Thursday, November 29, 2012

Back in School

Colby is officially back in school this week! His first day back was Monday.  His friends were all so excited. They even threw him a little welcome back party at lunch! He sure is a well loved kid and it has been a tremendous blessing to have so many behind him!

So far Colby has surpassed our expectations and has been able to handle a full day of school!  By the end of  the school day he is definitely well worn out and ready to shut it down, which is completely expected at this point.  Having a free period (he had to understandably drop AP Bio for this semester) has been very helpful in getting through the day.  Too bad he doesn't have a cot and somewhere extra quiet to sleep during that period! Once he gets home he does crash pretty hard and sleeps for a few hours.  He is still struggling a little with wanting to go to all the extra curricular activities after school, but for now he needs to start with one thing at a time.  A full day of school is definitely his max, whether he likes that or not.  It is really important for him to not overdo it before he is fully healed.  Tomorrow will be one month since his brain surgery.  He has come a long way in that one month, and for that we are very grateful.

Being the social butterfly teenage boy that Colby is, he still has a hard time saying no to all the extra curricular activities surrounding him.  My have to constantly remind him not to overdo it.  He has, however, been able to return to singing with his church youth choir just in time for the holiday season.  It is a wonderful choir that has been able to sing at the Orange Community Christmas celebration for years.  All of Colby's siblings have been able to participate in this choir in years past.  Our mom is on the committee this year in charge of putting it all together and making sure it goes off without a hitch.  She has put in a ton of hours over the past few months and is greatly looking forward to it this upcoming weekend.  If you want to come listen to Colby sing with the youth choir or see firsthand the result of our mom's hard work, please feel free to drop by! It is a community celebration open to all! Thousands of Creche exhibits will be on display as well as many musical presentations.   Here is the link that describes more of what and where it is.

http://www.communitychristmascelebration.org/

It is a wonderful way to start out the Christmas season.

Happy Holidays!


**Pictures to come soon from his surprise 16th birthday party last week!


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Dr.'s Orders

Hello to anyone still following along!  Sorry it has been a while.  Life has been crazy trying to play catch up after my very last minute (but well worth it!!) trip to CA.  It has been busy for my parents too as they are adjusting back into their regular lives along with still helping Colby recover from home.  Things are going well though and we are all just still so grateful for how everything has turned out!

This last Tuesday, my mom and Colby were able to meet with his surgeon, the wonderful Dr. Muhuonen, to talk more about the surgery and recovery.  It was 2 weeks post brain surgery that day.  It was a very informative and emotional appointment all at once.  He had lots of good things to say about how well the surgery went as well as the progress Colby has had since.  With all the possible scenarios they went into the surgery with, he came out with the best case one, which is truly a miracle and a blessing from all the many prayers and fasting on his behalf.

After the Dr. asked Colby quite a few questions and assessed where he was at, Colby started firing questions away at him.  He is still so concerned about getting back into school and sports, as any active teenage kid would be.  Dr. Muhounen finally stopped Colby short when he told him, "Frankly, you almost died.  You were a very sick boy.  You need to take it easy for a while."  It was a good thing for Colby to hear it first hand from the Dr.  It was the first time it finally clicked with him how serious of a surgery and situation he had just gone through!  He is finally at a point to understand that and how truly important it is to let his body and especially his mind heal without trying to jump back into regular life.  He is very lucky and blessed to not only be alive, but that he will continue to be just fine, as long as he really takes his time in his recovery now.

Emotionally it was a little difficult for my parents to receive all the reports back from the hospital and from the surgery.  It was hard to hear just how sick their son was as well as how truly close to dying he came.  The cavernous angioma in his brain had been growing for many years and had even had some bleeds previously from what the Dr.'s could tell once they got in there.  It is amazing that he made it so long, with the mass being so large, without any symptoms.  It wasn't until it started to hemorrhage that day he went into the ER that anyone had any idea something was wrong.  It was almost an aneurism and they almost didn't find it in time.  That is not something easy to digest as a parent about your son, especially your youngest and only one left at home! Life is very fragile and as we have learned, not in our hands, but the Lord's.  That is why putting our trust in Him is so important to us!

