Today is THE day

8:00 am

Taylor's surgery was moved up to 9:30 am. I just spoke to him and he was getting ready to go back to the staff can get everything ready.

Taylor and Suzie are staying at the home of Suzie's cousin, Robert Claiborne, who lives in Baltimore. This coming weekend, they'll head to Alexandria, VA to stay with a friend of Suzie's. The Doctor wants Taylor to stay nearby for a while in the event there are any complications afterwards.

Robert's daughter, Eleanor, is staying with Taylor and Suzie all day today. Suzie will definitely enjoy having someone with her all day. Taylor will be in ICU tonight and Suzie will stay overnight with him.

He should be able to leave the hospital some time tomorrow and head to the Claiborne's to begin the healing process. The Doctor said it may take up to 9 months for all of the swelling to go away.

Please keep Taylor in your prayers today.

The Countdown Begins

7:21am

This week Taylor received insurance approval for the facial reanimation surgery at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He'll be the 31st person to get the procedure done there.

Taylor and his Mother will fly to Baltimore on Friday, May 22nd and the surgery begins at 10:30am on Tuesday, May 26th. He will be in surgery for 8 hours and just about every area of his face will be cut on - eyebrow, upper eyelid, lower eyelid, nose and cheek. The Surgeon said he may have to remove the Gortex band that was installed by Shands last year, so if that happens, he'll also be cut on the upper lip, lower lip and "smile crease" to the side of the corner of the mouth.

He'll stay in the hospital overnight, and remain in the Baltimore area for 2 weeks so they can monitor for infection, remove stitches, etc. The pain and swelling will certainly be worse than it was after the procedure at Shands last year, and that was pretty bad. He was in a lot of pain for about 5 days after the surgery and his face was swollen for over a month.

But, Taylor misses his smile - we all do. He's ready to endure the pain to get his smile back, even if it's only a partial smile. We want it back too.

He also realizes there is a chance that he may go through all of this and it may not work, or the results may not be what he had hoped, but he wants to take that chance. The previous 30 procedures have been successes, and based on Taylor's track record in recovery, he will be Success No. 31.

We now start the countdown - 18 days to go.

No Eye Surgery - For Now, Anyway

11:02pm

Taylor met with the eye Surgeon on Friday.

After some testing and measuring, she is changing his eyeglass prescription again to further align his eyes. She has determined that he has developed some nearsightedness so will add to the prescription to help straighten that out as well.

Because Taylor will have to wear glasses for the nearsightedness, he's not certain he wants to take the change on eye surgery right now. The surgery is about 80% successful, but won't do a thing to clear up him being nearsighted. Since he'll have to wear glasses to resolve that, going through surgery only to have to continue wearing glasses isn't something he wants to take a chance on right now.

He can do the surgery any time in the future, but for now he doesn't see (no pun intended!) a huge advantage.

Before knowing about the nearsighted thing, he had planned to do that surgery in May and the facial reanimation the first week of June. On the way back from Tampa, we called Johns Hopkins to move the June surgery up to May 26th.

So, we're all counting the days until we can again see him smile like he did before March 1, 2007.

Surgery Set For June

3:10pm

The Baltimore trip was a success! Taylor met with Dr. Byrne yesterday in Baltimore. He has approved doing surgery, and we'll get it scheduled sometime in June - pending approval from the insurance company.

In addition to the surgery to help restore his smile, the Doctor will do some additional tweaking to help with facial symmetry. Taylor's left lower eyelid will be lifted so that the eye opening is the same size. This will also help protect his eye some. His inability to squint his eye really aggravates him sometime. Over the weekend in Washington, it was pretty cold and windy on Saturday. Because he can't squint his eye, the constant wind blowing really irritated it. The left eyebrow will also be lifted. As he ages, he'll have to get more procedures to keep pace with the right side.

The surgery is expected to take about 7 hours. Taylor will be in the hospital overnight and will stay in Baltimore for a week. There will be a lot of swelling, and there 1 in 15 chance for infection, based on the 30 previous procedures that have been done. Fortunately, his mother has a cousin in Baltimore so he'll have a comfortable place to recover instead of being in a hotel room for a week.

Taylor has an appointment on April 10th with the eye surgeon in Tampa. Hopefully, he'll find out if the new eyeglass lense he's using has aligned his left eye. If so, then surgery will likely happen this summer.

