Sunday, July 27, 2008

New Computer

I am really excited. Yesterday afternoon, we had a little birthday party for me with my family and Brandon's parents. My family gave me a new computer for my birthday. They are so wonderful and will never know how much I love it and appreciate it. Brandon helped me set it up last night and it works great. It is tons faster than my old computer and does not freeze, which was causing me loads of stress. I constantly lost info or had to stop doing something because the computer would just freeze. Anyway, I have already been using my new computer to work on some genealogy. I am really becoming passionate about doing genealogy. It is an amazing feeling to find a name or date I have been searching for. This is a picture of me uncovering my marvelous new computer.














Here are also a couple cute pictures from the party. Kaitlyn and Callie were having tons of fun playing together and pushing each other in the stroller. Kaitlyn looks really cool in Grandpa Jay's sunglasses. Craig had a blast holding Iron Man Ben with Grandma Jody.



As I promised, here are some cute pictures from when Brandon was released from the hospital. Kaitlyn was happy to see her daddy, and Dotty was relieved to finally be with her human again. She has hardly left Brandon's side since he got home. She sleeps right by his feet all the time. Brandon is doing exceptionally well. We know that our Savior Jesus Christ watches over us and continues to help our family. We feel deeply blessed to have Brandon home and doing as well as he is. He still gets tired really easily and rests a lot. He is anxious to return to work. I think he is bored. I am trying to find a new hobby for him, if anyone has any good suggestions we would appreciate it. He has become an expert at napping, and Ben and him are getting some good naps together. We will continue to enjoy our time together and work on getting Brandon's strength and endurance back.


Sunday, July 20, 2008

Happy Birthday to me

I am thrilled to be home for my birthday. Brandon was released from the hospital yesterday morning. We are just relaxing and enjoying the time together with our family. Kaitlyn loves having Daddy home. Ben has been rolling around all over the floor. So far it has been a good birthday. We went to church this morning and everyone was glad to see Brandon doing so well. After a nice nap, we visited Brandon's grandparents and parents. We plan on taking it easy for the next couple of days. Thanks for all the visitors and the messages from friends and families.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Zoo

We had lots fun at the zoo today. Here are several cute pictures.







Going home

The doctor has agreed to release Brandon tomorrow morning. We are extremely excited to be going home. Brandon is thrilled to get out of the hospital. He has been doing really well with his therapies. He still needs to relax and take it easy for a while. Kaitlyn is happy to get to see her daddy. It will be nice to go home and get back into some kind of routine. I have really appreciates my family and all of the help they have given me, especially my mom and my sisters. It was great to know Kaitlyn and Ben were having fun while I was at the hospital with Brandon. I think Kaitlyn will miss playing with Callie and Grandma. She has had a blast. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Rehab

On Wednesday, they moved Brandon to the Rehab floor. They will focus with him more on physical, occupational, and speech therapies. He continues to improve everyday. Hopefully, they will be able to release him on Saturday. Yesterday, we went for a walk outside and Brandon loved getting some fresh air. He is doing much better walking unassisted. He still has some balance problems and trouble with stairs. It is worse when he is tired, which happens very easily. Anyway, he continues to be in good spirits and is anxious to go home.

We are excited, because we are going to the zoo today. I am going to take Kaitlyn and Ben. We are going with my sisters Jeanne, Jasmine, and Jessi, my brother Jordan, my niece Callie, and my nephew Craig. We are sure to have a great time.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Walking and stairs

Brandon has been doing very well the last two days. He was moved out of ICU late Sunday night. He was glad to be out of there. The physical therapist has been working with him twice a day. He is getting better every time. He still has problems with balance and orientation, but we are hopeful those will improve with continued practice. Today they did stairs for the first time, and the therapist said he did okay. He just needs time to strengthen and use his muscles again.

He is still having some memory and cognition problems. They have a speech therapist working with him on those. Everyone is hopeful that he will continue to recover quickly and are impressed with the progress he has made.

