Sunday, March 17, 2013
Engineering for Dummies
Melinda took over the blogging about noah trachs and CCHS in general and she does a much better job at it than I ever have so I have decided to change the focus of my blog. Im going to focus on engineering and what I have learned running a business. This might not be as interesting as CCHS and Noah but its very relevant to me and what I do. So here goes Chris' Blog 2.0
Friday, April 13, 2012
Spike This (Part 4) - The Good, The Bad and the Swedish
After the middle school volleyball season ended Beth decided she wanted to play more volleyball. I thought volleyball might have been over for us but she really seemed to enjoy playing and wanted to continue. To continue playing in the off season you have to sign up for a club team. As I have learned this is an entirely different animal all together. Actually I have learned a lot of things since the school season ended, like that she just really scratched the surface of this volleyball stuff at school and there was a whole lot more to learn.
We began to investigate different club teams and narrowed our choices down to Alabama Juniors and Team Sting. Beth attended both tryouts and was accepted onto both teams. She decided that she liked Team Sting better, which was fine with me since the training facility was closer to the house. In November they started having workouts and preseason conditioning for the players. These were all held at D1 sports in homewood. Most of the workouts consisted of different exercises to strengthen and condition the players for volleyball.
Volleyball teams are divided into Divisions by age. Beth is 13 and turns 14 in august. This puts her in the 14 and under division. The team that she was placed on was the 14 Local team. We chose a local team this year so that we wouldnt have to do much if any traveling. Initially, she was placed on a team with 6 other girls. As the preseason workouts progressed we were notified that they were merging the 15 Local teams and the 14 local teams to create two 15 year old teams. This was due to the fact that beths team only had 7 players which is a couple short and the 15 local team had 12 players which is too many (did i mention that her school team had 18 players, yikes!!!) When they merged they created a team with 9 players and a team with 10 players which works much better. Beth was placed on the higher level team with mostly 15 year olds.
In December the practices started in earnest and Beth learned that everything she knew was wrong. She found out that she served wrong, she stood wrong and she moved wrong. the process of relearning how to play volleyball again had started. She attended practices twice a week and gradually she got her game back together. She learned how to serve correctly over hand, pass, block and spike.
Club volleyball is a tournament based sport. In beths teams case they practice all season for 4 tournaments. Originally, the first tournament was supposed to be played in February but as it turns out the tournament was overbooked and team sting had to reschedule a new tournament. The first tournament was chosen to be the gadsden volleyball tournament in march. the girls had been practicing for nearly 3 months without playing a real game and were ready to play someone else besides the other team sting teams.
the day of the tournament came...
Needless to say beth was nervous. She hadn't played a volleyball game since late September and had never played a game with team sting. The first tournament was in Gadsden so we got up early the morning of the tournament and got ready to go. The ride was pretty quiet (mainly because we were all still asleep, or wished that we were). We got to gadsden and started and went into the tournament. I ould tell that Beth really was a feeling very nervous. What she didn't know is that I had a surprise for her. Beth loves Swedish Fish. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are these little gummy fish. But they are very stiff, much more so than regular gummy bears. They are also not very sweet. Anyway, I secretly brought her some Swedish fish and I gave them to her before she wnet into the tournament. The effect was immediate, she calmed down and started to smile. She seemed to get her confidence back and went into the school. Beth met up with her coach and her team and they went to start stretching and getting set to play.
The pool play portion of this tournament consisted of four matches for each team. Stings opponents were NASA VBC, Gadsden VBC, Alabama Elite and Southwest Georgia VBC. They played their games well. In the end the team only won 2 of their 8 games but beth played well and went on several sustained serving runs. One of them was 9 consecutive serves and the other was 6. I was very proud of her. I have said before that I never pictured my daughter as the sporty type but she has repeatedly proven me wrong with that. She is one heck of a volleyball player and I am eager to see what she does next.
We began to investigate different club teams and narrowed our choices down to Alabama Juniors and Team Sting. Beth attended both tryouts and was accepted onto both teams. She decided that she liked Team Sting better, which was fine with me since the training facility was closer to the house. In November they started having workouts and preseason conditioning for the players. These were all held at D1 sports in homewood. Most of the workouts consisted of different exercises to strengthen and condition the players for volleyball.
