Electrode test

 Friday we had Chris's electrode test. His injury to his arm is considered a Brachial Plexus injury because that is where the big bundle of nerves is at. The BB went into his neck at the top of the nerves where they start and then traveled down and landed in the brachial plexus bundle. 

Heres kind of a rough picture where you can see where they start in the neck and what they affect.

 They cant do an MRI on him because of the BBs so they wanted to do a nerve electrode test to see what the extent of the damage was. We had never had it done before but heard it hurt like hell. He was nervous about what they were actually going to do to him. We of course had to travel down to IMC again. We sat in the waiting room forever and they finally called us back. We had a wager on whether it was going to be needles or electrode patches. They had the machine in the room and Chris started looking at it to see what was on there and the nurse said "Oh youre checking out the torture device huh" I think he wanted to leave then!

The dr came in and talked over with us about what they were going to do and what they were looking for etc. He made a few pen marks on Chris and said it was time to get started. He tapped a big metal circle that was hooked to the machine to his hand and then got out this two pronged paddle thing. He hooked little stuff up to his hand and said ok this might tingle some. Think of it like sticking your tongue on a 9 volt battery. That was an understatement. He hit Chris with the first shock and he about came out of his chair. He said he would rather be hit with a 277 line than be shocked like that. They shock RIGHT on the NERVE where it sticks out the most. He had to shock a few more spots on his hand and you could tell it was really hurting him. He said it was awful. Chris has a very very high pain tolerance and never complains about things hurting so if he says something is bad you know its really bad.

They did a few different shocks in his hand and then it was time for the needles. They take a 30 gauge needle and hook it into the wiring. Then they poke the needle INTO the nerve and send the electric current into the needle. They also bounce the needle up and down into the nerve and then the take the needle and wiggle it around in the nerve. Just in case you missed that part that said IN THE NERVE. They did probably 6 different points in his hand and one in the forearm. He was completely white/green at this point. He was sweating profusely and was starting to pass out so they had to stop for a minute. He was starting to do that funny speech eyes rolling back in your head thing. He had a death grip on the chair with his free hand so he didnt hit the doctor. He had him take off his shirt at this point and lay on his back so they could do a few more in the upper arm. They did one in the center of the bicep, another 3-4 in the side of the shoulder, one in the ribs, a few in the front of the shoulder collar bone area, about 4 in his deltoid area and another 4 in his neck.

On the first picture in the post you can see some of the nerves in the arm/hand and they hit those plus a few more.

Poor guy was so pale by the time they stopped. I felt so bad for him. 

The doctor said that they were looking for denervation. Denervation is when the nerves die basically. They lose their supply from the injury and die and then regrow. About 4 weeks from a severe nerve injury they should be at the peak of denervation. We were 4 weeks out from his accident. So the doctor expected to see a whole bunch of that which is totally normal. Chris had almost none. He said the screen should be full of it and he was only getting just a few. So Chris's nerve damage isnt permanent and its not near as severe as they were thinking it was. More than anything they are still just recovering from shock and learning how to rework. He said he expects he should be in full strength recovery around 3-4 months. If for some reason Chris' progress goes stagnant they will have to do another test to see if the nerves have just stopped working or what their deal is. 

This is the nerves int the brachial plexus and the highlighted grey ones are his nerves that were injured. They figured his dorsal scapular nerve was injured but somehow it wasnt. The BB basically hit the c5 and c6 nerves when it went into his neck and radiated the trauma down. 

We were really excited to hear that the damage wouldnt be permanent and that he was healing a lot faster than they anticipated. 

EMT class, Archery, Physical Therapy and babies

Lets start our week off with Monday shall we..

A long long time ago back when I was a little peanut fresh out of High School I did all my fire schooling, then I went straight into EMT-B class and from there EMT-I (which is now Advanced) 

Then life went on. Things happened. Life changed. I stopped running on calls and let my EMT lapse. Now that Ive started running again I miss doing those things which as an EMT-Advanced I was allowed to do and decided its time to change that. Monday I started EMT-Basic class again. Yes again. In Utah once your certs lapse you have to take the whole class again not just challenge a test. This is a lot more in depth and has a lot more requirements than when I took the class 11 years ago. Yep I said 11 years. Kinda making me feel old! 

Monday nights I have class. 

Tuesday nights Chris has class and I have fire drill. 

Wednesday nights K has her archery

Thursday nights we both have class. 

There are 3 nights a week we dont see each other from the time we leave for work in the morning until our heads hit the pillows late that night. Good thing its only for 3 months! After that I will have my basic and will have to take my EMT-I sometime for another 3 almost 4 months of class.

