Wednesday, October 28th

Hello to all. We realize it has been a while since we have posted. Don't think we have been idle. Last week was quite busy for all the Fite's. Clay completed his 40th trip to the hypebaric oxygen chamber. He now is able to sleep a little later each day. On Wednesday Deidra, Carson, Cody, and Clay packed up and headed to Mt. Peak Convention near Midlothian. On Thursday Clay had double doctor appointments in Dallas. I left Olney about 5:30 a.m. and picked them up at the convention grounds. Carson and Cody stayed at convention under the watchful eye of relatives. Our first appointment was at Children's where Clay had the cast he has been wearing for the last 6 weeks removed. We then were able to see one of the hand specialist who removed the pins from Clay's fingers. Clay handled the procedure well, but Mom took it pretty hard. After the pins were removed they built Clay a new splint for his left hand. He is supposed to wear it whenever he is not exercising or bathing. It is still very sensitive to touch and he is pretty protective of it. He has been working his good finger and we hope he will soon be able to hold something between it and the part of his thumb that remains. We indicated to the physicians assistant that we would like to be put on the schedule as early as possible for the next surgery. They are going to try to block out some operating room time and Clay will go back on November 2nd to find out what the plan is. After our visit at Children's we went to burn clinic at our old home Parkland. We were able to visit with Dr. Purdue and let him know what our plans were. He was very helpful and is willing to act as a consultant on the upcoming procedure. We value his many years of burn experience. After our burn clinic visit we raced back South to convention and were able to catch the last speaker of the afternoon meeting. I was able to stay until after the last meeting and then drove back into Olney for work the next day. DeeDee and the boys had a good day Friday and I drove down early Saturday to rejoin them. We enjoyed the opportunity to see everyone that was so helpful during Clay's hospital stay. Saturday was very memorable in that Carson made his choice that evening. We are very happy and excited for him and are looking forward to meeting tonight for his first testimony. Busy days for all. We appreciate all the thoughts and continued prayers of everyone. There were so many at convention and elsewhere that we have never met that have been praying for Clay. We are humbled by the experience and will be eternally grateful.

Photography Fund Raiser

Hello everyone this is Jenae....

I got a message from my friend, Shanda Miller, who is doing another photography fundraiser for Clay.

Here is the letter and information that she sent me:


Jenae,

Annie Drake and I have rescheduled our photography fundraiser for the Fite Family for November 7th. Could you please post it on Clay’s blog again like you did last time?

Thank you so much! We just really want to help them!


Just wanted to let everyone know about a photography fundraiser for the Fite Family. Annie Drake and Shanda Smith will be having sessions on Saturday, Nov 7th in Grapevine, TX. Please visit www.ShandasShots.com for more information.

Thanks, Shanda

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Hello to all! We mentioned a few months ago that we would post more frequently, but that has not happened. We want to thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers. Clay's eyes, hand, and donor site seem to be healing well from the surgery he had on Sept. 18. If you place your hands under your eyes and pull down hard, you will have an idea of what Clay was experiencing before his surgery. The skin grafts placed under his eyes are full-thickness skin grafts (contains all the layers of the skin including blood vessels); therefore, theses grafts are less likely to contract.
Clay has skin grafts on about 65% of his body (chest, back, head, face, hands, and a portion of his left leg). These grafts are split-thickness grafts (top layer/layers of skin only) and these types of grafts really contract because they do not have the elasticity that full-thickness ones would have. Therefore, this makes his skin resistant to stretching and prevents his normal movement. The scar formation has pulled his chin down to his chest & his bottom lip is almost totally inverted. Clay's next surgery will be a neck release. They will cut into those scars to release them and this will give Clay the ability to lift his head. I am not a doctor, but I have explained some of what we have learned with Clay.
We went back to the doctor about 2 wks. ago (Sept.28) and they cut his cast off to look at the pins in two of his fingers. The doctor wanted to keep the pins in for 3-4 more weeks; so, Clay got to pick the color for his new cast. He picked a "fluorescent" yellow-he can't hide with this one. :-) After two weeks of wear, his cast is now a dull looking color (it's hard to keep little boys' casts clean).
Chance gave us quite a scare on Sept. 24. We were getting the boys ready for school and Chance told me he thought he was having the symptoms of a heart attack. We called his cousin who is a doctor in Seymour (30 miles away) & he told me what to do and that he would be waiting for us at the emergency room. Some of our neighbors came down to get Carson & Cody to school and to watch Clay. Of course, by this time, the boys and I were all in tears and I was trying to reassure the boys that everything would be okay. Chance's cousin (Dr. Martin) had all the tests run on him and everything looked fine. Could have been angina, pleurisy, indigestion...... Could it have been caused by the stress of the past months? He will go back for a stress test soon. We are just so thankful he is feeling better. We also celebrated Chance's 40th birthday on Sept. 27th. We had a potluck birthday party at lunch and then a surprise party that evening. He was surprised! Now he's "over the hill" and feeling fine!
Carson showed a steer at the Texas State Fair last Thursday (Cody will be old enough to show animals next year). It was our first trip to Dallas, in a long time, with no doctor appointments or hospital stays. After the steer show, we had an appointment at the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. They wanted to interview our family for their Fall newsletter. It was special to see the wonderful staff and volunteers again.
We continue to drive to Clay's therapy appointments 2 days a week and have therapists at our house 2 days a week. Clay is enjoying his schoolwork and "homebound" teacher. He is enrolled in a Kindergarten teacher's class at school and this teacher sends all of Clay's lessons with the "homebound" teacher. The homebound teacher takes his work back to his Kindergarten teacher to grade and then returns it to Clay. He really likes to look at his graded papers~it makes him feel like he is part of the class. He looks forward to his brothers coming home from school each day because he's always ready to play.
Thank you, thank you, thank you again! We will never be able to say this enough for all your care, prayers, support, and kindness. ~Chance, Deidra (DD), Carson, Cody, & Clay Fite