Volleyball teams are divided into Divisions by age. Beth is 13 and turns 14 in august. This puts her in the 14 and under division. The team that she was placed on was the 14 Local team. We chose a local team this year so that we wouldnt have to do much if any traveling. Initially, she was placed on a team with 6 other girls. As the preseason workouts progressed we were notified that they were merging the 15 Local teams and the 14 local teams to create two 15 year old teams. This was due to the fact that beths team only had 7 players which is a couple short and the 15 local team had 12 players which is too many (did i mention that her school team had 18 players, yikes!!!) When they merged they created a team with 9 players and a team with 10 players which works much better. Beth was placed on the higher level team with mostly 15 year olds.
In December the practices started in earnest and Beth learned that everything she knew was wrong. She found out that she served wrong, she stood wrong and she moved wrong. the process of relearning how to play volleyball again had started. She attended practices twice a week and gradually she got her game back together. She learned how to serve correctly over hand, pass, block and spike.
Club volleyball is a tournament based sport. In beths teams case they practice all season for 4 tournaments. Originally, the first tournament was supposed to be played in February but as it turns out the tournament was overbooked and team sting had to reschedule a new tournament. The first tournament was chosen to be the gadsden volleyball tournament in march. the girls had been practicing for nearly 3 months without playing a real game and were ready to play someone else besides the other team sting teams.
the day of the tournament came...
Needless to say beth was nervous. She hadn't played a volleyball game since late September and had never played a game with team sting. The first tournament was in Gadsden so we got up early the morning of the tournament and got ready to go. The ride was pretty quiet (mainly because we were all still asleep, or wished that we were). We got to gadsden and started and went into the tournament. I ould tell that Beth really was a feeling very nervous. What she didn't know is that I had a surprise for her. Beth loves Swedish Fish. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are these little gummy fish. But they are very stiff, much more so than regular gummy bears. They are also not very sweet. Anyway, I secretly brought her some Swedish fish and I gave them to her before she wnet into the tournament. The effect was immediate, she calmed down and started to smile. She seemed to get her confidence back and went into the school. Beth met up with her coach and her team and they went to start stretching and getting set to play.
The pool play portion of this tournament consisted of four matches for each team. Stings opponents were NASA VBC, Gadsden VBC, Alabama Elite and Southwest Georgia VBC. They played their games well. In the end the team only won 2 of their 8 games but beth played well and went on several sustained serving runs. One of them was 9 consecutive serves and the other was 6. I was very proud of her. I have said before that I never pictured my daughter as the sporty type but she has repeatedly proven me wrong with that. She is one heck of a volleyball player and I am eager to see what she does next.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Mediate This...
I was involved in a mediation this past week. That in itself is not that interesting. I mean the process is interesting from a legal stand point. Rather than going to a court like a lawsuit or having a panel of arbitrators and hearing evidence you sit in two different rooms and a mediator goes back and forth trying to negotiate the differences and come to a solution. It reminds me a lot of buying a car. You make an offer to the mediator (your salesman) and he goes to the other party (the sales manager) and tries to get them to accept the deal. When they don't he comes back with a counter offer and so on until one of two things happen; you settle on a deal or you get so tired and pissed that you walk out and decide to take the other party to court. But like i said, that wasn't the interesting part just the setting...
Lets go back in time a little bit...
When I was in high school and college we went to East Lake United Methodist Church. During that time I decided that I was going into engineering for my career and we had a pretty big group of youth that were graduating and going to college around the same time. One of the ministries that developed in the church was a mentoring ministry where an someone in the church would "adopt" one of the college students and help guide them as they went through school. Ideally, the mentor would be in a similar career field to the student so that they could provide relevant experience and advice and possibly even help with contacts and getting a job once you got out of school.
My mentor was Jim Smith (the names have been changed to protect those involved). He was the president of Smith and Jones Engineering which was a local consulting engineering firm that did electrical and mechanical engineering. Mr. Smith and I kept in touch pretty regularly since I was going to school in town and was at church most every weekend. He also made a point of telling me to let him know when I was close to graduating and he would see what we could work out about some sort of job. At the time the economy was not great and the job market for engineers was slow. Finding a job was not easy for newly graduated engineers.
I entered my Junior Year of college and I began to look for a co-op job. In engineering school you are encouraged to take a co-op position in the last couple of years to expand your experience and help get you ready for the "real world". Quite often these co-op positions become permanent positions with many firms like Southern Company, BE&K and Rust (I'm dating myself since most of these companies have changed names). I thought this was the ideal chance to go ahead and let Mr. Smith know that I was getting close to graduation and looking for a co-op job since he had made a point to tell me to get with him when the time was right. I talked to him and explained my desire for a co-op job and he said that they were looking for a couple of co-op positions. I went to their office (by now they had changed their name to BQR Engineering) and met with Mr. Smith. He passed me off to one of the engineers that worked in the mechanical department. I got an interview and a tour of the building. I thought I was on my way. A week went by and I didn't hear anything so I checked with Mr. Smith at church and he said that he would see what was going on. Another week went by and I didn't hear anything. I called him and he told me that they had filled the positions. He said that he was sorry but that it was the mechanical engineers decision and he had chosen someone else. He then told me not to worrry that he would "take care of me" next time and make sure that didnt happen again. I was disappointed but I felt like I still would have a job in a year or so when I got out of school. In the mean time I got a co-op position with the City of Birmingham Engineering Department. We didn't really do that much but I got to do a lot of home work.
