Happy halloween!

We usually go all out for Halloween, but this year we had so much on our plate that we decided to focus on Kenzie and her first real year of trick or treating. It was still a ton of fun. Kenzie couldn't wait to get dressed up in her costume and hit the pavement. It's all she has talked about since she got her costume in September. So at about 5:30pm we started to get her ready. And in no time at all, we where on our way. Beating doors and ringing bells.

But before we left, we got a lil visit from Aunt Dani, Uncle Jer and the boys. They where our lil group of supers! Too cute!

Even Dani and I got in on the fun!!!

Homecomming

Last weekend I got to help Chelsea get ready for another dance. I love it. It's so much fun to be girlie. I do her hair and then her makeup. Then we get to get her dressed.

Even Kenzie got in on all the fun!!!

Not too bad, if I do say so myself... She looked so pretty.

Hope you had tons of fun Chels!!!! I know I did.

Fair Fun

It wasn't quite a month ago, so I don't feel too bad. It was kinda windy that day so we tried to stay inside as much as possible.

Here, Mack was digging up potatoes in the farming is fun center for the kids.

I do so like a little cheese with my eggs. Here Kenz is in a chicken coop, another part of the kids play area.

Remembering Sunshine

I'm sure it wouldn't be as easy to appreciate the weather we have if we didn't get all four seasons.... but I would be okay with a longer summer.

Mackenzie was able to enjoy swinging by herself this summer after the school installed an infant/toddler swing. Before the new swing, she had to hang onto mom while trying not to fall off. It wasn't much fun. But now that she can be a little independent, she has a ton more fun.

When "They" Figure Me Out, I'll Let Ya Know

So it all started about 2 months ago. (does the start to this sound familiar to anyone else?). I started to get some left flank pain that would spread around to my front side and down into my groin. Sounds fun doesn't it? I thought it was kidney stones like all the times before. After a couple days and it hadn't subsided, I decided that it was time to take a trip to the doc. Once there, I was prescribed some pain meds and sent to have a C.T. done to get a better picture of what was going on. I got a call from my doctor saying that the kidney was clear, but the gallbladder had small densities all over it. So she told me that I was probably just an a-typical case and that my body was just differing the pain to the other side for some reason or another. So the next test she wanted me to do was a fun little test called a hide-a-scan. It's a nuclear test done at the hospital where they inject radioactive chemicals into you through I.V. Then they put you under this fun camera that can detect the chemical in your intestines. Once under the camera, the inject yet another chemical to get the gallbladder to flush. Painful. So after a couple day's wait, I received the results. The results where within normal range. Onto the next test. It was just an ultrasound done at the hospital. This also showed to be normal. So now my doctor is stumped. I can't eat anything because it makes me hurt and nauseous. I've lost some 10+ pounds the last time I checked. Not the kind of weight loss I was looking for. So my doctor, armed with all the info she could scrounge up, sent me to a Gastroenterologist. His name is Dr. Pandalfi and is said to be very good. He isn't exactly known for his bead side manner. But I'll take what I can get. He did an endoscopy on Wednesday to "rule anything out," but ended up taking a sample of my upper intestines to do a biopsy. He wants to check to see why my iron isn't absorbing and maybe other things. (Your iron is absorbed in your upper intestines.). I get to go back on the 19th for the coveted colonoscopy. I'll let you know how that one goes. In the mean time, I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. It's been a rough time at the Heilman house.

So, it all started on Aug. 1st. My hand began to hurt from what I thought was working out to hard the previous day. I was supposed to work an overtime shift that night, but only made it through 3 and a half hours before deciding the pain warranted a late night visit to the ER. The doctor told me exactly what I wanted to hear, and sent me home with a sprained wrist and some pain meds. After a week and no relief in pain, I began to fear the worst. I think the scariest thing was when one of my co-workers told me he thought it was infected, and i knew he was right. So i decided to visit the ER again that next morning.

This is what my wrist looked like at that time.

By that afternoon, Tiffany was home from work and Mackenzie was happily settled in at Grandma's house. We arrived at Regional Hospital at around 3pm with the impression that we would be seen and shortly there after, sent on our way with some meds. To our surprise, that would not be the case. We knew this as soon as the ER doctor saw my hand. He knew right away that there was a serious infection and that the fluid needed to be drained immediately. At which point he administered a small amount of local anesthetic to the area he planned to use a syringe to drain and relieve some of the pressure. And why wait for these things to work? So the doctor jammed a 10 gauge needle into the most sensitive area on my whole arm. He removed about 3 to 4ml of fluid before he decided that this plan was not sufficient. The doctor turned, grabbed a scalpel and made his cut before anyone had a chance to blink. I'll spare you the rest of the grusome details of how the extracation of more fluid was accomplished. After this traumatizing experience was over, this dr. felt the incision should be packed. And with the grace of a rinosaursous, he packed the wound.

