On January 6th, 2010 Alex suffered a gunshot wound to the head...given 3 HOURS TO LIVE ....this is our story of survival and how God continues to work in and through our lives!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Sorry I haven't been on in a couple of days... we have been busy busy bee's these past couple of days.  Alex had his BOTOX injections on Tuesday at 1:30 pm... what a crazy day that was!  He was not allowed to eat or drink anything past 12pm on Monday night.  Well he hadn't eaten since about 6:30 Monday night because we were in Middleburg at the Extreme Home Makeover they were doing for Coach Prewitt. Sooooo, my plan was to let him sleep until we were to walk out the door and head to the hospital.  He was exhausted Monday night from all of the activities and went straight to bed when we got home... naturally he was up about 9am Tuesday morning.  You all know how much he likes to eat, lol.  I did not want to have to deal with the "not being able to eat until after his procedure at 1:30" ordeal.  I kept him occupied until we had to be out the door at 10:30am.  We arrived at the hospital at 11:30am and Alex is in full swing with handing out his little cards sharing his story...God Bless him.  Most of the ladies checking us in, know his story by now from our last couple of visits lol.  They were sweet and took his card anyways.  We get up to the 2nd floor and they take us back to get him changed into his gown.  She tells him he can leave everything below the waist on.... well... he wants to be naked!  NOT!  I convince him to leave his boxers on.... we head to the back for vitals.  He is asking all the nurses.."Where is my girlfriend?"  He is referring to one of his favorites... Miss Amy Hill.  She was a blonde.. now she is brunette and is with child,lol.  However... she asks Alex if he likes her better blonde and skinny or brunette and pregnant.... my sweet boy responds... "It doesn't matter"  HE LIKES HER ANY WAY HE CAN GET HER, lol!  She and our other favorite Miss Gray treated him like a King for the rest of our stay! :0)  Once vitals were taken we had to go out into the waiting room until it was time for the procedure.  Well thank God Ms. Gray came and rescued us because people were bringing food in and the smell for Alex was a little more than he could handle with not being able to eat.  He wanted to lay down in a bed and she hooked us up by taking us to the back and putting us in a little curtained room with a bed and a tv for King Alex.  We weren't there long before we were taken to the pre-op area where you meet and greet the doctors before the procedure.  The anesthesiologist comes in and see's the trach is out gets out his little stethoscope and begins to listen to Alex breathe.  Normally when he has had the botox injections they put him to sleep because he has so much sensitivity on the left side that it would hurt too bad to do while awake.  Well they would give him anesthesia by trach!  OOPS... it's gone.  Dr says that the trach coming out is too new and they would have to intubate him  in order to get him under anesthesia...... stick a TUBE DOWN HIS THROAT!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY!  We have come too far to go thru all we have been thru again!  That tube is what did the damage in the first place and we are not about to get ANOTHER trach because this tube could do more damage.  So now you can imagine Alex is freaking out!  He is NOT about to have them stick him with needles while he is awake and he is insisting that they put him to sleep, while I am insisting that they are not.  Dr. Spierre comes in and suggest Versed.... a drug that will kinda make him loopy and forget any pain that he might feel.  I'm all for it... get the drug and let's get the show on the road.  Alex is freaking... I am trying to calm him and tell him that the sooner we get it over..the sooner he can EAT, lol!  He finally says... "Alright then... get the drugs and let's do this!"  So they give him the liquid versed.... and we wait about 15 minutes for it to take effect.  If this didn't work... the only way he was getting Botox was if he was put under.... GOD TAKE CONTROL .... PLEASE!  At this point... He keeps saying that it isn't working... I can somewhat tell it is... we are ready for the procedure.  The doc comes in to get him and he is still freaking somewhat that the meds aren't working and says.. "I want my mom to come in there with us".  WHAT....WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?  She looks at me, as if this is a possibility and says... hang on I'll be right back.. I'll go ask.  WHAT THE FRENCH TOAST?... I'm not quite sure that I WANT to be in there at this moment, lol.  She comes back with a "Yep, it's ok"... OMG... am I really doing this?  I have no idea what I am in for... but here WE go!  We head into this operating room, beautiful mural of beach painted on the wall.... a couple of nurses, the doc, Alex and me.  He can't relax, he is trying to watch what the doctor is doing with the needles, constantly asking..."How many shots are you going to use"... "Only 3 right?"... WRONG, lol.  Not sure if he can see how LONG the needles REALLY are.... one of the nurses is holding his leg up while the doc gets ready to inject LONG needles into the muscles of his leg.  She does the first one and he isn't saying anything but looks down as she is pulling it out and says... "Oh SHIT... that hurt".... hahahahahahaha... IMMEDIATELY I said... "Alex... watch your mouth".  The nurse holding his hand says to him.. "I can assure you it doesn't hurt as much as my hand does from you squeezing it". HAHAHAHAHA.... Doctor looks at me and says... "It's ok mom... it's a known fact that cussing relaxes us".  REALLY??? I said "Great Alex... now you are going to have everyone in this room cussing"!! ha ha!  The nurse said "Too bad he didn't bring an IPOD to play some music to distract him". WAIT... I have my iphone, lol.  I try to find something...I put Pandora on with Katy Perry station..... he wasn't going for that!  Oh wait.. Bob Marley... he can put us back in Cruise Mode!  We think of our cruises on Carnival every time we hear reggae... so let's give it a shot.  IT WORKED somewhat, lol.  We talked about cruises.. we talked about going to Hawaii and surfing.... before we knew it... procedure was over!  YAY!  Now he can't wait to eat the choc granola bars he insisted I shove in my purse before we left so he could eat immediately once he was done, lol.  We got back to our little holding room but I couldn't find Granny, who had my purse with the granola bars... uh oh!  So beautiful Miss Amy brings him not one bag of animal crackers but like 8, lol!  He is ready to get up and go... wants to eat at Chic Fil A downstairs.  Miss Amy says he can go in about 15 minutes... gotta make sure he can eat and drink... she gets him some apple juice as he inhales the animal crackers... 15 minutes done.. we load up in the wheelchair and head downstairs to Chic Fil A. We get in the door to Chic Fil A........  THE MEDICINE FINALLY KICKS IN.  Let me say that again......so you understand me clearly.  THE MEDICINE FINALLY KICKS IN!  OMG!  What the french toast????  Who is this kid and where did he come from?  His words were outta control.... wanting what he wanted.... his body in sloooooooooooow moooooooooooooootion.  Starving like Marvin....we sat down to eat.  Soooooooooooo this is what the med was supposed to do,lol.  Next time we will know that it takes a little longer to take effect on him for sure!  He could barely hold his head up or his eyes open and talking was in slow motion,lol.  He was DRUNK off the meds and it was a funny sight to see.  I know people thought he was COO COO! At one point, and I'll put the video below... but at one point he told me "I'm trippin balls".  REALLY....  what in the heck!??  He looked at me and my mom and said ..."I'm gonna take a nap now"... he put his head to his chest and stayed for like 3  minutes!  I looked at mom and was like...ummmm is he ok? Is he still alive? lol!!  He popped up a few minutes later and began to eat his chicken sandwich :0)  See him in slow motion below, hahahaha.