We feel deeply blessed by the love and support we have been show by our family and friends. Brandon loves to hear all the comments and it helps cheer him up. Thanks

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Update

Brandon had a good day. He was talking a lot more. He has started to remember more and understands where he is. The last day he remembers was July 8th, so he lost a couple days. He may never remember what happened. He was asking lots of questions and was really worried about work. He even asked the doctor to release him so he could finish his route, always a workaholic. He is in good spirits and appreciates all the messages from family and friends.

They are trying to keep his pain level down, but not over medicate him. The pain medication was making him to sleepy and that made it difficult to work with him. The doctors want him to get up and move more. He had the physical therapist and the occupational therapist working with him a little today. He sat up for ten minutes and took a couple steps around the room. He did some other small exercises and was usually cooperative. We hope he will be up for walking around more tomorrow.

Since he started to comprehend more what happened to him, he has been very sweet. He is really funny to talk to and makes some pretty amusing comments. We are truly thankful for all the progress he has made. Hopefully, he will continue to be cooperative.

Kaitlyn and Ben had fun going to the movie with Grandma Jody, Aunt Jeanne, Aunt Jessi, and cousins Callie and Craig. They saw "Horton Hears a Who." Kaitlyn feel asleep during the movie, but said she enjoyed the part she was awake for. She loves elephants. Later, they went swimming at my uncle Clint's house. Kaitlyn loved going down the water slide. They tell me Ben had a blast playing in the water.

Friday, July 11, 2008

GREAT News!!!

This morning when I visited Brandon there was no real change. They said he had responded a little last night, but he was not wanting to respond when I got there. I left to get lunch and take care of the kids for a little bit, and when I got back I received the best news yet. The trauma doctors had decided that Brandon was alert enough to remove the intubation tube. His nurse was trying to get him to respond using his hands, but he did not want to. The said that when he asked Brandon if he wanted the tube out Brandon opened his eyes and nodded his head. So they removed the tube, and Brandon started trying to talk.

When I arrived at the hospital, Brandon was pretty alert. He would talk a little and answered some questions. He knew his name and he recognized me. The longer I was there the more alert he became. He started getting agitated because he wanted the arms and upper torso restraints removed. He keep yelling at me and the nurses to stop arguing with him. I have never been so excited to see him get this feisty. It was great to see him responding and expressing his thoughts. He has no memory of what happened yet, and we had to explain to him many times that he was at the hospital.

When he was calm and understood that he could not remove the IVs or the monitors, the nurse took the restraints off him. He was glad to move around a little and said his back was stiff. He seems to be in good spirits and is resting now. All the excitement of this afternoon wore him out. We are thrilled that he is responding well and talking to us. The doctors say this is a great sign and that his scans all look good.

The kids are doing well and having lots of fun with Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Thanks again for all the prayers and support.

Emergency

Yesterday morning I got the phone call that no one ever wants to get. My mother-in-law Ann called at about 9:15 to tell me that Brandon had been injured at work. She did not know how bad, but was told he hurt his head. The police had called my in-laws because they could not find my number. She also said she and Earl (her husband) were on the way to pick me up and take me to the hospital. I immediately called Coca-Cola to find out if they knew anything. Their receptionist Cheryl got me in touch with the police in Evanston. The police dispatcher told me that Brandon had fallen off the back of his work truck and hit his head. She also said he had a seizure and wanted to know if he had a history of seizures. I told her no and gave her some more medical information. She said he was on his way to Evanston Regional Hospital.

After talking to her, I called a couple more people and arranged for Kaitlyn to spend the day with her friend Sierra. Ann and Earl arrived and Ben and I went with them. On the way, the hospital called and told me they were lifeflighting Brandon to Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. We rushed to the hospital and arrived a couple minutes before Brandon. We watched them unload him from the helicopter and rush him back into the emergency room. We waited for several more minutes while they got him ready for surgery. Then a social worker took us back to see him. He was heavily sedated and they had to put a breathing tube in. He was hooked to all kinds of machines and had IV's all over his arms. I talked to him and waited with him while they finished getting the operating room ready. The doctor said that he had an epidural hematoma on the left side of his brain, which means that blood was collecting between his brain and his skull. He needed immediate surgery to remove the blood and the pressure on his brain.