At this point the dr. felt that it was best if the on-call orthopedic surgon came to check the situation out. In walked Dr. Griffiths. What a peach. Let me just say that this man left me with so little confidence that I wanted to ask for cradentials or some form of proof of his qualifications. Dr. Griffiths decided that he needed to make sure that the infection wasn't in the joint. To do this a nurse provided this lovely machine that took x-rays of some sort while the dr. stabbed me yet again with a 10 gauge needle. This needle got a better view of my insides than the first. This one got to go all the way to the tiny spaces between all 8 bones in my wrist joint. After the first jab from this oh so special dr., I decided that it was time to get some actuall pain meds in the pretty I.V. line that they hooked up. After a single moment of relief, the dr. was back at work whith the needle. He wasn't convinced that the joint was uninfected so he decided that we needed to do emergency surgery. The surgery started at 9pm that night. It lasted for about 2 and 1/2 hours. The team opened the first slice farther to total about 4 inches. This allowed the dr. to remove any infection, clean the sight, insert another needle into the joint and add a drain. During the surgery, the dr. found there to be infection in the joint which led him to worry about infecion in the bone. After the sugery, I was admitted into what would be my personal hell.

The dr. let Tiff know that they would be doing another surgery the next day at noon to check the progress of the infection. Like devoted fans of a rockband, Tiff and Kenz where at my bedside keeping me sane. The second sugery was much shorter. It lasted only about 45min. Then it was back to my shared hospital room. During the second surgery the dr. cleaned the wound, added a different drain and sutures. After a day and a half of waiting, the dr. came back to check on me. The not so gingerly opend the wrapping on my wrist and hand and yanked out the drain. I bet you could guess it felt wonderful. That day, I was sent to have an M.R.I. to see if the infection was in my bones. While we waited for those test results, we recieved good news that the staff infection was infact, not MRSA. During this time, Dr. Griffiths contacted the infection specialist Dr. Berg. He wanted a second opinion on how to proceed with meds. Up until this point, I was on I.V. antibiotics, antiinflamatorys and pain meds. Dr. Berg was to come for a visit and assess the situation. About that time the results from the M.R.I. came in. The results were not clear as to how severe the infection was in the bone. It had appeared to the raidologist that the infection was just starting.

And after all this information, testing and surgeries, we got to play the waiting game. There is nothing like a wait in a hospital when you have wonderful roomies like roomie #3. He couldn't even get out of bed to use the bathroom. Yup. To make a long story short. I was able to be discharged because I annoyed the nurses with the call light every 15min. til the hospital director Julie came to visit. I explained that both the doctors were not working hard to get me out, but thretening to keep me for up to 6 weeks to treat the bone infection with I.V. meds that can be administered at home or by coming in once or twice a day. Julie was wonderful and helpful. She even moved me to a private room with couch and kitchenette. But all I wanted was to be home with my girls. So after Julie made a quick phone call to each of the doctors, they magically apeared. They decided that I could go home with a treatment of oral antibiotics three times a day for six weeks and a few checkups.

I had my first check up Wednesday the 21st. Almost a full week since I was released from my 5 day stay at the hospital. The dr. removed my stiches and wrapping. They replaced the heavy wrapping with a removeable hand brace. A side effect of this long time infecton (almost 3 1/2 weeks since it all began) is the attrophy. I will be at the P.T. a couple times a week to regain function of my wrist, hand and fingers. The trouble is not over yet though. I still have to see the dr. regularly to check the progress of any remaining infection that might be trying to hang on. But I'm back to work on light duty, and comming home every night to my wife and daughter.

Woodland Park Zoo

We took a little trip to the zoo a little over a week ago to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. We had so much fun and the weather was wonderful!

We started off in the Family Farm portion of the zoo. This is where Kenz got to pet the goats. She loved it. And the goats were so friendly.

After the petting portion of our trip we stumbled across a chance to experience something too good to pass up. A chance to have a shell. First Justin then Kenzie. Silly lil turtles.

We stopped along one of the trails to take a picture on the bridge in front of this beautiful waterfall. Kenzie was a little unsure of the distance from the bridge to the water below, but she had her strong daddy to hold her.

Every year the Woodland Park Zoo has an exhibit that they like to promote because it is either new or temporary. This year it was flamingos. They are amazing birds. Kenzie thought that they where wonderful purely because they are pink.

Because it was such a wonderfully sunny day, we needed to stop and get some shade for Kenzie's face. She picked the purple and pink elephant, but there were a few choices to choose from. Some of the options where gerafes, lions, flamingos, tucans and bears. She whas so happy and so proud to wear her elephant. Who wouldn't be?

Shortly after we walked into the orangutan exhibit, I noticed that Mackenzie was being awfully quiet. And, well, if Kenz is quiet it is usually one of two things. One is that she is doing something that she is not supposed to be. And two, she is asleep. This time happened to be option number two. The thing hanging out of her mouth happens to be a animal cracker. Yup. She was in the middle of eating.

At this point, we just let her sleep. Justin and I took the opportunity to take in some of our favorites. Mack's impromptu nap gave us a chance to linger a little more then had she been awake. All in all it was a great trip that we all enjoyed. Not a day has gone by when she doesn't ask if we are going to go see the animals. So sweet.