Happy Easter!

We had an awesome Easter, and we are so lucky to have so many people to celebrate with!

 Caden loved his the Easter Basket that he got from the Easter Bunny,



Grandma, Grandpa, and Mikey came over for breakfast.  Here is the Easter Basket that Caden got from Grandma and Grandpa.  It had a really cute Cars backpack.  He loves anything to do with cars! 

We had an Easter egg hunt in our back yard.  I put a fruit snack in each egg, and he loved it! 

 Cutest little boy ever in his Easter outfit!



Then we went to Grandpa and Beth's house.  Caden loved petting Max, and was pretty nice except for the one time that he poked Max in the eye. 

Grandpa and Beth had an Easter egg hunt.    

Then we went to Great Grandma Shobe's for some yummy dinner, 

The three of us. 

Caden was wearing Christina's sunglasses. 

Just because he is so cute. 

Riding a motorcycle.

The Phone is For Duke

Caden Dancing!

We went to my cousin Cody's wedding last night and Caden was getting down to the music.  The sound isn't very good in this video because it was recorded on Matt's cell phone, but it is really cute.  He danced for a really long time, and the more people that were watching the more he showed off.  It was too funny!

Crutches

Matt is getting around on his crutches pretty good these days.  He even went back to work on Tuesday.  It is still hard to walk far distances though.  You really take walking for granted until you can't do it anymore, and you don't realize how much that you usually walk in a day.  Just going to the store is a chore or getting to his desk at work.  He has also run into the problem of carrying things.  He pretty much can't carry anything, so he has started wearing a backpack when he goes to work.  He went out to lunch with a friend from work the other day, and his friend had to fill up his drink for him.  Then Matt had to throw it away when he left because he couldn't carry it.  Anyone who knows Matt and his Dr Pepper knows that wasn't an easy thing for him to to!  I think that he is going to invent a cup holder for his crutches.  2 weeks down and only 4 to go!

Caden's Bathroom

I am always looking for any excuse to do a little redecorating in my house, so I decided that it was time to make Caden's bathroom into a kids bathroom.  I love the way it turned out! (I am thinking that a big boy room may be next on the list.)

Caden Making a Basket

Cindy didn't want to post this, but I thought I should.  Caden has been able to catch a ball for a while now and I finally got it on video. This also shows him making a basket at all costs. 

Matt

Caden's Dilemma

Has has too many cars and not enough hands to carry them all.  Here is his solution.

He pushes his fire truck around the house with all of his cars in it.  It's really cute.  He is so smart!

Surgery Update

Matt has been doing really good since the surgery.  He only stayed in bed that first day, and then the next morning he was up and about the house.  He has gotten pretty good at using his crutches.  At first I was nervous that he was going to fall again everytime that he got up, but I think that it is okay now.  He definitely should've been practicing before the surgery, but we never even thought about it.  

The doctor wanted Matt to start riding the stationary bike the day after surgery because the motion is good for the hip.  He started off doing it twice a day for 10 minutes, but he has worked up to doing it three times a day for twenty minutes. 

Caden also likes to "ride" the bike.  He doesn't let Matt forget to do the bike either because several times a day he tells Matt "bike" because I guess that he thinks it's time.  Matt also went to his first physical therapy session on Monday.  They stretched out his leg and showed him some exercises that he can do to strengthen it.  Matt says that it feels really weak right now, so we are thinking that it is going to be awhile before everything is back to normal since he can't even walk on it for 6 weeks.  He was really tired afterwards, and we haven't really been going anywhere because it takes a big toll on him.  Matt has been having numbness in his left leg the past few days.  The doctor had warned us that there may be short term nerve damage, but we were concerned because it was not on the same side as the surgery.  The doctor had Matt come in to see him, but he said that the numbness is because they put both legs in traction for the surgery.  He said that it should get better.   

The doctor also showed up some picture that he had taken during the surgery.  Here is the torn labrum. 

Here is the labrum after he fixed the tear. 

Here is the area on the bone that is missing cartilage and the blood clot that will hopefully form new cartilage.  I asked the doctor about the fall causing damage to the blood clot, and he said that it is actually pretty secure and had already adhered to the bone.  That means that it is likely that there wasn't any damage done.  He said that when he first tells patients not to walk on the leg he tells them to be more careful then they really need to be because a lot of people don't listen.  I guess that he had me all freaked out for nothing, but I'm glad that it's not so fragile.  He still isn't supposed to put any weight on it, but a step or two probably isn't going to mess everything up.  The doctor also seemed excited about all of this, and told us that Matt is a really interesting case.  Apparently this has not been studied a lot for the hip area, and is fairly uncommon.  It is more common to do this in the knee, but he said that researchers think that it may actually be more effective in the hip.  We can only hope that is true.