My parents arrived just as they were getting ready to take him to surgery. My dad Jay and Brandon's step dad Earl gave him a blessing and then the nurses took him away to surgery. We waited in the surgical waiting room. The surgery took about two hours. One of the doctors and a nurse came and told us that the surgery went well. They removed a piece of his skull and removed the blood. The doctor told us that his brain looked good and was not swelling too bad. They believe they removed the blood in time to prevent too much damage but we will not know the permanent effects for several days or weeks. They took Brandon to the ICU Trauma area and got him situated in his room.

Finally, I was taken back to see him as he was coming out of sedation. When I went in the room, he was just barely starting to move. He was really agitated and started trying to pull out the tubes. His hands were tied down. His vitals started to go crazy. The nurse tried to get him to respond and follow some simple commands. He was not responding and just kept thrashing around. They decided to sedate him some more and he calmed down. The rest of the day he pretty much rested. They were going to try to slowly bring him out of sedation over the evening and see if he responded better.

This is a brief explanation of the events, but I think it gives people most of the information needed. He had checked in with the restaurant and went out to unload their product. About five minutes later, one of the employees went out to empty the garbage and found Brandon on the ground unconscious and having a seizure. From what his co-workers have deduced, since no one witnessed the accident, he was moving product around in his truck and did not realized he was that close to the back of the truck. He slipped off the back and landed on his head. His left shoulder was also pretty bruised.

I will try to update the post regularly with information on his status and progress. I figure this will be one of the easiest ways to keep family and friends informed. People wanting more information or to send well wish can email us at bwoch@wildblue.net. I will try to respond as soon as possible. Family and friends are also welcome to call me on my cellphone at any time. The kids and I will be staying at my mom's house in Salt Lake for a while, since it is only a couples minutes from the hospital. Thanks for all the concern and prayers we have received so far. We really appreciate it.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Minnesota

We had a wonderful vacation. It was great to visit with Brandon's extended family. I really love them all and appreciate how they have welcomed me into the family. We kept pretty busy for most of the vacation. To start, Kaitlyn LOVED the plane ride. We took a red eye flight on the way there and I thought she would sleep most of the time. She was so excited that she did not fall asleep until I forced her to in the Las Vegas Airport. (We went from SLC to Las Vegas to Minneapolis.) While the plane was taking off, Kaitlyn was sitting in her car seat looking out the window saying cute stuff like "WOW," "WEE," and "FUN." The pressure change did not even bother her. Brandon thinks she will be a pilot someday.

Brandon and I went to a Minnesota Twins game on Wednesday night with several of his family. It was lots of fun. The Twins won by a lot. Some of our other fun activities while in Minnesota were going to the Mall of America, visiting Brandon's uncles dairy farm, having lots of family dinners, and going to Kim's wedding (Brandon's cousin).

The mall was a adventure. Kaitlyn got to take her picture with Dora, which made her whole day. Kaitlyn also got to build a cute bunny at Build a Bear. She named her Princess and absolutely loves her. We also went to the underwater adventure at the mall. We got to see all kinds of cool animals, like sharks, turtles, and fish. At the end, we even got to touch a stingray and a little shark. They felt really weird.

We really enjoyed going to Ken and Jeanette's house and getting a tour of the farm. The dairy is interesting and so high tech. Who knew getting milk from a cow was so complicated. Kaitlyn was thrilled to see all the animals. She got to pet a baby cow, a deer, a horse, a dog, and several adorable kittens.

The wedding was beautiful. Kaitlyn and Ben did pretty good sitting through the ceremony at the church. Ben slept most of the time. Kaitlyn got a little restless, so Brandon took her into the children's room towards the end. Kaitlyn loved blowing bubbles on Kim and Ryan as they left the church. The reception was really neat. Brandon's aunt Sue put bells all over Kaitlyn so she jingled everywhere she went. She was absolutely adorable. She was the friendliest kid and had tons of fun dancing with whoever would dance with her. I think she was the cutest kid at the reception.

Overall, the trip was very enjoyable and we look forward to visiting again. Brandon's family were all very friendly and loving. We really appreciate their kindness, especially Sharon for letting us stay at her house again. I think it is really important for us to spend time with Brandon's extended family as much as we can. I will try to post some pictures as soon as I can, my computer is still acting very weird.