Another couple of years passed and graduation was getting close. My co-op job with the City was just a co-op and would end when I graduated so I had to start looking for a "real" job. I remembered what Mr. Smith had told me and called him again thinking that this time would be different and I would have a job that would become a career and I would be able to take care of my new wife and provide for her and the family that we wanted to have. He asked me to come down and talk to him so I did. I went to his office and we had a nice talk and at the end he told me that he didn't have anything right now but that he would call me as soon as a position was available. I told him that was great and that I was willing to do anything to get started. He said that he understood. I left, again thinking that a job was a sure thing and that I would be hired soon. Weeks turned into months and no job ever materialized. Finally, the time was approaching for my wedding to Melinda and i knew that I had to find some job that I would be able to have insurance for us so I finally went to work at Randy's Computers selling computers. In over 2-1/2 years I was unable to get a job doing anything at BQR after virtually being promised a job. The rest is history; I finally got a job at Miller and Weaver and from there joined BBG&S Engineering as a partner.
Back to 2012...
So the week before the mediation the attorney for the side that I was assisting called me to go over the process and told me that the way mediation works is that your party sits on one room and the other party sits in the other room and you rarely if ever see each other and the mediator goes between them negotiating the dispute. This put me at ease a little since the engineering firm that is in the dispute is the one where I tried to get a job and Mr. Smith was the president. Now we work with them on some projects so I have to interact with them on a regular basis. Well of course the first thing that the mediator does is put us in the same room to start. And to make matters worse the president of the company is the one that came to represent them in the mediation. Did I mention that he is the son of the guy that didn't give me a job on two occasions???
Wait...
Why am I upset?
Dont I want to stick it to them a little?
No, thats not the way I am, thats not how I roll.
Well ok I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that enjoyed it a little.
Anyway, it was more awkward than anything. I just didn't like being in the room with them and having to tell them all of the things that their firm screwed up on this project. Its a first for me and I don't hope to repeat the process either as a member of the prosecution or defense.
What I really thought about most of the time was how all of this might have been different if they had given me that job so many years ago. Would I have been the engineer on that project? Would I have been able to make a difference and keep them out of the court proceeding? Would I have been the one making the huge mistakes and costing the company thousands of dollars in legal fees and settlement costs? How would my life and my career been different? How would the reputation of that company been different? These are all interesting questions that I have no answers to?
I just find it very ironic that I was the one who was calling them out on their mistakes and that my testimony is the one that prevented them from getting out of the case and forced them to have to go to mediation and settle. I guess the moral of the story is that you should beware of even making what appear to be small mistakes in life because you never know which ones are going to come back in a big way and bite you in the ass later down the road.
Lets go back in time a little bit...
When I was in high school and college we went to East Lake United Methodist Church. During that time I decided that I was going into engineering for my career and we had a pretty big group of youth that were graduating and going to college around the same time. One of the ministries that developed in the church was a mentoring ministry where an someone in the church would "adopt" one of the college students and help guide them as they went through school. Ideally, the mentor would be in a similar career field to the student so that they could provide relevant experience and advice and possibly even help with contacts and getting a job once you got out of school.
My mentor was Jim Smith (the names have been changed to protect those involved). He was the president of Smith and Jones Engineering which was a local consulting engineering firm that did electrical and mechanical engineering. Mr. Smith and I kept in touch pretty regularly since I was going to school in town and was at church most every weekend. He also made a point of telling me to let him know when I was close to graduating and he would see what we could work out about some sort of job. At the time the economy was not great and the job market for engineers was slow. Finding a job was not easy for newly graduated engineers.
