Ayden's home!

Waiving bye to the nurses and getting into mom's car.

He got soo excited when he saw moms car, he said... "hey its my car!" really loud!



When he got home he had Grandma Donna and Aubrey there to welcome him.
They hadn't seen him since before he started walking. They were so happy to see him!

Aubrey had the opportunity to go to Utah with her dads cousin which she loves to do and on her way out she started to cry and said that she felt like she just wanted to be home with Ayden since he just got home from the hospital. So Grandma brought her back, she came in the house and gave Ayden another big hug and told him how much she loved him and wanted to spend time with him. What a good sister!



Some welcome home balloons he had fun with!



Looking out the backdoor, seeing what he was missing for the last 3+ weeks!


First thing he did when he got outside was play in the dirt!
He also looked at the big dirt circle in the lawn that used to be the pool and just stared at it forever, not sure what he was thinking about but you could tell he knew something was missing!

Scooter and Cowlee missed Ayden too!

The first trip after getting home? To go get some Costco fuffins!!!
(looks like he might even be saying "fuffins" in this picture!)
WE LOVE YOU AYDEN, WELCOME HOME!!!

Ayden gets to continue his recovery at home! YAY!

The words we have been waiting to hear! He gets to go home tomorrow morning sometime! He will still be on some Antibiotics and some other medication. He seems to be his normal self again, his legs are still a little stiff when he walks, but his walking and even sometimes running are getting better everyday! He seems to get tired faster than normal, which could be the result of the medication he is still on. He gets so excited when we ask him if he wants to go home and see Scooter and all the other things he has been missing from home! It will be good for him and his family to get back into the normal routine! He has enjoyed his stay at the hospital and hasn't complained once about it and has really been warming up to all of the nurses (more recently at least) :). We will miss them and are full of graditude and thanks for all the hard work and dedication they provided in Ayden's behalf. What a blessing it is to be able to have him home on the road to a full recovery.

We have truly witnessed a miracle!

He will still have a few followups from some of the Dr's after he has been home for a while for some outpatient services.

We have enjoyed hearing from all of you who have been following this blog and are still so amazed at the love, the concern and support he has received over the last 3 + weeks! We will continue to update about his transition to being back home.

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers and fasting. We are so thankful for the blessings and miracles that come from the power of prayer and through Priesthood blessings.

We are all truly blessed.

Ayden's first "real" bath after his IV was removed from his shoulder! He loved it!

Brushing his teeth with the sponge

Ayden got a pass to go see the fire station!!!

Ayden got a pass to leave the hospital for an hour and went to the firestation on reserve street about a quarter mile north of the hospital. His brother Corbin and cousins Drew and Spencer came along and had a good time. After the Firemen learned about why Ayden was at the hospital they were happy to give them all a tour of the station! One of the firefighters says he was working the day of Ayden's accident and remembers the call and was so happy to see the miracle standing before him.

Saturday

Ayden before he got the central line removed

Ayden after he got it removed! So much better!

Another good day for Ayden! He was able to have his Central line removed, which was an IV with direct access to his heart, he was very happy about this. For the last few days he had been pointing to it and saying.. "take off, take off" So now Ayden has nothing attached to him! YAY! He continues to take medication through syringes by mouth and is also still on a steroid where he has to breath a mist for a few minutes, this is to help with opening up his airways. He still throws a fit each time he takes meds, or even just when he sees a nurse come into his room with something but it is getting a lot better! Yesterday he had a visit from the Neurologist who says that with drowning victims he usually doesn't come to see them 3 weeks after the incident, but 2 or 3 days. Meaning Ayden is making a full recovery, and there is no question about that! We still don't know when he gets to go home from the hospital, we are thinking the beginning part of next week due to the Dr's wanting to keep a close watch on vitals and also weening off medication.

Yesterday when Ayden's dad got here he welcomed him down by the elevators with his toy shopping cart, then wanted to take dad for a walk around the whole hospital! He was loving the fresh air and the freedom to walk around!