We couldn't get outta there fast enough... trust me!  The ordeal was over... the boy was fed and everything worked out great after a very stressful morning for all of us!  We headed home.. rested a bit and headed back out to the Extreme Home Makeover that was being done in Middleburg, FL which is about 40 minutes from the house.  What an amazing experience!  Alex was in full swing again... handing out his alexrossupdates cards... telling his story...sharing God's miracle!  Great to see our awesome community come together for such an amazing event!  We made many new friends... some have heard our story.. some not.  We also attended the reveal and that was a very LONG Exhausting day yesterday with Mr. Impatient Alex himself!  A lot of standing around and waiting.... pushing 170 pounds of Alex in the dirt to the portalet.... LORD WHAT A JOB.....waiting and more waiting.  A sprinkle of rain here and there.... thank you God for not letting it pour on us!  Yesterday we got to meet Misty May... the volleyball 2 time Olympic Gold Medalist.  Alex got to take pics with her Gold Medals on and he also got a hug and YES... HE GOT HER with the whole give me a kiss on my cheek/I'll get her on the lips trick!  SHE CRACKED UP!  It was too funny!   I'm glad we stuck it out... it was an adventure my boys will never forget.... nor anyone else around us for that matter, ha ha!  We got to experience the whole "MOVE THAT BUS" festivity and can't wait to see the final cut on Mother's Day in May!  Below are some pics and video's from our festivities!





 MISTY MAY... 2x Olympic Volleyball Gold Medalist ---- HE GOT HER!!









I have MOVE THAT BUS videos but can't get them uploaded right now.... hopefully can do in the morning.

Thank you to all the volunteers that showed up to our meeting tonight... the Celebration of Life is going to be FANTASTIC and we couldn't do it without you! Shout out to my brother Joe Moore...YOU ROCK... thank you for coming and opening up the church so we could meet tonight!  I LOVE YOU!  Chad Dillard... my awesome husband... thank you for sharing me this week and next to get it all organumized... I LOVE YOU!  XOXO

Wishing you all a HAPPY FRIDAY! 

PEACE~LOVE~N~THUMBS UP!
LISA