The Klawiters: April, 2013

It has been way too long since we last posted anything. The end of last summer was the last, and soon it will be summer again. It is April yet we still have snow on the ground with more to come!! We have had a great year and the kids are growing like weeds. Adina will soon finish her Kindergarten year and she reminds us everyday that she is ready for summer break. Oliver started school, which was exciting and terrifying for mom! I paced the floor and looked out the window for two hours until I saw the bus come back. His nurse made the trip with him so I knew he was safe. He is back to home based therapy for now and I will explain in a bit. Coraline is as busy as ever and will soon be three. She wants to be just like Adina and asks Adina everyday if they are best friends. Phinneus is a wild man and if he makes it through the day without crashing into something it has been a good day! Oliver update since August is that he has been FANTASTIC!!! We have been struggling with multiple broken bones, which is not great, but we knew at some point this would happen. I was at work for a 12 hour shift and a newer nurse was working. I came home, crawled in bed with Oliver and noticed his leg looked funny and Oliver was crying. I had just gotten home from Gillette and we turned right around and went back to Regions and then Gillette. Because it was a Femur break and those bones are usually hard to break they had to do a skeletal survey to see if there were more broken bones or any signs of abuse. I was a wreck and thankfully a dear friend came down from work to sit with me. They did find another fracture in his spine and a healed fracture in his arm. At this point it was the middle of the night and we were finally going up to Gillette. We were not allowed to leave the hospital until we met with a doctor from Children's hospital who investigates suspicious events to determine if Child Protection should be called. Obviously our doctors were behind us as Oliver's bones are very thin but we had to do it. I felt like everybody was looking at me like I was hurting my child. Also uncomfortable because I work at Gillette. The doctor talked to me for about an hour and after reading some notes from the homecare and talking about the day it happened he said he had no suspicions about our family but about the nurse who was working at the time (John and I were not home that day). He wanted us to look into it more, he didn't feel like he had enough proof to go forward with anything but was VERY suspicious of a nurse. I don't know what happened, I have my own thoughts but I am not going share. Whatever it was I believe was an accident. Since this break we have had numerous re-breaks while in the cast because he moves so strongly and was re-casted multiple times and when he came out of the cast for the femur his lower leg, tib/fib were broken, which is the picture below. We finally got him out of a cast and into braces, and again I came home from a 12 hour shift and the following day realized another femur break. Back in a cast called a spica cast, which is like a half body cast. Now his right leg is starting to have breaks and onto the next battle. He has started infusions to strengthen his bones but we cannot do another round until the current breaks heal. With all of this going on Oliver has been the happiest he has been, ever! It has been so much fun to have him singing and yelling in his Oliver way. I laugh when people come over and give him that sad "poor Oliver" look, which is most people besides the nurses. I don't think people even realize how obvious it is and I just want to direct the look right back. They have no clue of the joy Oliver has being with his family and the miracle he is. We don't pray for a miracle because Oliver is a miracle! I pray for him to not have pain like I pray for the other kids to not have pain when they are sick. So, we are dealing with the bones and life goes on. We are blessed to have Gillette close by where the doctors understand the Oliver's of the world and respect our wishes for Oliver and our family. We still have 24 hour nursing care for Oliver which is a blessing most of the time. Except when we want privacy and have none. I have become a very blunt person and often times have a strange sense of humor and John is the same, just not as blunt. The best thing about working at Gillette is I am surrounded by family members who are just like me and I realize that I am not alone! So that's the update for Oliver, life is good. Stop by and say hi to Oliver any time, he loves company as long as nobody is sick!

Adina at her science fair, she looked so excited!!