Our boys are growing up fast! Caiden's already 5 months old and Tyler will be 5 YEARS old in just a few weeks! Tyler adores his little brother and wants to help out every chance he gets. Caiden has "found his tongue" and loves to stick it out all the time, blow bubbles, and make that spitting sound.. you know, when you stick your tongue out and blow... I'm not sure what that's called.. horse tongue? LOL
First email- January 10th
Hello all; Just wanted to inform and update on Katelen's status; I know all of you would want to know. For those of you that don't know, Katelen is in the CCU at Morton Plant Clearwater recovering from an apparent cardiac arrest that she suffered yesterday while taking a Spinning Class at the gym. No one knows why it happened. As you all know she's a fighter and, thanks to everyone that was there when it happened, we are all confident that she's going to be fine. As a preventative measure, she is currently receiving a special treatment called "Arctic Ice" - she is heavily sedated while she undergoes a lowering of her body temp for 24 hrs. According to the experts here, the cardiologist that we've spoken too, and all we've read about this treatment - this is the way to go. This treatment will continue through tonight before any diagnostics are performed. Basically, we will not know anything until the treatment is completed. Melody is hanging in there and doing as well as can be expected. We'll be at the hospital all day.
Next email- ThursdayRight now everything is the same, she still in the "artic ice" treatment until 7pm. She has developed a touch of pneumonia, which was expected.
12:15 AM We have made it to the 35 degree mark. Which puts us in the critical range (35-37) where there is a greater risk of a cardiac event. Good new, her pupils are responding to light stimulus.
7:15 AM-At approximately, 5:30 am when her temperature returned to normal she started becoming very responsive. She has been responding to yes and no questions, looking around and starting to mouth words. Has told her sister not to sing to her. The medical staff has indicated this will be a very critical day of recovery and has indicated it would be best to limit the number of visitors to the immediate family. They want to keep her calm to allow her body to continue to heal. She is confused, and does not understand/know why she is here. They have told her what happened, but due to the heavy sedation medications she forgets easily. Melody and Joe do not want to discourage anyone from coming down, but please realize you will not be able to see Katelen. It may be tomorrow or the next day before you are able to see her. We will continue to send updates throughout the day.
930 AM update- Well, Katelen the fighter is blowing everyone away. She much further than anyone expected. She is off all sedation medication and breathing on her own. The ventilator tube was just pulled and she is talking. Next is for her to take another nap. We will continue to send updates as the day progresses.
Katelen is continuing to improve. As a matter of fact she said "Thank you for coming and emailing". Only Katelen would think to thank all of us within a couple hours of waking up. We've been getting lots of requests for what can be done. After 2 days and several more to go hospital food is getting old. So we'd like to organize a sign-up for meals and snacks. Let's just do today (Friday), Saturday and Sunday to start. Also, there are several people who are either flying or driving in from out of town that need a place to stay.
3PM Update (Friday Jan. 11)-Katelen is doing very well. She is telling everyone “thanks for coming,” and so far does not seem to want to sleep. She has a chart next to her that gives her a time frame of the last couple of days. We have established an account at Merrill Lynch to help the Dixon Family cover the some of the cost. (Time off work, travel, food, cell bills etc). If you would like to contribute please make checks payable to:”Joe Dixon FBO Katelen Dixon.” Joe Dixon FBO Katelen Dixon C/o Merrill Lynch Greg Hicks 26301 US Hwy 19 NClearwater Fl 33761 If you have any questions related to donations please don’t hesitate to call my office on 727-799-5604. We have been working on food and accommodations for family members and quests, for which my sister is handling. (Karen Hicks 813-447-0527) At this point donations would be very much appreciated.
10 PM Update-Katelen is continuing to grow stronger. It will most likely be the first of the week before a timeline for her recovery, how long she will be in the hospital, when the AICD will be implanted. There is a long road ahead still. Melody and Joe would like to thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and support. They are reading your emails and are very touched by the out pour of support. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered to help with food, transportation and housing. We are covered for the weekend. As you know this is a long process of recovery.
Saturday morning update-I just spoke with Joe; Katelen had a great night’s sleep last night. She has been able to sit up and eat. She has some soreness in her shoulder and arm where she fell of the stationary bike on Wednesday for which they are able to now give her some pain medications.
