Where has the time gone?

I apologize to anyone who may check this site regularly or even occasionally for updates on our family. It is so easy to get bogged down or tied up in our day to day activities and forget about the things that mean so much to us and others. We have had so many things going on over the last several months. I will try to give you some of the hightlights in this post and then give some more detailed posts in the days to come.

Courtney is recovering well from her back surgery and has started bowling again in her league on Saturday mornings. She has been doing well in her feeding therapy sessions. In fact, we have been told that we should not blend her food anymore. YEAH!!!!! She can't eat things like steak or salad, but she has been eating diced fruit, green beans, fish, hush puppies (insides), pizza, sandwiches, etc. She seems to really be enjoying eating like everyone else. Our only issue now is how long it takes her to eat. :-) We have to allow some extra time now to make sure she has time to finish, but not rush her.

Kelsey has been very busy pursuing her musical theatre aspirations - she was a Bird Girl in her first community theatre production "Seussical" at the Larry Keeton Theatre, then played Dori in the DCA musical "Schoolhouse Rock Live", she has a small speaking role, is in the ensemble and the understudy for the lead role in the musical "Meet Me in St. Louis" at the Keeton Theatre starting this Friday night, and will have her first lead in a community theatre production starting in December when she plays Judy in "Irving Berlin's White Christmas" at the Keeton Theatre.

She is also trying to decide where she wants to go to college. She has been accepted at Union University in Jackson, has applied to Western Kentucky University, and will be applying to Tennessee Tech, and possibly Ball State. We have visited WKU and met with the head of the Fine Arts Dept and the head of the musical theatre dept. She really liked the school and is interested in their musical theatre degree. We are going to visit TTU and Union over the next few weeks to check out their nursing programs.

She also turned 18 this past week, which brings me back to my original thought of "Where has the time gone?" I can't believe my little girl is all grown up now. I will post some pictures from her performances and give some more detail in my next post.

Let me know if you are reading this and want me to continue posting.

June was another busy month!!!

I apologize that I have not updated in over a month, but it is just really hard finding the time to sit down long enough to update and then try to remember what all we have done. Must be a sign of getting older. Well here goes!! :-)

I had my EGD and the doctor decided not to stretch my esophagus because he diagnosed me with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (yeah I know I had to look that one up too). Basically it appears that I am allergic to some foods and it has caused ringlets in my esophagus. There was no narrowing in any area that was more dominant than any other, so that is why they decided not to stretch. However, I was referred to an ENT/Allergy doctor to determine what I may be allergic to. They have sent away the bloodwork, but we are still working with the insurance to make sure it is covered before they can test it. I am taking generic Prevacid and another medicine in the meantime until they decide how to proceed.

Courtney is still recovering very well. She takes a walk with me around our neighborhood most evenings after supper. It is .75 miles if we go in and out of every culdesac. We have worked up to 2 laps a few times, but we have a very big hill that sometimes causes her legs to hurt. I know it does mine too. LOL She can lift more weight now and we are trying to get her ready to start bowling again soon. She had several doctor appointments in June, got her hair cut by her great aunt, and went swimming one more time in preparation for our vacation at the lake.

Kelsey was extremely busy in June - she finished up her online Latin course, stayed in Jackson for a week helping out with a yard sale and church event and taking care of her little cousins. She got home just in time to leave the next day for a Church camp in Florida. Then when she got back, it was time for our vacation at the lake. She missed a few days though because she was auditioning for a community theater musical called "Seussical". It is a musical based around the Dr. Seuss story of "Horton Hears a Who". She didn't get the part she auditioned for, but did get a role as a Bird Girl (lots of singing and dancing).

As a family, we have had many celebrations in June (Father's Day, birthdays for my Dad, Jenn's Dad, my niece, and a few cousins).


We also had a great time on our annual family vacation at Tim's Ford Lake with Jenn's extended family.





Courtney wasn't able to do as much this year because she was still recovering from the back surgery, but she enjoyed helping take care of the baby and smaller kids, going to the pool, fishing, and going to the Drive-in to see Toy Story 3.







Kelsey enjoyed her time at the pool, in the lake, and the movie also.





Jennifer went fishing several mornings and captained the boats during our afternoon playtime on the water (skiing, knee-boarding, & Popparazzi) and had an interesting girls night out.

I actually got up and ran to the park entrance and back 4 of the days we were there (trying to get back in shape - something other than round), played golf 1 day, played with the kids at the pool and in the lake, and actually proved to myself that I could still ski.





While trying to get Courtney's camera working properly, we somehow set a timestamp on the pictures and didn't even notice the year was wrong until someone else saw them and commented on them being from last year. So please excuse my mistake and believe that these are pictures from 2010 not 2009. :-)


We only had rain 1 day while we were there, but it was on the afternoon of our Fish Fry day. It rained just enough to get us off the water and cleared up in time for us to cook. We had great meals all week and enjoyed sharing time with family. The staff at the park and especially at the boat dock/restaurant treat us like family since we have been going there for 25+ years now and they have seen the kids grow up.

We had an unexpected surprise as we packed to leave as Jenn's Mom found a black rat snack on the kitchen counter. It had come into the cabin from behind the stove (we think) and it was trying to climb the wall to get to some birds that we could hear in the eave of the cabin. The park ranger came and took it away, but it gave us a scare for a few minutes. Everyone had a great time and we are already looking forward to next year's trip.

Queen Family Update - Monday, May 31st

Courtney's appointment with the surgeon went very well. He was real pleased at how she looked and how she was recovering. He said that she could start bending now and needed to keep walking each day to build up her strength.

She has had very little pain and is only taking Tylenol sparingly to deal with it. She is bending easier now and has started playing her Wii games again. She has been going on more errands with us and even went shopping with Jennifer this week. She went to her school on Wednesday to visit with her classmates and teachers.

Kelsey has started her summer workouts for school, is working on her online Latin course for school, and performed with the Creative Ministry team (Word in Motion) again this Sunday for the youth at Tulip Grove Baptist.

Today we all went to our friend's house for a Memorial Day pool party. Courtney got into the pool for awhile and really enjoyed it. The water was cold at first, but once you got in and got used to it, it wasn't that bad.

I have been very fortunate over the years to not have many medical problems, but I guess it is my turn now. Courtney has had several EGD procedures, Kelsey had one last year, and now it is my turn. Many of you know that I have had issues swallowing food at times over the last few years, so tomorrow they are going to look down my throat and stretch where necessary if I have narrowing. I will be out of work for the day, but should be fine to return to work on Wednesday.

Thank you for continuing to keep our family in your prayers.

Courtney Update - Monday, May 24th

Courtney has had another good week recovering at home.

She has been working with her Homebound teacher and taking walks around our neighborhood 2 or 3 times a day. She is eating well and just about back to her pre-surgery weight. She has even run a few errands with us this week in the car.

Kelsey has finished school now and quickly informed us that she is growing up and is now "officially" a Senior. I told her not until August is it "official". :-) She has been extremely busy these last 2 weeks. She sang with the DCA Choir at the Graduation ceremony, performed a couple of scenes from their Spring Musical (Singin in the Rain) at the Donelson Senior Center in a Flood Benefit, participated with the DCA Creative Ministry team in leading worship at a local church this past Sunday, volunteered with me at the Tennessee Special Olympics held at Vanderbilt this past Saturday, and worked with the Youth Group from her church to help clean up flood damage at the church and homes of families in their church (including a DCA classmate's home).