Here are a few fun photos of him today playing in the play room at the hospital! He was having soo much fun!!!

Friday was a GOOD day!

We will just let the pictures and videos speak for themselves!!! :)

Thursday evening

Ayden ended up having the procedure called Bronch Laser where they put a scope into his throat to check for scar tissue. Dr. Beck found scar tissue and removed it. The good thing is that he didn't have to be intubated or have a feeding tube. So now he is recovering and is pretty uncomfortable. Caryn did say she noticed a difference in his voice right away, it isn't sounding as hoarse, so this is good. Dr. Beck did say that there is a 50/50 chance that he might have to have this procedure again since the scar tissue could return. So we are hoping he heals better this time.

*****warning...due to the graphic content of these pictures, viewer discretion is advised...

This is before the procedure.

The triangle drawing is the shape the opening should be.

another before

another before

This is after the procedure.

another after

Thursday Morning

Today around 2:30 Ayden will have a procedure where they will look to see if he has any scar tissue where the tube was in his throat. The Dr did check his vocal chords yesterday and said they looked OK. The Dr also recently admitted that through the hurry of it all in the ER when he was first admitted into the hospital they gave him a bigger tube than he needed. This is why he has been having some throat problems lately. If the scar tissue is found they will use a laser to remove it. This is a common thing to have happen after going through what Ayden has been through. He will have to be sedated and intubated but it will be a quick process. This all should make his throat feel better. We will update later on how the procedure went.
Yesterday was a good day for Ayden. We took him on a ride in the wagon, which is his favorite thing to do in the hospital and we stopped by this glass case that has a bunch of dolls and cars in it, he of course paid no attention to the dolls and loved the cars and we would ask where the black truck was and he then stood up in his wagon and started to point and whisper, telling us where they were. In his physical therapy, aunt Janet got him to take 3 steps as well. This is good because we have had a hard time with him using the strength in his legs, so it was fun to see him do this on his own. This just goes to show he is getting stronger and stronger everyday!

A couple days after Ayden was extubated we noticed he started to sound a little different. The extended use of the breathing tube has caused some irritation in his throat. Tomorrow the ENT will use a small scope to examine his throat. They are worried that scar tissue has developed, which could make it more difficult for him to breath. It has been somewhat of a challege to get him to eat, but more difficult to get him to drink anything. This may be why he isn't looking too happy in his pictures. He is still quite lethargic, but still manages to let a few smiles escape from time to time. We would obviously like to see more smiles. He no longer has to have a feeding tube and now just has an IV in his shoulder for his meds. Although he looks more like himself these days, he still isn't acting like the normal Ayden.

Thanks again for your continued prayers. He still needs them to get past this hurdle.

Deputy Walls and his partner were the first to show up after calling 911. He was the deputy who took over performing CPR on Ayden.

The build-a-bear on the left is the one they gave Ayden. They said it came dressed in the fireman suit but thought it was appropriate to change his outfit into a deputy outfit. So, Aubrey dressed another bear that was given to Ayden by someone else in the fireman suit. She made a good point saying that the firemen were there to help Ayden too!

A tired little Ayden.

Out on the lawn playing with some cars that his cousins gave him.

First full day in Pediatrics!

Ayden no longer has to have oxygen, so one less thing attached to his face. He is still determined to get rid of the feeding tube but its still important for him to have for his medicine.

At night he has a drip to make sure he is getting all the nutrition he needs through the feeding tube at well. He still doesn't have his voice back quite yet, but we can tell that it is getting close!

Ayden got to go outside and liked it some of the time and some of the time, not so much!

Probably a good thing he doesn't have his voice back yet, because this boy can scream!!!

Ayden outside munchin on a corn dog.. finished most of it!

Chad was so proud, he even had a little ketchup!

enjoying his corn dog outside.

Ayden's favorite thing to do right now is to "nuggle".

Here he is with a tired mommy.



here he is with daddy.