So the plan is still for Colby to take it easy for a little while yet.  He is able to add a little more stimulation in his day to day routine, but still needs lots of rest and to be careful to not overdo it.  He will continue to have speech therapy and a little physical therapy for a few months and will slowly start back at school after Thanksgiving. He will most likely start with half days and gradually add more to his day each week as he is able to handle it. The Dr. did say that they are hoping to take him off the anti-seizure medication at the end of this month.  Being off of that should help him have more energy through the day as well as better balance physically.  He won't be completely out of the woods for his risk of having seizures, but he should be just fine as long as he doesn't push it too hard.  All in all, the Dr. is hopeful for a full recovery in 3 months post surgery.  Though the days may seem to drag on to Colby, 3 months is a very short time for all of us who were expecting a lot worse in the beginning.  His moto for the next few months comes from the Book of Mosiah in The Book of Mormon:

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.  And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."  (Mosiah 4:27).

It is still so amazing how fast life can change in an instant.  Sometimes it ends with heartbreak and sometimes it ends with a miracle.  No matter how your trials in life go, we hope everyone can find those big and small tender mercies to be grateful for during this thanksgiving season. We as a family are truly grateful for all of you! We would not have been able to do this without so many wonderful friends and family, from near and far.  We continue to be overwhelmed by all the love and support and hope to be able to spread those acts of kindness to others in need as we head into the holiday seasons.

One theme through this whole experience has been that we have seen many tender mercies from the Lord on Colby's behalf.  You can read more about tender mercies and our belief in them HERE. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



Some pictures from the past week:


Trip to Irvine Park



His scar is looking better and better the longer his hair grows! The stitches are dissolvable, so he won't need to ever go in to get them out.


He is always looking for new ways to keep himself entertained.  This last week my dad and Colby found one of my dad's old skateboards.  Together they made this new little board using the old trucks and wheels.  They were both pretty excited and proud of the outcome!

Once again.... sorry about the poor picture quality.  Do we ever use real camera's anymore these days??

Thursday, November 8, 2012

What's next for Colby...

This past week sure has flown by fast.  Sadly, all of us siblings had to leave and return to our families and our busy lives in various parts of the world.  We are all so grateful for the time we were able to be down together to be there for our parents and for Colby.  It has strengthened us greatly and we are all looking forward to being together again for Christmas with our spouses and kids.

Many have been asking for an update and I figured I'd give it at least one more shot, even from up here in Portland and then maybe my mom, Shannon, or Colby himself can take over from here.

Colby has been home now for a few days and is still doing well.  He has a little progress each day and is right on track with the Dr.'s expectations.  Though he is doing a little better each day, he still gets tired and overwhelmed quickly, as is common with brain trauma.  One minute he's kicking his older sister's butt at checkers and the next he can't even remember who's turn it is or what move to do next.  It is good for him to engage his mind and work on comprehension and memory though (which is what he will be doing with speech therapy), as long as he shuts it down and sleeps/relaxes when it starts to get too much.  We are hopeful that he will be back to school possibly either Thanksgiving week or the week after, with only doing as much as he can handle at a time.  The school counselors and teachers are working with my parents to come up with a doable plan to get him back on track.  It is killing him as an A student in many AP classes to have to go backwards for a while, but we are confident that with patience and time he will get right back up there.  He will also be missing out on soccer season this winter. That has been a hard blow for such an active sports loving kid who's never not been involved with some type of team sport.  He is hoping to still be able to support the team from the sidelines, however and will possibly be able to do volleyball in the spring. 

Since he doesn't have all of us around anymore, it will be good for Colby to have a few visitors each day, but please don't be offended if he gets worn out after only a few minutes.  He can seem totally normal and right on it and then go downhill fast once his brain is too activated. And often he is too sweet to admit how overwhelmed he feels.  20-30 mins is usually a good amount of time to visit.  Also, my mom has asked that anyone who would like to stop by call her beforehand to make sure no one drops in during a bad time when he needs to be sleeping or is having a hard time with outside stimulation.  Here are their phone numbers: 

Baron home phone: 714-639-7733
Jennifer's cell:  714-342-5071


And now for some pictures! By the way, all the pictures have been from various phones... sorry for the poor quality! One of these days we will take a picture with a real camera and post it.