Baltimore Bound!

4:15 pm

It's set up. Taylor has an appointment on Monday, March 23rd to see the Doctor at John Hopkins. The Doctor will likely make a final determination then about the surgery.

We found some stupid cheap tickets on Allegiant Air that will allow all of us to go. Flights are only on Monday and Friday, so we'll go up Friday and hang out in Washington DC until his appointment Monday afternoon.

This is one of the big moments. If they do the surgery and if it's as successful as the others have been, this trip puts him 1 step closer to getting his smile back.

Johns Hopkins Tentatively Approves Surgery!!!

11:00 PM

Last night we learned that Taylor appears to be a good candidate for the facial reanimation surgery.

While I was driving back from Tampa, Suzie was at home and Taylor at a friend's house, the Surgeon conferenced us all together and explained the 3 options available.

One involves cross matching nerves from the unaffected side of his face to the paralyzed side. But, since testing at Shands showed the nerves on the paralyzed side are essentially dead, that procedure isn't an option. The second one is to harvest a muscle from the leg and attach it to nerves and tendons in the face. Although it tends to create a bigger smile, it takes up to a year for it to start working. Because of the size of the muscle, there would likely be a bulge in his cheek. His hospital stay would be about a week, and it's about an 8 hour surgery.

The last option is the one we had heard about from the Doctor at Shands in Gainesville. The surgery is a couple of hours and he'd be in the hospital overnight. The smile is about 1/2 the size of that created with the leg muscle, but it's a lot less invasive. Once completed, the results are immediate. The smile won't be automatic. He will have to learn how to "train" the muscle to smile by gritting his back teeth together, which will trigger the muscle to activate the paralyzed side of his mouth. Initially, when he deliberately wants to smile, he'll have to remember to trigger the muscle. But the Doctor said over time the brain will eventually know that when it's time to smile it will signal him to grit his back teeth and cause him to smile.

He said most patients choose the third option, and all have been very pleased with the results. There have been no bad outcomes, and all have worked. Only two patients have had any complications, and they've done about 30 of the procedures so far.

This Doctor reminded us what the Doctor in Shands told us - that Taylor will have other surgical procedures in the years ahead as he ages. The biggest concern will be just below his eye. That will begin to droop causing his eye to dry out while sleeping that can lead to scratching of the cornea of the eye. For the rest of his life, he will continue to see a Surgeon who will monitor changes in his facial tone in order to make adjustments.

We don't know the insurance future with regard to those procedures. On his birthday later this year, he'll no longer be on our insurance policy. When he gets his own policy and they find out what happens, there may be some real issues getting him insured. For now, we're concentrating on getting everything done while the insurance holds out.

If he gets the final approval from Johns Hopkins, he'll be in a very small fraternity of people with facial paralysis who have been given back the ability to smile. We've really missed seeing Taylor's full smile and pray that he'll get the final approval for the surgery and it will be a success.

Taylor will have to go to Baltimore to be examined in person before they make a final decision, but so far it looks really good for him. He's very excited about the prospect of getting back some of the smile that he's lost.

More vision testing

6:45 am

The eye surgeon did some additional testing yesterday and everything looks good for the surgery. We're waiting on the delivery of the plastic that will be added to one of his glass lenses to tweak the prescription to see if his eyes can be lined up with glasses. If so, the Dr. will do the surgery.

For some reason, his vision is no longer 20/20. The Dr. said it was peculiar that his testing would be so different 2 weeks apart but thought maybe they just hadn't adjusted after some of the other testing he did prior to the vision test.

We've still not heard from Johns Hopkins yet but I sent and email early this morning to see if I can find out if Taylor's case has been reviewed yet.

The Second Anniversary

2:14 PM

Today is the second anniversary of Taylor's accident. It will pass without too much fanfare, but the past two years will certainly be on our minds all day.

There is an awful lot we've all learned in the past 2 year.s We learned that miracles DO happen. There were several instances where if things had gone the other way, the outcome would likely be very different - in a really bad way. If Connell Waldron hadn't caught a glimpse of the reflector on Taylor's car, he'd have no reason to stop and find Taylor on the side of the road. Other cars had passed without seeing Taylor's wrecked car. Initially, the helicopter pilot reported the fog was too bad for him to fly. Had he not decided 10 minutes later to make a run for it, the delay in getting Taylor to the hospital by ambulance may have changed the outcome. There are two examples that happened just in the first 30 minutes.