Miss K was able to go to archery this week. She is doing so well shooting her new bow. I was kind of worried with her attention span being what it is. She has done great with her new release and is rocking it!

 Wednesday night she had archery and Chris had to go into town after work and wire up some lights. Kennedy had a bday party that next day so we stopped at Walmart to get a present and some pizza for dinner. Chris was in town wiring up some lights for his friends and we figured we would be home at the same time. 

ummm no

That didnt happen. He had a hell of a time with the wiring. It didnt go as planned so Miss K and I had dinner together. 

In the living room

While watching TV

Just cause Daddy was gone. He is one of those no tv sit together at the table kind of people.

We are such rebels.

Wednesday night after work before wiring Chris also started Physical Therapy. So take our normal schedule we have and now throw in PT 2 times a week...

They were surprised at how much movement he had. They didnt think he would be coming in with hardly any so that was a bonus. He had to try and lift weights with his one arm.. and weights is 10 lbs He couldnt do it. He tried his best but it hurt so bad and he had no muscle strength. He has a bunch of work outs he has to do at home 3 times a day which just kill his arm.

Friday night we all had Chinese at Todd and Janas and then played cards. Chris is hooked on playing 5 crowns. Its became a weekly occurrence. I sat out the first game just so I could have uninterrupted snuggle time with Mr Briggs. He just cuddled right in and slept most the time. Hes a whole 2 weeks now.

 Saturday night Liz asked if we could watch Koree while they went to dinner and a movie. Koree hates anyone but her mom. She is a total mommas girl. We said sure and figured she might fuss for a minute but she would eventually get over it. Liz and Kyle dropped off a truck full of baby toys just in case and went on their date. Koree ONLY wanted Uncle Chris. She wanted nothing to do with anyone else. He held her and played cards for quite a while. She finally let him put her in her jumper but she had to be right next to him. If he got a drink or walked out of her sight she started screaming. 

It was the easiest baby sitting night I have ever had. I didnt have to do a dang thing!

Liz said she falls asleep in her bouncer and doesnt like to be held while she goes to sleep so we sat her in the bouncer next to his chair and she had to hold his hand the whole time. She sat there quietly just watching tv with us and drinking her bottle while holding his finger. He is such a sucker and couldn't take not cuddling her. He picked her up and rocked her in his chair and she was out in seconds. He wouldnt put her back in the bouncer and insisted on holding her until they got back :) I think someone liked it.

This was my entire Thursday day off from work. I had one chapter left to read before class and figured it wouldnt be too bad... 

It took me almost 4 hours to get through it and 6 pages of notes.

 Also I decided its time to get fit. I want to be skinny again and get my muscles back. I went and joined the Body Shop gym in Willard. Its nice because its close and open 24 hrs. Mom and I went to the gym Saturday together and sweated our butts off!

Sickness, first duck hunt, Kennedys Monster High date and RMPRA rodeo

This week the sick bug hit our house once again. Wednesday morning Kennedy looked a little pale and her eyes were red. I was worried she might be getting pink eye but was really hoping it was just congestion. She still wanted to go to school and had no other symptoms. At 11 oclock school called and said I needed to come pick her up. I had to leave work and go get her. She had two massive ear aches, a fever, a headache, her eyes hurt, her body ached and she was not feeling well. When I walked into the school she was in the sick room bawling. I took her home, gave her some Advil and she slept and slept and slept. We woke her up twice to go to the bathroom and give her more meds. She didnt get up until 11:30 that next morning

I also had been fighting a horrible sore throat and my ears ached and were plugged. I took advantage of her sleeping all day and took a nap too. She woke up and wanted to watch a movie. We cuddled on the couch and watched Brave. When I woke up my phone was full of pictures. She took about 50 selfies

About 10 pictures of me sleeping

 and about another 30 pictures of the movie

Chris had school Thursday night after work. We ate dinner at 4:30 and layed around all night watching tv. It was a rough 24 hours. I didnt even leave the house. 

Thankfully Friday she was feeling better and begged to go to school. Chris wanted her to stay home and rest and keep getting better. She woke up that morning all on her own and got ready. She gave him the eyes and said please daddy can I go to school? Thats all it took and he melted. 

Chris and I worked on running errands. Todd asked us if we wanted to go out west Saturday morning.  We worked on getting all our stuff ready. We bore sighted my new 22/250

 We also ran to the store to get supplies and Chris decided to take me out to Maddox Drive Inn for lunch. We had a gift card :) Then we decided to go jump shoot on a pond my mom had saw some geese landing by. It was the first time either one of us have carried a shotgun since the accident. I have been stressing about getting back at it. Chris keeps talking about wanting to guide again. That sends me into a near panic attack. I wont stop him Im just not ready for it yet :) Baby steps. Carrying shotguns was a good baby step for us both.

