Ella is a NERD

Ella LOVES to be wrapped up like a burrito with a blanket and drug around by her brothers! 

She just lays there so quietly as they drag her around the house. I think the boys love it as much as she does! 

I Hope To NEVER Hear The Words "Necrotizing Fasciitis" Again In My Life!

The last few days of our trip Silvio wasn't feeling good.  He had a fever, threw up once or twice each day and had an ache in his calf.  Thursday while in California I took him to an Urgent Care to be seen.  They did a thorough job of looking over his legs and after hearing his symptoms decided he had a little stomach bug and a pulled muscle in his calf.  The stomach bug accompanied with the headache and fever did not surprise me because just two days before we left Logan spent two days with these same symptoms.  I figured Silvio had caught that same bug.  And Sivlio thought he remembered straining his calf muscle when we were at the tide pools the day before.  

The doctor say to take ibuprofen, get icy hot to rub on his calf and get plenty of rest.  She said it can take a good week for a pulled muscle to start feeling better.

Friday and Saturday we had obligations to be at Disneyland for the kids to perform with their dance group and to take a dance class.  This was the whole reason for the trip in the first place.  Silvio was understanding and he knew we couldn't all just sit at the house with him. Plus he really just needed to rest.  So we left him with plenty of water, crackers, bananas, his phone and peace and quiet.  I would text him several times each day while we were gone.  Some times he said he even felt like he was feeling better.

Both night went we got home from our long day at Disneyland I would rub his leg with icy hot.  Never once did it feel like it had knots in his calf, nor did it have any type of fever to it.  So we just thought it was a pulled muscle like the doctor thought.  He was of course taking tylenol or ibuprofen so that could be the reason it never felt feverish.  We didn't leave Huntington Beach until 2:00 Sunday afternoon.  Silvio's leg was not swollen at all.

But as we traveled home, we would stop to get gas and use the restroom, his calf began to swell and become increasingly painful.  As we were beginning to get into the greater Phoenix area I asked Silvio if he wanted us to stop at an urgent care or an ER.  It was around 8:00 and he just wanted to get on home to Pima.  I asked a couple of times but Silvio's answer was always the same.  He really just wanted to get home.  I think he didn't want to make the kids wait on him and since we were about 3 1/2 hours from home he thought it would be best just to keep on going.

It was hard to know what to do.  I felt a bit of panic because I could see how much pain Silvio was in at this point.  I remember praying in my head what I should do.  The feeling came to STOP AT THE CLOSEST EMERGENCY ROOM!  It was a clear thought and not what I wanted to hear.  After a week of vacationing with 5 kids by myself,  I was ready to be home.  But as we enter Buckeye, I told Kiersten to look up the closest ER on her phone.  As we were pulling off the freeway, Silvio asked me where I was going.  I told him I was taking him to the Emergency Room to get some pain medicine.  He said to just keep going, that he thought he could make it home.  But after I told him that I just wanted him to be more comfortable for the ride home he agreed that would be best.

The doctors first though Silvio had a blood clot.  They did several scans and blood work.  Nothing was making sense.  They couldn't piece things together as to what was going on with Silvio's leg.

 

It had been 2 hour by this point.  Kiersten, Hunter, Logan and Grant were all in the waiting room of the ER.  I needed to be with Silvio, so I left Kiersten in charge of the kids in the waiting room.  After I could tell this was not going to be as simple as getting some painkillers and going on home, I decided to go check on the kids and figure out what to do with them for the night.  The doctors had taken Silvio back for more scans so I told him where I was going and that I would probably be back before he was.

The kids were doing good, just tired, as it was now 10:00.  Plus they were hungry because we had not yet ate dinner.  I decided to call Mani and just see if the kids could crash at her parents house, since I knew they live somewhere in Buckeye.  I wasn't even sure if Mani was in Buckeye or if she had gone to Safford for the weekend.  I called Mani and explained that I was at an ER in Buckeye and that Silvio had hurt his leg.  I asked if the kids could go crash at her parents house.  Within a second she replied, "Are you kidding me?  Spencer and I are in my truck right now and we are 5 minutes from that exact ER.  And we are headed to Safford RIGHT NOW!"

I began to tear up!  It was a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father and I knew it!