Katelen had a very restful day and is doing great. She does have a little bit of short term memory loss, but that appears to be “normal.” For example she doe not remember some of the conversations from yesterday and saying “thanks for coming.” Mel is staying at the hospital tonight. Joe said he was going to eat dinner and smoke a cigar.
Just wanted to let you know that things continue to move in a very positive direction. She will have the "cardio-cath" in the morning (Mon) as the Dr.'s begin their quest for possible causes. The prognostications are flying freely around here ranging from nothing to a defibrillator. Though nothing may sound good, we are hoping for some answers. We are trying not to speculate further until the results of tomorrows morning's test. Thanks for all the prayers and support; I believe the support circle played a key factor in the recovery. All of our friends here really (really!!!) stepped up to the plate; and, they are doing more than we'd ever expect or imagined. I will let you know tomorrow as the results of the tests begin to come back. Just to let you know how Kate is feeling today: We are having to keep an eye on her to keep her from walking out of the hospital. They've disconnected everything except the IV and the last of the antibiotics. Best quote of the day from the infections specialist: "I wouldn't be surprised if she were home on her birthday (16th) and playing volleyball in no time".
Hello friends and family (seems to be synonymous these days), Katelen says hello, and continues to extend her "thanks for coming" salutations to everyone. She looks absolutely wonderful and very at ease with everything. Looks like she's opened the new book and she is prepared to proceed to the first chapter. Everything has pretty much followed the plan laid out earlier in the week as for as the diagnostics; basically, we don't know anything????. The doctor said the surgery went extremely smooth. She got back to her room after 2 hours of surgery around 11:30 or so. She is, of course, her smiling self and on her way to full recovery. Doc says she should be released not later than mid week; hopefully, we'll be out of here a little sooner. Very hard to digest where we were a week ago. The litany of restrictions are beginning to accumulate. The Dr. said no driving for at least 4 months....Kate said, "no problem there; I hate to drive." Guess who she looked at next? :) Small birthday party later. She already got the big gift (aka LIFE) plus the special customized addition ($50,000 defib). Good thing she didn't exploit the situation...We'd gotten her anything she'd wanted. Your thoughts and prayers remain with us. Joe, Melody, Erin, and Jay
"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face . You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must to the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Caiden is growing by the second! His Doctor told us that it was okay to start solid foods if we wanted, so Eric went out this morning to get some rice cereal for the little man!
I just mixed about a teaspoon with my milk to make it kinda soupy and he ate most of it. We all got to feed him a little, even his big brother Tyler!
Caiden had his 4 month check up on Wednesday and everything went great except for his (very first) minor ear infection in his right ear! I felt so bad because I never knew... the Doc said since it might be from the cold he's getting over and that since it's just a minor one he can still get all his schedule immunizations and he'll just prescribe some antibiotics for the ear ache. Caiden's development is right on track. He can hold his head up, reach for things, smile, laugh, very close to rolling over, and he's even got his own little personality... I LOVE it! And recently I've noticed he likes to mimic you when you sick out your tongue! Adorable!
Caiden's 1st Christmas!!
"why does mom put me in these silly hats?"
Tyler opening his stocking (he asked if we were bad this year because Santa didn't put anything in our stocking, just his... LOL)
Buck's enjoying his hickory smoked bone Santa brought!
The Friday after Christmas we surprised my family in Columbia a couple hours earlier then we had said originally because I was able to get off work which was really great! We went to my Nana's house in Gilbert, SC along with my Aunt Robin, Uncle Jimmy, Jimmy and Zach, my whole family, my Papaw, Aunt Cherri, Uncle Robbie, Caleb, Joshua, Skylar, Aunt Becky, my cousins from Charleston and many more! Nana made a DELICIOUS dinner with a roast, pork, ham, corn, green beans, asparagus cassarole, rolls, mac and cheese, red velvet cake, etc...YUM!!!
Me, my Great-Grandma, Kate, Nana, Aunt Becky
Tyler with his cousins- Skylar, Caleb, Joshua and his Uncle Jay!
