Monday, March 15th

Good day to all. Clay has all of his stitches out from his last surgery. He and his brothers have gone to South Texas for a week of spring break. When I spoke with Deidra this morning they had been to the beach yesterday and were capturing tree frogs in Pappy & Grandma's yard this morning. Dana (Deidra's twin sister) and the girls are there from Omaha and I am certain there are no dull moments. Clay is scheduled for another surgery toward the end of the month. They are going to have to do more work on his neck to allow him to lean his head back farther before the trach can be removed. He splashed in some waves while wading with his cousin. Mom was a little anxious about him getting too deep, but he seems to know he is not ready for that yet. I know that this is a brief post, but I wanted to let everyone know that Clay is all little boy and doing well. Thanks to all.

Monday, March 1st

Hello to everyone. Clay had a surgery on Friday, February 26th. They worked on his nose, mouth, and chin. We were scheduled for the O.R. at 11:15 but the surgery did not start until 1:15. We had several areas of concern that we showed the surgeon before they went in and he decided to spend the extra time while he had Clay under anesthesia and address one of them. Initially they were just going to work on the webbing around the bridge of his nose and release the scars around his mouth . The goal is to have him open his mouth wide enough for intubation on future surgeries. With this in mind they were able to add about 1 cm to the opening on each side of his mouth. The area we were concerned about was below his bottom lip. The surgeon was able to take a full thickness layer of skin from below his waistline and graft it in under lower lip. He sewed a bolster in over this graft to protect and support as the new skin has a chance to adhere. To give you an idea of what Clay looks like it appears he went several rounds with a professional boxer. He has stitches all around his nose and mouth and Saturday he was swollen to the point where he said it hurt to swallow. Some of the swelling has started to go away and he is now able to enjoy a , "soft diet." I stayed home with him yesterday (Sunday morning) and his appetite has returned with a vengeance. He is one tough little boy. He looks pretty rough but he is scheduled back to Dallas Friday to have the stitches removed. I know this is short but I wanted to let everyone know how he is doing. Thank you to all who have expressed their care and concern.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Good morning! We did not get a chance to post on Valentine's Day. As we think of this past year, our hearts are filled with thankfulness again. Thank you for all who have journeyed with us, helped, and encouraged. Thanks again, too, to my sisters for starting this blog - what a help it has been!
We have sent out many letters and still have more to send. Thanks, too, for all (from blog) who e-mailed us your addresses-this was very helpful. If anyone you know wants a letter or hasn't received one by next week, please let us know (we posted our e-mail address in a recent post). If anyone received a letter and didn't want one, we apologize. As we go through our lists, it is hard to determine who would like a letter or not. We do not want to skip anyone and will send out as many as we need to.
Chance and Carson are at the San Antonio Livestock Show. Cody is at school, Clay is waiting for his therapist to arrive, and I am washing clothes & addressing envelopes.
Clay and I drove to Dallas last Wednesday for an interview at UT Southwestern Medical Center. They are working closely with the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors to develop a web-based social skills training program for successful community re-entry among burn survivors. Clay sat outside the studio with the secretary, during the interview, and played with a toy helicopter. They wanted to know if people ask questions when we are out in public and if it makes us feel uncomfortable. They also wanted me to share some of our experiences we have had with people staring and what we do when people stare. I told them some of our experiences and told them that we love it when others talk to Clay instead of just staring. Some have treated him as if he is contagious, and this breaks our hearts. I think I mentioned one time that we tend to surround ourselves with others who are comfortable with Clay. This helps Clay; because, these kids play with Clay and these adults see him as precious Clay & see a vibrant 6 yr. old. In public, when others are kind to Clay, I thank them. When others are not very kind, I pray for them. Sometimes I get anxious when we are in a new situation and I feel like a mother bear protecting her cub (not acting like a mother bear but protecting like a mother bear-bears can get mean but we certainly do NOT want to be mean to anyone). We do want to thank you for your kindness.
We had some of our ministers for supper and night on Monday. They were here for our Wichita Falls Special meeting last night and will be going to the other special meetings across Texas during Feb. & March. Cody's 8th birthday is next week (Feb 23) and so I am making plans for a special b-day. I was not able to be with him last year on his birthday, so we are thankful that we can all celebrate it together this year.
Have a wonderful day!

Monday, February 9th

Good morning to all. This is Chance. I don't have much to report but thought I would drop a quick line. Clay is a little under the weather. He played outside a good bit on Saturday and probably had too much cold, damp air. He had his cast removed last Wednesday. They made him promise he would not be wild and the doctor told him he would have to take it easy for a couple of more weeks. He was playing with the neighbors and they were running and playing chase. His mother reminded him about his promise to the doctor. Clay responded, " I know, I know but it is so hard to be careful." He has not let much slow him down. Clay's little bug that canceled his last surgery has finally gone through everyone in the family. I was the last and it hit me last week at the Ft. Worth Stock Show. We all survived, but Deidra was having to do a lot of running to keep everyone where they were supposed to be. I believe that we posted February 19th as his next surgery date. This procedure has been moved to the 26th of this month. Continuing school, therapy, and day to day activities keep us all busy. Deidra will be sending the promised letter out this week. We will call it a Valentine/1 year update as it will have been one year since the accident this Sunday. Hope everyone is doing well, take care.