There are several other potential "life or death" situations that came up and each time it went in Taylor's favor. We have no doubt that these events weren't a series of odd coincidences, but that God had responded to the many prayers said for Taylor by friends and family all around the country. He was on prayer lists at churches in places we had never heard of.

Also tying for one of the top spots on the "Things We Learned" list are those in the medical profession who cared for Taylor. They not only kept him alive and helped him get better, but they comforted us and gave us hope at times when we were really scared of what the next hour may bring. They took care of Taylor like he was their own. They are people that you hope you never have to deal with professionally, but once you spend as much time with them as we did you recognize what amazing people they all are.

We learned what a huge difference friends can make at a time like that. We had friends that put parts of their lives on hold to help guide us through the nightmare we were living. Just having friends with us was a huge comfort. And, we REALLY needed comforting. During the critical times, everything would have been so much harder for us had our friends not been there to do all they did. Both our friends and Taylor's friends taught us a valuable lesson about friendship, and how important it is to be there at a time like that. So many did so much for us. We hope nothing ever happens to any of our friends families like what we experienced, but if it does we've learned just what to do to help make their lives a little more comfortable.

One of the more depressing things we learned is what happens to some patients who are in the situation Taylor was in. We heard stories from Nurses about patients - including children - who are hospitalized with life threatening injuries but the parents were not bedside. They'd check in after work sometimes, but there were days when they didn't do that. There was one man at the brain injury rehabilitation center where Taylor lived for 3 months who suffered a brain injury after being the victim of a crime. It wasn't long before I noticed this man never had any visitors. The Nurse told me he was from Miami, had a wife and kids, but no one had been to see him in the 10 months he had been there. It was apparent that this man would not likely be able to live on his own again, and will probably spend the rest of his life in a facility of some sort. How sad that all it took was an injury for his family to abandon him.

Taylor's mother and I have been in professions for the past 30+ years that caused us to meet other parents who lost a child or had one critically injured. We talked on occasion about those families, how how incredibly difficult it must have been for them. We had no idea until March 1, 2007 just how difficult it really is. It was much worse than I ever imagined. But, at least we got to bring Taylor home and many were not as fortunate.

It has, of course, been the most difficult for Taylor. I know he'd like his hearing and vision back to the way it was, to be able to throw a ball or run around the block. Although he doesn't say so, the facial paralysis certainly bothers him. But through it all he has shown determination and strength beyond anything I've ever seen before. He has accepted that the upcoming surgeries may not work, and there may not be any more improvements. He's ok with that. He said he doesn't worry about those things because "There is nothing I can do to change it".

The past 2 years have changed all of us in a lot of ways. Taylor has recognized he was given a second chance and he's taking advantage of it. School is now his top priority and his GPA proves it. He got about as close to death as one can get and still make it back in good shape.

While we realize that today could be the last day on earth for any member of our family, it's much more of a reality to us than it was before. So it's particularly painful for us to hear of families that have troubles, where kids are "kicked out" of their homes or tensions develop to the point that some family members don't speak to one another. Had they been along with us for the past 2 years, they'd quickly realize that there is nothing - or should be nothing - so important that it should ever interfere with family. And, they'd probably realize just how petty the issues that caused the problem really are. This event has certainly created even a stronger bond in our family.

Eye Surgery Likely Early This Summer

2:13 pm

Taylor met with the eye surgeon in Tampa this morning. She did some testing and concluded that his condition is "traumatic optic atrophy" caused by damage to the 6th nerve. The damage caused the double vision and nystagmus (shaking of the eye).

She said if she can completely correct the double vision with glasses, then surgery will likely fix the problem. This surgery is successful about 80% of the time. Taylor now has to turn his head to the right while continuing to look straight ahead to stop his eyes from shaking. This surgery should clear that up as well.

For now, she is prescribing some thin clear sheets of plastic that will go over one of his glasses lense in order to try and completely correct the double vision. If that works, she'll do the surgery as soon as he gets out of school for summer. If it doesn't work, then the surgery won't help.