 This is the night he came home from the hospital... he sat down and played two songs from memory!


Sister Brittany using her mad hair cutting skills to tame the mullet



First non-family visitors! Thanks for coming!!




Sunday, November 4, 2012

He's Home!!!

Colby was able to come home this evening!! He is very happy to be home and we are happy to not be going back and forth between the hospital. I know my parents are also happy to finally be able to sleep in their own bed!

Colby has had great progress today.  He can still get overwhelmed quickly, but is doing so much better already with his ability to think clearly.  He is on anti seizure medication and just Tylenol for pain, which is great! The hardest part of him being home is having to constantly tell him to relax and take it easy.  He just wants to get right back into the swing of things and is dying to get back to school and seminary.  We keep telling him he sort of has a free pass on everything right now. 

For those of you that are close friends of Colby's, he would love to have visitors over the next few weeks while he is still at home recovering.  Later this week would be a good time to start having people drop by, a few at a time.  It will be a good distraction for him since he is going crazy with worry on all he is missing out on!  He can only handle a few visitors at a time and for about half an hour to an hour at most before he needs to take a break and get some rest.  When he starts feeling overwhelmed and tired he starts mixing up his words and becomes more sensitive to light and sound.  That's always our que to shut things down and let him rest. 

And now to the pictures from today!





Getting ready to leave the hospital









Thanks to all the sweet friends who heart attacked our house for his welcome home!



HOME!!




Saturday, November 3, 2012

Today was a great day for Colby, filled with sweet moments as visitors piled in his tiny room to see his happy smiling face. The love he has felt from everyone has been so sweet and has given him motivation each day to get better. He spent most of the day pain free walking the halls and visitng with family. Prayers have been answered.

We had a wonderful night together as a family playing games and lifting his spirits. The time we have been able to spend as a family has been so special for us. Its very rare that we all get to be together and tonight was one of those sweet moments. We are so proud of our little Bro and how tough he has been through this rocky journey of recovery. He has been so courageous and strong and we couldnt be happier with his improvement. We sure do love him.

Thank you again for all those that have lended a helping hand, brought us yummy dinners, called to make sure we had all our needs met, and prayed for our family. We cant tell you enough how much we appreciate everything you have done for our family. We love you all!


 
 



 

 



 


 
Friday Day 5

Today was suppossed to be the toughest day for Colby and the doctor's predictions were definitely right on!  Due to being released from ICU to a regular room on the neurological floor, a drastic increase in swelling and a complete change in medication, Colby struggled through the day. He was only able to drink water and couldn't even take Gatorade from all the nausea. Once the doctors came in and reevaluated things, sent him for another C.T. scan, and put him on different medicine, Colby was able to get some relief and have a much better afternoon. Unfortunately we didn't get to take very many pictures this day as the pain in Colby's head from the swelling was so great he couldn't even open his eyes! We are glad to be done with Day 5!


Trying to walk off the pain...


Saturday Day 6

What a better day! Colby was able to sleep great last night. He went on new steroid medicine, went off of morphine and on to only Tylenol. Yeah! The doctor mentioned that a 16 year old kid whose had brain surgery will feel the pressure from the swelling of the brain drastically more than an adult. He made great progress on functioning without morphine. The steroid seems to be key to his improvement. Doctors attributed to the regression in speach to the swelling that will go down in the next couple days. Some things Colby was able to do today...Finaly eat. Ate a whole burrito for breakfast!  He walked all around without help, played checkers, watched surf movies and hung out and talked to lots of visitors without being tired or in pain =)




                                                    
                                       Steph was a little bummed that her little brother post
                                                brain surgery was still able to beat her at checkers.
 

                                                Hung out with his nieces and nephews
                                             Kaylee said Colby's scar was "spooky scary!"
                                                          Deacon liked it...of course =)



 


                                                  Walking the halls with his "helpers"

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Just a quick update from today...

