Wednesday, March 14 Surgery Update

Hello to everyone. I wanted to pass along some details on Clay's most recent procedure. On Monday the 12th Clay spent nearly 10 hours in the operating room at Children's Hospital in Dallas. This was a scheduled procedure and had been planned for quite a while. We checked into the hospital at 5:30 a.m. and at 6:00 p.m. Clay had not come out of recovery. It was a long wait for Mom and Dad so I hope it went quickly for him. This will not be a short post because I will attempt to describe everything that was done while Clay was in the O.R. Clay's day started with a visit from a surgical dentist. It seems that being in a burn unit for four months plus copious amounts of antibiotics over the last three years have not been kind to Clay's baby teeth. He has the added problem of not being able to open his mouth wide enough to floss. The scar bands around his mouth will not allow it. The dentist extracted four baby teeth and capped 8 more to insure he can make it until the permanent arrive. All of this had to be done under anesthesia because the mouth had to be forced open for him to access the teeth. When he finished up our plastic surgeon took over. He placed two tissue expander's under the hair on Clays head between the skin and the skull. These will be injected with fluid to attempt to move Clays hair back far enough to cover the crown of his head. After this procedure was completed they made incisions over Clays ribs and harvested cartilage from two separate spots. They then took this harvested cartilage and started the process of building Clay a left ear. This cartilage was formed into an ear shape and placed under the skin or scalp in position to create an ear. It will be left under the skin until it has healed and grown over, at that point they will go in and separate from the skull and hopefully there will be the start of a new left ear. One interesting part of the surgery was the fact that they harvested more good tissue than they needed for this ear so they , "banked" some cartilage for later use lower down on his head. When the ear was completed they went to work on his face. Dr. Trussler opened up both side of his mouth and attempted to work around his chin and nose doing releases and shaping in both places. They also worked on Clay's right eye which was starting to pull down a bit from contracting burn scars. If you think all that I mentioned was enough you are wrong. When Dr. Trussler finished up the plastics hand specialist went to work on Clay's left hand. The burn scars and amputations on Clay's left hand were pulling down and preventing Clay's hand from growing. The palm of this hand was much smaller than his right. Initially they had planned to open up his left palm and pocket or sew it on to a patch of good skin on his abdomen. His had would have been attached to his stomach for a minimum of three weeks. We were worried about this because three weeks can be a long time for an adult and an eternity when you are eight. When they started the hand procedure they decided that Clay did not have enough unburned skin on his stomach to attach the hand to and they opted to take a full thickness skin graft from his left thigh and rebuilt his palm with it. They also put pins in his thumb and middle finger to help straighted and spread these two digits hoping to give him more range and a wider griping area. This hand was then placed in a cast and all surgeons wrapped it up for the day. After being under anesthesia for approximately eight hours our surgeon elected to place Clay in the Intensive Care Unit overnight. He said that due to the length of time and the many different procedures he wanted to use extra caution with Clay after surgery. Mom and Dad are allowed to stay in ICU and we did on Monday night. Clay was moved Tuesday morning to a room on the plastic surgery floor for an additional day of care and observation. He was released today a little before noon and he is making his way to South Texas to spend the rest of his spring break recovering at his grandparents home with his brothers, and cousins on spring break. Mom is going too just in case she is needed. There have been many people praying for Clay before, during and after this surgery, we would like to say thank you because your thoughts, kindnesses, and prayers are always needed and appreciated by the Fites.

Brief Update February 14, 2012

Hello to all. Little did we know, three years later, we would still be posting surgery & progress updates on Clay. I know we have been negligent in posting but the Fites have been extremely busy as of late. On Sunday January 29th we had plans to attend meeting in Ft. Worth and then go to the afternoon performance of the Ft. Worth Rodeo. Best laid plans do not always work out. When we awoke Sunday morning Deidra commented that Clay had a blood blister on the side of his head. He had an area the doctor was concerned about and that we had been keeping an eye on. I asked to see his head and quickly decided he did not have a blood blister but determined the skin had split open on the side of his head and what we could see was exposed tissue expander. We called the doctor and he instructed us to come to Children's in Dallas ASAP. We shuffled everything around and checked Clay in. On Monday afternoon they did surgery to remove the expander and advance the hair back on his scalp. He came through with flying colors and was able to head home on Tuesday with a drain tube placed under his scalp. Junior steers went into Ft. Worth on Tuesday and we would not have been able to get Carson and Cody's steers there without a lot of help. All seems to be going well now and Clay is back in school and doing fine. You can see in the previous post the expander before the surgery. The morning after the procedure Clay asked to see a mirror. I gave him one to look into. He said he did not like the way his head looked because it was too flat. We thought it looked great and the doctor did a wonderful job with the hair. I am sure Deidra will post more with more details when she has a moment but we are preparing for special meetings and have had some welcome company. I thought I would post this before time and the procedure escaped me. Take Care.