During one test today, when he followed a light with a red lense over his left eye, he saw 2 lights. One was white (seen with his right eye) and the other was red. The red was below and to the left of the white, so the Dr. was able to measure the degree of misalignment. The surgery will straighten that out, and then the Dr. will shift both eyes to the right a little. Then, (if I understood the explanation right) when he focuses straight ahead the nystagmus shouldn't be a problem since the brain thinks it's his head shifted to the right, not his eyes that have been realigned.

He heads back to Tampa in a week for some further testing, but for now it looks like surgery in early summer.

Past due bill of a different kind

2:00pm

So, we got a $2,300 bill today for anesthesia. Problem is, it was for the day of Taylor's accident ....March 1, 2007....almost 2 years ago. Nothing like being on top of the billing, huh? But, be a day late in paying a medical bill and they send Vinnie to your house with a baseball bat.

Taylor's appointment with the Neuro-opthamologist for tomorrow has been rescheduled until this Friday, so we should know then if his double vision can be corrected with surgery.

And, Johns Hopkins now has the video of Taylor and we're waiting to hear back from them. Taylor has decided to not take classes this summer and get the facial surgery done if they agree to take his case.

Cross your fingers!

Facial Reanimation/Eye Surgery

7:30am

Taylor may be moving closer to having the facial reanimation surgery.

His Doctor at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, Dr. Adelson, told us about a surgical procedure developed by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore to reanimate the face of patients who have suffered paralysis.

Last June, Dr. Adelson did a "sling" procedure on Taylor where he inserted an elastic band inside the cheek that attached to the bone near the ear. The other end was stitched to his upper and lower lip and the corner of his mouth. The band tightens the mouth to prevent the pronounced droop that develops in those that have facial paralysis. That made a HUGE difference in his appearance.

In 2007, Dr. Patrick Byrne at Johns Hopkins developed a new procedure called "Temporalis Muscle Transposition" to help patients with facial paralysis. A chewing muscle connected to the chewing system of muscles, located in the temple are, is transplanted to the cheek on the paralyzed side of the face. This helps restore movement, allowing for a better smile and increased eye protection.

You can see some before and after pictures by clicking here. The before pictures of the top two patients in the left column had paralysis similar to Taylor's. As you can tell, the patients now most likely look just like they did before the paralysis.

We've been in touch with Dr. Byrne's office during the past week and yesterday his office requested photos and video of Taylor making certain expressions so that the Doctor can evaluate him and determine if he's a good candidate for this surgery.

He only recently said the facial paralysis bothered him and made him "self-conscious" about his appearance. It's the first time he's commented about it. But, he has never been much of a complainer and has an amazing threshold for pain so it takes a lot for him to admit that.

We're also working on an appointment with a Surgeon in Tampa to see if Taylor's left eye can be realigned. Although the prism glasses he wears helps to realign his sight, it's still difficult for him. There has been no further natural correction of the alignment of his eyes, so it may not further improve without surgery.

A friend of ours was in a near fatal car crash in 2006 that resulted in a head injury. His sight was affected much like Taylor's was. The Surgeon that Taylor will see was able to realign his vision.

It may be impossible to have both of these procedures done by Taylor's birthday in September. That's when he will no longer be carried on our insurance policy. And, we're haven't begun yet to explore other insurance options. So he may have to pick which of the two he wants the most while he's still on this policy.

We had a long talk the other night about these two procedures. Taylor wants to do both, but doesn't want to miss even 1 day of school to do it. And, he wants to go to the summer term again this year. Scheduling the surgeries could be a trick.

Taylor has gotten back so much more than many people that suffered similar injuries. If, for some reason, he's not able to have these surgeries or they don't work, he's still in much better shape than he could have been.

Keep your fingers crossed

We FINALLY meet Connell Waldron

If you've been reading this blog since the beginning - or close to it - you know that the first Angel to watch over Taylor after his crash was Connell Waldron. It was he that started the chain of events that saved Taylor's life.


The night of Taylor's accident Connell, a driver for The H.T. Hackney Company in Brandon, FL, was traveling east on State Road 60 and as he passed by Taylor's car he caught a glimpse of what we think was probably a reflector. The electrical system on Taylor's car was out and the front and rear end of his car was destroyed from it cartwheeling end over end after it rolled. But, there was one red side reflector on the side that Connell could have seen.