Courtney's back is looking great. She goes back to see the surgeon for her follow-up visit tomorrow. I will update with any news or changes in her recovery.

Courtney Update - Tuesday, May 18th

As promised, here are some pictures of Courtney playing school the night we came home. She played in the playroom for about 4 hours and then went to bed. She must have worn herself out because she slept a lot during the day on Wednesday.

We normally celebrate Courtney's birthday on Mother's Day (since that is the day she was born and it is always within a few days). However, since we were still in the hospital this year, we celebrated it at home the next weekend. Both my parents and Jenn's were here, along with my aunt, my sister and her husband, my niece, Jenn's sister and kids, Jenn's cousin with his wife and new baby, and several other friends. She was able to blow out her birthday candles with one try per candle this year, which is the first time she has ever been able to do that (thanks to her throat surgery last year).

When Jenn first asked her what kind of party she wanted this year, she said that she wanted a "Predators party" (how surprised do you think Jenn was??). I was rather pleased. LOL Jenn said that the bakery did not have any Predators supplies and it would take a long time to get them (not sure about that... LOL), so Courtney decided to have a "Princess and the Frog" party. She has watched her new DVD of that movie over and over again the last week. Kelsey even fixed her hair and put a tiara in.

I was looking forward to using my new grill and was concerned about the rain. However, it had not rained in about an hour or so and looked clear outside, so we decided to give it a shot. Guess what happened as soon as I got the grill hot and got the hot dog wiener packages opened? You guessed it, but we grilled in the rain anyway and I advised everyone that they should not complain if their hot dog was not done to their liking. LOL It took some teamwork to avoid getting them soaked, but we made it work.

Courtney had a great time painting, creating bead necklaces and bracelets, playing games, and opening her gifts.

Courtney has been home for a week now and is doing really well. She is getting around much better, her bowels are back to normal, and she is eating normally also. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before or not, but she has gained about 2.5 inches in heighth due to the straightening of her back. She is gaining back some of the weight she lost and her stomach doesn't seem to be having as much problems with distension.

WE ARE HOME - YEAH!!!!!!

Courtney was ready to go early this morning, but there was lots of paperwork to take care of before we could be officially released. We stopped by the pharmacy to get prescriptions filled and found that the pharmacy did not have the pain medicine. I had to go back out to a different pharmacy and then they could only fill the pain medicine and had a call back to Vanderbilt about the others. I got the pain medicine and picked up lunch for all of us and came home.

I will go back out later to get the other medicine and have to pick one of them up at Vandy tomorrow.

Courtney had one spell where her shoulder was hurting her, but once she took her pain medicine, she is doing fine. We have a bed setup in the living room, where she will be staying for awhile. She is lying down talking on the phone and looks like she doesn't have a care in the world. :-) She is very excited about being home on her birthday though, and has told us numerous times that she is not 12 anymore, she is 13.

10:30 PM - Courtney has had a good evening at home. Jenn and I both took a nap late this afternoon while she was napping. Then Courtney ate supper (ate all of it) then wanted to play school. She has been sitting in the play room for several hours now playing school without any pain. She has also been to the bathroom several times and seems to have her bowels working good now. :-)

Hopefully she will have a good night's sleep at home.

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Courtney Update - Monday, May 10th

9:00 AM - Just a quick update to let you know that we are still in the hospital. Courtney is eating much better, walking more, had some bowel movements that are less loose, and had not thrown up in a few days.

However, to get home we have to make sure she can take in enough nutrition and keep it down. They decided yesterday to try turning off the continuous feeds via her Mic-Key button and try giving her a large amount at one time throughout the day to see how she handles that. They gave her the first one last night at 6:00 PM and then she ate at 8:00 PM and then 15 minutes later she threw it all up. They decided to put her back on continuous feeds last night and talk it over this morning to decide what to do. They may send us home with a feeding pump for a while to make sure she gets the nutrition she needs.

Jennifer came back to the hospital yesterday morning and I went home to stay with Kelsey, thinking we may go back later to pick up Courtney and bring her home. It really was strange not having lots of family together on Mother's Day. With Courtney's birthday falling on that day many times, we usually celebrate her birthday on Mother's Day anyway. That didn't work out, so I am back at work today, Kelsey is in school (at Two Rivers Baptist Church), and Jennifer will let me know if anything changes throughout the morning.

7:30 PM - Courtney has had a very good day. She has been up out of bed most of the day (walking, sitting up coloring, and playing Wii in the Play Room) and is having good bowel movements. She has tolerated her first bowlus feed and if she can handle the next two without any throwup problems, we will go home in the morning and manage her feeding as usual at home. If she has issues during the night, we will have to get a feeding pump and give her some continuous feeds at home until she is back to eating normally.

She is very excited about going home tomorrow, especially since it is her 13th birthday. She misses Kelsey a lot and is looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. Kelsey is studying for her AP Chemistry test that she is taking tomorrow morning. I will be staying at home with her tonight and come back in the morning to bring Courtney home.

Thank you for your prayer support over the last 2 weeks. We will still need it during her continued recovery at home. I will continue to post during her recovery at home, but not every day. I will also post some pictures so that you can see how good she is looking. We unofficially have her getting 2 - 2.5 inches taller after the surgery. :-)

I am leaving soon, so I will post again tomorrow once we are home.

Happy Mother's Day

Thirteen years ago, on Mother's Day, Courtney blessed us with her arrival. She was born at Baptist Hospital, then brought to Vanderbilt by the Angel team. Although her actual birthday is not until Tuesday, the 11th, it is rather ironic to be sitting here at Vanderbilt today on Mother's Day, once again.

We have been in the hospital on at least one occasion for every US holiday. This one however is the one that sticks out the most for me. When I think of all that Jennifer has gone through and what she has done over the last 13 years, I have to stop and thank God that He brought her into my life 27 years ago (we dated for nearly 5 years before getting married). I can't imagine the hurt she experienced after giving birth - then having her child rushed away to another hospital, while she had to stay, not knowing whether or not she would see her before she had open heart surgery the next day.

She then spent the next 6 months by Courtney's bedside every day at Vanderbilt and then go home at night to try to make Kelsey's life as normal as possible. Then once we finally got home, she became Courtney's primary caregiver (nurse, respiratory therapist, teacher, etc) and loving Mom. She had/has a wonderful boss, who convinced her (well before Courtney was born or even knew what problems we would have) not to totally quit his company to open her own business, but instead take on a different role with the company and he would send business to her if people needed custom software written. He paid Jennifer maternity leave for many years while she was not able to do any or little work due the time it took to care for Courtney.

If it were not for Jennifer, I know that Courtney would not be where she is today, and possibly not with us at all. She has sacrificed so much to help care for her, but has also been blessed beyond belief in some ways as well. It is no surprise that she cares so much for Courtney, because she has a loving mother as well. Her mother has made decisions concerning her own life based on how she could continue to help not only both of our girls, but her other grandchildren for years. She always seems to put others first, and I am lucky to have her as a mother-in-law. I know that one day, Kelsey will have these same characteristics with her children as well. She also has had to sacrifice time with both Jennifer and I through the years while we cared for Courtney. Although I know there are times that she has felt like she was less loved or cared about, she has always loved Courtney and is a very big influence in what Courtney loves to do. Courtney loves her big sister and tries to do whatever she sees Kelsey doing.