Mani and Spencer showed up in seriously 5 MINUTES!  We got the kids loaded in her truck and they were on there way to Pima in less than 15 minutes from when I called Mani.  As they drop away I just lost it in the ER parking lot.  I thanked my Heavenly Father for such a sweet blessing.  I know that our Father in Heaven knows us!  He knows what we are going through in each and every moment.  He knows what we can handle and what we can't  Look back, I think Heavenly Father knew that in order for me to make it through the following 3 intense days with Silvio, that I needed my other kids to be taken care of with ease and so he did just that.  What a testimony building experience that was.

All they knew if that his calf was swelling and at this point the pressure was getting too high.  They performed a test to measure the pressure in his calf muscle by inserting a needle into his swollen calf.  Silvio was a trooper!!!  Luckily with numbing medicine and some Valium Silvio didn't even know when they did the actual test.  It came back that indeed there was too much pressure so surgery to open up his calf muscle to relief the pressure was necessary.  

The problem was that this emergency room doesn't do that sort of surgery.  They just stabilize patients and transport them on to other hospitals.

So at 3:00 AM Silvio was taken by ambulance from an Emergency Room in Buckeye to Abrazo Goodyear Hospital.  Around 5:30 the orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Michael Billhymer, took Silvio back to the operating room.  The surgery would involve making two large incisions in Silvio's calf, one on each side.  They would leave the incisions open and planned to release us the following day.  Then in a couple of days Silvio would need to go back to have his incisions closed up.  

 During surgery this morning, Monday morning June 22nd, they made two large incisions in both sides of Silvio's calf to relieve the pressure. When they did that there was puss or infection in one side of his calf. The doctor was not expecting to find an infection like that he said. This whole situation and the way his symptoms unfolded are completely atypical the doctor said!!!! The orthopedic surgeon said this is so rare that he will make a case study out of all of this. Since the leg was infected they now believe it was all caused from a small cut on Silvio's foot that happened while we were in Mexico. Even though that cut area never showed signs of an infection what so ever. 

This picture has a funny story to it.  Silvio was on a clear liquid diet and had ordered chicken broth.  When it arrived there was a lid on the cup.  Silvio took it off and started drinking the liquid.  He said it tasted okay.  The chicken flavor wasn't strong but it was good.  I looked in the cup and said, "Wow that looks like it's just water?"  After Silvio drank the whole cup I found on the food tray a pouch of powdered chicken flavoring that should have been added to the hot water to make chicken broth.  So indeed Silvio did just have hot water..........it tastes a bit like chicken though....hahahaha!!!  It was hilarious!  We both just laughed.  I think both of us were so tired we were not even thinking clear at that point.  So we decided to take a picture to remember his chicken broth a.k.a. hot water!!!!

Tuesday during surgery the infection had spread to his knee and thigh. The surgeon made incisions in both sides of his thigh as well as his knee and foot. Because of how rapid the infection spread they now know it is necrotizing fasciitis. Terrifying, terrifying stuff!! During Tuesday's surgery they also had to remove 50% of the muscle in Silvio's calf because it had died. The muscle removed is a redundant muscle and therefore he should have full function of his foot and leg. 

Friday June 26th, Silvio had another surgery. There was no necrosis nor infection! Yay! The surgeon actually closed Silvio's lateral wound in his thigh as well as knee which is great news. They did put a PICC line in yesterday. Silvio is scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday and with the help of a plastic surgeon we are hoping they can close the medial wound in his thigh as well as the wounds in his calf. It would be wonderful if that could be the last of his surgeries! Silvio is seriously the toughest exchange student ever!!! Our kids all loved visiting him this weekend, even if seeing him like this was scary and sad for them.

 

Trying his best to give me a smile.  Okay honestly he is drugged pretty good in this picture.  Oh speaking of being drugged, Sunday night before the took Silvio back for his initial surgery man was Silvio flying high!  He kept having these short little dreams and telling me all about them.  He kept trying to climb out of the hospital bed and I would have to help hold him in bed.  He dreamt of a lady selling chocolates....he kept asking me if I saw the lady.  He dreamt of a large theater room that was shaped like a cone and had Slushie mix dripping from the ceiling, all of us were there at that theater room, he said.  He had all kind of crazy dreams!!!

This picture is one of the doctors using "The Blue Phone" to communicate with Silvio's father.  After using this phone a couple of times the doctors all agreed that Silvio actually could translate better than the person on the other end of the line.