Colby had sort of a rough morning with lots of pain and having a hard time understanding his situation. He is really frustrated with not being able to just go home and get right back into the swing of things. He is constantly asking his nurses when he will be able to go home and has been really worried about missing school, soccer and even church this sunday. We have to constantly explain to him that he just had major brain surgery and that it is ok to just take it easy and focus on healing and resting. He is starting for the first time to remember more details from the night before his surgery, but still gets a little confused about names and who said and did what. He has said a few times that he thought he was dying and that has been heart breaking for us all to hear. He came close to not being so lucky. The mass was so close to bleeding out by the time they caught it. Very scary. We feel so blessed that he was being watched out for and protected. There were so many tender mercies that day and night that got him the help he needed quickly.

This afternoon he was able to get on some better pain meds and after some decent sleep was doing much better. Speech therapy went well for the first day. It wasn't too in depth, but it was a positive step in the right direction. We were able to be with him for a few hours with him awake and responsive and even cracking a bunch of jokes, though some of that may have been the morphine talking =). Regardless we are still all happy with his progress with just being 2 days out from surgery. The Dr. did some more tests with him today and gave him an A+.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Brother Bonding Time

Baby Mo Mo
Josh catching on on homework and tests from missed classes!
Brittany reading some of the letters for Colby from his friends
 

Morgan has enjoyed being spoiled and held by everyone!
 
The youth of the Orange 5th Ward

How It All Started...

Many of you who all know and love Colby, or know and love someone in the Baron Family have been asking for updates and pictures.  We figured the best way to keep everyone informed would be to start a blog so we can periodically post updates for all to see. So here it is! Colby's very own blog.

A quick back story as to how this all started just the other night (crazy how fast life can change in an instant!).  Monday afternoon Colby came home early from school with a really bad headache.  Throughout the day it got worse and worse and he started to slur his speech and was getting confused. My mom took him into the ER that evening and when he started throwing up on top of all the blinding pain they got him back right away and immediately started doing tests.  Soon after they found through an MRI that he had a mass (they thought at the time that it was a tumor) on the left side on his temporal lobe the size of a peach. This is the side of the brain that affects speech and his ability to completely understand a situation and articulate correctly.  It was such a shock and sure caused a great deal of concern for us all.  Surgery was the next morning (Tuesday morning) and it went very well- the best it could have gone! We had all been praying for a miracle and we sure got one.  They discovered it was a cavernous angioma that had started to bleed. The surgeon was able to completely remove the mass.

Yesterday (Wednesday), every one of his siblings was able to get into town and be together with him.  He is still struggling with his comprehension and speech.  He can talk pretty clearly, but gets confused easily and is constantly repeating the same questions and statements.  He is exhausted and uncomfortable and keeps asking over and over when he can go home and get back to school. He definitely gets overwhelmed pretty quickly by too many people talking to him or other stimulations. The nurses and Dr. have asked that we keep his visitations and outside stimulation to a minimal for right now.  He needs lots of rest and quiet reassurances.  He is scheduled to begin speech therapy today.

The good news is that through his recovery we have still been able to see his personality coming through.  He is still SO concerned about everyone else around him, is the most polite patient the nurses have ever seen and is still making us laugh. (Where's my nurse, she's hot!)  The Dr. said Wendesday that he is very pleased with his progress and is extremely hopeful for a full recovery. We are all so grateful for the many prayers, letters, phone calls, emails, texts, and so on sent for Colby and to our family.  We have felt all of your love and support and it has made all the difference in helping us all stay strong.  As Colby often says, "Thank you, sooooooo so much!"  Please forgive us if we are not always able to respond back to everyone. We are  sleep deprived and overwhelmed, but are grateful and aware of all of your concerns and kindness.


We will continue to update this blog on Colby's recovery progress. For now we will keep praying and hoping for the best!

With Love,

Colby's Biggest Fans {His Siblings}




{Before Surgery}

 {After Surgery}

Colby's favorite part of the day is when we read all these sweet notes to him from all his wonderful friends.