Surgery Pics

Here's the pictures from Tyson's surgery day that I've been meaning to get off of my camera. They're not all that exciting, but I said I'd post them so here they are.

Tyson and Easton before surgery. Easton wasn't quite sure what was going on. He's spent a little too much time in doctor's offices and hospitals lately:)

Tyson's family stayed with us at the hospital all day. Easton had fun putting band-aids on Grama's nose and telling Grama what he wanted out of the vending machines.

My family came down later that night and helped me get Easton home and in bed so I could go back and be with Tyson. The little girls made signs and they brought soup, crackers, and sorbet. He also got a get well card in the mail from my Grama.

The IV bags they hung for him that night had special notes from his co-workers in the pharmacy. I thought that was so cute.

Here's how his neck looked when we brought him home.

And here's how it looked last night

His blood levels still aren't exactly where they should be so we will meet with an endocrinologist Wednesday and make sure everything is alright.

I think that's all we've got for now.

Spring Break!

We got to spend spring break in St. George this year! I always hesitate to leave for spring break because sometimes you need another vacation to recuperate from a vacation! But my boss has a condo down there he said we could use. We weren't sure if we'd be able to go because of Tyson's surgery and then we found out we could only use the condo for one night. So we decided last minute we would still go and booked a hotel for the other two days. We drove down to the beautiful condo on Thursday morning. We spent that day relaxing and shopping. We got some cute Easter outfits and some other clothes and went out to dinner at the Cracker Barrel.

Friday morning we got up and got ready to go to the pool. Here's Tyson and Easton sharing a cantaloupe full of cottage cheese for breakfast and watching basketball.

Easton modeling his new swimsuit get-up. I'm a sucker for matchy things: swimsuit, swim-shirt, and monkey flip flops.

Easton and I went to K-Mart and got him a floaty car and he LOVED it! I thought he would be a little nervous about it because I don't think he's ever been swimming.

I was so surprised how much he loves swimming! We practiced swimming on his tummy and his back and going under water. He would even let me let go of him for a tiny second and try to float. He did so great!

Friday afternoon we left the condo and headed for the Pioneer Lodge at Zion's. This was the cheapest hotel we could find on Travelocity that didn't look smoke-filled (I have a problem with cheap hotels. I can't stand any trace of smoke). When we pulled in we got a little nervous because it looked tiny! We were afraid it was going to be a dive, but we were pleasantly surprised! Our room is very cute and clean and has a microwave and fridge which we didn't expect.

That night we drove through Zion's just to see what we could see. We tested out our new tripod with a family photo.

We could not agree on a place to eat that night and ended up at a Thai place that was not worth the money. We took Easton for his nightly drive at 8:00 every night since he doesn't fall asleep very well without his crib.

This morning we woke up and headed back to Zion's. Tyson has had sort of a hard time recovering from his surgery and has really been a trooper throughout this trip. It has been a little rough since he isn't really good for anything (no offense dear:) besides taking pictures. I did all the driving, packing, loading, chasing Easton, carrying backpacks, pushing strollers, etc... It makes me appreciate all the things he usually does for me!

It was really cold this morning so we bundled Easton up for our first hike to the Lower Emerald Pool.

After that, we had a picnic and let Easton run around for a while. We saw some horses and he went around telling us what a horse says for the next hour. He has been very vocal throughout this trip. He has been saying please and thank you and points to all the "jeets". Apparently he thinks everyone drives a jeet. (jeep).

After lunch we went and did a 2 mile river walk. Easton saw ducks and squirrels and got to throw rocks in the river at the end.

After our hikes we were so tired! We went for a scenic drive and found a place to park and nap!

I can't believe it's time to head home in the morning! It will be good to get back to the good old routine, but we sure have had a lot of fun!

Post-Op

Tyson's surgery is over! Yahoo! We got to the hospital at 11:30 this morning and got checked in. Tyson's mom, dad and brother were here. They drew his blood to check his PTH and calcium levels again. Then we waited and waited and they finally took him back to the "holding area" around 2:00. I was the only one that got to go back with him. They put in his IV and talked to him about the surgery. Since Tyson mixes the IV's in the pharmacy he had made his own antibiotic that morning at work. So that's kinda funny. At 2:30 I had to leave and they took him back. He was in surgery for about an hour and a half before Dr. Riddle came out. He only talked to us for about two minutes before leaving, but he said that it went well. They only had to take out one of the four parathyroid glands which is very good news, however, it was the last gland that they looked at. They had warned us yesterday that they weren't able to get a clear image on his sestamibi scan, MRI, or ultrasound so they knew they would be searching for the adenoma. So they made a pretty good incision horizontally across his throat. It is 2 or 3 inches long. The Dr. said that as soon as they removed the one gland his PTH dropped from 120 to 33 which is great! After the surgery they kept him in a recovery room for over an hour. We finally got to see him around five when they took him into an observation room. It's really weird because he still hasn't completely come out of the anesthesia. He hasn't said anything very funny. He has pretty much been able to carry on a conversation but he can't open his eyes. He says he's just so exhausted and his throat hurts like he has strep throat. The nurse just brought him some potatoes and gravy (which he requested) but he took one bite and thought he was going to be sick. So he grabbed the lovely blue bag to hold and then he told me he was going to pass out so I went to get the nurse. When I came back his eyes were rolled back in his head which was really freaky but he came back really quick. He's on oxygen because his oxygen level alarm keeps going off but the nurses don't seem too worried. He just took his first dose of pain meds so hopefully he'll be able to rest tonight. They are going to draw his blood and check his calcium levels again at 11 tonight. So I think I'll stick around until then to find out the results. The last time his blood was drawn his calcium was still a little high. The nurse says this is normal. We wanted the PTH to drop rapidly, but the calcium needs to decrease gradually so that the body can adjust. They'll check it at 11 tonight and 5 in the morning. Sorry there's no pictures! I have been taking them but I forgot to bring the cord to put them on my computer! Maybe tomorrow. We'll try to keep everyone posted!

Dinosaur Museum

On Saturday night a very rare thing happened at our house. We had some spare time! We decided to take Easton to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. He LOVED it! From the moment we walked in the door he loved the dinosaurs. He ran at full speed the entire time pointing from one fossil to the next. It was funny because he even thought the fossils that were just a single bone were awesome. He had no idea what they were but he was amazed.

Easton is not a boy of many words but Tyson and I both heard him say the word "DINOSAUR!" three times while he was running around pointing to things!

There were lots of activities like puzzles and toys and there was also a wet sand box and a dry sand box. He loved getting dirty.

We had so much fun and we decided we need to get out more! After the museum Tyson had a craving for Wingers sticky fingers so we went there and the wait was 20 minutes! We had a small argument about whether we should stay and I said something like, "I'm starving and I'm not going to sit here in the car for 20 minutes just so that you can have your stupid chicken!" I don't know why I was getting so upset about it but I was. It almost ruined the whole night. And then from the back seat we heard "boooooooock, bock, bock, bock." Someone heard the word chicken. He can always make us laugh!