Here is where the bump was on the bone that the doctor shaved down.

Matt's Surgery

Matt's hip has been bothering him for quite a while.  His regular doctor couldn't figure out was wrong, so he went to an orthopedic doctor.  The orthopedic doctor said that Matt had a bump on his bone in the hip socket, so it was hurting because it was rubbing against the bone.  His labrum was also damaged from the bump rubbing.  They aren't really sure what causes this to happen, but it seems to be more common among athletes.  They tried cortisone shots which helped for a while, but then the pain kept coming back.  The doctor decided that the best thing to do was surgery to repair the labrum, if it wasn't damaged too badly, and grind down the bump on the bone.  Matt had an MRI, but the doctor said that an MRI isn't very accurate on the hip area and the only real way to know how much damage there was is to do surgery. 

Here is Matt waiting to be taken back for the surgery.  His procedure was scheduled for 7am, so we had to be there at 5:30 am.  He wasn't really nervous about it, but I was!  I wish that I could be more laid back like he is!  The surgery took about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  The doctor had originally said that it would be 2 hours, so I was a little concerned that it was taking so long.  When the doctor came out he told me that he was able to repair the labrum and grind down the bone as planned, but there was also some damage to the cartilage on the bone that he hadn't been expected.  There is a layer of cartilage between the bones, so that the bones don't rub together.  The cartilage in Matt's joint was badly damaged, and they had to remove it.  Then the doctor made holes on the bone so that it would bleed and form a clot.  He said that hopefully the clot will form into more cartilage.  The problem is that there is no guarantee, and it can take up to a year for the new cartilage to be formed.  Originally we thought that Matt would be able to put 50% of his weight on his leg today, but due to the problem with the cartilage he is not allowed to put any weight on his right leg for six weeks.  It is really important because if he does put weight on that leg it can damage the clot, and the cartilage won't form.  If new cartilage doesn't form then the bones will rub together and cause pain, so we are really hoping that new cartilage will grow!

Here is Matt in the recovery room.  He was really sleepy from the anesthesia, and he didn't want to wake up.  Luckily he wasn't in too much pain, since the anesthesiologist did a block on the hip area to numb it for about 12 hours.  We were finally able to go home after a couple of hours.  When we got home Matt had to use his crutches to get into the house.  He was still a little groggy from all of the drugs and a little bit out of it.  He was trying to get over the threshold into the house, and he fell.  It was so beyond awful that I can't even explain it.  I was standing in front of him trying to help him into the house, and he fell backwards so there was nothing that I could do.  I seriously think that I am going to have nightmares about it tonight.  He landed on the right leg which was the side that the surgery was done on, and he got this big scrape on his leg.  Matt said that it didn't hurt because he had that block in his leg, but I was freaking out.  I called the doctor, and he wanted Matt to come into the office and have an x ray to make sure that everything was okay.  Matt's mom had come over to stay with Matt while I went to get his prescriptions, so luckily she was there to help.  We had to get him back into the car, and go to the doctor's office.  Luckily they had a wheelchair because at this point I was totally freaking out that he was going to fall again.   They took the x rays, and we managed to get him back home without any more mishaps.

Poor Matt was still so tired and had hardly gotten any rest.  He was so glad to get back home and finally be able to sleep.  The doctor called a little bit later, and said that everything looked fine on the x ray.  Thank goodness for that!  I am still worried about the blood clot situation, but I guess that we will just have to wait and see what happens.  It doesn't do any good to worry right?  Maybe if I keep telling myself that I will actually believe it.  Matt is resting in bed now, and the block is wearing off.  Hopefully he won't be in too much pain.  Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.  We really appreciate it, and please pray that he forms new cartilage.

Sarah, Steve, & Max

We were excited that Sarah, Steve, and Max got to come and visit.  They stayed at my parents house, but we got to see them pretty much every day that they were here.

 We went to the zoo.  Matt was out of town for work, so he was glad that he didn't have to be tortured again.  Caden liked driving the tractor, but he could hardly reach the steering wheel.



Driving again with Max. 

Caden and Grandma 

Grandma walking with the boys. 

We also did a little shopping at Costco.  It's fun to have to boys in the cart.   

We celebrated Sarah's 31st birthday.  Happy Birthday! 

We made a fire and roasted marshmallows. 

Sarah and Steve wanted to go camping, but they didn't make it.  I guess that this was the next best thing. Except Steve wasn't there because he went to the ASU baseball game.