The Stitches

We were really hoping to view the pictures of Elliot's surgery at his post-op appointment on Monday, but Dr. Hansen wasn't even there. They are pretty fantastic pictures, so hopefully next week we'll get them.

We do have some blurry pictures of the incision and stitches though. I forgot my camera, so we used Elliot's phone.

The other doctor (Dr. Clement) said that everything looked good with the incision . . .

. . . and very little swelling, so he rewrapped it.

He wrapped it a little tight. Annoyingly tight. Elliot complained more about that discomfort than he did about the whole injury and surgery.

Luckily we have connections. My brother-in-law Keith is a podiatrist and we were just so happening to see them that evening. He rewrapped it for him and he's felt some relief from that.

He's looking forward to having a cast next Monday.

Bubbles, Elevated Heartrate & Dumb Eggs

Stella loves Easter.

Elliot was surprisingly able to give his talk at church and though he claims he rambled and couldn't gather his thoughts, I believe he did right well.

We tried to hurry over to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's for our Easter dinner before Elliot fell asleep (me too). We ate a delicious ham dinner with G&G, Aunt Nat, and cousin Tatem before Grandma busted out the bubbles for the girls.



Strategically, Grandpa came outside a little while later to inform the girls that he thought he heard the Easter Bunny hopping around. The bubbles were quickly forgotten as they ran inside to listen for the Easter Bunny hops.

I knew that the Easter Bunny would be kind enough to hide some eggs in plain sight for 3-year-old Tatem, but I wasn't sure Stella could resist picking those up. We had a little talk about helping Tatem get some eggs too . . . she has no recollection of that conversation, I'm sure.

For as soon as Stella was out the door, all we saw was a blur of 6-year-old darting about the yard picking up EVERY egg she saw.

I even had to stop her to feel her heartbeat. Good grief. Her eyes were glazed over.

Luckily, Tatem had some other helpers . . .

. . . and Stella started giving Tatem some that she had already retrieved after she had abandoned her overflowing basket.

After Stella did another sweep or two of the yard and decided there were no more eggs to be found, they searched through their loot and did a few bunny hops to end the hunt.

(if you happen to comment on this post, please feel free to leave an extra comment directed toward my parents in encouraging them to get a pool fence . . . much thanks)

The girls dumped the contents of their Easter eggs onto a blanket (mostly so Stella could decide which ones were keepers), Tatem happily shared a lot of her candy, and Stella hoarded hers (except the ones she didn't like). Natalie and I may have helped them consume some.

Then they played bouncy ball with Grandma. Thanks for a lovely Easter!

. . . but the funniest part of the evening was . . . my bright idea of having some of the Easter eggs filled with something other than candy not going over over so well.

Tatem found this polka-dot blue egg and was immediately skeptical of it's light weight. She examined it's contents, found that it was indeed NOT candy, sneered digustedly, and quickly discarded it in the rocks.

I got a text from my sister Natalie (Tatem's mom) later saying, "I had a hankerin' for chocolate, so I snuck into Tatem's Easter basket, dug deep down, pulled out an egg hoping to fulfill my chocolate craving, broke it open and out popped a blue koosh ball. Now I know how Tatem felt."

Fine. Straight candy from now on.

HOPPY Easter!

HOPPY Easter! Our morning started out with a mildly ridiculous poem written to Stella by the Easter Bunny so she could hunt for her Easter basket.

She also got to find Daddy's because he has a bum flipper.

"This is the best day EVER!" Stella is pretty much the best gift receiver ever.

Elliot usually is too, but he was medicated.

The Revival of the Ball Challenge

It seems like it's been so long since we've had any friends over, so we were super happy that our friends were so flexible in their schedule and could still come over on Saturday instead of Friday when Elliot was still not feeling great.

Quite honestly, Elliot started to look a little pukey before our fun evening was over, but he revealed it was because he didn't take the pain meds when I gave it to him and he his leg was throbbing. I'll have to keep a closer eye on him.

After we let our delicious BBQ pulled-pork dinner percolate for a while, we started the BALL CHALLENGE. Since Elliot has a bum flipper, we had our first-ever challengers Mike & Mari Ashby demonstrate for the new-comers:

Mike, demonstrating the non-graceful fall.