Tuesday night Silvio's parents arrived, which is a great blessing to everyone! Wednesday morning he had surgery again, the infection had stopped spreading but was still present. He has 3 wound vac helping to fight and clean the infection. Today's surgery showed no necrosis nor infection which is such an answer to prayers! Silvio needs to have 2 consecutive days of no infection and then the doctors can begin the process of closing his incisions. Silvio will have to be on IV antibiotics for 6 weeks, but this is something he can finish in Italy. We are very hopeful he has turned a corner. 

Multiple, multiple times the surgeon, who knew our whole story at this point, told us that had we waited until Safford to take Silvio to the hospital Silvio would have lost his leg.  Without a doubt he was sure of this and that he quite possible could have died.  Twenty percent of patients with necrotizing fasciitis die.  After realizing that really the one thing that kept Silvio from loosing his leg was the Holy Ghost guiding me in knowing that we indeed NEEDED to STOP AT THE CLOSEST EMERGENCY ROOM!  It is that simple!  I am extremely grateful for the Holy Ghost.  My testimony has been strengthened throughout this experience with Silvio.  

I stayed Sunday and Monday night with Silvio and really hardly left his side.  I just kept thinking that if this were my own son I would hope his host family would stay with him.  I decided until Silvio's mom could be with him that I would stay with him. 

Not gonna lie, I was a nervous wreck to meet Silvio's parents.  I felt so bad that this was his last experience here in the United States!  And that his parents had to travel across the world under these circumstances.  Silvio's parents, Cinzia and Michael, were the sweetest people ever.  It was nice to finally meet them.  They seemed grateful for how we had cared for Silvio.  We tried our best to do anything and everything that we could to make things easier for Silvio's parents.  We left them our car to use for the two weeks they were here and we really hope they felt our love and concern for them and Silvio during this time!

Our kids all loved visiting him this weekend, even if seeing him like this was scary and sad for them.

Ella and Justin were there as well.  We were afraid Ella would touch Silvio's leg or all the tubes coming out of it so Justin took her out of the room before she even wanted down.  Ella was really still when she first saw Silvio like this.  I don't think she liked seeing him in a hospital bed at all!

Silvio was in the Goodyear hospital for 2 weeks.  During those weeks he was happy to get a visit from Jessica Taylor and Andrew Taylor.  Jessica even brought him some "Love Jam."  Silvio LOVED his visit from Jessica.  They have became great friends the past few months, especially with tennis practice together and zero hour calculus class.

Silvio ended up having 5 surgeries!  Man what a story he will have to tell.  He only have one week left before he was scheduled to go back to Italy when all this happened. Just. One. Week!

4th of July weekend Silvio was getting released to fly home to Italy!  What a relief!  So happy him and his family will be able to go home.  Well not exactly home, Silvio will go straight to the Hospital in Foggia.  But at least the hospital is 20 minutes from his house.  We took the kids down to say our last goodbyes.

The first time we took the kids to visit Silvio they made him these Get Well signs.  We also got lots of friend and neighbors to make him cards and several put together little gift bags for him.  

Silvio had his final surgery on Tuesday and everything went well. The surgeons were able to close up the rest of his incisions! Yay!! Silvio is making progress with his physiotherapy and has been up and walking a little. It is looking like he will get released this Sunday from the hospital and be able to fly back to Italy. So that is great news! We sure are amazed by his strength and courage through out all of this!!

Our last picture with Silvio.  It was bitter sweet in every way!

One the evening of the 4th of July we spend some time visiting with Silvio.  We played battle ship and our last game of Scum.  It was sad and fun all at the same time.

Silvio was sad that we didn't bring Ella with us but we wanted to be able to visit with him one last time without a screaming toddler.  Hunter was bummed because before we actually knew the exact day Silvio would be released from he hospital, Hunter got invited to go camping for 4 days with Uncle Quincy.  Hunter was torn when he found out Silvio was being released the weekend of this camping trip.  He really wanted to see Silvio but he was super excited about this camping trip with Quincy and Gloria.  I knew Silvio would understand and so Hunter wasn't with us to say goodbye.  This picture is Silvio giving Hunter a hug goodbye.  Those two shared a special bond I think!  Hunter sure did love having Silvio as an older brother!!!

