The Beginning Of 12 Long Weeks...

On September 6, 2018, Ty played in a football game with his middle school team: Glenvar Vs. William Byrd. Ty's positions that night were linebacker, running back, kicker, and kick off specialist.  It was just like any game. I didn't get any weird feelings or "vibes". I was there and so excited to cheer him on.  

Tyson's teammates and friends (since Kindergarten), Gabe and Jackson, were already injured. Gabe broke his hand and Jackson broke his tibia, in the previous week's game. These three were committed athletes and over the years have been seen in photos together since biddy ball.  Here are just two photos that I could quickly find.  

We had a few good plays from Ty.  Below, he kicks an extra point.   

Ty was filling the role as running back for one of them at all times. Was it crazy that his two best friends were injured and now he would be taking their place? It almost seemed inevitable that he would be next. Below: After the QB handed Ty the ball, Ty was tackled HARD and out of no where. Ouch! Where were his dang peeps to protect him? Was this a sign? Sigh... On this particular night, I wish I would have been able to see into the future. I would have made him sit out.   

Then, it happened. The below youtube video is of the ENTIRE game, so to see the injury, please fast forward to minute 9:29. I suggest, to get a really good view of it, watching it in slow-motion @ speed .25.  If you don't, it's so hard to see because it all happens so fast.  

Ty shook his finger and new he was injured.  He was taken out of the game immediately.  The coach asked if he could go back in.  Being the tough guy that he is, he said, "I guess!" Ty had no way of knowing the severity of his injury. He thought he jammed his finger.  Seems plausible, right?  So, the coach taped his fingers and back in he went.  AHHHHHHH! Had we KNOWN what his injury was, we would have known that that was THE WORST decision ever.  When the coach was looking at his finger, Ty said "The coach asked me to bend my fingers.  All of my fingers went down BUT ONE! It was so weird. I physically could NOT bend my finger! Like, it didn't work."

With the suggestion of Ty's coaches, after the game, I took Ty to the ER. The doctors came in and did a series of tests with his hand, just physically.  The X-ray revealed that there was NO BREAK. However, the doctors were very confident that Ty tore the tendon in his finger just based off of his inabilities to bend his finger.  Unfortunately, X-rays do NOT reveal a muscle tear.  We were sent home and told to schedule an appointment with a hand surgeon the next day.  We had NO IDEA what would be revealed next to us.  We chose Dr. Apel.

Before the night ended and long into the midmorning, the next day, Darren was at work TORTURING himself reading up on football injuries. He narrowed it down to three injuries: a jammed finger, a broken finger, and jersey finger.  The latter being the worst case scenario.  

After visiting the PA, Kathryn Hoyt (Dr. Apel was not available.), she was very straight forward and revealed to us that Ty's injury was indeed Jersey Finger. She proceeded to follow that diagnosis up with, "This is a very serious injury.  It requires surgery and an intense 12 weeks of occupational therapy."  The nurse made Ty a homemade brace, to rest his finger/hand in, and he was told to eliminate use of the hand altogether.  When you tear a tendon, the next 7 days are CRITICAL to the success of your recovery.  Ty should have NEVER been put back in the game.  What happens is, the more you TRY to use your hand the normal way, the further and further into your arm the tendon retracts. Ahhh, typing this makes my fingers, hands, and wrists just ache, thinking about it.  Because Ty continued to play the game, he was using his hand and trying to use his finger, so his tendon was retracting.  WHERE? Well, we wouldn't know until surgery.  SO, the next step... surgery. We scheduled it for September 11th.  

I called Darren and had Kathryn talk to him. He asked a few questions and then the phone was handed to me.  Of course, there was crickets on the other side of the phone and probably a tear or 10. Darren did eventually speak up and say, "OH NO! Kristin this was the worst case scenario." I had already known that based off of what the PA told me.