I certainly don't want to leave out my Mom, who definitely played a big part in who I am today. Little did I know 30 years (or so) ago, that when she allowed me to stay at home by myself if I would clean up the house, that it would benefit me so much today. Because of Courtney's medical history and our care for her, we had to split responsibilities around the house and I began to take care of much of the cleaning. Jenn did the cooking (we would have been in big trouble if it was left up to me) and caring for Courtney during the day. I love my Mom very much and wish that we could have visited more over the last 13 years, but have been limited in our travels. That however, does not stop her from visiting with Courtney on the phone. She will talk with her as long as Courtney wants to, if we don't step in.

So, even though I am at Vanderbilt on Mother's Day, I can't help but stop and thank God for the wonderful women he has put in my life. I am very lucky to be surrounded by 3 beautiful girls and have so many others in my life. I don't want to slight any of them by trying to name each of them, but they include my sister, sister-in law, and numerous aunts, grandmothers, and friends.

Take time today to thank all the wonderful women in your life and especially your Mothers. God bless and continue to keep us in your prayers.

Courtney Update - Saturday, May 8th

3:30 PM - We are still in the hospital and will be here again tonight. :-( Still no bowel movement.

She is feeling good and eating well (with no throwing up in a few days). She has been up several times today to go to the bathroom, to sit up and play on the computer, and also took a wheelchair ride downstairs to see the fish, the trains, and the butterflies in the chapel.

Keep praying for a bowel movement that will get rid of this hardened stool.

Jenn's parents are staying with Courtney so that we can both go to Kelsey's Choir & Drama Banquet. She is part of the skit that the juniors do imitating the seniors , and she and a friend are singing a tribute duet (For Good - from Wicked) to the seniors.

11:45 - Had a great time at Kelsey's banquet tonight. It did not end until about 10:30. The skit was good, the duet was beautiful (they had to hold back tears though), and Kelsey won an award for Best Showmanship (or something like that) for her presence on the stage with the choirs. We dropped her off at the after banquet party at a local gymnastics building that one of the seniors' Mom runs. I came back to the hospital to spend the night with Courtney and let Jenn's parents head home. Jennifer stayed at home with Kelsey tonight. When Kelsey leaves for church in the morning, Jenn will head over here to the hospital. Unless we get word that we can go home, I will leave and try to be at home when Kelsey gets back from church. She has to study for her AP Chemistry test on Monday.

Continue to pray that we can somehow figure out what needs to be done to clear out her bowels and get us out of the hospital. Thank you for your support.

Courtney Update - Friday, May 7th

11:00 AM - Courtney had a pretty good night. They increased the amount of nutrition she is getting and are cutting the Pedialyte out so that she is getting the full strength. When the doctor came in this morning, he told us that they are going to try a new kind of enema. She went to the bathroom about 6:20 this morning and once again nothing but runny stool. I left for work around 7:30 and she and Jennifer were sleeping. Hopefully Jennifer can catch up on some sleep and rest this weekend since I will be there more.

I spoke with Jennifer around 9:00 AM and she said that the "new kind" of enema they are going to do is called the "Milk & Molasses" (or M&M) enema. It is apparently an old recipe that mixes milk & blackstrap molasses, is heated to 103 degrees, and then uses a longer tube to bypass the hardened stool. This supposedly gets the stomach working and will push out the hardened stool. However, it creates a lot of gas and can cause very painful cramps. Several things I read on the internet swear by this, but said it is generally a last resort because of the pain. Please continue to pray that this will work or she will pass it before they do this. :-)

4:00 PM - OK. Don't want to get excited too quickly, but....... it looks like the M&M enema may have done the trick. She has used the bathroom, but still not sure if everything is out or unblocked, so she still needs to go again on her on later tonight. She did ask for some oatmeal after she went to the bathroom, so maybe that is a good sign.

Jennifer said that she did not have any cramps or lots of gas. Now we just have to hope that she continues to eat and will be able to have another bowel movement later on her on.

10:00 PM - OK. More ups and downs for Courtney. We found out earlier tonight that they found she still has some hardened stool. They have increased her feeds again and still giving her medicine to try to soften things up for her to be able to pass it. On the plus side, she ate some pudding and drank 2 apple juices late this afternoon and then about 8:20 she ate all of her tomato soup and drank a milk shake. She has gone to the bathroom 2 or 3 times and had plenty of gas and loose stool, but still not had a formed stool. She has not thrown up anything, so hopefully that is a good sign that she is at least processing some of the food.

We will keep praying that she does not throw up during the night and early morning and that she will have a bowel movement soon. She is sleeping well right now. Kelsey is spending the night with family tonight (she gets to spend some time with her new little cousin). She made it through her 1st day back at school (well actually Two Rivers Baptist Church). She has been helping clean up flood damage at her church and helping some of the families there that had flood damage also. I am proud of her and I have really been missing her these last 11 days.

Thank you again for your prayer support.

Courtney Update - Thursday, May 6th

9:00 AM - Well, it looks like we will NOT be leaving until at least Friday. We can't really leave yet if she can't keep food down and she is not able to process what she is eating.

The doctors are really pleased with how she is handling the pain and how well she is getting around. They added another med to help with the motility of her stomach and also adding Miralax to her apple juice (we usually do that at home anyway). We are hoping this will get her stomach processing better and allow her to have a bowel movement.

The positive side of things - She had a pretty good night (slept okay and not much pain in her shoulder). She did have another bowel movement last night (however it was not much and it was loose). Her UTI test came back normal (so the hurting must just be from the irritation of the catheter when they had to readjust it a few times). The new IV is also still working okay.

12:00 Noon - Spoke with Jennifer a few minutes ago and got the latest. It seems that Courtney always has to stir things up a little and do something that is not ordinary. :-) When we discussed the recovery process with the surgeon after the surgery, we told him that one concern we had was her past stomach issues. She tends to have issues with her intestines waking back up and functioning after surgery. We also had the issue several years ago where she got a hematoma in her intestine that totally obstructed it and we spent 5 weeks in the PICU. The surgeon was confident that he could be the first one to get her in and out on time without the stomach problems. :-)

Well, he left a few days after the surgery for a conference in Hawaii (he wasn't looking forward to it - imagine that). He came in to see Courtney this morning and said that he came back early because he heard that Courtney would not leave until he got back. :-) He came in with the GI doctor and they explained that sometimes with this type of surgery the intestine can get kinked when it is moved around and has less room and kinks itself against the spine or bones. They want to do an upper GI to see if that is the case. If it isn't kinked, they want to start feeding her continuously via her Mic-key (g-tube) to get her the nutrition she needs. The surgeon said that this type of surgery needs lots of nutrition to help in the recovery process and Courtney has lost about 9 pounds since her pre-surgery weigh-in.

They are holding off any other food until they do the upper GI and then decide how to proceed from there. Please pray that they will determine what the issue is and that they will make the best decision about how to fix it.

3:15 PM - I just got word from Jenn that the Upper GI has been moved to 3:30 today.

8:30 PM - The Upper GI test came back normal (no kink or obstruction in her intestine). That is good news in one respect, but we still have to be able to get the stomach working properly. They started pushing in a mixture of Pedialyte and Pediasure through her Mic-Key button to make sure that what she is keeping in or absorbing has plenty of nutrients.