It's been a bittersweet weekend for us....we said our good byes to Silvio and his parents today

😢

 So glad he is healthy enough to travel home to Italy. We are really going to miss him! We enjoyed our last game of scum in his hospital room. Our family has been changed for the good all because of a smiley Italian boy!! It was good to meet his wonderful parents, just wish it was under better circumstances. And we wish we could have communicated more directly with them but about all we know in Italian is ciao 

☺

 One thing we did learn through the past two weeks is that love and compassion knows no language barrier!!!! It's been a fun filled year for sure and definitely an ADVENTURE! Thanks for being such a fantastic brother to our kids, Silvio!! We love you dearly! 

Once Silvio arrives in Rome, 15 hours of flying

😭

, he will be taken by ambulance to Foggia, 3 hours away, where he will be in the hospital for a week or longer to continue his IV antibiotics. We hope and pray his recovery goes well! See ya in Italy Silvio! 

Disneyland June 2015

Unfortunately Silvio wasn't feeling good enough to come with us. The kids are performing for dance at Disneyland today. This was the whole reason for the trip so I didn't really have a choice but to leave Silvio at the beach house. He probably doesn't care I mean he is 17 and all. Hopefully tomorrow he can come with us tomorrow.

The kids were super excited to perform on the Disney stage.  This is Hunter and Logan's first time performing here.

Oh how I love Kirsten's Extreme Dance group.  Such fun girls!

Hunter did awesome!  His group sure is fun to watch!

The kids each got Mickey ears for performing which they thought was cool.

Look at that expression!  Kiersten is so fun to watch.  She really is an amazing dancer AND performer.  You can tell she loves every minute of it!

These two boys are adorable!

Such cuties!

They did a wonderful job dancing!

The Safford Dance Academy Crew

As you can see her my boys aren't shy when it comes to the dance girls!  Just hanging out waiting for their class with Disney dancers to start.

Oh My Gosh this kid melts my heart!  Isn't he adorable?

He wore those Mickey ears so proudly.  I love Logie Bear so much!!!  He is going to grow up to be such an outstanding man.  I am blessed to be his mom!

Showing off their mad skills doing wings during their tap number!  These girls are all amazing!

This number was a crowd pleaser for sure!  It kind of steals the show!  What's not to love about one boys dancer in the group wearing a black suit and sun glasses.

This is a must take picture.....waiting in line for Toy Story Mania!

I love that no one is too old for Disney characters!!!

Makes me feel young just knowing that!

Such fun!

I am so thankful for being able to make this trip with the kiddos.  I am blessed to have a wonderful husband, even when he can't break away from the office he is always so good to let me go with the kids on trips.

Eating a must have churro!

Pluto and the family

Look at the smiles on our faces!  I'd say we are having a fabulous time.  Sadly Silvio isn't feeling much better so he didn't come either day we went to Disneyland.  Each night after a long, full day with the kids at Disneyland once we got back to the beach house I would rub Silvio's leg for 30-45 minutes.  Nothing feels tight or strange about his calf.  I just feel really bad that he isn't feeling better.  I even asked him if he wanted me to take him back to the Urgent Care but he didn't.  Guess he is just going to have to give the muscle time to get better.  I am so glad he is Face Timing his parents and that his dad is a doctor.  I feel good that we are doing everything his dad is suggesting.  Hope Silvio feels better for the long drive home.  We all felt guilty going to Disneyland without him.  But one day this kid had to perform and the next day they had a class with Disney dancers.  Plus what could we do if we just sat around with Silvio.  He slept most of the days anyway and I think the best thing we could do for him is let his body rest. 

Hunter and his love of the princesses!  Just as I predicted, Hunter stole Logan's prices hat :)

Love Logan in the picture!  What a character......... when asked to pose for a picture before the Pixar Play Parade this is what he did!

Love all the parades at Disney!

One of our favorite eats at Disneyland....The Bengal Barbecue.

Hunter went off with teenage girls from the dance academy to ride some rides with them.  Worked out great because then we had an even about of riders.

This picture sums up our trip......it was exciting at a treasured memory for me!

Love these kids with all my heart!

Huntington Beach

One last trip to the beach before our Italian boy returns home to Italy!

It was pretty cool and gloomy but that didn't stop these crazy boogie boarders!