January 4, 2012 Happy New Year!

Larisa and Clay

Here is a picture of the PA cleaning the tissue expander

port before inserting saline into expander. As you can see,

the skin is expanding and the doctor can then surgically stretch Clay's

hair further back on top of his head.

Did you begin to think that we were not going to post on Clay's blog again? We haven't forgotten, just haven't taken the time to update for about 3 months!! I began to think that I might need to tie myself to my computer chair so that I could sit down long enough to post an update. Of course, it's always hard to remember all that has happened (during the past 3 months) when I procrastinate like this.

Hmmmm?? Where to begin? Last year (2011) seemed to fly by faster than the year before. It's hard to believe that it has been almost 3 years (Feb 14, 2009) since Clay's accident. Three years ago, we were wondering if we would/could ever survive such a tragedy. Here we are in 2012, and Clay is thriving - thanks to God!

Chance posted our last update on October, 14th. I'll give a few highlights of the past months. This past October, Clay had the privilege of meeting Larisa Hertz at one of our church conventions. Larisa was burned in an accident in the Fall of 2009. She & her family have become very special to us; as, she can empathize with Clay and vise versa.

November:
* Carson turned 13! We now have a teenager in the house and a son who is now taller than me (mom). If he grows into his long feet, he'll soon be taller than dad.

* We were asked and invited by The Transplant Services Center of UTSW Medical Center to attend "A Celebration of Thanksgiving For the Gift of Transplantation Medicine". Clay was recognized as a "skin donor recipient" (during Clay's first few weeks in the Burn ICU, his burns were covered with cadaver skin until the doctors could graft his own skin over the burns). It was very touching as the families of the donors were recognized. We had an interview with channel 4 (Dallas); then, Chance & Clay said a few brief words of thanks onstage. We had a pleasant surprise in that we had the opportunity to meet LTC (Ret) Brian Birdwell who is also a Texas State Senator. He is a burn survivor; as, he was in the Pentagon on Sept.11 during the attacks. His book, Refined by Fire, is a soldier's story of 9-11. He also has "Face the Fire Ministry" in Granbury, Texas. We also had the opportunity to meet his wife and brother(a Tarrant County Judge). Very special!

* We spent the Thanksgiving holidays on the Texas coast at Pappy & G'ma's.

* We were also invited to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. Katie Crosbie, from Channel 3-Wichita Falls, invited us to attend and gave us tickets. Clay was taken on stage at the end of the concert, took a bow with the band, and was given an electric guitar signed by the band. The boys also received T-shirts and CD's. That was an exciting evening for the boys!

December:

* Busy month with the holidays, etc.

* Most of Chance's family lives within an hour from us. We spent Christmas eve/day with his family. We didn't have to travel far. We made a couple trips to Dallas for Clay's tissue expansion. My older sister and her family spent New Year's eve/day with us.

January: Here we go....into a new year.

* Our county stock show will be held in two weeks; and then off to the major shows. Cody has been looking forward to showing again this year.

We had an appointment in Dallas yesterday. Clay's doctor put another dose of saline in his expander (we have been driving to Dallas every two weeks for this). We discussed Clay's next surgery & have another appt. in two weeks. His next surgery may entail: 1. moving expanded hair further back on his head 2. taking rib cartilage to reconstruct his ears 3. more work on left hand. We will discuss a surgery date at his next appointment.

Life is precious and Clay's positive disposition inspires us! Happy New Year to all!

