Roy Days Parade

 Connor, being a senior class officer was in the Roy Days parade.  He got the vehicles for them to ride in.  He contacted the Chevy dealer since he loves the Cameros he decided to see what he could do.  The owner of the dealership was most generous...Roy is gold and black ...how about a yellow and black camero!  Wish everyone was able to see the look on his face last night when He and Jeff drove it off the lot!  Can you say PERMAGRIN!

 Everyone ooohhh'd and aaahhhh'd over this vehicle.  Jeff drove it during the parade-most of the way.

Since all the officers didn't fit in he also got a truck ... it was a sweet ride as well!  I honestly think Jeff was torn on which vehicle to drive.

 

I hope they had a good morning.  Sierra and I were at the hospital so we missed the parade.  Thanks to our wonderful friends who took Maren and Annicha with them so they didn't miss out!

Moving on Up

 Here is Joran with Elliott.  He is the brother to Annie-from the previous post.  Elliott had just been groomed and had a gold star on his hip. 

 Joran loves to have the animals come visit him.  Look at the differnece in Joran.  This picture was taken Friday afternoon...his third surgery was Wednesday night!  He looks great!

 Elliott always prays for the children he visits.  He sits next to the bed and puts his paws together...when his owner says Amen...Elliott barks.  It is so cute!

This is Michelle.  She is the last nurse we had in the ICU.  She was really funny and took really good care of Joran!  Joran moved back to the floor around 3pm on Friday.  So glad to be heading the right direction!

 What a fun day...Daisy came to visit once we were upstairs!  Bonus!  Daisy did tricks too.  Her owner would put a treat on her nose and tell her to wait.  She waited until he said OK and then that cookie was gone!  She was so fast at getting it that if you blinked you would miss her eating it.

Joran update thru Surgery #3

Sunday, Joran had a special visitor-a cousin all the way from Virginia!  He drove out with his grandparents(my sister-in-laws parents) and we were lucky enough to have him with us a couple days!  We hope he had a good time with our children since we didn't get to see him much. 

I thought we should have some pictures of his incision and the additional chest tubes they had to put in that caused his setback...the big white patches on his side have the chest tubes.  They actually removed the stitches after we got these pictures.

These machines are the bubble machines.  All the red fluid is drainage from Joran's chest.  It turned out to be about two liters...no wonder he was swollen!

As I have said before he loves the music therapy.  Necia got in on this one!

 

Here he is bowling for physical therapy.

 

Shooting hoops hurt his sides where the chest tubes were.

We moved on to throwing balls at a target.

He really liked it when we brought the lap top and he could play games.

He made silly putty ...a couple times...he really liked that activity.

Here is miss Necia...she got called a boy all day in this outfit-despite the ruffles on the sleeves!

Joran made more silly putty with Sierra when she was with me one day.

The hospital has animal therapy-another of Joran's favorite times of the day.  This is Annie-Joran had met her brother a couple days earlier. 

This is Amanda from music therapy...tuning a guitar for Joran to play.

He was so excited to be like his cousin, Dallin, who also plays the guitar.

Check out the size of that pick!

Dad got in on the jam session.

He really liked the tambourine.

It was after music therapy and bingo (we can't interrupt Wednesday bingo for anything!) that the down side of the day started.  OK...so here goes the bad news.  He was not getting enough oxygen, and he was swelling all over.  They decided to send him to the cath lab.  Here he is sedated and they go in his vein (either in his groin or neck) up into his heart.  This way they shoot dye so they can trace it and see what is going on.  They took him straight from the lab into the OR for open heart surgery #3.  They found a leak in the lab and since he was already sedated our surgeon was kind enough to take him in even though it was 4pm.  The leak occurred because of increased blood pressure...one of the stitches  "popped" and then it basically unraveled allowing blood to leak into other places.
Here he is on Wednesday night after his third surgery.  Poor thing.  He has been through so much!  Everyone here just loves him...he is so willing to do what they ask and is so patient.  We now know about everyone in the ICU and many others from our stay on "the floor".    We have been in 5 ICU rooms and 3 rooms on the floor.  CRAZY!

Here is Necia with Joran this morning-Thursday.  He is still a little sleepy.  They removed the breathing tube while he was in the operating room so he was awake even in the picture above. 

He wanted her to sit by him and hold his hand.

His little sister always brings a smile to his face. 

Joran is being rather funny today...the anesthesia is making him totally emotional.  He will be asleep and wake up crying because he doesn't own what is being advertised on TV.  We laugh thinking of the youtube videos that we have seen of kids after having their wisdom teeth out.  He is totally like that-emotional roller coaster for him comic relief for us.

 Thursday before I could make it in to the hospital, Joran had music therapy.  Two girls with guitars came and they played music and sang with him.  Jeff said he loved it.  They left some maracas with him.  This is Necia doing her music therapy after we got there.

 Here is Joran.  Look how good he looks...remember this is Thursday..not now.  Necia and him are just chillin.

 This is Joran with Liz.  She and Jeff took Joran on an adventure Thursday after lunch.

 Joran rode in the wheelchair out front and then walked with a little help around by the fountain.  He took off his socks, rolled up his pants and waded in the fountain.  He LOVED it!  They took pennies and made wishes as well.  Joran then walked all the way around to the ambulance entrance (ER) and back...that is a super long way!  He did awesome.  A little later mom, Joran and Liz went again..so grateful he had a good day!