After he passed, Connell would later tell us, he wondered if that could have been a reflector on a car. So he slowed is rig down and looked for a break in the median so he could go back and check. He passed the area where he thought he had seen the car, made another u-turn, then began looking for the flash of light he thought he had seen. He spotted Taylor's car and called 911 before he got out of his truck. On the 911 tape we later got a copy of, Connell is talking to the 911 operator telling her he had found a crashed car when he came upon Taylor laying on the side of the road. He calmly gave his location as best he could (he's from Hillsborough county and not familiar with the area) and answered questions about Taylor's condition.


In the background, you can hear passing cars. No one other than Connell stopped. We'll never know for sure, but it makes you wonder if some saw the car and either thought someone else had already called, or if they saw the car and didn't want to get involved. What we do know is if Connell hadn't stopped, things may have turned out very differently for Taylor.


The 911 Operator said help was enroute and they hung up. And then Connell stayed with Taylor, on the side of the road in the dark until help arrived.


I spoke to Connell briefly last year to thank him for what he did, and to tell him Taylor had lived but was in pretty bad shape. I told him when Taylor was able, we wanted to meet him in person and thank him.


We've been in touch with Connell's supervisor, Skip, and told him we wanted to meet Connell but Taylor wanted to wait until he was off the cane. But then, Taylor had the facial surgery and he wanted to wait until most of the swelling was gone. Skip suggested we meet Connell at the company annual Christmas party. It was the perfect time and place to do it since Connell's wife and 3 children were there as well.


Yesterday was the party. Lauren is working a seasonal job at Macy's, so she was unable to attend. But, Taylor, Suzie and I went and was designated as the spokesman. Suzie seems to be the one that is most likely to get through the story without getting choked up, so she was the designated speaker. She told the crowd of 100 or so the story of how Connell found Taylor and how it began the chain of events that saved his life.






Skip called Connell up to the podium and Suzie called up Taylor. Suzie and Taylor hugged Connell and thanked him then Taylor gave Connell a St. Christopher (Patron Saint of safe travel) necklace. Then, Skip presented Connell with a very nice plaque recognizing Connell for being a great employee and human. Skip admitted that he's tough on employees, making
sure they keep on schedule as they travel the state making deliveries. But, he said, during times like this it's ok to be a little late.
Skip, Suzie, Connell and Taylor


As I mentioned before there needs to be a phrase other than "Thank You" that we can use in instances like this. "Thank you" is what I say to someone that hold the door at a convenience store. Using the same phrase to someone like Connell, the Paramedics, Firefighters, helicopter crew, Nurses and Doctors who all had a part in saving your son's life seems very insufficient.


Connell never knew until yesterday, but he's on the top of the list of those that played such an important part in saving Taylor and helping to return him to us in such wonderful condition. Without Connell, the others may have never had the chance to do what they did.

The Million Dollar Man

8:10am

It's official. Taylor is now a Million Dollar Man. Actually, it's about $1,036,000 - but that was before his Opthamologist appointment last week. That bill doesn't even register on the Medical Bill Radar, compared to the others.

The surgery Taylor had at Shands has officially pushed him over the million dollar mark. And, the upcoming surgery to attempt to allow him to control the left side of his face will certainly be a whopper. Taylor's insurance under our policy will terminate on his birthday next year, so we'd like to get it done before then. But, he may decide to either do the surgery later, nor not at all.

We know the paralysis bothers him, although he never says so. We never knew, and he never said, anything about it before his last surgery, but the look in his face when he looked at himself in a mirror in the recovery room of the hospital said it all. And when we later asked if his condition bothered him, he said it did.

Taylor has planned for months to go to north Florida this weekend for the Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival, a 2 day event outdoor concert with dozens of bands. He's decided that there may be too much walking on uneven land and said last night he probably won't go afterall. He said he'd probably stay home and "study Chemistry". He was really struggling with Chemistry a few weeks ago, but he said he's understanding it much better. He got a B on a test he had on Monday, so apparently he does get it. Stay tuned - he thinks he may make the Dean's List again!

Rearview Taylor

10:15pm

It seems like we see the backside of Taylor more than the front these days. Although we haven't kept track, it seems like 1/2 of the time he spends at home he's parked in front of the computer working on something school related.