I got here a little before 6:00 and she went to the bathroom and she had another loose stool. She wanted to go to the Play Room, so we took her down there. Her and Kelsey were getting ready to play Wii and she started having a pain in her right shoulder and started crying. I went to get the nurse to get some extra pain medicine. Before I could get the nurse, she decided to come back to the room and lie down. She wanted the lights off, so Jennifer stayed here with her while me, Kelsey, and Austin went to eat supper. We came back up and I went to get Jennifer some supper. When I got back Kelsey and Austin left and Courtney is still resting.

We are hoping that all this medicine kicks in soon and helps her to get her stomach processing and push out this backed up stool.

Kelsey is spending the night with another friend and she goes back to school tomorrow. DCA will not be ready for classes, so they are going to have class at Two Rivers Baptist Church. Kelsey has one make-up test, then review for her Chemistry test and study halls. She takes her AP Chemistry test next Tuesday.

Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Courtney Update - Wednesday, May 5th

Courtney slept well last night, but her IV stopped working this morning. Jennifer convinced the nurse not to put another one in until we had a chance to speak with the doctor during rounds this morning.

We discussed with the doctor the concerns we still have and what we need to do to get Courtney home. We agreed that she needs to be able to eat and drink and keep it down and that she needs to have a bowel movement. She is having some issues with pain when she urinates also. So the plan was when I left this morning to give her an enema to check for obstruction and check for urinary tract infection (UTI). We would also see how well she ate this morning before deciding on putting an IV back in.

Courtney got her hair washed for the first time since surgery. They used a shower cap that washes and conditions your hair and then you pull it off and your hair is wet and you just dry it with a towel. Jennifer was amazed by it. LOL Kelsey braided her hair and spent some time with her, then went to her church to help clean up flood damage.

Jennifer called me later in the morning to say that they had given her a new IV, tested for UTI, and tried giving her an enema. However, there were problems getting the tube past hardened stool and they would have to decide what to do about that.

She has been crying a lot today with pain in her shoulder and the doctor told Jennifer that it was a muscle spasm and they would decide what to do about that as well.

The doctor tried manually removing some of the hardened stool, but it was up too high. They decided to get an x-ray of her stomach to see if they could get a better idea of what was going on. She got an extra dose of pain medicine to help deal with her shoulder.

I went by the house after work to pick up some more clothes before going to the hospital. When I got there Courtney was in the family quiet room looking out the windows with Jenn and Robin. She had walked downstairs to get the x-ray of her stomach and then looked at the fish in the pond. When we went back to the room, she went to the bathroom and actually had a very, very small bowel movement. She ate her tomato soup and drank apple juice.

Kelsey cleaned up after her work today and then went home and showered and came back to the hospital. She ate supper with us and then went to spend the night with a friend.

Sometime after 9:00, Courtney was talking to my Mom on the phone and Jennifer was talking to her Mom and out of the blue, Courtney started throwing up. She threw up everything she had in her stomach, including the yogurt she ate for breakfast at 7:00 AM. We just hung up on our Moms to take care of the mess. :-( Courtney called my Mom back and told her good night, then I explained what happened. Jennifer said to tell her Mom she was sorry for not calling her back, but since she goes to bed early, she didn't want to wake her. Once we got Courtney cleaned up and got a new gown on, they gave her several medications for her stomach and she drank some apple juice mixed with Miralax. Hopefully we can find a combination of these meds that will soften her stool and let her pass it out. I never thought I would be asking people to pray for "poop", but I am. Well, that and to be able to not throw up what she is eating. :-)

She is sleeping now and we might try to slip in a little nap earlier than normal tonight.

Please keep in your prayers all those people in Middle Tennessee who have lost their loved ones, their homes, their personal treasures, and means of income. If you can donate your time or your money to help these people in need, please do so. Tennessee is not called the "Volunteer State" for nothing. I think it is telling that the national media is not covering this very much because we take care of our own. I have not heard much uproar about looting, or complaining about not being taken care of. As I saw in another blog post, the biggest warning we have heard is don't play with the snakes or play in the flood water. May God bless all those who are helping and comfort those who need it.

Jennifer says to let everyone know that she now has e-mail.

Courtney Update - Tuesday, May 4th

I apologize that this was not updated today.

In the past, I didn't have to deal with as much hustle and bustle as we have had this week. I have been on call at work this week and had to do quite a bit during the night here at the hospital. The flood added an extra set of problems for us to deal with. Although Kelsey's school was flooded and they did not have classes, she still has finals this week and we have had to work out where she is staying each night and getting her back and forth between home, hospital, friends house, and tests. So, here is the update for today and I will try to do a better job tomorrow as I hear things from Jennifer.

Courtney slept well last night. She got up a couple of times during the night to go the bathroom.

The doctor came by this morning and gave us an update on her blood work and electrolytes. He said that everything now appears to be in the acceptable range. He also showed us the x-ray of her back before and after the surgery. It is amazing how much of a difference it made. A lot of people had no idea just how much her back was before the surgery. Here are some before and after pictures and x-rays showing Courtney's back.

For the most part, the new pain management plan is working much better. Courtney got up around 9:45 this morning to go to the bathroom, but was not begging to immediately go back to bed. She willingly sat in a chair for 45 minutes [she greatly prefers sitting in the wheelchair rather than the regular chairs] and ate some yogurt and drank part of a Carnation drink. She got up at 2:00 and willingly sat in a chair again for about 30 minutes. The difference this time was that she wanted to look at herself using the webcam on a computer and listen to Broadway tunes [ie. Wicked, Hairspray, Beauty and the Beast, etc.]. She still wouldn’t eat, but she was much more alert, wanted her glasses on, and was not getting dizzy!!!

She smiled a lot more today and showed a lot more of her personality!!! She seemed very excited when she learned that Kelsey and her boyfriend and three of Courtney’s friends were on their way to visit. She even asked if she could go for a ‘ride’ in the wheelchair with all of them when they arrived. [This was the first time Courtney asked to be up without having to be ‘highly encouraged’]. Jennifer said she hadn’t seen Courtney like this since before the surgery. Courtney and her entourage [Kelsey pushing the wheelchair and her boyfriend trying to keep up with the IV pole] went outside to see the big fish in the pond just outside the hospital and made a loop on the second floor before returning to the 8th floor. When Courtney got near the nurse’s station, she decided to walk. She walked all the way to her room, then past it to a sitting room, where she sat for another ten minutes before returning to her room and back into bed. She was up either sitting or walking for an hour and twenty minutes!!!!!

The doctors showed up just as Courtney stood and started walking and they were very pleased. Courtney was in such good spirits and not wrenching in pain, the doctors started asking her if she was ready to go home. She of course nodded YES. In fact, they removed her on-demand pain button to see if all her pain could be managed orally [although there is an order that she can receive ‘breakthrough’ doses if necessary, but a nurse must administer instead of receiving it immediately].

It was a GREAT step forward, but it wore her out and soon the experience caught up with her as she lay in bed with her side and back hurting.

One hurdle she still must conquer – eating and drinking enough to remove the continuous IV fluids – and NOT throwing up.

At 6:00 pm she drank [with encouragement] quite a bit of apple juice, in comparison to previous amounts, and received her 6:30 meds. Unfortunately she could not keep any of it down. :-( She got up to go to the bathroom again around 9:00 and is sleeping well now.