My cousins Zach and Jimmy
We brought Buck with us and he had a blast playing with my parents dog Sparky. They chased each other around the big yard and played fetch in the lake out back
The daycare I work at was open Christmas Eve until NOON and lucky me had to work! I got there around 8:30 AM with the boys and to my surprise, there were only 10 kids in the whole center so I got to leave! Tyler wanted to play for a little bit so I hung around then we headed off to the mall to see Santa and get another picture taken...and boy was it better!
Howard and Robin Wiebler came over Sunday night to visit and took us out for a yummy dinner!! It was so nice to see them (as always!). They got Tyler a 487 piece Spiderman Lego set and Caiden, Eric and me a new outfit!! They are such wonderful people...like second parents to us. Thanks you! We love you guys XOXO
Eric and our good friend John took off work Friday to finish digging the holes for the fence and WOW did they finish it all in no time! It turned out that they needed a different size (longer) drill bit. They were able to dig about 20 holes in 4 hours as opposed to 4 holes in nine hours! Great job you guys! By the end of the day Eric had only 2 more to go, but he needed a one man auger since the holes were so close to the house. He got up early Saturday morning to finish those and once the holes were all dug, he started with the fence. It's gonna look so good! I'm so proud of my hubby; he sure is amazing!
So I decided to take the boys to Petsmart to get their picture taken with Buck and Santa Clause. It seamed like a good idea at the time, I even figured I'd be fine without Eric... BOY was I WRONG! Picture this:
Do you see where I'm getting?? I was definitely an experience I'll never forget! As we were entering Petsmart with Caiden on one arm, Tyler in front of me and Buck in my left from the rain in black heels, a lady was leaving and wanted to "share" the doorway... she said excuse me, but I really couldn't move... I tried but when I did I slipped and fell INTO the doorway as I told the lady "sorry but I can't excuse me!" Oh how embarrassing!! Luckily the door caught me and she was able to help me back to my feet and nobody was hurt. Now that I think about it I'm wondering if that's how I got this bruise on my left forearm? Hmmm...
After that we made our way back to see Santa and I was a little disappointed in his little helper.. Santa was a girl! LOL The picture turned out cute though.. Caiden looks surprised! (haha)
We have our new dog, a dog house, now we just need a fenced in yard! Eric picked up all the wood and supplies on Friday to begin building the fence. On Saturday morning before the rain came he marked the perimeter of our yard and measured where all the post holes will go. He also started working on the gates. Early Sunday morning Eric and our friend John rented a power auger from Home Depot, but the first one they rented was broken, so they had to take it back. When they finally started (around noon) they thought they were going to finish in a couple hours, when at the end of the day, they only got 4... They both said it was hard work and very frustrating but they stuck through it and hopefully they can finish soon! My baby deserves a foot rub for all his hard work... and high fives for John because he missed the Panther's game to stay and help!
This is our fully loaded truck! Eric said it was driving really low to the ground...
Tyler and Daddy working in the rain (under a tarp)
Eric and Tyler throwing "leaf balls" at a park in Cincinatti
Family photo inside a treehouse
Caiden sitting outside in his "chair"
"Santa baby"
Tyler and Buck sitting in front of the tree..
Brotherly love...
Okay, we're just not having any luck (again) getting the "perfect" Christmas tree. It's the second year in a row we've brought home a Charlie Brown tree. When we're there picking one out we think it's great, then we bring it home and set it up and think "wow" that tree is small! We were going to go to the Mountains to chop down our own tree to start a family tradition, but we didn't get the chance so we'll have to start it next year. Plus, with the drought going on, there's not the best selection... at least that's what I'm telling myself now because I really wanted to go to the mountains....
We finally found our new dog and he was definitely worth the wait. Eric found a listing on Craigslist for a black lab and we went to visit him this Saturday morning. By the afternoon we had him back at our house for a "trial run". After spending just a couple hours with him, we knew he was the right dog. The family we got him from did a great job training him and had several kids (13, 5 and 2) so he is great with the little ones. He is a 1 year old pure bred black lab so he still has plenty of energy, but is really well behaved. His name is Buckeye and we call him Buck. He loves to catch frisbee and play fetch (definitely prefers the frisbee though) and of course loves to play in the water. When he is ready to come inside he lays down and loves to get attention. We are all so excited to have him around it is great for the boys to have a dog to grow up with. We are definitely lucky to have him. Of course, he is a boy so the Mick family boy to girl ratio is now 4 to 1. Yowza!
