So this is a beautiful Spring day in Southeastern Idaho. The wind is blowing 28 mph sustained and 43 mph gusts and it's snowing like crazy. The blob on the radar is huge and doesn't look like it's going to be letting up any time soon. The poor cows and horses are all trying to huddle in the straw barrier that they made for them today, but there are too many of them to fit in such a small shelter and they ran out of straw bales.

Home from Great Falls

So I'm home from Great Falls. Very mixed emotions. I loved it there and the people that I worked with everyday for almost 2 months. Great Falls is a wonderful place with very interesting people. I missed my Hubby and my kids soooo much but if I had my way we would move the family there and then I could have my cake and eat it too. Lynn would be swamped with work up there because they have no childrens' mental health specialists or therapists. We had to take all of our children's mental health cases, by ambulance, to Helena, and hour and a half away.

These pics Jess and I took of each other the day before I left. We are sitting in the jump chair in one of the ambulances. I couldn't have asked for a better partner to go up to Great Falls with. Jess is the most awesome young lady and such an inspiration to me.

Here are some pics of the crews that I worked with. I can't say I had a favorite crew because they are all so awesome to work with and for. This top pic is of Amanda and Garrett Cameron. They are husband and wife medics and are some of the best that the ambulance service has.

The group pic at the top is the Saturday crew. This was a fun day to work, very relaxed and busy at the same time. The one on the right is the Tue Thurs Crew. Cami, standing by me, and Justin kneeling in front are both BYUI students like me that are 2 classes ahead of me that went up there for their internships and stayed on to work for them. They are very awesome medics also. My supervisor, Justin Grohs, is on the very far left, standing by Roger in the flourescent coat. He is an amazing leader and supervisor. He is a very busy guy running the ambulance department.

For some reason I can't find the pics of the Monday and Wednesday crew. I do have this pic of Ron the Shift Supervisor. He was a great medic and I enjoyed the Mon Wed crew a ton. It makes me sad I don't have their picture. I am going to go up and work some part time shifts for them. I can't stay away. Great Falls got into my heart and I can't seem to let it go.

Ok so I finally got this before picture off of my phone. This is the picture that I took just minutes before Shelby went into surgery. Now you can see the difference in her before and after.

Update week 2

So here we are almost 2 weeks later. Isn't she lookin fine :) She is soooo happy with her surgery. The swelling in her cheeks has gone down and now just her upper lip has just a slight amount of swelling in it. She still hasn't regained the sensation in her face yet and she still eats with her bag and straw although she can now drink liquid from a cup or carton. She is progressing like a champ.

One week later....

So here we are a week after surgery. We had the followup appointment with the surgeon today, he said Shelby was healing exceptionally well and was very pleased with her progress. She still has alot of swelling in her upper lip and cheeks, but it will continue to go down as time goes on. She has been a trooper with only 2 breakdowns. Eating is a challenge and she gets soooo hungry and then has to watch us eat real food and she has a little emotional time then she's back to being strong again. When asked if it's worth it and if she would do it again, she answers with a very emphatic "Yes". She decided to put on some makeup today and try to smile, she did a pretty good job for only bein able to feel half her face. That to will come in time.

So Shelby finally got to come home on Thursday afternoon. She had to stay an extra day because she wasn't eating or drinking and they were afraid of dehydration.

There is one thing that I think everyone needs to be aware of, Shelby is not as miserable as she looks in the pictures. Her jaw is banded tightly shut and she hasn't regained the feelin in her cheeks and lips. She can't smile or show emotion because her face is basically frozen. She will regain the feeling in her face in about a week to 10 days.

So this is how Shelby has to eat, if you can call it that. She has a bag with tubing attached to it. We put food in the bag, whe puts the tubing in between her cheek and teeth and squeezes the contents of the bag into her throat and then attempts to swallow. It's not the funnest or most appetizing way to eat but she says she doesn't regreat it at all. Just wants to be back to normal .

Shelby's Double Jaw Surgery

So yesterday, the 3rd of February, we got up at 4:30 and got ready to be at the hospital by 6 am for Shelby's double jaw surgery. She was sooo excited, but afraid of what was to be. Her surgeon is Dr Hicks of Idaho Falls. He is the best of the best. This surgery was 6 hours long and very intense. He had to bread her lower jaw and remove some of the bone to shorten it, then break her top jaw and put implants in to lengthen it. There was also such a bone deficit above her upper lip that he had to fill it in with bone putty. Come to find out her jaws also needed to be rotated left on the top and right on the bottom because they were not centered. Here is a picture of her before the surgery.

The next 4 pictures are just about an hour after the surgery. Look at the difference in the length of her chin and how her upper lip is filled in. Her lips were soooo swollen but they will go down.

This is today after he took out the drainage tubes out of her cheeks. She did not like that at all.

This is after the NG tube was pulled out of her nose. She was very glad to get that out. It was really hurting her throat. They had to leave it in place until her stomach started to wake up from the anesthesia. It took getting up and walking around (much to her chagrin) to get it awake and growling.

I just took these of her sleeping with her little pink monkey I got for her. I remember when she had her heart surgery, Trent got her a little pink, fuzzy platypus and I wanted to get her something soft and cuddly for this one. She is really swollen but taking it all like a champ. Stay tuned for more updates and pics.