All in all it was a good day! We are reluctant to say the “H” word [home] out loud, but we are optimistic that it could be soon.

Kelsey is once again spending the night with a friend and studying for her Dual Enrollment History exam tomorrow. The waters have receded some at DCA, but they will start back classes on Friday in a different location.

For those of you that have attempted to contact Jennifer by e-mail, she has not been able to view her mail since Saturday, due to her e-mail server at work being down due to flooding in the area. Feel free to reach her on her cell phone.

Courtney Update - Monday, May 3rd

7:00 AM - Well we had more noises during the morning hours. Sometime between 3:30 and 4:30, we kept hearing a noise that at first sounded like popcorn popping and then it turned into what sounded like firecrackers popping. It turned out to be the speakers for the PA system here on the floor that was cracking and popping. It was very annoying and Courtney put her pillow over her head and we turned up the TV volume to help drown it out. She got up twice during the night to go to the bathroom and is getting up and down so much better.

The ortho doctor came in during rounds this morning and decided that we are changing the pain medicine she is taking to something different and stronger to see if that works any better. She will be getting that medication orally every four hours in an attempt to wean her off of the IV pain drugs.

10:30 AM - Courtney got to take her first trip out of her room this morning. She took a wheelchair ride over to the ortho clinic to get x-rays taken. She had to stand up out of her wheelchair to take them and did great. We looked at the butterfly garden downstairs and even sat in the Family Quiet Room for awhile. She was out of bed or sitting in the wheelchair for almost an hour and even got some smiles from her during that time. She only threw up once and it was not very much.

3:00 PM - Well it is obvious that we are NOT going home today :-(

The doctor also told us this morning that he wanted to get a red blood cell check tomorrow when they do her labs. She went back to bed once we got back from her ride and woke up a little to eat some yogurt and Carnation before taking her next dose of medicine. The nurse is going to give her a bath when she wakes up in a little bit.

6:00 PM - Jennifer went into her office to work a few hours while I stayed here with Courtney and worked remotely. After Courtney woke up from her nap, she went to the bathroom and then the nurses changed her bed linens, gave her a sponge bath, changed out her bandage on her back, and got her a new gown. She was feeling good the entire time and was up out of bed for nearly an hour. Jennifer picked up Kelsey and brought her to the hospital to see Courtney. That prompted Courtney to get out of bed again for another 20 minutes, then she got tired. I took Kelsey to one of her friend's house to spend the night and study for her tests. She found out today that she has 2 exams tomorrow at a church near the school. Please pray that she has good recall from all that she has studied and that God gives her peace and confidence during the exam. These are exams for not only high school credit, but for college credit as well.

11:00 PM - Courtney had a great day today. She only threw up the one time, her stomach seemed to handle the new pain medicine much better, and we have saw some familiar smiles on her face today. She is still having some issues with dizziness and not eating much. Please continue to pray that she will get her appetite back and that she will continue to wean off the IV pain meds. We didn't have to use the pain medicine button very much at all today.

We appreciate your prayers and support and ask they you continue to remember us.

Courtney Update - Sunday, May 2nd

HUGE FLOODING IN NASHVILLE

12:30 PM - Kelsey made it home safe last night from Pigeon Forge. Both their Show Choir and Concert Choir finished in 1st Place in their competition. We spent the night here at home. The mayor is advising everyone to stay at home and the Children's Hospital is experiencing flooding on the first floor and in the streets around the hospital.

Jennifer & Courtney had a crazy morning at Vanderbilt. Those of you who know Courtney know that she does NOT like loud noises. Well, it was loud here!! Starting in the early AM, there was lots of loud thunder and lightning! In addition to the inclement weather warnings and external flood alerts Sat nite here @VANDY, new alerts were constant all morning. We went to yellow alert: tornado. The busy staff got even busier because they have to prepare for the possiblity for patients to be moved to the inner halls. In the discussions over preparation for Courtney, they asked "How much oxygen will she need?" Jenn pointed out that she really only needs oxygen when she is in a deep sleep. If she was moved to the hall, she wouldn't be doing any sleeping, but they may need extra narcotics not just for the pain but to lower her freaking out point. :-)

Once that was under control, the next alert was orange: internal flooding alerts were constant [1st floor]. Soon after that was a constant extremely loud sound [resembling the tornado warnings in neighborhoods], except the noise was inside. This was the red alert - Fire in the basement. VERY VERY loud. Courtney was very very not happy. The more she reacted to the noises, the more she moved and the more pain. In the bathroom there is a strobe light Fire indicator. To a kid struggling with dizziness a strobe light is not a welcome sight. Jenn taped wash clothes on the wall over the light and covered Court's head with a towel when Court had to use the potty.

Once the 'noises' calmed down, life at RM 8421 was back to normal - trying to continue to heal enough from spinal fusion to go home. Sat and Sun were not Courtney's best days yet. She threw up more and got dizzy much quicker. She never spent time sitting up in the chair. She continued to get up to go to the bathroom, but would go straight back to bed. It seems the pain is triggering the throwing up. She is also having some stomach issues, so she doesn't really want to eat or drink. She also started coughing a lot more which is also a painful event. She doesn't like noise or light much.

Some positive notes: 1) she is walking much better to the bathroom and 2) we forgot to hook her back up to oxygen after the 6:30 pm trip to the bathroom [that's not the good part] and after realizing the oxygen was off, her oxygen levels were still good. She has been off oxygen ever since. Yeah!

Kelsey and I walked down to the main road out of our neighborhood to see if we could get out to go to the hospital. We discovered that the road was clear the way we needed to go, but going the other direction, the road was completely under water. We have a "CREEK" that runs behind our neighborhood that is usually not very deep, but today it was overflowing into our common area and across the main road. It looked like a raging river that you would ride a kayak down over the rapids. We left the house to take Kelsey to a friends' house and it took us about 40 minutes to go about 3 miles. We had to turn around and try different ways about 5 times to avoid the blocked roads. We finally made it though and then I dropped her off and came into the hospital. By the time I got here, I was able to get into the hospital successfully, although they were still pumping out water out of the garage.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Courtney Update - Saturday, May 1st

10:00 AM - Since Jennifer has been the one who has been sitting up with or gotten up every night during the week, I let her get some sleep and I took that job last night.

Courtney slept well until about 2:00 AM when she told us she needed to go to the bathroom. She was in some pain coming back to bed and got some more pain medicine. She went back to sleep and woke up again at 5:00 AM to go again (she was able to pee both times). When we got back in bed, someone from the IV team came in and drew some blood for tests and after she calmed down from that, she went back to sleep. She woke up again at 9:00 AM saying she needed to pee again, but she was not able to do it. She got back in bed again and went back to sleep.

1:30 PM - Courtney woke up enought at 11:30 to eat a bowl of oatmeal, vanilla pudding, and drank 1/2 a pint of chocolate milk. She went to the bathroom again at 12:37 and she threw up again after she had been sitting for about 10 minutes. They gave her some medicine for the throwing up, but she was in a lot of pain and wanted to go back to bed. She was back in bed by 1:12. They upped the amount of pain medicine she gets when she pushes the button.

5:15 - A friend came by and entertained Courtney and stayed with her while Jenn and I went to eat lunch. When we got back, Jenn's aunt and uncle came by to see Courtney. They braved the rain from Clarksville, because they had promised Courtney they would come to see her today. Although they had no idea how bad the weather was, they said Courtney's smile made it worth the trip. Courtney got up again at 4:20 to go to the bathroom and sat up in a chair for a few minutes, then threw up again. She was back in bed by 5:00 and trying to nap again.