 There were no ducks or geese but it was worth it!

Like my new shirt 

Its so hard to find cute girl firefighter shirts that dont just say proud fire wife or something fire wife.

Friday night our friends Tera and Rod invited us and my parents out to Jelbas for the night. 

Taylor came with us. Chris was excited to wear his awful boots. We walked in the door and a group of people knew him. I bust out laughing. From then on all night long he was getting comments on his boots and knew almost everyone in the bar. I cant take him anywhere! Him and Taylor played a little pool and then we left at 10. Big night at the bar for us hahah! We wanted to go pick up K and get in bed since we had to get up so early.

 When we got there to get K she didnt want to leave. Her and Kinlie had a Monster High party. Kennedy took a few of her Monster Highs and her new Monster High DVD. Liz painted Monster High paints on them

They got all their dolls together

They did each others hairs and their dolls hair

and painted their nails! 

She was only at Liz's for about 3 hours and that wasnt long enough for her

Saturday night after we all got back from being out west we had tickets to go to the RMPRA rodeo. Our sweet friends the Okis had given us 5 free tickets. Todd and Jana took us out to Bellas for dinner and we headed to the fairgrounds. 

Kyle (brother in law)s dad Tyler aka Grandpa Tyler does pickup man work and was working that rodeo. It was fun to watch him be pickup man. Liz and Kyle were there too.

 Kennedy's cute little friends Katelyn Oki and her two other friends Maclee and Marlee were there too. We bought them some cotton candy and they all played together the whole night. Except when Maclee whose Kennedys age and her little sister Marlee mutton busted. They are the cutest little cowgirls and did well! Kennedy was sold after that and wants to mutton bust at the next rodeo she can.

Marlee

 Maclee

It was a good night! We had a lot of fun and even made it home by 1030 which was great since I had to work the next morning! 

Trip out west

Saturday morning we headed out bright and early... 5 am early... to go out west looking for bunnies and coyotes. Kennedy was so adamant she wanted to shoot a bunny. It made my heart proud! Kennedy and Chris pretty much slept the entire way out there. We had a coyote cross the road right in front of us but it was too dark to shoot. We started out in Grouse Creek. Miss K had never been there before so Grandpa Todd wanted to give her the tour around. Dusty and Nickie were out there trapping for the day. We stopped by their cabin and visited for a minute. From there we went down the old railroad grade through the Terrace area. We ran into 3 coyotes in a pack not too far away. The truck came to a screeching halt and they were on a dead run. We had them about 450 yards from us hell bent for leather. We all 3 threw out a few rounds but didn't kill any. We went down the rail road grade and stopped every little bit to call coyotes. We had one or two answer us but none came into the call.

 After a few calling stops it was time for lunch. We know how to tailgate! We had all the sandwich fixings, chips, cookies, licorice etc. We brought all the ingredients so everyone could make their own. SO much easier!

After lunch we got out the guns and set up some targets. 

 Kennedy couldnt wait to shoot. She just isnt quite big enough to shoot the .22. She had a really hard time trying to hold it up and look through the scope. All the stocks were too long for her to handle so we had to help her. I think its time we need to buy her a kids .22 with a little short stock.

 She really loves shooting pistols and they are a little easier for her. Grandma let her shoot her little old school double action revolver. Grandpa helped her and she loved it. She didnt want to stop.

 Our cute little family picture

 There are no words for this.. I try to get a picture and you never know whats going to happen with this one!

 We didnt see anything else to shoot and took the long way home through the hogups and the salt wells. It was such a fun day!

Neurologist followup

Monday we had to go see the neurologist at IMC. We thought we were following up with one of the doctors we saw there but it ended up being a different one. This one was a specialist. He had Chris do a few tests with his arm to see where it was at. He said the deltoid muscle was still weak and affected but he had more strength and range of motion than prior. He looked at a few things, went out and checked Chris's chart and CT scans and came back in to see us. He started talking about the BBs in Chris's body and asked when they were taking the one of out of his eye. We kind of looked at each other funny and said never. He will loose his eye. The drs exact words to us were "bullshit! You wont lose your eye. Who told you that?" We kind of looked at each other funny again and said well the 3 eye specialists we have seen. They told us that the BB was in the optic nerve and it would destroy the eye to take it out and none of them were even willing to do it. He told us again bullshit and that it wasnt true. He wrote Chris a prescription for physical therapy and then said come with me.