I entered my Junior Year of college and I began to look for a co-op job. In engineering school you are encouraged to take a co-op position in the last couple of years to expand your experience and help get you ready for the "real world". Quite often these co-op positions become permanent positions with many firms like Southern Company, BE&K and Rust (I'm dating myself since most of these companies have changed names). I thought this was the ideal chance to go ahead and let Mr. Smith know that I was getting close to graduation and looking for a co-op job since he had made a point to tell me to get with him when the time was right. I talked to him and explained my desire for a co-op job and he said that they were looking for a couple of co-op positions. I went to their office (by now they had changed their name to BQR Engineering) and met with Mr. Smith. He passed me off to one of the engineers that worked in the mechanical department. I got an interview and a tour of the building. I thought I was on my way. A week went by and I didn't hear anything so I checked with Mr. Smith at church and he said that he would see what was going on. Another week went by and I didn't hear anything. I called him and he told me that they had filled the positions. He said that he was sorry but that it was the mechanical engineers decision and he had chosen someone else. He then told me not to worrry that he would "take care of me" next time and make sure that didnt happen again. I was disappointed but I felt like I still would have a job in a year or so when I got out of school. In the mean time I got a co-op position with the City of Birmingham Engineering Department. We didn't really do that much but I got to do a lot of home work.
Another couple of years passed and graduation was getting close. My co-op job with the City was just a co-op and would end when I graduated so I had to start looking for a "real" job. I remembered what Mr. Smith had told me and called him again thinking that this time would be different and I would have a job that would become a career and I would be able to take care of my new wife and provide for her and the family that we wanted to have. He asked me to come down and talk to him so I did. I went to his office and we had a nice talk and at the end he told me that he didn't have anything right now but that he would call me as soon as a position was available. I told him that was great and that I was willing to do anything to get started. He said that he understood. I left, again thinking that a job was a sure thing and that I would be hired soon. Weeks turned into months and no job ever materialized. Finally, the time was approaching for my wedding to Melinda and i knew that I had to find some job that I would be able to have insurance for us so I finally went to work at Randy's Computers selling computers. In over 2-1/2 years I was unable to get a job doing anything at BQR after virtually being promised a job. The rest is history; I finally got a job at Miller and Weaver and from there joined BBG&S Engineering as a partner.
Back to 2012...
So the week before the mediation the attorney for the side that I was assisting called me to go over the process and told me that the way mediation works is that your party sits on one room and the other party sits in the other room and you rarely if ever see each other and the mediator goes between them negotiating the dispute. This put me at ease a little since the engineering firm that is in the dispute is the one where I tried to get a job and Mr. Smith was the president. Now we work with them on some projects so I have to interact with them on a regular basis. Well of course the first thing that the mediator does is put us in the same room to start. And to make matters worse the president of the company is the one that came to represent them in the mediation. Did I mention that he is the son of the guy that didn't give me a job on two occasions???
Wait...
Why am I upset?
Dont I want to stick it to them a little?
No, thats not the way I am, thats not how I roll.
Well ok I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that enjoyed it a little.
Anyway, it was more awkward than anything. I just didn't like being in the room with them and having to tell them all of the things that their firm screwed up on this project. Its a first for me and I don't hope to repeat the process either as a member of the prosecution or defense.
What I really thought about most of the time was how all of this might have been different if they had given me that job so many years ago. Would I have been the engineer on that project? Would I have been able to make a difference and keep them out of the court proceeding? Would I have been the one making the huge mistakes and costing the company thousands of dollars in legal fees and settlement costs? How would my life and my career been different? How would the reputation of that company been different? These are all interesting questions that I have no answers to?
I just find it very ironic that I was the one who was calling them out on their mistakes and that my testimony is the one that prevented them from getting out of the case and forced them to have to go to mediation and settle. I guess the moral of the story is that you should beware of even making what appear to be small mistakes in life because you never know which ones are going to come back in a big way and bite you in the ass later down the road.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
2011 A Golden Retrospective
2011 was a very eventful year. I think that it will be remembered by the Golden family as a good year. If you havent been there for the blow by blow this is a recap of the highlights.
Noah: At the beginning of 2011 Noah was getting over the flu and his 3 day hospital stay. From that point on to the end of this year he has been awesome. He hasnt had to have oxygen at all this year and we have controlled his CCHS with nothing more than adjustments to his ventilation rate. For my Non-CCHS friends that is a huge achievement. He has had colds and minor illnesses but we have managed them and due in a large part to a correctly functioning CO2 monitor we are able to accurately measure his CO2 and make the appropritate changes to his ventilator.
Noah has transitioned from using an HME (artifical nose) to a Passy Muir valve and then to a full cap over the course of this year. We now wear the cap on a daily basis. As documented in prvious blog posts, the use of the cap has helped his speech and breathing tremendously. He now knows most of his alphabet and all of his colors. His speech is getting more distinct. This has caused us to lose most of our therapists and for them to declare him on track developmentally with a normal 2 year old. Again that is truly amazing considering where he started from.