He has classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but spends most of Tuesday and Thursday working on class work. Today, he spent 6 hours at the library. He is committed to school in a way we've NEVER seen before. He's taking tough classes, but you wouldn't know it by the grades he's getting. I asked him to explain one of the Trig equations to me in terms I could understand, but I lost him at the third word.

Taylor schedules social time with friends, but his primary focus is school. Before the accident, he did school on his terms - showing up and making average grades without much trouble. His objective, I think, was to make good enough grades to keep up happy and spend his free time goofing off. Now, it's all about school.

One downside to him spending so much time at school or studying is that he's spending less time at the gym. He's not as stable when walking as he is when he's going to the gym on a regular basis. We saw a huge improvement over the summer when he went often. I'm not sure if the exercising actually improved the walking/balance, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. HeWe're trying to get him motivated to get back exercising, but his stamina is not nearly what it was before the accident, so it's hard to get him interested in working exercise in between studying for classes. Last night, he was in bed at 8pm, which was unheard of in years past.

He has an appointment at Shands in Gainesville on October 21st to check on the progress of his healing from the surgery. The scars on his face are completely gone, and the one from the Trach scar removal is fading away.

He still wants to do the big surgery - the transplanting of the muscle to help restore movement on the left side of his face - but he doesn't want to miss any classes to do it. We're encouraging him to take next Summer off and do it then. He'll turn 23 next September and he'll no longer be carried on our insurance policy, so if he doesn't do it next year it will be a problem since it will be a "pre-existing condition" with a new insurance company.

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

8:37am

Today is Taylor's 22nd birthday. In the "early years", we celebrated Taylor and Lauren's birthdays like most families did - balloons, cake, etc. But, then they got older and too cool for all that. Then, birthdays became a little quieter and usually involved the birthday boy or girl picking the restaurant where we had dinner.

This year, Taylor wants to keep it low key. He has school at 11am, so he's coming home after that and hanging out with us until his Aunt and Grandmother come down this afternoon at 5:30pm to visit, then he's off to visit with some friends in Lakeland. Just the fact that Taylor is here and can do just about everything he could before the wreck is reason to celebrate daily. But today is a day we can welcome in a new year with him here and able to enjoy life just about like he always could.

He continues to heal from the surgery he had in June. There is still some swelling in the cheek area, but the Doctor said previously it would probably last until October. The soreness is gone, so it doesn't really bother him any.

Taylor started back to school a few weeks ago and his classes don't get any easier. He's taking calculus and chemistry but has a little easier class, wellness. Wednesdays are a little rough - he has classes from 11am - 5pm, so when he get home from that he's pretty wasted. He has his first calculus test this coming Monday, and he says he'll do well.

He has not been going to the gym as often as he had been during the summer. We've noticed a difference in his walking, and have encouraged him to try and get to the gym at least once a week. He's taking tough classes and studies on his days off from school so it's not as easy to go as before. And, his stamina is not nearly what it once was so he's often just too tired to go. Either he runs out of steam much faster than he ever did before, or before he just ignored that he was getting tired and kept going, and going, and going. He now recognizes when he's getting tired and comes home rather than push himself like he once did.

Two weeks ago Taylor was fishing with a friend at a city park that was build on the site of an old reclaimed phosphate pit. These pits are like small ponds or lakes ,but they do not have a shore. Taylor lost his footing and fell into the pit while throwing a cast net. His friend, Kevin, immediately went in after him since he knows Taylor is not very strong on his right side. They both had trouble getting out of the pit, since there was a several foot dropoff from the land to the water. Taylor held on to a tree root while Kevin swam to another area where he could climb out then return to help Taylor out. We hadn't really thought about fishing from shore being potentially dangerous to Taylor before, so it was a bit scary to find out what had happened. It won't stop him from fishing, but he knows he can only go with someone who is a strong swimmer and he'll probably not fish off of a drop off like that one.

Taylor is making plans to attend a 3 day concert, the Bear Creek Music and Art Festival, in north Florida in November. Seventy five bands are scheduled to play. Normally, he'd had a tough time negotiating around a lot of people and uneven land. But, the facility rents golf carts and they have reserved one for him since he wouldn't be able to stand in a long line to get one. He's going with several friends to this 700 acre facility. They have a campsite reserved and plan to camp out. I'll be on standby to make the 3 hour drive to go get him if he finds that he's not able to make it through the whole festival.