He showed us Chris's CT scans. He explained how they work and showed us where the BB was in the eye. According to the scan its in the muscle to the side of the nerve. He said the BB in the muscle is what has caused Chris's double vision and until the muscle learned how to rework basically thats why he had the double vision. He told us the Drs probably just weren't that comfortable with an inter orbital surgery and he has done hundreds of them and can see no reason why the BB couldn't be removed with out causing any damage. He told us we were more than welcome to get a 5th opinion of we would like and highly recommended the Moran Eye center where he was positive the Drs there would agree with him. 

It was kind of surprising to hear him disagree so much with what we had been told by 3 eye specialists. But hes a neurologist so he should be more familiar with nerves. We were happy to know at least if he ever needed to have it removed that it may actually be a possibility and let him keep his vision. 

He also showed us where the BB was in his forehead and on the side of his head by his temple. We knew they were there because you can see the bumps and feel them but it was cool to get to see them on a  CT scan. Then he showed us the one in the back of the nasal tissue and told us he was pretty positive that one would never come out and it wasnt in a place to go in and remove. 

Then he moved down to the one on his neck. That was more than what we had expected. He showed us in where the BB was at (its not hard to see its a huge white ball) He explained that there are two big arteries in the neck

The carotid artery and the vertebral artery. 

They run parallel in the neck and are kind of offset from each other at a slight angle.

I put an arrow where the BB went into his neck. You can see how it went between the two branches of the carotid and between the vertebral and carotid artery. It went RIGHT BETWEEN the arteries. It had just enough room to move through there and somehow didnt nick either one.

Heres another view to give a little more insight. The BB stopped resting against the cervical spine. This was as of the very first CT scan they took in Logan and why they decided to fly us to IMC

He had to have been at the perfect angle for it to enter his neck how it did and miss the arteries and came to rest against his spine with out damaging anything but hurting a few nerves. I still just cant believe it. The arm issues are a tiny price to pay for as lucky as we were.

They are still going to do an electrical test to see how healed the nerves are. Im honestly not even worried about the outcome of it because I know no matter what the test says he will work until his arms is back to normal capacity if not exceed it. 

Kennedys Birthday Weekend

Friday we started off all day at the Drs appointments. Kennedy took cupcakes to school to share with her class. We asked her if she wanted to skip school and go with us and go to lunch. She was adamant she wanted to go to school. After school we were cleaning up the fire truck for the funeral and gave her the big birthday present. She has been asking for over a year for a snowmobile. Thats all she wanted. A snowmobile to ride to the grandparents house. We found one at a pretty good deal. Its a 1985 Skidoo Safari 377. We figured it being older makes it simpler to work on and if she wrecks it its easier to fix and tougher.  I had just washed it up and took her outside. Told her dad needed help with the chickens and in the shop. She didnt even notice. We were almost to the sled when she said whose sled is that? Grandmas? We said nope its yours. She just stood there and starred at it for a minute and started crying. She ran over and hugged Chris and I and hopped on it. She said it was the best birthday ever!

We were really really hoping for snow but there was none!

 Her and Dad started it up and took it for a small run around the driveway.

 We needed a family picture

 From there Mom brought Kennedy over her presents. I asked my two kids to smile and this is what I get.

Kennedy has been going to church with Grandma Tammy. My mom got her two cute new church dresses and then this.... A bra and underwear set. Kennedy didnt know what to think at first and now she wont take it off

After Mom left Tammy, Taylor and Steve came over to see K. She loves to craft with Tammy. She got an 11,000 bead set and a quilt making set. She also got her an adorable apron. 

 Next Grandma JeNeale and Hunter came up to go out to dinner at Bellas. Its our favorite place to go. She was so excited to get to wear the hat and be sang to. After dinner her and Grandma went shopping where she picked out a Monster High movie and a Frozen pillow book.

 On Saturday while we were at the funeral two of her sisters came and took her to Kangaroo Zoo and out to lunch at El Matador.

Kennedy and Karli

 Karli, Haley and Kennedy

After she got home Grandma Jana and Grandpa Todd took us out to get her Bday presents. Her annual boots. She picked them out in seconds. Pink and Glitter.. not a hard choice.

And to top off the birthday weekend we had Sunday dinner at Todd and Janas for the rest of the family. There was a houseful! I had to work all day (6-6) and they took care of getting everything ready for her! The kids all went upstairs and played. It was constant giggling. They couldn't hold still long enough for a picture.

 Ry bug aned Macee jumping on the air mattress

 Macee was excited for cake

 Koree loved getting a whole piece of cake

 and Macee was too!

 Ry helped Miss K open her gifts

 Then the house turned upside down and into a full out Nerf gun war

It was such a great weekend. She was spoiled! Completely spoiled! Thank you everyone so much!