On the developmental side Noah has learned to walk and then to run. He is now working on the daunting task of going up and down stairs. My hard headed son has tried to escape from his bed by diving out and learned that this is not the best way to get up in the morning. Noah is also en expert at using an Iphone. He can find it, unlock it and change screens to find his favorite games.
We were once told by one of the doctors that they couldn't say that they felt good about Noah and his prognosis. I'd love to see how he feels about him now.
Hannah: 2011 has been a good year for Hannah too. She has started to transition from a child to a young lady. She has the biggest heart of anyone that I have ever met. She continues to get better at piano and did exceptionally well at the first recital with her new piano teacher. In school, she was evaluated for the RLC (gifted program) program and accepted. She now goes to RLC every Monday and is really enjoying it too. She also is the best big sister that a little brother could have.
Beth: What can I say about Beth... 2011 has been the year of volleyball plain and simple. The year started with Beth deciding that she wanted to play on the school team and then practicing like a mad woman to make the team. Then once the school season was over she decided that she wanted to play on a club team and she went out for that and made it too. So as I write this we are in the beginning of the club season. It will be interesting to see if her new love of volleyball will be something that remains through 2012 and beyond. She has also developed from a young lady into a young woman and is preparing for high school. She is also working on her application for Jefferson County International Baccalaureate high school. She continues to amaze and impress me with her determination.
As a family we went to Disney World this year. We went before in 2008 and had a blast and we all decided that it was time to go back. We were concerned with how Noah would hold up to the heat and the walking required since Disney World is part amusement park and part marathon. He did excellent. Our only gripe was that we had to push the trip back couple of weeks and it turned out to be a hot week. Next time we go we are thinking that we will try for a Thanksgiving trip rather than a summer trip. The family is already talking about the "next" visit.
I hope that 2012 will be as healthy and fun as 2011 was. I look forward to finding out. So we say goodbye to 2011 but we will always have the 12,223 pictures that Melinda (and I) took during the course of the year to remember it by. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2012.
Noah: At the beginning of 2011 Noah was getting over the flu and his 3 day hospital stay. From that point on to the end of this year he has been awesome. He hasnt had to have oxygen at all this year and we have controlled his CCHS with nothing more than adjustments to his ventilation rate. For my Non-CCHS friends that is a huge achievement. He has had colds and minor illnesses but we have managed them and due in a large part to a correctly functioning CO2 monitor we are able to accurately measure his CO2 and make the appropritate changes to his ventilator.
Noah has transitioned from using an HME (artifical nose) to a Passy Muir valve and then to a full cap over the course of this year. We now wear the cap on a daily basis. As documented in prvious blog posts, the use of the cap has helped his speech and breathing tremendously. He now knows most of his alphabet and all of his colors. His speech is getting more distinct. This has caused us to lose most of our therapists and for them to declare him on track developmentally with a normal 2 year old. Again that is truly amazing considering where he started from.
On the developmental side Noah has learned to walk and then to run. He is now working on the daunting task of going up and down stairs. My hard headed son has tried to escape from his bed by diving out and learned that this is not the best way to get up in the morning. Noah is also en expert at using an Iphone. He can find it, unlock it and change screens to find his favorite games.
We were once told by one of the doctors that they couldn't say that they felt good about Noah and his prognosis. I'd love to see how he feels about him now.
Hannah: 2011 has been a good year for Hannah too. She has started to transition from a child to a young lady. She has the biggest heart of anyone that I have ever met. She continues to get better at piano and did exceptionally well at the first recital with her new piano teacher. In school, she was evaluated for the RLC (gifted program) program and accepted. She now goes to RLC every Monday and is really enjoying it too. She also is the best big sister that a little brother could have.
Beth: What can I say about Beth... 2011 has been the year of volleyball plain and simple. The year started with Beth deciding that she wanted to play on the school team and then practicing like a mad woman to make the team. Then once the school season was over she decided that she wanted to play on a club team and she went out for that and made it too. So as I write this we are in the beginning of the club season. It will be interesting to see if her new love of volleyball will be something that remains through 2012 and beyond. She has also developed from a young lady into a young woman and is preparing for high school. She is also working on her application for Jefferson County International Baccalaureate high school. She continues to amaze and impress me with her determination.
As a family we went to Disney World this year. We went before in 2008 and had a blast and we all decided that it was time to go back. We were concerned with how Noah would hold up to the heat and the walking required since Disney World is part amusement park and part marathon. He did excellent. Our only gripe was that we had to push the trip back couple of weeks and it turned out to be a hot week. Next time we go we are thinking that we will try for a Thanksgiving trip rather than a summer trip. The family is already talking about the "next" visit.