This was the update I gave to his team and coaches: 

We are finished up at Carillon Orthopedics. The news is, to say the least, not good. The surgeon diagnosed Tyson’s injury as “Jersey Finger”. She said this injury is detrimental and very serious. It will require a 90 minute surgery (at the minimum) on Tuesday afternoon. Depending on where the tendon has retracted to and is currently residing, will determine how far down they will have to cut on his hand. They will be doing zig zag stitches. It will be a 12+ weeks recovery process, which will require 2-3 days, per week, of physical therapy.  He will have to miss 3-5 days of school post surgery and is not allowed to play basketball this season. I recognize and acknowledge that this is all temporary and it could be a lot worse. It’s not cancer, paralysis, or death, but still not the easiest news to deliver to an athlete, at all. Thank you all for supporting us. Your kind messages and prayers are so very comforting. Ty will for sure enjoy a buddy or 10 to come hang out with him and cheer him up.  And if nothing else, I’m curious if this will be ending his FortNite career.  Trying to keep my humor during this difficult time. *Disclaimer: If you are queasy, do not click on the hashtag “jersey finger”!P.S. This is his writing hand, so does anyone have any idea how this will be handled at school as far as work load is concerned? #JerseyFinger

Ty shed a few tears.  I don't think he was truly aware of what the next 12 weeks would look like.  Denial was a good word. He did convince me to pick him up the NEWLY released NBA 2K19.  If he was out for the basketball season, the next best way to play was this game.  Although, how would he do that with one hand? #Pitiful

On September 8th, two days later, even if it meant he had to sit and watch. I recall dropping him off and watching him walk into that gym. My heart was simply BROKEN. I documented my feelings at this moment:

His struggle takes my breath away.  I've been crying on and off all day for him.  I'd take two broken legs in exchange for this trial he is enduring.  And now... he walks himself into open gum, with is head held high. This is the moment he's been waiting for literally ALLLLLLL Summer, just to sit on the bench and watch his p peers practice.  There's no "I" in team and he's making that very evident.  He has never made me more proud in all of 13 years of being his momma.  As I cry, he cheers others on.  

After he walked into the building, I headed home, but had to pull over at our local library's parking lot and just cry and cry and cry.  

On September 10th, Ty got his second round of braces.  YUP, the day before his hand surgery.  It was a prescheduled appointment and there was no backing out.  We were counting down the days until September 11th.  Sounds odd right? NOPE! The sooner the better, the less that tendon would retract into his arm, and the closer he would be to recovering.  

In the meantime, I investigated Jersey Finger like it was a matter of life or death. I wanted to KNOW ALL OF THE DETAILS, good, bad, and HORRIBLE.  So, I began my own research and interviewing people who had been through this. The responses were, well.... not the easiest to hear.  Jersey Finger happens so infrequently. It's just a freak accident really. So I didn't have a ton of documented resources. I decided to use Instagram hashtags to reach out to people and learn as much as I could. Unfortunately, before I started documenting/using the hashtag myself, there were only about 152 hashtags for it.  I direct messaged those who posted on their injuries. Everyone responded, but their responses always had so much negativity attached to their recovery.  

I had to leave this entire situation in God's hands (PUN NOT INTENDED).  I had to trust that no matter what, HE was sovereign and that HE would secure the outcome! Stay tuned... before the week is over, I will definitely be posting some more about Ty's Jersey Finger experience, including photos of his actual hand surgery!

Here's a sneak peak photo of Ty pre-op!

One thing I will say is that our boys, especially, have been playing sports for YEARS and the fact that this was Ty's first sports injury, EVER, was amazing. BUT... Darren and I BOTH agreed, we would have much rather Ty BREAK his finger, than tear his tendon, unfortunately, that wasn't our decision.  It was God's plan and His plans are always better.

Guess Who's Back?