We always get a good show from the Ashby's. Mike and Mari both up the challenge by making the transfer from bum to stomach, or knee to stomach, or Mike's new one . . . stomach to knees. Quite the entertainment.

Mari, demonstrating that you can still pose for the camera while falling not gracefully.

Max just found his new favorite game.

Max would stay like this until I took the picture. Just like his mother.

This is Mark Ortega's second ball challenge. Everyone gets a little bit better and more daring at each challenge.

I only asked that they not run into Elliot's leg. Everyone else was fair game.

Miss Samantha was quite the entertainment for me because she was the youngest of the kids, but still made the little boys cry. Hilarious.

I wonder if our home owners insurance would pay for Mike Montague's broken wrists if he does that again. It's alright folks, he forgot the rule about NOT breaking your fall. You might lose a mole in the process (Mike Ashby), but your wrists will be in tact.

I love it when people get tossed off the ball.

Samantha's dad grabbed her 1 second before Mike would have squished her with his fall.

A most serious Max.

I dare say we have quite the new challenger in Mollie Montague. She was doing Pilates moves on the ball for crying out loud.

And she didn't mind the non-graceful fall rule.

Yeah, she's a keeper.

Elliot's Achilles Update

At least there are 2 people in our family who think this Achilles injury is totally cool. Elliot is not one of them.

Friday (day after surgery) Elliot was still hopped up on Percocet and not feeling 100% . . . probably not even 20%. The pain medications make him dizzy and nauseous. I was getting a little concerned as well because he still couldn't feel his toes.

He was really hoping to be able to conduct at the funeral that morning, but we decided (I mostly demanded) that he just stay home and I'd take really good notes to share with him. This was good advice by me, as always, because right in the middle of the funeral I got a text from him that said, "Foot is awake. Wow. PAIN! It feels like it is in a vice . . ."

So I tried to keep him medicated for the pain and sleeping in the recliner as much as possible. I like taking care of him. He won't stop apologizing for the "inconvenience" though. No inconvenience at all.

I read him my notes from the funeral. Sister Jeannette Gurney lost her leg several years ago and though she was quite the go-getter and eagerly anticipated her recovery and ability to return to working in the temple, her daughter mentioned how important it was to her mother that she follow ALL the rules of recovery and therapy. This bit of advice from the recently departed as well as my friend's comment on one of my last posts about her bishopric member who decided he could decide when he was recovered and had to start all over because of re-injury, as well as our renewed efforts in teaching Stella to follow the rules, I believe, has impressed upon him the importance of doing EVERYTHING he can to make sure his recovery is complete and ALL rules are followed. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) I'm not a nagging wifey, but I will make sure he's not an idiot during recovery.

We made plans on Sunday evening before the injury even happened, to have friends over on Friday night, but had to postpone because Elliot was still a little pale and feeling generally gross. This was a good change of plans because I'm sure they all wouldn't have enjoyed the amazing amount of barf that Elliot purged after a short walk on Friday evening. It was impressive, really.

It was such a nice evening that we sat outside in lawn chairs for a about an hour after the walk, he barfed, then went inside to sleep the rest of the night. Thankfully Grandma Dibble was able to have Stella over for a sleepover (and shopping . . . Grandma sleepovers are great).

Sometimes barfing just makes you feel better. Still a little crazy, but better. I think Elliot thinks his little knee-roller apparatus is too much fun and I have to remind him to slow down . . . he is still mediated after all.

Fishy's Friend or Foe

Stella dropped a little friend in Liz's bowl the other day. Yes, the fish finally has a name and it's Liz. I'm the only one who takes care of Liz and sometimes I feel bad for her that she is all alone. Then I remember that she might just eat another fish if we got one, so Stella threw Ariel in there. Sometimes Liz knocks Ariel over . . .

. . . oh, my apologies. The fish is now named Becky.

Cuter and Cuter

Stella lost another tooth on April 4th. That's #4. Her top 4 teeth are also loose, but for some reason they take a long time to come out. She's eating as much candy as possible to make sure they come out one way or another.