I hope that 2012 will be as healthy and fun as 2011 was. I look forward to finding out. So we say goodbye to 2011 but we will always have the 12,223 pictures that Melinda (and I) took during the course of the year to remember it by. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2012.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
All I want for Christmas is a Toothpaste Cap...
Its amazing how the simplest things can be what gives you the greatest pleasure.
Think about small children at Christmas and Birthdays. What do they always play with the most? Its not the fancy clothes or the new trendy toys with the kung fu grip. Its the wrapping paper and the ribbons that most kids play with and enjoy the most.
The same is true with Noah and his progress.
We have been working for the past couple of years to get him to wear his speaking valve and we thought for a while that it would never happen. Finally over this past summer, literally overnight, he decides that it is something he wants to do and he starts wearing it. His speech improved remarkably over a matter of just a few weeks. It improved so remarkably that one of his speech therapists declared that he was caught up and another reduced his sessions to one a month. This in itself is a huge accomplishment.
However, Noah's tenure with the speaking valve didn't last very long.
When Noah went back for his October clinic visit they were so impressed with how well he was wearing the speaking valve that they decided to try giving him a full cap.
For my non-trach and vent friends the speaking valve is a plastic cap that goes on the end of the trach and has a small flap of plastic in it. it will allow air in but not out. So since speaking is a process of exhaling (try talking while breathing in) it allows him to speak nearly normally but he doesn't breathe through his mouth and nose. The cap is just a small plastic cap that covers the trach entirely and closes it off so that all breathing (in and out) is through the mouth and nose (like normal). It looks like the cap to a tube of Crest Toothpaste.
We tried to get the doctors to let us try a cap on Noah in previous clinic visits since he wasnt tolerating the speaking valve. They were not in favor and even though they humored us once and let him try it, they were quick to deem it "unsuccessful" and sent us away capless.
This time the doctor covered Noahs trach and he fussed about it but she decided to let Melinda try it and Noah was perfectly happy. They gave us a few caps (that I am sure they got from toothpaste tubes that they had lying around and just sterilized and then sold for $300 each) and sent us home.
If we were impressed with the progress Noah made with the speaking valve that was nothing compared to the explosion of speech and new behaviors and unexpected helpful side effects that came from using the cap.
His speech has gotten remarkably better. Words that he learned to say while wearing the speaking valve have become clearer and much more understandable and he now uses many two word phrases. He is still a picky eater but he is getting much better and eating much more that he used to. We are really starting to push the table food now. The most entertaining benefit is that he has learned how to yell. I mean really yell. His favorite thing to yell is "DIE!!!!". I'm not sure why or where he picked that up from. We don't frequently scream "DIE" in our house, well we didn't use to. Now we do because its fun to get him going. I'm sure we will regret that later.
The benefits of the cap arent just developmental either. We usually had to suction his trach once or twice a day (which isnt that much) but now we will go days without suctioning him since he is wearing the cap. Also, his oxygen saturation and CO2 levels are much higher when he sleeps. Typically when he sleeps his saturation would dip to the mid to low 90s at times (anything below 90 is bad) and his CO2 levels would drift up into the 40s (anything higher than 50 is bad). Now when he wears the cap most of the day his saturation stays 98-100 most all of the time and his CO2 stays in the mid 30's, both of which are excellent. I dont know the medical reason that the body works better when you breathe the way that God intended but it seems that he did know a thing or two about how to build a human.
So this year we have gotten our Christmas present early. It wasn't big and fancy. It was a tiny little (toothpaste) cap that came with a huge amount of progress.
Think about small children at Christmas and Birthdays. What do they always play with the most? Its not the fancy clothes or the new trendy toys with the kung fu grip. Its the wrapping paper and the ribbons that most kids play with and enjoy the most.
The same is true with Noah and his progress.
We have been working for the past couple of years to get him to wear his speaking valve and we thought for a while that it would never happen. Finally over this past summer, literally overnight, he decides that it is something he wants to do and he starts wearing it. His speech improved remarkably over a matter of just a few weeks. It improved so remarkably that one of his speech therapists declared that he was caught up and another reduced his sessions to one a month. This in itself is a huge accomplishment.
However, Noah's tenure with the speaking valve didn't last very long.
When Noah went back for his October clinic visit they were so impressed with how well he was wearing the speaking valve that they decided to try giving him a full cap.