I have to admit I did not brave the cold water this trip. I stayed dry on the beach, read a book and made drip castles with the kids!

I SURE LOVE THE BEACH!

This was some cool surf board art on the board walk. 

We rented this ham board and had so much fun on it. 

Silvio was so funny to watch!  He thought these were super cool!

Kiersten was a natural of course. 

We switched for a small board just to give it a try. But we all liked the long board better. 

The beach house had a fewbikes and we used them everyday!  We loved riding them up and down the board walk. 

See look at that smiling kid!  He had a great time!  Not sure what we are going to do without him!

And yes I had to try it myself!  It was a blast!,

I love my Kiersten! Only 13 and gorgeous as ever!!!

Not sure what was going on but all these crabs were dead on the beach.

Kids found one alive and rescued it and put it back into the ocean.  After they examined and watched it of course.

Mermaid pictures on the beach are a must with these silly boys!

Grant was so very upset that I made sand boobies on him.  He almost started to cry he got so mad......lol!  We were all dying laughing at him!

Then there is Hunter.....now he fully embraced the mermaid look!  The seaweed as hair was totally his idea.What a character!

They kids all loved making the drip castles!  It took some time to get good at making them.

But it wasn't long before the kids were experts.

If you are in the Huntington Beach area you gotta try this place!

This cinnamon roll float was the BOMB!

The food at this Taco Shop was amazing!

This trip we learned to make drip castles!  It was so much fun!  I was looking up fun free things to do with kids in California and drip castles came up so we tried making them.  

We had several people stop and ask us to show them how we were making them.

Look at my boys..... oh how I love them!

What a stud!  It was super cold and somehow we lost our wetsuits from the last trip to San Diego.  So I told the kids they could choose either new wetsuits so they would be warmer while at the beach or we could go to Legoland for a day.  They were having so much fun at the beach that they opted for the wetsuits!

Sweet drip castle Hunter!

We went to the La Jolla tide pools.....

It was beautiful but we were disappointed with the creatures that we saw.  I guess a lot of the starfish, sea cucumbers and other sea creatures have died off in this area.  Makes me super sad.

But we had a fun time exploring just the same!

These sea cucumber shells were our favorite!

How cool are those!

Logan was a great explorer!

Ever Silvio got in to it.  Even though he felt like he pulled a muscle while we were there.  He was a trooper!

Look at brave Kiersten holding the little crabs!

Oh how I wish we could make monthly trips to the beach!  It's just good for my soul!!

The kids were sad that we would be traveling home on Sunday.  Which is Father's Day and Justin's Birthday.

So we took these pictures to send to him.

They are such good kids and they really love their dad!

More drip castles....

Making drip castles really is hypnotizing!

This picture makes my heart happy!  

Missing Little Miss Ella, but she would not have liked the freezing cold water.  Thanks to my mom for keeping her for me.  It made this trip much easier, especially considering it was 5 kids against just me to begin with.....lol!

Kiersten and Hunter built a fortress!

It always amazes me how entertaining the beach is!

Just mix the sand with some water to make a slurie mixture and then grab some in your hand.  Then let it slowly drip out of your hand with your thumb faced toward the ground.  There you have Drip Castles!

Waves got a little too big for this boogie boarder!  Poor Logie!

One day we went and explored Bolboa Island, after the tide pools.

One day we road the bikes and scooters to The Park Bench Cafe.  It was a 2 1/2 mile ride one way!!!  Boy were we hungry when we got there.....but it was so worth it!

We really enjoyed the beach bikes!

The food was AMAZING!!!

Seriously everything we tried here was delicious and HUGE!

The Pier is always fun to walk out on.

Logan picked out this princess hat.  I have a feeling Hunter might steal it from him!

Poor Silvio's calf started really bothering him.  So I took him to an Urgent Care Thursday night.  The doctor listened to us and examined his calf.  It was decided that he has a small stomach bug (Which makes sense because Logan has a stomach bug the day before we left for this trip) and it looks like he has pulled a muscle.  Which the doctor said can be really painful and take weeks to heal.  This was not what we wanted to hear.  We got the icy hot cream the doctor recommended and I started giving Silvio massages whenever he needed them.  Sure how he feel like going to Disneyland with us.  I already got his ticket and we hate to see him not feeling good!

Other then Silvio starting to feel icky this trip has been a ton of fun!!!