~The Fite Family (Chance, Deidra, Carson, Cody & Clay)

Good Morning,

Time seems to fly by and we apologize for taking so long to update. Clay underwent surgery on Thursday September 29th. This was the procedure that was canceled earlier in the month. The doctor worked on his hand , mouth, neck, and head. At this point he is back in school and seems to be doing fine. The second graders have a competition for UIL story telling. Clay is trying out for the team. I bet if he could tell about his life experiences he has more than the average second grader to draw from. He is excited about this opportunity. He will go back to Dallas on the 17th of this month for his first injection into the scalp expander. The doctor plans to put 400 to 450 cc of fluid in between now and Christmas. The next surgical procedure will be to move the existing hair around on his head. I hope this short note finds everyone well. We are thankful to all who pray for and encourage Clay and our family. Take Care

Hello to all. It has been sometime since I posted on the blog but I wanted to update everyone on Clay's non procedure yesterday. As some of you know Clay was scheduled for his first surgery of the new school year on Monday the 12th. The doctor planned to place a tissue expander under his scalp to start the process of covering his head with hair, work on his left hand to open up the webbing and increase the use of his fingers, and work in and around the mouth and chin to release some scar bands that continually pull his lower lip down and prevent him from opening his mouth very wide. To sum it up quickly, it did not happen. We arrived at Children's hospital in Dallas at 7:00 a.m. Clay was quickly checked in and we went to the pre-op room to wait our turn. Clay loves the hospital because it offers some amenities he is not accustomed to at home (Cartoons) Clay watched and waited patiently and contentedly for over three hours until his doctor came in to prep and analyze him for surgery. When the doctor entered the room Clay's demeanor changed instantly and he realized the fun was over. As the doctor left and the nurse prepared to wheel him to the O.R. Clay told Deidra and I that he felt sick. We assured him it was just nerves and he would be fine. We told him it was just like all the other times and he would go to sleep and we would be at his bed when he awoke. The older he gets the more he dreads the procedures. They wheeled him of to the OR and Deidra and I went down stairs for a cup of coffee. We no more ordered our drinks and were seated when I received a call saying the physician needed to see us. We rushed back up and the surgeon met us and said there was nothing to worry about but Clay had become sick at his stomach upon the onset of anesthesia. He was of the opinion it was nerves and wanted to proceed but the anesthesiologist would not proceed with the surgery for fear of aspiration if Clay was ill again. Procedure canceled. We were told they wanted to observe Clay for a few hours to make sure he was OK. When we went in the recovery room he was more than OK. He was sitting up ready to eat Jello, Popsicles, Apple Juice, Etc. and asked when we could go eat and go home. We asked him if he was nervous about surgery and he said yes and he thought if they put the expander in his scalp he might not be able to swim at spring break. Mom told him if we did not have this done now he may miss an entire summer of swimming. We are waiting on a new schedule, apparently O.R. time stays pretty booked. We are going to try a different approach and premedicate in the pre-op room to see if we can ease his mind a little until they get him asleep. All things happen for a reason and apparently yesterday was not the day for Clay to have his surgery. I hope all is well in your part of the world. We will add more details and a date for round two when we learn more. Take Care.

Friday, August 26

At our friend's ranch in SE Colorado

Cody with his frogs

Clay with his frogs

Colorado

Hello to all! Once again, we haven't posted an update for quite awhile. Now that school has started, we may have more time to post. The boys had an nice summer. Clay's favorite activity was swimming. We are in a severe drought along with temperatures in the triple digits; so, Clay did most of his swimming in the late afternoon/evening hours. We spent some time on the coast in South Texas at Pappy & Grandma's. We enjoyed our church convention in July. The boys also enjoyed the show/musical "Texas" (Palo Duro Canyon State Park) with family and friends. They thought it was really cool that one of their cousins was part of the show this summer. We escaped the heat, for a little while, with a trip to Colorado; and, enjoyed our time with my sister & her family.

Carson is in the 7th grade this year, Cody 4th grade, and Clay 2nd grade. They have enjoyed their first week of school; although, Cody is our little "homebody" and would rather be at home than at school. Clay came home the first day of school and said "I love school"! Clay's next surgery is scheduled for Sept 12. Dr. Trussler will place a tissue expander under the little bit of hair on Clay's scalp. As we begin to fill this expander and it gets larger, we are thinking of different types of hats that he might be able to wear during this time. Dr. Trussler will also perform surgery on Clay's left hand and do some work around his mouth/lips.