For my non-trach and vent friends the speaking valve is a plastic cap that goes on the end of the trach and has a small flap of plastic in it. it will allow air in but not out. So since speaking is a process of exhaling (try talking while breathing in) it allows him to speak nearly normally but he doesn't breathe through his mouth and nose. The cap is just a small plastic cap that covers the trach entirely and closes it off so that all breathing (in and out) is through the mouth and nose (like normal). It looks like the cap to a tube of Crest Toothpaste.
We tried to get the doctors to let us try a cap on Noah in previous clinic visits since he wasnt tolerating the speaking valve. They were not in favor and even though they humored us once and let him try it, they were quick to deem it "unsuccessful" and sent us away capless.
This time the doctor covered Noahs trach and he fussed about it but she decided to let Melinda try it and Noah was perfectly happy. They gave us a few caps (that I am sure they got from toothpaste tubes that they had lying around and just sterilized and then sold for $300 each) and sent us home.
If we were impressed with the progress Noah made with the speaking valve that was nothing compared to the explosion of speech and new behaviors and unexpected helpful side effects that came from using the cap.
His speech has gotten remarkably better. Words that he learned to say while wearing the speaking valve have become clearer and much more understandable and he now uses many two word phrases. He is still a picky eater but he is getting much better and eating much more that he used to. We are really starting to push the table food now. The most entertaining benefit is that he has learned how to yell. I mean really yell. His favorite thing to yell is "DIE!!!!". I'm not sure why or where he picked that up from. We don't frequently scream "DIE" in our house, well we didn't use to. Now we do because its fun to get him going. I'm sure we will regret that later.
The benefits of the cap arent just developmental either. We usually had to suction his trach once or twice a day (which isnt that much) but now we will go days without suctioning him since he is wearing the cap. Also, his oxygen saturation and CO2 levels are much higher when he sleeps. Typically when he sleeps his saturation would dip to the mid to low 90s at times (anything below 90 is bad) and his CO2 levels would drift up into the 40s (anything higher than 50 is bad). Now when he wears the cap most of the day his saturation stays 98-100 most all of the time and his CO2 stays in the mid 30's, both of which are excellent. I dont know the medical reason that the body works better when you breathe the way that God intended but it seems that he did know a thing or two about how to build a human.
So this year we have gotten our Christmas present early. It wasn't big and fancy. It was a tiny little (toothpaste) cap that came with a huge amount of progress.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Spike This Part 3 (She didnt need those eyebrows did she?)
The next match Beth didnt play at all. She kept working and going to practice but she wasn't put in to the game. I had mixed feelings about the next time she was put into the game (if there was a next time).
We continued to practice at home too. I just didn't get the sense that her heart was in it any more. I felt like I needed to say or do something to help her get her confidence back or at least the desire to play.
Beth is kinda funny.
I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though.
If she is interested in something she is something akin to an unstoppable force. You don't want to get in her way. She will do anything or work as hard as necessary to get what she wants. By the same token if she isn't interested or has lost interest in something she is the unmovable object. She is extremely hard to motivate and will do only the bare minimum necessary. It has been true with her in school, piano and everything else. When she wanted straight A's, she made straight A's. When she wanted to learn piano, she learned piano. When she wanted to play volleyball she learned the game and all of the techniques on her own.
I got the sense that her motivation for the game was waning and that was bad. She would spend what was left of the season on the bench or just going through the motions of the game and getting little or no playing time.
I felt like I needed to do something to help her want to do this again.
I wasnt sure what to do.
I didnt feel like threatening to pull her off the team was the right approach though. A few days passed and we were in the street practicing and she was half-assing it and going through the motions as she had been doing ever since that game.
I finally stopped and walked over to her and asked her if she wanted to play volleyball anymore. She gave a disinterested shrug and said "Yeah, I guess so".
I said "Do you, really? I'm serious. If this isnt what you want tell me and I'll understand".
She said "I do, I guess".
Thats when I kinda lost it. "Then play the game. Get out there and play. Play volleyball or get off the court and quit wasting every ones time" I said.
I came out pretty sharp and I could tell that she was a little misty eyed after I said it.
Then she said "Ok. I will" with a little bit of venom in her tone.
We played a little while longer and went in.
Beth is a tough person to read. I didnt know if anything I said had actually registered with her or if she was just giving me a little but of her normal attitude.
The next match was at Pleasant Grove Middle school. As with all of the matches the team from the fartherest out plays first. Since Rudd was the farthest geographically we got to play Hueytown first.
Beth didn't play.
Rudd played poorly, they didn't call their balls or work together. It was 6 individuals on the court. There was no team work at all. The sad thing is that it was a game they could have won easily if they would have worked together. Rudd lost and went to the sidelines to prepare for the next match against Pleasant Grove.