Friday, January 22

Good morning! We were hoping to be able to give you all an update on how Clay's surgery went this morning; BUT, there was no surgery. Clay was sick to his stomach twice last evening, on our way to Dallas. We called his doctor and he said it would be a wise idea to reschedule his surgery (Mama called the doctor and the doctor said......). Also, the anesthesiologists would not have anesthetized him for surgery because of the vomiting. We turned around and came back home last night. Clay slept soundly throughout the night and says he feels better this morning. I fed him a light breakfast and.....so far so good. :-) We just received a message that Clay's surgery has been rescheduled for Friday, February 19 (at noon).
Chance and Carson are at our county stock show today. Carson will show his pig this afternoon and his steer in the morning. Cody is in school today (next year he will be in 3rd grade and will be old enough to show as well). So, depending on how Clay is feeling, we will head to the show when Cody gets home from school. Clay says that he is feeling better and keeps asking "Can we please go to the stockshow?" (Little turkey-does he really have a stomach bug or did he have a plan up his sleeve to get out of the surgery???) No, seriously, he really did not feel well last night.

Also, I haven't forgotten about the letter we promised. It was mentioned, in a comment, that this letter will now be a Valentine letter. So we will just call it our New Year/Valentine letter. :-)We just never seem to have time to turn on our computer. I have the pictures inserted into a document and saved; but, there has been a problem with saving them in the right form. After 4 trips to Kinko's, I think we have it figured out. Now, we are addressing each envelope when we get a spare moment. We do not want to miss anyone! Although, there have been just a few that have posted on the blog and we can't figure out who you are by just seeing your "blog" name. Please send us your mailing address (cdcccfite@hotmail.com) if you think we are confused about your "blog" name. We are going through our blog list, "thank-you" list, church-meeting list, town list, hospital list, girl list, boy list, etc., etc., and every other list we have to make sure we have covered everyone (making a list and checking it twice).
Thank you so much again for your care (and patience with the letter)! Thinking of all the ones in Haiti and others in "trying" times. Makes us thankful again that ALL this is in our Father's hands and makes us thankful for our privilege of prayer. ("Prayer is a mighty source of power")

Friday, January 15th

Hello to everyone. Clay broke his left arm. He has a new red cast that he is really proud of. He was playing tug of war with his puppy on the snow and ice after Christmas. He slipped and landed on it and broke two bones. He favored it but it did not slow him down. As he continued to protect it we became worried and took him to our local doctor for an x-ray. Definitely broken. He and Deidra went to Dallas to see an orthopedic at Children's. They put the new cast on and told him to wear it for three weeks. It seems that in the scope of things the arm was mild in comparison to what he has been through. He is back home and doing fine. Still on schedule for the surgery on the 22nd. Good days to all.

Wednesday, January 6th

Good Morning to everyone. There has been a large gap in time since the last post and all of the Fites have been very busy. We were able to travel over the holidays. We had the opportunity to put faces with some of the people that have grown so dear to us through this experience. We went North to Omaha, NE and were able to visit/meet some dear friends in Wichita, KS (family and friends of Larisa Hertz who has spent many days in an ICU burn unit). The boys enjoyed the biggest snow in the last twenty years. They played outside everyday and would come inside looking like a Popsicle. Clay was right in the middle of the fun. We had to tape his glove on his left hand. After that problem was solved the snowy world was his to enjoy. They did not really want to come back to boring Texas, but upon arrival, they were amazed to see that we could not pull in our garage because of the snowdrifts. After a brief stay at home we made a quick trip South for the new year. Clay made a special friend at convention this year and we went to Austin for a couple of days so Clay could see Tucker and we could visit his family. All are home now and back in school. Clay had an appointment Monday with the plastic surgeon that is doing most of his procedures. He had not seen his finished product on the neck and was pleased with the results. His goal now is to work on the nose and mouth. If he can offer Clay some relief in these areas, and the ENT Doctors approve, the next milestone for Clay will be the removal of his trach tube. Clay has already informed us that when that thing comes out and heals we need to find him a swimming pool. We have a tentative date for his next procedure set for the 22nd of this month. I used to keep a close count on the number of surgeries he has had, but I seem to have lost count. Deidra is still working on the New Year letter. Please don't give up-it is a major undertaking because we do not have much spare time to work on it . We hope the New Year finds everyone well and are thankful that we can start it out with our entire family at home. Thank you for all of the prayers and encouragement during 2009. We will try to post more frequently or when something newsworthy occurs. Take Care, Chance