We are watching the news and all of the flooding that is going on and concerned about everyone that is caught in it. We have friends that are having to evacuate their home, so please keep them in your prayers.

8:45 PM - Courtney has been sleeping most of the day or at least lying down. They are still trying to find the right level of pain medicine to ease her pain. The problem is that with using the oral medicine, she has to have food on her stomach. She has not eaten anything other than a few sips of a milkshake since she ate her breakfast this morning. She got up and went to the bathroom again about an hour ago. She went straight back to bed and was complaining about her stomach hurting. We are not sure, but think it could be that she needs to have a bowel movement, but it is either too hard or it hurts too much to push it out. The nurse just gave her the oral pain medicine after she ate the milkshake and she is now sleeping again.

Kelsey is on her way home from Pigeon Forge, where her school choirs were competing. Please pray for their safe arrival. I will be leaving the hospital tonight to meet her at school and stay with her at home tonight. She is supposed to perform with her school ministry team in the morning at a local church, but not sure if that will be affected by the rain or not.

Our friends that had to evacuate are now safe at a friends house. :-) Please pray for our safe arrival to our house tonight - they closed some roads around our house earlier today.

We will be missing a family get together tomorrow (1st Sunday in May every year) and want to let everyone know that we will miss them and hope to see everyone later this year at the picnic/auction. Thank you for all your prayers and your support.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day than today. :-)

Courtney Update - Friday, April 30th

Courtney slept well from about 10:30 til 2:30, then she woke-up with some pain in her right shoulder. Once Jennifer got her to go back to sleep, she slept okay until 4 or so when they came in to do vitals and then again to draw blood. I sat up with her for awhile before I had to take a shower, but she was still sleeping well when I left around 7:30.

This morning for breakfast, she ate some yogurt, pudding, and drank some apple juice. They are going to give her some oral pain medicine to see if she can handle it now with food on her stomach. Thus far, she has thrown up everytime they have given it to her with no food on her stomach. If she tolerates it well, they will begin weaning her from the small amount of IV pain medicine that she is getting continuously but will still be able to push the button for the pain med and receive other IV and oral pain meds on request. They may also take the catheter out later today. She should try to get up at 10:00, 2:00 and 6:00 today and then maybe again in the evening.

11:30 AM - I just spoke with Jennifer and she said that Courtney is having stronger back pain today and not wanting to sit up at all. Also her right side is really bothering her. The nurse requested the doctor to come look at a knot in her side. Before the doctor arrived, the suppository kicked in enough that Courtney willingly agreed to get up to go to the bathroom. She passed gas!! (another hurdle successfully passed). Then she sat in the chair for about twenty minutes. Even with the oral and extra pain meds given [with her continuous meds] she never seemed to get any relief from her back pain and continuously requested to get back in bed. She was up a total of 30 minutes before getting back into bed. Once the pain was under control, she was exhausted and just wanted to rest.

4:00 PM - After dozing most of the afternoon, Courtney once again agreed to get up only to go to the bathroom. Success! A HUGE hurdle passed [her bowels have previously been slow to wake up after surgery and caused many problems in the past]. She walked to the chair and sat for 15 more minutes, but once again couldn't get past the 30 minute total mark before she couldn't tolerate the pain and had to retreat to the bed. She had other food to eat, but ate a little pudding and sprite and laid down to rest.

Although today has been harder for her to tolerate the pain, every time up is good for her overall progress.... she is such a tough cookie.

6:00 PM - They stopped her continuous run of pain meds. She can push the button or get oral and/or IV pain meds every 4 hours. They also removed her folie [catheter] so now she must get up [with help] even to go pee.

9:00 PM - She really perked up this evening when Jennifer's uncle paid a visit followed by a surprise visit from her grandparents - better than any medicine pumped in her. We ate supper with Jennifer's dad and uncle, while her Mom stayed with Courtney. She got up one more time and walked to the bathroom (this was the first time that I got to help her get up and back in to bed). She was able to pee a little, but did not feel like sitting in the chair, so we let her get into bed. She had been asking to talk to Kelsey, so we called and she talked to her and told her good night. She had some Carnation to drink and then she was given her oral pain medicine and some medicine to help with nausea. She wanted to listen to a movie while she laid down, so I put in "Cars", one of our all time favorite Disney movies.

10:30 PM - She is sleeping good and hopefully will have her best night yet. :-) She is wanting to walk in the hall tomorrow and looking forward to a visit from Jennifer's aunt. Good night.

Courtney Update - Thursday, April 29th

Morning report - 9:30 AM

Well, we have had an interesting morning. Courtney slept well until about 3:30 this morning, when she told Jennifer that her bed was wet. They discovered that the foli from the catheter had disconnected somehow, so they had to change her bed linens, with her still on the bed unfortunately. She was in quite a bit of pain during that process. Once they finished with that and she settled down, they had someone come in from the IV team to draw some blood. She was very good and finished quickly, but Courtney was not happy considering the timing of it and the circumstances she was dealing with.

She was able to get back to sleep and slept well until 6:30, when the ortho doctors came in and wanted to look at her incision and remove the chest tube. That was about the same time I was going to take a shower. Jenn and I assisted, while they removed the chest tube and changed the bandage on her incision. Her back looked really good and the incision was clean and no problems from what they could see. They are very pleased with her progress and will continue the plan of applying pressure today (not sure if that is by standing for periods of time or what).

I got into work later than anticipated, but glad I was there when they completed this next step.



Mid-day report - 12:30 PM

Jenn called to say that Courtney sat in a chair for 50 minutes this morning. She was less dizzy than before and did not get nausous and throw up this time. She still complained about the pain, but did not need an extra dose of pain medicine like she has in the past.

Courtney actually called me at work after this round to ask me when I would be there.

Night-time report - 10:30 PM

Courtney got up 2 more times today and sat up for at least 45 minutes both times. The first time she got up was because she needed to use the bathroom, even though the catheter was still in. She walked all the way to the bathroom and then they discovered that the catheter had a kink in it and was obstructing her. Once they fixed that, she overflowed the bag due to all that she had builtup. Once she sat in the chair, a lady came around with a guitar and sang to her (music therapy) for about 25 minutes and she didn't need any pain medicine during that time. She took a nap after that because she was tired.

Jennifer said she drank about 4 or 5 little cans of Sprite today, as well as some apple juice, part of a Smoothie, and actually ate some yogurt and pudding.

After her last time sitting up, she watched home videos on the camcorder. She has not closed her eyes for about 5 hours, which is the longest amount of time she has not slept since the surgery. She is complaining about her right shoulder hurting her and she wants us to rub it frequently. I am sure she is using muscles in ways that she never has due to the changes they made in her back.

She did not throw up today and was only a little dizzy the last time she satup (that may have been due to putting her glasses on for the first time all week). She has used less pain medicine today than she has over the last few days.

Tonight she surprised Mamaw by calling her and talking to her on the phone. Kelsey called from her trip and talked to Courtney for a few minutes and that made Courtney's day. She says she is going to walk tomorrow and plans on walking downstairs to the 2nd floor on Saturday (she is such a little trooper - we will see if she is able to do that) :-)

She is sleeping now while listening to a movie. Hopefully we will have a good night and get some sleep. We both need it, especially Jennifer. Good night.

