise at the office.  Boy was my dad surprised.  Dad called mom and mom went and picked them up.  Amazingly enough Dad's job was in Saratoga Springs.  That is as close to the office as my Dad has been in years.  So mom took them out to Dad's job.  I loaded the boys up and took them to the job too.  I was so happy to see them both. 

After seeing Dad's job they drove out to my house to take the tour.  It was so nice to have them at my house.  That night we had a BBQ at Haylie's house.  Then the following night we all gathered at mom's house.  All of my mom's siblings and my cousins came to see them too. 

This is a picture of my family with them.  I just love Jorgen and Heide.  Jorgen is more like my dad's brother than my mom's cousin.  He looks like my dad, dresses like my dad, wears the same reading glasses, and loves speed just like my dad.  I am so thankful that it is important to my mom to make sure we know our Sweden relatives.  It was so good to see them and talk with them.

They only stayed a couple of days.  They had a long list of places to go and see.  They headed out to Vegas and then headed to California.  Jorgen said that he is coming back to the USA in February so he can go to a race with my Dad.  He is going to have to round up a race buggy between now and then. 

Thanks for coming and surprising us Jorgen and Heide!  Love you guys!

I like being me - By Justin Clark

April 24, 2013

Justin made this in Kindergarten.  I was so proud of how good his writing is and the things he wrote!  I love the picture too.

Justin Clark

I love to ride my scooter.

Green is the best color.

My favorite food is soup.

Building sandcastles is fun.

Valentines Day is my

favorite holiday. I like being

me.

 

Nice work Justin!

Nissen Post-op

April 22, 2013:

Hunter was excited to get home and see his brothers.  Justin and Fisher was excited to have Hunter and Mom home too.  It didn't take long for them to settle in.

 

April 23, 2013:
This was my post of Facebook.  Some of it is repetitive of what I already put in the previous posts but I didn't want to leave it out.

Many have asked what surgery Hunter had and why he needed it. So if you are interested, here is the story.

The name of the surgery is Nissen Fundopilation. Basically they take the top part of the stomach and wrap it around the base of the esophagus and stitch it back to itself. By doing this it creates a valve to keep things in the stomach. This surgery is done to help reflux and aid the lowe...r esophageal sphincter (LES) or the muscle between the stomach and the esophagus.

The reason he needed this surgery was because his LES was not working properly. Hunter's untreated acid reflux (we didn't know he was refluxing) damaged the LES so that it would no longer close. Because it would not close the food that he ate would not stay in his stomach. For the last 2 1/2 months Hunter has regurgitated everything he ate or drank. It wasn't too bad in the beginning but it quickly got worse and never improved with medication. A month ago, Hunter spent the weekend in the hospital for dehydration and chronic vomiting. Yes, he had been loosing weight by this point.

We have seen many doctors in regards to this and we finally came to the conclusion that this surgery was essential for him. His surgery was on Friday. He could not eat or drink anything until Sunday in order to allow time for his tummy to heal. Sunday he was able to drink clear liquids and finally on Monday he was able to eat soft foods (pureed food). He will remain on a soft diet for 2 weeks and then we slowly can add in solid foods. He has been a trooper but is really missing his cherrios. It is going to be a long 2 weeks without cherrios.

Four days post-op he is doing much better. Now that he has been able to keep something in his stomach for 2 days - even though it is small in quantity - he is so happy. He is crawling around slowly and starting to smile again. It is SO SO good to hear happy noises coming from him. He will miss school for a while and he will be very excited to go back when the time is right. I cant wait to see what he will be like in 2 more days!!

Hunter is a brave boy and has endured so many medical trials. We are so happy for the things that he has taught us. Hunter has 2 very special brothers that are so patient and loving towards him.

April 24, 2013:
It didn't take long for Hunter to start perking up.  It is amazing was a couple days post-op will do for you especially when you can hold food down.  Holding his sippy like this is something new.

The End of Hunter's GI Nightmare - Nissen Fundopilation

April 19-22, 2013.

For the entire story of Hunter's GI Nightmare go to the following posts:
The Beginning of Hunter's GI Nightmare.
The Middle of Hunter's GI Nightmare
Almost the End of Hunter's GI Nightmare

So after our discouraging appointment with the surgeon we went to St. George for Spring Break vacation.  It was nice to get away but it was a tough trip to make.  4 hours in a car with a kid that cant keep anything down was not convenient in any way.  We finally arrived.  The vacation was a much needed get-a-way for our family. 

I spoke to the GI doctor and told him of the surgeons response.  He was shocked to say the least.  He told me this was a "hole-in-one" fix for Hunter's symptoms.  He suggested we consult with a different surgeon, Dr. Black, and prior to our visit he would talk to Dr. Black himself.  So that's what we did. 

We consulted with Dr. Black and was in for surgery on April 19th.  The surgery name is Nissen Fundoplication.  This surgery entails a partial separation of the spleen from the stomach and then taking the top hump of the stomach and wrapping it around the esophagus and stitching it back to itself.  This creates a one-way valve and makes everything going down stay down. 

The surgery was uneventful and Dr. Black felt like it went very well.  The surgery took about an hour and a half.  As a side note, months after the surgery and I received the surgery notes it said that they didn't account for all of the medical devices and so they had to x-ray him to make sure they didn't leave anything inside of Hunter.  Nothing showed up on the x-ray so I guess we are safe to say they removed everything.  Phew.