Happy Birthday, Taylor!!!

8:10pm

Taylor didn't want any cake, but at least he agreed to blow out the candles. I guess he wasn't "too cool" for that afterall.

The "after" picture

9:55am

Taylor hasn't touched the cane since he put it down weeks ago. He went "Cold Turkey", and has been working out at the gym to improve his walking. There are some days when you'd never have a clue that anything had ever happened. When he's tired, or when he hasn't gotten up to speed in the mornings there is still an inkling that he had an injury, but those who don't know him may never suspect anything.

We recently spent a week in west Tennessee at the "Taylors of Tabernacle" family reunion of the Taylor family - ancestors of Taylor's mother's family. WOW! That's a lot of "Taylor's" for one sentence! This year was the 182nd year the weeklong reunion, and way too hard to describe here. To find out more about it, you can read this Southern Living story or check out this video a Memphis television station did this year.

I figured this would be a good place to get a photo of Taylor "post surgery", since there is NO way he'd ever pose for a picture. In fact, as you can tell by the one I did get, he wasn't too tickled that I was taking a photo of him.

The surgery was a HUGE success. The right side of his face had pulled the paralyzed (left) side hard to the right. The ridge above his top lip had pulled to the right, so even in the resting position, the paralysis was very evident. That is all gone now, and he is VERY happy with how it's turned out. Taylor now looks just like he did before the accident. Although we had gotten use to how he looked with the paralysis, and were just thrilled that we had him to look at, it was really amazing to see him for the first time after he came out of surgery. He looked like the "old Taylor", only puffy.

Another side effect of Taylor's injury is a damaged internal Thermostat. His tolerance for heat is very, very low. It's a common condition with some brain injury patients. Being outside in west Tennessee in the summer, where temperatures were in the mid 90's and humidity at 85% for the first few days, was not the best place for him to be, but he tolerated it. We've spoken to his Neurologist and although there is some medication that can help, it apparently has some side effects that the Dr. would rather not put him through. So, unless he begins to sweat in air conditioning (as some patients do), he'll just have to learn new ways to keep cool.

Shaking the cane

9:20am

Taylor has been working out 3 times a week at the gym and had planned to get rid of the cane by Christmas. He and his cousin Emily Simmons have a little contest going on and it looks like Taylor may win. Sorry Emily! He's a little ahead of his target date. Yesterday was his 2nd full day when he left the cane at home.

We thought that may a little too daring and that he should at least keep it in his car, but he decided to go Cold Turkey. He's done really well. He said he felt confident without it, and didn't feel the need for it while he was out with friends.

Taylor still has a little swelling from his surgery, and there are still some visible lines from where the stitches were, but that's clearing up. Once he was able to get out of the house, he rode around to see all his friends so he could show off his new look. He didn't say anything, and didn't have to, but it's obvious that he really likes how it turned out. So do we.

It was worth the pain

12:55pm

Taylor's surgery went very well. It lasted a couple of hours longer than what we thought. He was in for about 6 hours. Dr. Adelson said that mitigating the Trach scar was a little trickier than he expected because the skin had attached to the muscle beneath the scar so he had to do some extra cutting to get it fixed right. The quarter size scar, that was about 1/8" deep is now completely gone. He'll have a hair line scar from the stitches, but it will turn out looking more like a tiny crease in skin than a scar. All total, there are a hundred or so stitches. There looks to be about 40 in one 3" incision, but they were done with magnifying equipment and are so tiny they are really hard to see.

In the Post Op room, Taylor was in quite a bit of pain. He was given Dilaudid to make him more comfortable, but then he had to deal with his nose itching. That's a side effect that he had every time he got Dilaudid when he was in Lakeland Regional. He has painkillers to make him more comfortable now, but the pain has subsided quite a bit so he's trying to tough it out rather than take medication. He'll be doing a lot of nothing for the next week.

Even with the swelling (and there is a lot of it), it was obvious that this procedure has taken out the droop. When I asked him to smile, it looks almost like his pre-accident smile....a HUGE difference. It was enough to trigger watery eyes.....in us, not him. He asked me to take a photo to see how it looked, but Suzie had a mirror and handed it to him. He said the results were worth the pain.