Although I haven't discussed the entire Jersey Finger injury just yet, I MUST start with the day that Ty was actually released by Dr. Apel. A few weeks prior to his possible release date, we had an appointment with Dr. Apel and Ty expressed his desires and recovery goals. Ty desired to be able to play AT LEAST half of the basketball season for his middle school team. Ty's injury happend on September 6th, the surgery took place on September 11th, and from that point forward we were told that a full recovery takes a MINIMUM of 12 weeks. Sigh... November 19th was 9 weeks and 6 days. At this visit, Dr. Apel looked at Ty and said, "Your mom and dad care about your well being for the next 10 years, but I care about your well being for a lifetime.  You have all the time in the world to play ball. We have got to get this finger right and putting you back on the court too soon could cause long term damaging effects!" He made NO promises to Tyson and truly gave us the impression that his goals and desires would not be met.  He did NOT want to give us any false hope.  AND I didn't want to give Ty any false hope either, but on the morning of his appointment, the appointment that we were banking on hearing those words, "Go play ball!", I had to set up the breakfast table with some preconceived notions that it was going to happen! I don't think there is anything wrong in staying in the positive, do you?

 I decorated the kitchen in Glenvar colors, a basketball tablescape, and displayed Ty's jersey number, #5.

I am not going to lie, I wasn't sure if I could handle the smiles from him seeing this setup and then the huge let down if Dr. Apel told him that he still needed more therapy/time.

Regardless, what I had hoped Ty really saw in this pre-celebratory breakfast was a mom who believed in him!

Breakfast was nothing fancy.  Half the time my kids can barely make it down before the bus arrives.  It never used to be that way, but now that they are getting older and now that they are so involved in extracirculars, their bedtime is later, so their wake time is more difficult. I served mini pancakes, representing basketballs, and turned his bacon into a #5.

I also served clementines, representing basketballs, and ORANGE juice.

I am so pleased with how it all turned out.

Off to occupational therapy we go! Our therapist, Amy, and NOW LipSense customer worked with Ty, on what we had hoped would be his last appointment. She measured him and told him, "I can't see why you wouldn't be released!" Eek! She knows her stuff, but she isn't the doctor, so we felt ONE STEP CLOSER, but still had to hear the words form the doc.

Before the appointment with Dr. Apel, Ty had a session in the fluidotherapy machine. Towards the end of his occupational therapy, he was using this machine at each visit.  

It was hard to capture Ty's hand inside of this machine because of the glare, but this machine was really interesting to learn about and witness do it's magic on Ty's injury. This fluidotherapy machine circulates warm, ground corn husks around the extremities at 114 degrees.   

With NO guarantee that Ty would be released, we still took a photo of Amy and Ty together.  I hate that I didn't look at the photo before leaving. I'm sorry, Amy, that I captured you with your eyes closed, but you are still looking gorgeous as ever with that full face of SeneGence products on.  :)

Then upstairs, to see Dr. Apel we went! He is a cool doctor. He's very matter of fact, intelligent, funny, personable, AND very serious about giving his patients the BEST care, instruction, and advise.  He refuses to release anyone until a full recovery is made.  Again, we were told from the VERY GET GO that Ty's recovery would be very intense, long, AND a minimum of 12 weeks. BUT, on week 9 and day 6, Ty was RELEASED TO PLAY BALL!

 Ty had to make that call to his dad and tell him the good news!

Dr. Apel asked Ty what he desired and his wish was granted AND NOT BECAUSE it was what Ty wanted, but because Ty had made a BIG ENOUGH recovery to be truly be released. Ty was also released from occupational therapy in addition to doing his exercises that he had been doing EVERY WAKING TWO HOURS, ON THE DOT. Doctor's orders were to just not "hang on the basketball net" because that's the other way that people typically get jersey finger. Fortunately, Ty is not tall enough to hang off the net yet.

Later that day, just as Ty had hoped and dreamed, Ty played in his FIRST basketball game and scored over 27 points! He was ON FIRE!!!!! And we were so proud and oh so excited to see our boy back on the court.

His season has since ended, but I received a phone call from the JV coach, two Fridays ago.  He invited ONE player to move up and play on the JV team.  Guess who they chose????? TY!!!!!! They were even out of jerseys and the coach special ordered one for him! God is so good!!!!!

After Ty's game, he returned home to a celebratory dinner.  Sadly, I wasn't home.  I was at the theater with Lilah. I made a homemade lasagna and cheesecake! 