 Here he is holding Necia...a huge benefit to being on the "floor" - mom and Necia can be in the room with him.  He missed his little sister so much and just wanted to hold her all the time.

Friday morning he went it to get chest tubes places.  The x-rays were showing a lot of fluid behind his lungs.  His tummy started looking like he was from Ethiopia and when you touched his belly he hurt.  This was done in the Jazz room.  The outer doors look like the Jazz bear coming out of a locker.  Inside the wall mural is life size action shots of  Eaton, Hornacek, John Stockton, Karl Malone, etc  They have autographed photos around the entire room.  There is also a display case with signed shoes, jerseys, balls, etc.  Joran was having some anxiety about this minor surgery, so the tech opened the case and pulled out Al Jeffersons shoe...size 18!  It was huge!!!He thought that it was pretty cool..Jefferson wore them for one game, signed them and gave them to the hospital.  This is where we take a turn for the worse.  The chest tubes were causing him a lot of pain when they brought him back to the room.  The pain in a way paralized him and he wasn't hardly breathing.  His arm was also getting really swollen.  He was medicated and moved back to the ICU where he could be monitored more carefully....it was a circus.  We were mortified and he looked terrible.
The music people came and found him.  He was in no mood to play...he was in so much pain and it just broke my heart.  They sang for him and his breathing slowed and he fell asleep. 

 Here he is Saturday morning.  He looks so much better!  He has drained over a liter of fluid off of just each side of his chest.  I guess it would hurt to carry around  a 2 liter bottle on your insides.  Annicha and Maren came for a visit!

 Boston came to tell him what has been going on at home since he has been gone.  Connor and Cheyenne  had to work.  Sierra stayed with me all of today (Saturday)  We sent Jeff home with the kids to mow the lawn and get a few things done at home-he hasn't really left Joran since the 17th.  He is on his way back to switch me out for the night.  Sierra sat with him on and off all day when I needed to be with Necia.  It was a good day!  Joran made some progress and we are hoping when the cardiologists come in Monday they will have figured out what is causing all these problems...if you notice his arm it is huge!

 Here he is right before I was leaving for shift change.  When Jeff gets here they will be going outside for a little while...this time in a wheelchair only.   The chest tubes still cause a lot of pain when he moves.  We are hoping he will feel well enough to join us for church at the hospital in the morning.

Tuesday-Wednesday

 This is Joran's nurse Michael...we had him for two days actually.  He was the only day nurse we had two days in a row.  Joran really liked him.  He could push Joran in ways the other nurses couldn't. 
Tuesday was spent trying to get Joran feeling better.  He couldn't keep much of anything down which.

He had Grandpa and Grandma Johnson visit on Tuesday- his pioneer activity of the day walking...how appropriate!
We also found out on Tuesday that he had a blood clot-sortof.  It was in his left side-which is odd since everything was on the right side.  Anyway, his left arm started to swell so they did an ultra sound and found a  coagulation in an artery.  He had to start blood thinners.  This would have been fine except for the fact that they are given by injection in his stomach twice a day for three months.  I didn't handle that very well.  He got permission to have them in his thigh, but for a kids who is terrified by needles this just isn't fair.  By the way, when he comes home, we have to give them to him ourselves...JEFF????

Wednesday was a much better day for Joran.  He played Bingo with the other kids in the hospital (via TV) and they called in a few jokes!  He totally loved that-thanks for letting us know about that Tesch's.  Jeff and I spent time reading with him that morning-mainly from a joke book.  It was so good to hear him giggle.  He and Michael were having a "gas" contest.  This made me laugh (and Joran too)- they are trying to get his insides working again so his stomach isn't so upset and hurting him.  Michael figured out a way!  Not that this was mother approved.

 Wednesday, while I was waiting for my sister at the elevator I ran into this little guy.  He is with animal therapy and comes to visit daily.  I asked if she would drop by Joran's room.  I think he liked it!  He also got visited by my sister Josi, who was here from Chicago-unfortunately her cute babies were in the hall, and my sister Lisa and her husband Bret also up for a visit. 

 Wednesday late afternoon Joran was moved to "the floor". That is huge when coming from the ICU.  It is huge for us because now Necia and I can be in his room with him and not wandering the hospital while Jeff is with Joran or Jeff trying to get me away from Joran when Necia is hungry.  He was so excited to be with his dad (like right next to him) and see his little sister after over a week!

He also got to talk with Grandma Stephens who isn't able to come visit because she needs to be with my dad.

 After we got him all settled we had promised to take him to see Spider-Man.  We had spotted this guy just outside of the auditorium they used for sacrament meeting.  He happens to be on the floor Joran is on now.  He thought it was cool and kept feeling Spidey's muscles.

 Here he is "sleeping" last night before I went home.  Huge improvement in the last couple days...

Monday's Progress

 Here he is with only one chest tube on Monday.  He is starting to look a little more like himself.  He is on oxygen due to a partial lung collapse after being on the respirator.  It is self repairing with time...he has a respiratory therapist who comes in to "play games" and we blow a lot of bubbles.  He also got up and started walking today...to the door of his room and back then the next was around the nurses station.  His favorite was to the window overlooking the ER so he could see the ambulances. 

 This is the same day but minus a few more attachments...no chest tubes no sensor on the head and one less IV...he still isn't feeling great can you tell?

 

I thought I would get one more pics of my handsome boy before I left for home that night.