Courtney Update - Wednesday, April 28th

9:00 AM - I am back in the office at work today (that is at least a good sign that Courtney is doing well) :-) I would much rather be at the hospital with her and Jenn (regardless of how tiring that is) :-)

She had a better night sleeping, not as much restlessness. She at least is wanting to listen to movies. Earlier in the day she didn't want anything on, whether it was the TV or music (not like Courtney if you know her very well). :-) Yesterday afternoon, she wanted to listen to movies and we went through several during the afternoon and last night. This morning when I left she was asking about her iPOD so she could listen to her music. :-)

She also mentioned that she wanted to situp (much better than I would be - I would be lazy I am sure - not wanting to move) :-) She may get an opportunity earlier today because they need to change out her bed sheets.

Jenn allowed me to get a little more sleep since I am working today, but Courtney at least let her lie down last night instead of insisting on her sitting in a chair beside the bed. Kelsey spent the night with a friend again and is back in school today.

11:15 - Just got a call from Jenn to tell me that Courtney sat up for about 45 minutes. She sat up in the bed for a few minutes, then they helped her out of the bed and walked a few baby steps to the chair and then sat in the chair and walked back to the bed. Jennifer said she cried and wanted back in the bed, but did very well. She was also having issues with her catheter at the time, so Jenn said she was crying more about that than she was her back. They did some re-adjustment on that and got her feeling better, but she still wasn't happy.

She was too worn out to talk to me on the phone, but Jenn said that everyone was impressed by her progress and thought she did really well. :-)

6:30 PM - Courtney has now been up out of bed 3 times. She has done better each time, but she is having some pain in her back or shoulder area, probably due to muscles being stretched and used in different ways now. She took a good nap after her previous time getting up. I got to see her standing for the first time and she looks so good. We haven't measured yet, but she appears to be taller. She is definitely sitting and standing straighter. Kelsey even got a picture of her smiling while she was sitting up.

10:30 PM - Kelsey & Austin came to visit Courtney this evening. We went to eat supper in the cafeteria and came back and watched American Idol and hung out with Courtney. Kelsey left to spend the night at home with Grandmomma. She leaves tomorrow for a competition in Gatlinburg. Please remember her in your prayers for a safe trip there and back on Saturday night and also for comfort while she misses Courtney while she is gone. Courtney is sleeping well and Jenn is too right now. I hope that both of them get some much needed rest tonight.

Thank you to those of you who have left comments. We really appreciate you taking the time to check in on us and leave messages. We are reading them and telling Courtney about them also.

Courtney's Update - Tuesday, April 27th

12:30 AM - Jenn and I swapped out so I can try to get some rest. Courtney still restless, sleeping in little spurts, but not soundly.

4:30 AM - Jenn and I swapped again, but they came in to draw blood and got her agitated and hurting again. She settled down and finally slept good from 5:30 - 6:30.

7:00 AM - They had to get a chest x-ray and that was very painful for her since we had to lift her up as they placed the x-ray pad underneath her. She got some extra pain medicine and she settled down. The resident for the surgeon came in and checked her responses in her toes and legs.

8:00 AM - The surgeon came in and checked on her and discussed possible pain medication changes. I went down to get some breakfast.

9:00 AM - Kelsey came back to the hospital (YEAH!!!! Courtney had been asking for her several hours this morning. Jennifer went down to get some breakfast and Courtney is sleeping a little while Kelsey is fixing a picture for her to place on her door.

1:00 PM - We had another problem with throwing up this morning after she got her oral pain medicine. They changed her sheets, blankets, and gown while they were cleaning up and rolled her on to her back. We were able to get a good look at her back while they were turning her and it looks like the hump is no longer there, but we will get a better look later today when they sit her up to dangle her legs over the edge of the bed. She also had some problems with her leg hurting and her catheter, but the nurses were able to get that resolved and she is now taking a nap (after turning her again onto her right side). Kelsey and I have eaten lunch and Jenn will go soon. We have had some visitors today and everyone is pleased with how she looks.

6:30 PM - Typical Courtney had to add some new wrinkles to the situation. Her blood pressure dropped this afternoon, which led to some consultation with the Ortho Resident. They have given her some extra fluids and gave us the okay to move forward with today's plan of having her sit up and dangle her feet over the edge of the bed. With much assistance, they were able to sit her up and she dangled her feet for about 3 minutes. They took her blood pressure again and it had come back to a more normal level for her. We got our first really good look at her back, and other than the bandage over the scar and the chest tube coming out, her back looked really good (no more hump)!!!!!!!! They gave her some more pain medicine to help since she was moved around so much. Everyone thought she did great and the surgeon and his team came by and checked on her and told her the 1st time is the hardest and it should get easier to sit up from now on. She is now resting well and awaiting Kelsey's return. I will update again tomorrow morning on how the night goes from here.

Courtney's Surgery Updates

Sunday, April 25th

Kelsey gave Courtney her surgery hair-do (corn-rows & braids) to keep it out of the way for the surgeons. They watched Mighty Joe Young with my Mom & Dad while she was fixing her hair. Then they went to bed in our room while we finished packing. Jenn and I didn't get in bed till about 1:00 AM.

Monday, April 26th

Early start to the day - We were up at 4:00 AM to start showers. Courtney got up at 5:00 and told Mamaw & Papaw goodbye. We left the house about 5:25 and were checked in by 6:00. We were called back to the holding room about 6:20. We had a parade of doctors, nurses, anethesiologists, come through for the next hour and spoke with the surgeon. They took her about 7:20 to prepare her for surgery. She didn't even need any medicine to help relax her before going. She seems to be handling this a lot easier than we are. :-) They told us it would take about an hour to prepare everything for the surgery and then it would take about 5 hours for the surgery itself. We should get updates every hour and a half. Please keep us in your prayers throughout the morning.

9:25 - Just got the call a few minutes ago that they have made the first incision and they told us that she is doing well.

11:07 - Just got the next call. Everything is going well. They just got the first screw in, limited blood loss, and they are moving along smoothly. We should get another call around 12:30.

12:37 - Just received our next update. Everything still going well. They are putting in some implants and hardware, they gave her a unit of blood (typical for this stage of the surgery), her vital signs are still very good, and they will give us another update between 1:30 & 2:00. Thank you for your continued prayers. I went down and ate lunch and Jennifer is eating now.

2:45 - We got called into a consult room about 30 minutes ago and met with the surgeon. They have finished the surgery and everything went well. We are waiting for them to test the movement of her toes and responses to make sure she is responding properly and then they will move her into Recovery.

3:30 - Courtney is in Recovery and we got to go back and see her. She is sore and her face is swollen, but they are controlling the pain now and she is resting okay. If she does well and can maintain her SATs off of oxygen, we will move to a room on the floor tonight. Keep the prayers coming!!!! :-)

5:30 - We are in a room!!!!!!! Courtney is sleeping and resting well right now. Her pain is under control right now and she seems to be doing very well. They will have to turn her every 2 hours, but she actually tried helping earlier when they turned her and they said that was a good sign. She drank some apple juice (she can have clear liquids the rest of tonight) and was wanting some more. :-)

9:00 - Kelsey left to spend the night with a friend. I am listening to the Predators game on the computer since Vanderbilt's TVs didn't pick up Fox Sports Tennessee. Courtney doesn't want us very far away from her, but doesn't seem to be in much pain while she is lying still. Jenn tried to lay down and get some rest and I stayed beside Courtney and tried to get her to sleep.

