California, here we come......again.

We are headed back to Cali. At the bottom of Ashton's incision where we have had problems with it, is still not fully healed. So the surgeon wants to see him. They will probably have to go back in right there on that little spot and see why it won't heal. It should be a fairly simple procedure. One concern is if they get in there and find a bunch of infection then he will have to be on an IV antibiotic for a week. But because he hasn't run a fever there probably isn't much infection.

So we are back in the planning stages of getting things taken care of so we can head back.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday gma.

Gma Shepherd would have been 102 today. We think of her every day and miss her so much but we know she is happy. Who knows, maybe they threw her a party in heaven.

Happy 50th

Last weekend we went up north to spend time with Nate and the kids and to celebrate Ray's parents 50th wedding anniversary. His sisters did a great job with it. Everything was so nice. It was KUTV's lagoon day so we sent the kids off to lagoon after pics were taken. They didn't have a ton of time there but they said they had fun.

Ray and I had a great time with the kids. Savannah and I made a bird feeder out of a pinecone on Saturday night and she must have been allergic to the seed because shortly after we made it she had a little rash and was itchy. It didn't last long tho. Ray and Jaxon played in the hose. Also they went to see the cows. He sure was grandpa's boy the whole weekend. Otherwise we played and had a great time.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to all those wonderful fathers out there. Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband and father to our 4 wonderful children. He is so patient with me, and such a good dad to our kids. We learn so much from him, and also teach him things daily. And we are watching our son follow in his footsteps. He is also such a wonderful dad. He works so hard to provide for his kids and when he is home he is always playing with them and teaching them life skills. And Happy Father's Day to Ray's dad who has been, and still is, such a great example of what hard work is. It obviously is passed down from generation to generation. And Happy Father's Day to my dad, who we are missing terribly on this day, our first Father's Day without him. There's not a day that goes by that we don't think of him. We will forever carry with us the things he taught us throughout his life. We are spending this day with mom, hoping that it will be a little easier to get through this day. In honor of dad we were going to go to the cemetary and have peanut butter cookies in honor of dad. They were his favorite cookies. But it has been raining and blowing all day long so we will still eat cookies, just at home.

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty....

Fisherman always have fish stories. Well, we have a cat story for you. We came to spend the weekend with mom and Rick. Mom had set a trap to catch a mean cat that is hanging around and beating up on her cats. They catch these wild cats and then just relocate them to a different neighborhood. Well, she caught a different kind of cat. One that is black with a white stripe down it's back. Yep, a skunk. What in the heck do you do now? As we discussed all the options, none of them were very good. If only we could just let it out. But how in the world could you get close enough to let it out without being sprayed. Well, mom and Ray figured it out. We had no idea they were even doing it so we didn't get to video it or get any pictures. But they were able to let it out. Mom said Ray would talk to it and tell it what they were doing and when he did it would relax and lay back down. So he was able to get the door open and it waddled on out and went under the grainery.

We know, it doesn't seem possible. But they did it. Talk about a "cat" story.

Surgeon

On Wednesday Ray took Ashton to see the heart surgeon from here. Like we said before,we didnt want them to do anything concerning his heart. Just look at the incision and tell us what we should do about it. We are worried its going to get infected.

He first apologized for the run around we were given. He said the hospital should have referred us to the wound clinic. We didn't even know there is a wound clinic. He said basically we are doing what we should be but he had a "home remedy" mixture he wants us to put on it and we don't have to pack it like we were doing. He was amazed when he found out who did Ashtons surgery. He said he is known around the world for his expertise. Like we said before, we know God had a hand in directing us to him. Anyway, Ashton ended up with treats from their office. He got a bottle of water, a rice krispie treat and a gift card to Cafe Rio. Mmmm, yummy. He and I are going to use it tomorrow. I have an appt (I'm having trouble with my leg and havent been able to run without taking advil. Its a whole other story.) then we have some errands to run so we thought we would grab some lunch. Im so lucky he is willing to share it with me :). Also, Ive started working days but still needed to work a couple nights this week. I am so lucky to have such a good boss. She held my job for me while I couldnt work and has worked with me on scheduling as Ashton is healing. I guess me and the girls are lucky since we all 3 work there.

He Called

Dr Day did call yesterday, just as we had predicted. He called in the evening and apologized for not getting ahold of us sooner. It's like, are you kidding? We just so appreciate that he will take the time to check up on Ashton. Like us, he is frustrated that the hospital didn't do more for us. They're supposed to be this great hospital and they didn't do much to help us. One of the cardiologists said he wouldn't look at Ashton because he is a pediatric patient. We weren't asking him to do anything with his heart. Just look at the incision for us.

Anyway, Dr Day called in an antibiotic for Ashton. We are taking him to see the surgeon here tomorrow morning. Depending on what he says will determine if we take him up to Primary Childrens and have it looked at. Ray called the hospital this morning and let them know of our experience. Whoever he talked to was surprised we didn't receive better care. Its not just something you ignore and hope it goes away. It wouldn't be good if it got infected. We were trying to get on top of it so it wouldnt get bad and just did not receive good care. Hopefully it was just a one time thing because it makes us a little worried as to what would happen if there was an emergency with Ashton.

P.A.

Thank heavens for good friends and neighbors who are P.A's and will take time out of their evening to come over and help us to make sure we are treating Ashtons wound correctly.

Thanks Cara, for helping us out tonight. You're the best. We just want to do it right so it will get better, not worse.

UCLA, to the rescue...

This morning Ashtons wound still does not look good. We finally just decided to call UCLA. Mary, the surgeons nurse assistant (not sure of her official title), answered the phone. She remembered us. Anyway, she explained what is going on, why it looks like it does, and how to treat it. So now Ray gets to be the nurse or dr. He handles stuff like this much better than I do. Ambrea also handles things like this well. We just need to get this to heal up!

Aaay Ok

So the blood work came back ok, the chest xray looks good and unless something major comes back on the culture then we will hope everything will just heal up. We can have the cardiothorasic surgeon from here look at it on Wed if we are still concerned. We will call our cardiologist on Monday to get his opinion. But knowing him he will be calling us because they will have sent him what they found.