Clay's attitude towards life continues to teach us so much. We were at a 4-H event a few weeks ago, and a family sat down across the table from us. The minute their child saw Clay, this child wanted to leave the table. With what ensued after that, I was on the verge of tears. I told Chance that I needed to go sit in the car until I stopped crying. I cried harder when Clay patted my arm and said "It'll be ok, mom". When Carson asked why mom was crying, Clay answered "She's crying because a kid thought that I was scary". Here's Clay who has been through so much and who's appearance is changed forever; yet, he was the one comforting us. We have prayed earnestly that God would "keep" him through all that he will face in future days. This strength that he has, only comes from God. So thankful for God's presence.
Clay was swinging with his cousin this summer, and a girl jumped off the swing beside them and said "I can't swing with burned kids". Clay walked away with his head down; but, a few minutes later he was playing again. Our cousin told us about this incident days later. So thankful for Clay's resilience and kindness. I pray that any unkind words, comments, stares, or unkindness from others would never squelch his spirit. We are thankful for the many who see Clay for the person he is, along with his big heart.

I am posting a picture of Clay with some frogs he shot. There was a silent auction at one of our recent 4-H fundraisers. Clay saw a rifle in the auction he thought he had to have. He was pulling on Chance's arm saying "Please (bid)write my name down, dad". Chance's response was "Son, I'm not going to pay that for the rifle". When Clay heard the announcement that the silent auction was over, he put his head down and cried. Three men from Graham, TX purchased the rifle for Clay. They noticed how much Clay wanted the rifle and made sure they secured the bid. They brought the rifle to our table and sat it in front of Clay. Clay raised his head and quickly dried his tears. All the way home we heard from the boys in the back seats; "Dad, can we shoot the rifle when we get home? Dad, can we look at it again before you put it up? Dad, can we shoot a deer? Dad, can we go rabbit hunting? Dad, will you take us hunting tomorrow? Dad...Dad....Dad....". Chance took Cody & Clay (Carson was busy) to the tank (pond) in the back pasture and the picture shows the frogs they got with dad's help. They were able to sneak upon a rabbit too. No, we did not have frog legs for supper. :)

Children's Medical Center's Plastic Surgery Department has asked if Clay would be one of their co-captains for Children's Red Balloon Run & Relay in October. The name of the team is "Fantastico Plastico". If any in the Dallas area are interested in the run/relay, we'd love for you to be a part of our team. 100% of the proceeds raised by the team will benefit Children's Medical Center's Plastic Surgery Department. redballoonevent.org

I did not intend for this to be so long. Hope all is well with each one of you. Thanks again for your care. ~The Fite Family (Chance, Deidra, Carson, Cody, & Clay)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Cody playing golf in the Tower Extrusions Golf Tournament.

Clay playing golf.

Boys fishing

Clay's baseball glove

Brothers

Hello to all. Once again, it has taken us awhile to update the blog (2+ months). Clay is away at burn camp this week. Chance & I were hesitant to send him, but Clay was very excited about going. It does ease our minds knowing that nurses & therapists from the burn unit will also be at camp. Clay had his most recent surgery 2 wks ago (May 25th). His Plastic Surgeon pulled up his lower eyelids by attaching the skin (tissue) to the bone on outer edges of eye-socket. He also released scars below Clay's nostrils, between eyes, one side of mouth and small area on neck. Needless to say, Clay had stitches all over his face & his eyes were swollen for days.

Clay has been wanting to play baseball all year; so, Chance coached his baseball team this past Spring. Clay was named the best "one-handed batter" on the team. We had a special glove made for him at the Nokona glove factory in Nocona, Texas. It has a special sleeve that he wraps around his forearm to keep the glove on. Carson & Cody played baseball too & enjoyed it. I'll post some pictures of the baseball trio.

It has already turned out to be a really hot summer with temps in the triple digits. Our two chickens and rooster are big now, and the rooster crows all day! Choco (our Jack Russell) & the rooster do not care for one another. The rooster chases Choco & shows him who's boss. Choco keeps his distance. ~Hope you all are having a wonderful week~The Fite Family