11:00 - They started giving Courtney an oral pain medicine and she threw it up a couple of times, so they started giving her something to settle her stomach and for the nausea.

Easter in McMinnville

As we do each year, we spent Easter weekend in McMinnville. We had our annual Good Friday dinner with the Dodds and the Praters. Then Saturday, we had lunch with the Jacobs side of the family. We had lots of fun with the Easter egg hunts. We are blessed to have lots of children to participate, but we seem to have a problem with hiding the eggs so well that we forgot where we hid them. :-)









Sunday morning, we enjoyed a breakfast and Kelsey sang at the early service at Christ United Methodist. She did a wonderful job and received many compliments.

March Update

March was another busy month for the Queen family and here I am updating an entire month's activity at one time. :-)

Kelsey started the month in Lexington, KY with the DCA Drama team competing in the High School Festival at the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). The team finished 2nd in the Tennessee Theatre Conference and were one of 20 schools competing at the SETC. Kelsey did not have an acting part in the play due to conflicts with soccer last fall when they first performed "Flowers for Algernon". She was responsible for selecting the costumes for the play and handling the costume changes during the play. However, she did get an opportunity to audition for judges and representatives from the drama departments from several colleges across the country. She performed a monologue and sang a song and got 32 callbacks from the schools. She received several scholarship opportunity offers and really enjoyed meeting representatives from many of the schools. She was excited and really surprised at the interest in her acting. She has always felt that her singing was her strongest asset.



I took a couple of days off from work during Courtney's Spring Break. One day we went to Montgomery Bell State Park and spent time with Phillip, Tanner, Trace, Jim & Phyllis. The kids rode bikes, played on the playground, fished, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. The other day we were invited by Dr. Churchwell at Vanderbilt to participate in a "Day on the Hill". Vanderbilt setup booths in the Legislative Building, provided breakfast, and asked us to be available to speak with Representatives about how the hospital had made a difference in our life. We met several people and had a good time there. We agreed to help them again in the future if they needed us again. Later in the day, Phillip and the boys came here and met Courtney and I and we all went bowling.



I went to my first Predators game of the year with some colleagues from work who were visiting from Chicago. We saw them win a great game in a 5 - 0 shutout. Kelsey went to a lockin with her church Youth group.

During Kelsey's Winterim break at school, she got to do some job shadowing at Vanderbilt. Since she is taking Dual Enrollment and Advanced Placement classes, she didn't get out of her classes like other students and thus only got to shadow 2 days instead of 4. She did 1 day with Speech Therapy and 1 day in the PCCU. She really enjoyed it and learned quite a bit from the people she worked with.

Courtney's school got free ticket vouchers from the Predators, so we were able to get 2 tickets to 2 different games down the playoff stretch. Courtney had trouble for the first bit of both games with the noise, but after she adjusted, she really had a good time and took lots of pictures. The Predators won the first game in a shootout, but lost the second game.



Courtney and I went to Sweetwater and spent a weekend with my family. She had a great time playing with Madison. We went to the Duck Pond one day and they ate lunch there, fed the ducks, and then took a walk around the path and the track at the community park. We went to church on Sunday, went out to eat for lunch, and then they played some more before we headed back home. Jennifer stayed home because she had been invited to participate in a parent panel discussing the special challenges of raising a special needs child. She also went to TPAC and saw "The Color Purple".



Kelsey drove herself to Jackson during her Spring Break to spend a few days with Christy & Phillip and the kids. While she was there, she did some aerobic training with Christy, played paintball with Phillip and some youth from his church, and also took a campus tour at Union University, since that is one of her college choices. She had a great time and got back home safely.

Throughout the month, Courtney has continued to bowl on Saturday mornings and Kelsey is very busy getting ready for the Spring Musical in April.

I can't believe it is already April. I don't guess I have to tell you that it will be busy also. :-) Thank you for your concern and interest in keeping up with our family.

February Update

This has been another busy month for the Queen family. :-)

I began the month by organizing a "Souper Bowl" Chili & Soup Lunch & Cook-Off at work to raise money for our "Big Hearts of Willis" Heart Walk team. All the soups, chilis, fixins, dessert, & drinks were donated/prepared by employees. We had over 20 entries in our Cook-Off and raised $900 by selling Combo lunches for $5 each.

Courtney and I went to a Super Bowl Party at our friends' house and she enjoyed playing with one of her former teacher's granddaughter. Although I don't like the Colts, I really wanted Peyton to win another Super Bowl.

Courtney missed the 2nd session of her bowling league due to her surgery, but she was able to start this 3rd session. They bowl 3 games on Saturday mornings for 8 weeks. She is on a team with 3 other girls this time and their team name is Thriller. Her first week back, she rolled her highest game ever with a 96.

Kelsey and Jennifer visited Courtney's school for her Valentine's party on Friday. Courtney took Kelsey's CD that she made and played it for her class. Several of the teachers wanted to buy copies. :-)

We went to Rob and Lynn's house Saturday night for dinner and enjoyed spending time with them, Michael, Ryan, & Peggy and Glen.

On Valentine's Day, we had a family meal at home. Kelsey's boyfriend came over and ate with us. We had lasagna and Jennifer made some of Kelsey's favorites for dessert (Reeses' no bake pie & chocolate covered strawberries).

Kelsey's DCA Show Choir "Legacy" competed at Belmont University in the Music City Show Shoppe. Their theme was "The Awesome 80's" and included "Living on a Prayer", a medley of 80's hit tunes ("Walk like an Egyptian", "The Color of Love", "Love is a Battlefield", & more), and ended with a Michael Jackson medley ("Beat It", Man in the Mirror", & "Thriller"). They did an awesome job.

This was their 2nd time in this competion and their critique judge told them that they were 1,000 times better than last year. The schools that placed in the Top 5 all have Fine Arts auditoriums and are much bigger schools. We spent the entire day there, since they performed at 11:00 AM and the finalists were not announced until almost 6:00 PM. I helped with the stage setup and removal before and after their performance. It was a great day and we were really proud of them. Robin took Courtney with her for the day after Kelsey's performance and they went bowling, shopping, and played games at Robin's house the remainder of the day.

We had a birthday party at our house for Tori, who just turned 2. It was originally going to be at Chuck E. Cheese, but after some last minute shuffling, we had it here. Lots of fun and enjoyed having everyone here (Glen & Peggy, Jim & Phyllis, Bill & Judy, Phillip & Christy, and Tanner, Trace, & Tori).

Kelsey's DCA Show Choir gave an encore performance of their "Awesome 80's" show for the school on Monday afternoon and then another performance for family and friends that night. Jennifer's cousin Autumn got to come for the performance and really enjoyed. Several people even thought that her and Kelsey favor each other. :-)

And if the month had not been busy enough, we ended it this past Saturday with Courtney's bowling league. She bowled her NEW high game of 111 and bowled a TURKEY (for you bowling novices, that is 3 strikes in a row). They announced it over the PA system and she was excited as she could be. She has 6 more weeks in this last session of the league.

I will try to update more often than a month at a time, especially once we know more about Courtney's next surgery.

Thank you for catching up on our family. If you can, leave me a comment and let me know someone is reading this and if you would like for me to continue.