Friday, April 19th:
Here we are getting Hunter all dressed in his hospital attire.  He is not new to this routine so he was not happy that he was here.

Hunter was given some medication to make him sleepy and groggy.  It always works good and fast for Hunter. 

Hunter had to get some mommy kisses before going in for surgery.

After surgery he went into recovery.  Only one parent can go to him while in recovery (this stinks but Tyler always lets me go).  When they took me back they took me and another mom. As soon as I entered the recovery area I could hear Hunter crying.  I had to wait for the other mom to be shown to her child before they took me to Hunter. I felt terrible hearing him cry and not being able to rush to him and console him.  This is Hunter right after they gave him some pain meds to calm him down.  It did help a little when I got to his bedside.

I took a quick picture of his incision.  Not too bad considering.

Poor Hunter.  So sad.

Once we were taken up to our room we didn't know what to expect.  When he had his kidney surgery one year ago  (March 2012) it took him about 24 hours to wake up.  I was hoping it wouldn't take that long.  Once we got to his room he was a bit fussy and very tired.  For a while all he wanted was to have me hold him. I held him and he calmed down and went to sleep.

The tube in his nose is to vent the air in his tummy and to drain any residual blood.  It was quite large and was not comfortable for him.

When we put him in his bed he wiggled all over, put his arms above his head and feel back to sleep! What a brave little man! All we could hope was that he would sleep well over the next 3 days in the hospital. 

Saturday, April 20th:
Awake and happy watching Cars!  Notice that his tube is out of his nose with the tape still on his cheek...... he jerked his vent tube out during the 1st night. At this point we were just waiting for the bowels to kick in so we could feed the little guy. He hadn't been able to eat since Thursday night (April 18th). And nothing to drink since 10:30 Friday morning (April 19th) . He couldn't take anything orally until he had bowel function. He was a pretty good camper.

Tyler came up and spent time with Hunter every day.  I looked forward to his visits.  Tyler had double duty with taking care of Justin and Fisher at home and then coming to see Hunter in the hospital. 

We liked to go on walks when Dad came. It helps to have someone pull to wagon and someone push the IV tower.

Hunter usually got sleepy on our walks.

He feel asleep sitting up.

We just wheeled him into his room and let him have a nap in the wagon.

He always perked up when we let him play the iPad.  He doesn't look too happy in this picture but the iPad was his happiest moments.

 

 

Sunday, April 21st:

Making progress. He is holding down liquids. Can't start on solids until tomorrow.

Monday, April 22nd:
Hunter was finally able to eat something!  He was first allowed to eat clear liquids and then once he held them down he was able to start on soft purees.  He looked so good with a bib on that wasn't full of regurgitated food.

 

 

More wagon rides to pass the time.  He looked at books while mom and dad walked.

On one of our many walks we saw Super Man.  Hunter figured the brothers would like to see this.

and Spider Man.

Asleep in the wagon again but looking so much better.

Grandma Sing came up to see Hunter. I took the opportunity to go to the cafeteria to eat all by myself.

Here is his incision a couple days post-op.

 

The morning of discharge was hard. Hunter wanted to get down to play.  He was tired of the wagon, the bed and mom's lap.  The nurses brought in a mat and some toys so Hunter could get down!  Hooray!!  This was a life saver!  At this point we were still waiting for him to poop. He was holding down his food well so pooping was the only thing left.

Ready to go home.......

Finally!!! The outside world!  So happy we were on our way home!

Hunter perked up on the way home.  He was so cute looking all over the place. 

 

Having the surgery done was a weight off our shoulders.  Now we just needed to wait a few weeks to see how successful it was.  This was scary for me. I didn't know if Hunter cold survive much more regurgitation. 

 

Thank you to those who helped us with Justin and Fisher, made a visit to see Hunter, and brought us treats.  We have such a wonderful support system!

Spring Break 2013- Playing at the Park

April 6, 2013.

On the last day of our spring break vacation we went to the park.  It was so much fun to go and play with the cousins. 

Hunter loves to swing so that's where he spent most of his time.

Jason is so cute with Hunter.  He always gives him a hug every time he sees him.  Jason was very concerned for Hunter with all his regurgitating he was doing.  Jason pushed Hunter in the swing for the longest time without anyone asking him to.  These two will always have a special bond. Thanks Jason.

 

The kids played some baseball. Here Justin is swinging at the ball.

Will surprised us all when he took a flying leap out of the swing.  He made it quite far and no matter how hard everyone tried there was no beating Will's first flying leap!

Keegan on the climbing wall.

Soren on a climbing wall.  He was screaming for help and I had to snag a picture first.

Fisher stuffed his sandals full of the shredded rubber pieces.

Kristal is always good to initiate some kind of game.  Here is the starting line for the race.

Keegan, Will, Jason and Justin racing.  Justin kept trying to fix the race by saying only kids 6 and under could run.  He was trying to make it so he could win each time but appear fair.

Keegan, Emmie, Hannah, Addie and Cole on the run.

We also played Red-Rover-Red-Rover.  Here is Emmie trying to break thru.

Cole, Will, Keegan, and Justin trying to keep Hannah on their team.

We even had a team cheer at the end of the games. 

 

We also had a soccer game.  Me, Haylie and Kristal played and tried showing off our soccer skills from the olden days.  I don't think the kids were too impressed but we had fun trying.

 

Park days with the cousins are always so much fun!