Before this procedure, someone who didn't know Taylor would realize that something had happened resulting in the facial paralysis. Now, I don't think anyone will have a clue. He will just smile more out of one side his mouth than the other. His mother reminds him that's how Harrison Ford smiles naturally.

When we visited the Doctor today before we left, he found that some blood had pooled in the jaw area, so removed that with a needle and syringe. He said it's not uncommon to have to do that, but he didn't expect it would be a problem after today. He said the swelling will be worse tomorrow and should start going away on Sunday.

We'll return on Monday for the Doctor to check everything just to make certain there is no residual blood and to check for infection. There is a small risk, since there are foreign objects in there now. He's wearing a "jaw bra" - an elastic binding that keeps a large bandage pressing on the left side of his head. It kind of looks like something Curly of The Three Stooges would come up with to relieve pain from a tooth ache. Very fashionable!

Then, next Friday we'll return for the stitches to be removed. I think we may go back one final time the week after that, and that visit will wrap this procedure up. His last surgery will be the muscle/nerve transplant that he'll do sometime early next year that will help restore movement in the left side of his face.

I'll post a photo of him as soon as the swelling is gone. The difference is really remarkable.

Surgery Finalized

7:20am

Yesterday Taylor met with the Doctor at Shands so he could assess Taylor's health, finalize plans and have Taylor sign the medical releases for surgery next Thursday. This will be Taylor's 5th surgery, but the first one where he was well enough to sign the release. As with all surgeries, there was a long list of things that could potentially be a problem, but the procedure is overall a safe one. And, compared to what he's been through, it rates pretty low on the risk scale.

Although he initially decided against having it done now, he's decided to have the Doctor work on the Trach scar, which is about 3/4" in diameter. The Doctor offered during Taylor's last visit to work on that while he was undergoing the sling procedure for his face, but Taylor thought that would be too much at one time. Yesterday he changed his mind and wants to get it all done next Thursday.

He was given the choice of using a banding material made from a cow fetus or a human cadaver. He said "I'll take the cow".

The surgery is planned for 9am, but Taylor has to be there at 7am. The procedure will take about 3 hours and he will be in the Recovery Room for a couple of hours, so it will be a full day at the hospital.

Suzie's cousin, Emily Simmons, lives nearby so we'll stay with her Wednesday night and again Thursday night. Taylor meets with the Doctor at 8am on Thursday and then we'll make the drive back home. The Doctor gave Taylor a prescription for pain killers, so he probably won't mind the ride back.

Keep Taylor in your prayers next Thursday!

No change in vision - Surgery 2 weeks away

Today Taylor met with his Opthamologist, Gary Schemmer, who checked his double vision and found no change since his last visit a few months ago. The Nystagmus (involuntary shaking of the eyes) continues to be a problem that causes blurred vision. If Taylor turns his head to the right a couple of inches, the vision clears up.

Fortunately, it's not a real inconvenience for him and he's able to compensate for the Nystagmus by just turning his head a little. When he was in the hospital and in rehab, the shaking of the eyes was much more severe. And, for weeks his left eye only moved 1/4 inch or so. Now, you can't tell there is a problem by looking at him. The shaking is not evident to anyone but Taylor. And, it's enough to still cause some blurred vision unless he turns his head while continuing to look straight.

Dr. Schemmer is going to consult with Dr. Susac, a Neurologist, to determine if Taylor may be a candidate for surgery to correct the Nystagmus. He said that at 15 months after the accident, he would have expected to see further improvement if it was going to happen.

Next week, we return to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville for the pre-operation meeting with Taylor's Doctor there. Taylor's final in his the Accounting class (the Accounting class that he has an A in, by the way!) he's taking this summer term is on June 18th, so we'll leave after school for Gainesville and stay the night. The surgery schedule for June 19th isn't finalized until late in the day on the 18th. The hospital notifies patients the evening before the scheduled surgery what time to be there, so rather than take a chance on having to get up at 3am and make the 2 1/2 hour drive, we'll go early.

The surgery will last a couple of hours and he'll stay at the hospital for a while, but be released later that day. We'll stay overnight on the 19th and he'll see the Doctor before we head back home.

Taylor is really looking forward to this surgery. The left side of his face is pulling to the right, and this procedure will help correct that and take some of the droop out of the paralyzed left side. There will be quite a bit of cutting done, so he'll probably be pretty sore for a few days.