In other news, she's still totally cute.

Elliot - Greek God-like

. . . except for the Achilles issue . . .

Elliot's been faithfully wearing the Robo-Boot by day and wrapping by night (not to be confused with rapping because the dance that has to go along with that might put too much pressure on his leg). He finally bruised yesterday and it's a little swollen, but even I'm surprised at how little. He's been using the cane (not sure he's using it right) and I've told him to practice just using his left leg for everything because he will be ABSOLUTELY NON-WEIGHT BEARING for 4 weeks!

Surgery went well. We just got home around 6:30 because they were 2 hours behind on their surgery schedule and Elliot's 45 minute surgery actually took 90 minutes because he ripped it up good.

It was actually kind of nice to sit in the pre-op room and talk to him uninterrupted and full-attention for 2 hours and me and my monotone talking didn't even put him to sleep (at least not completely asleep). So they finally took him back for surgery at 3:00 p.m. and I played Bubble Popper on his phone until the surgeon came out and told me everything went well and showed me pictures of the surgery. It was awesome. I really hope we get those pictures because it was fascinating.

This was just right before surgery. I was going to take a picture of his fantastic calf muscle, but he probably wouldn't have been able to flex it.

So this is how I understood it from Dr. Hansen. When you rupture the Achilles tendon, I guess it sort of just tears in half, leaving spaghetti-like noodles of tendon hanging about in a mess. Imagine those trying to just grow back together properly by themselves . . . seriously, surgery was our ONLY option.

The Achilles tendon is the tendon that is hooked to the calf muscles and allows you to point your toes, stand on your toes, and basically walk. The surgeon said that he would just braid the ends of ruptured tendons back together to make it super strong and graft in a little human heart for good measure.

Well, Elliot didn't tear his Achilles in half, it busted away from the actual calf muscle which made the surgery a little more difficult since you can't sew into the muscle without seriously damaging or even killing it. Once again, the pictures . . . awesome. Shaved leg . . . sexy.

He did braid the tendons, but then he had to use the human tissue graft to hook it all back up to the calf muscle. He said that everything is secured and fixed properly, but with the nature of his rupture (totally complete rupture . . . none of this "near rupture" crap like the MRI said), his recovery will be a little more sensitive and they'll probably watch it a little closer. And since the rest of his leg muscles are Greek-God like, he should heal up just dandy.

The nurse finally came to get me to help him wake up the rest of the way. He had a rough time waking up and just kept saying "sleepy" and puckering his lips to ask for water. He also asked me how everything went . . . at least 6 times at the surgery center and then so far at home he's asked twice. I'm personally fond of the nurses because they said, "Are you going to be ok with him at home because he's pretty big and you're kind of small." They are my new favorite people.

We got him in the car even though I think he should have stayed for a little bit longer (we were the last one's there and they wanted to go home). He did fine on the way home, but about 5 feet into the house he ended his 14-year non-barfing streak (he hasn't barfed since January of 1997 in the Dominican Republic). He also commented after he was done yacking, "See how quiet that was?" referring to the scream-barfer that I am.

(looking like he wants to barf, but waited until we were home since I'm a sympathy barfer)

Thankfully Elliot brother Adam was able to come get Stella to spend the night at her cousins house so we can avoid the inevitable climbing on Daddy and general constant chatter. We have the funeral tomorrow of one of our ward members, but we have a back-up conductor in case Elliot can't make it.

He's quietly resting on the recliner right now and is kind of groggy. He took some pain meds and ate a little bit. I gave him a little neck rub and made him sleep while I started typing this. I just went out there and he had been trying to respond to an email on his phone for quite some time, so I got to finish that for him. When I asked him if he needed anything, he just said, "I'm just happy and I love the world." Looney bin.

He seems to think he'll be back to normal really quickly, but I kind of hope he gets the sleep his body has been craving for the last 6 years. Not that I'm going to lace his juice with Percocet or anything, but he'll be taking it easy if I have anything to do with it. Maybe I'll put on all of the Lord of the Rings movies and a BBC Pride & Prejudice chaser with a little sprinkle of the Jason Bourne movies on top. That'll keep him occupied for a while.