 #SoFun #EveryLittleThingIsABIGDeal

WOW! Life Has Been INSANE!

Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I just went to "Blogger" to see when I last posted and I am so sad to SEE that it has been ALMOST a FULL 2 MONTHS! This has absolutely NEVER happened before.  My back log is so long, I'd have to be bed ridden for two months or longer to get caught up.  I have been very diligent to post on Instagram because it is so quick and easy.  BUT my BLOG is truly my baby and where my passion began, so I will NEVER give this up. I just had to let blogging take a back seat for these last two months.  What has been keeping me so busy aside from NORMAL life responsibilities that we all have?

Well... Lilah was casted to be an orphan, in ANNIE, as you may have previously read.  This required her and I to drive (3) nights, per week, to Fincastle. Most nights we were not getting home until close to 10:45 pm.  And she wasn't just in theater.  She is a competitive dancer, at Divine Dance Center, taking (4) classes and practicing for (1) duo, plus cheerleading, which has since ended, and NOW basketball.  Here are a few sneak peaks of her Annie memories.  Clearly, I will be posting them all very sooon! Lilah had (9) shows, three weekends back to back.  Again, our drive to Fincastle is 34 minutes, there and back, on a GOOD day.

Tyson was injured back in September.  He tore his tendon in his ring finger.  Otherwise known as "Jersey Finger".  It sounds like nothing, but it was actually very intense.  He had to go through hand surgery and (12) full weeks of occupational therapy.  The therapy required him to get out of class early, 2-3 days per week, and we had to drive a good 32 minutes away to his therapy appointments AND back.  Round trip, with the appointment time included, we were tied up for a good 2 hours, again 2-3 per week for 12 weeks.

We never thought that basketball would be an option this year.  However, he tried out with one hand, made the team, and was granted the captain of his team. Not only did he get released, to play during before the middle school season was over, but the JV coach called me and asked if Ty would be able to move up to JV after his middle school season was over.  God is so good! Ty was the only one chosen to move up.

Our Jax was in football and is now on not one, but TWO basketball teams.  One local youth program and one traveling, AAU team.  He keeps us equally as busy as we cart him back and forth to practices, games, and film sessions.  

My LipSense business hit an entirely NEW level over the last two months.  I had my absolute best month, since being in business, in November. It was truly unprecedented both financially and personally.  I feel so empowered and beyond grateful and blessed to be a part of such a fabulous company.  I thoroughly enjoy meeting so many new women and being able to share my love of SeneGence with them. I currently have (37) ladies under me. 

I ranked (3) different times in only two months. I know that seems impossible right? I ranked two times in my outter circles and once in my inner circles.  I received a ruby ring, a ruby pin, and my sapphire pin is on it's way! I am now ranked "LADY" within the company.

I got ONE foot of hair cut off and donated it to Pantene's donating program.  I feel lighter, haha.

My mom and dad moved here in July.  Life has been filled with trying to help them get settled into a new place.  I was able to celebrate their birthdays with them. in October and then in November.  I redid parts of their bedrooms and that took a ton of back and forth to their home and to stores trying to get it all color coordinated and looking beautiful/gorgeous.  

And our elves have arrived.  This task alone, because of the way I do it, is enough to be a TRUE full time job! They have really gotten themselves into a ton of fun, messy, and eventful situations.  It's a wonderful memory and tradition, but it is very time consuming.  You can catch all of our elf shenanigans on my Instagram account @BollingWith5 AND/OR look up hashtag, "ElfOnTheShelfBW5".

These are just a FEW of the things that we have had going on, but rest assured there were 1,000 other things in between, like my sisters came to visit, a LipSense party, Thanksgiving, Christmas Shopping, banquets, a cast party, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, haircuts, Christmas decorating, birthdays, and so much more.  I appreciate your patience as we try to do life. I know my faithful followers will stay put regardless of the quantities of times I am able to post, but it is my intention to get back into the grove.  I love you all.  AND from our family to yours, 

WE wish you a very Merry Christmas and a HAPPY New Year!