Beth didnt play the first game.
The girls played better but not great. There was some more cooperation between the girls but again it wasn't a lot. In the end it was enough to win the game 25-23. The second match was about to start and I could see that the girls were huddled on the sidelines and Ms. Binder was talking to Beth. She had her by both shoulders and looked like she was encouraging her. I leaned over and told Melinda that it looked like Beth was going to be put in.
The butterflys came up in my stomach.
The truth is that I was probably more nervous than she was. The Lady Indians took the court and sure enough Beth took her position. As usual she looked over at me and I gave her a smile and a thumbs up. I said a silent prayer that things would go right for her and she would have a good game and get to play a while.
I was totally unprepared for what came next.
The match started and the first couple of points were volleyed back and forth and went to Pleasant Grove. Pleasant Grove served again. I went back and forth a couple of times and came to Rudd. The first girl to hit it bumped it up. The setter hit and put a perfect set on the ball.
It came to Beth.
A thousand thoughts went through my head. Would she hit it. Would she duck. Would she watch it hit the ground thinking it was someone elses ball?
No.
She moved under it, bent her knees and went to spike it as she had tried and missed so many times before. She jumped slightly and her arm moved to the ball.
The sound of her had hitting the leather on the ball sounded like a gunshot.
The ball sailed over the net very fast right at the head of the girl on the Pleasant Grove side of the net.
She put her hands up and covered her face and ducked.
The ball bounced off her her hands and went out of bounds.
She had scored.
Beth scored and spiked the ball. The Rudd side of the court erupted in cheers. Beth looked over at me and a tiny little smile crept up at the edges of her mouth.
It. Was. On.
It was as if the heavens opened up and the gods of volleyball had possessed my daughter. She spiked three more balls, all for scores. She served 5 serves for points. She returned three balls that she had to dive for that no one else had a chance to get. What was even better was that her team responded. They began to communicate and they worked together. She got high fives from her teammates and their parents were yelling "Go Number 20". She looked over at me in the middle of the game and instead of mouthing "Im scared" she smiled and mouthed "Its hot in here". I smiled and thought to myself that right now the hottest thing in here was her.
Poor Pleasant Grove never stood a chance.
The final score was Rudd 25, Pleasant Grove 17. When the game was over the team gathered around Beth and congratulated her on the game. The parents all patted her on the back and told her how good her game was.
I couldnt express how proud I was of her. What was best was that the twinkle was back in her eye and she was happy to be playing volleyball again.
There have been good games and bad games since that evening at Pleasant Grove. Beth has played fairly well for the most part. She hasn't gotten discouraged even when things don't always go well. I think she has learned that she can play and just has to keep working hard. Her dedication to the game has increased and we are now looking at playing club volleyball to keep her in the game and help her to continue to develop.
There might be another chapter to this story in the future. We'll just have to find out where it goes from here.
We continued to practice at home too. I just didn't get the sense that her heart was in it any more. I felt like I needed to say or do something to help her get her confidence back or at least the desire to play.
Beth is kinda funny.
I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though.
If she is interested in something she is something akin to an unstoppable force. You don't want to get in her way. She will do anything or work as hard as necessary to get what she wants. By the same token if she isn't interested or has lost interest in something she is the unmovable object. She is extremely hard to motivate and will do only the bare minimum necessary. It has been true with her in school, piano and everything else. When she wanted straight A's, she made straight A's. When she wanted to learn piano, she learned piano. When she wanted to play volleyball she learned the game and all of the techniques on her own.
I got the sense that her motivation for the game was waning and that was bad. She would spend what was left of the season on the bench or just going through the motions of the game and getting little or no playing time.
I felt like I needed to do something to help her want to do this again.
I wasnt sure what to do.
I didnt feel like threatening to pull her off the team was the right approach though. A few days passed and we were in the street practicing and she was half-assing it and going through the motions as she had been doing ever since that game.
I finally stopped and walked over to her and asked her if she wanted to play volleyball anymore. She gave a disinterested shrug and said "Yeah, I guess so".
I said "Do you, really? I'm serious. If this isnt what you want tell me and I'll understand".
She said "I do, I guess".
Thats when I kinda lost it. "Then play the game. Get out there and play. Play volleyball or get off the court and quit wasting every ones time" I said.
I came out pretty sharp and I could tell that she was a little misty eyed after I said it.
Then she said "Ok. I will" with a little bit of venom in her tone.
We played a little while longer and went in.
Beth is a tough person to read. I didnt know if anything I said had actually registered with her or if she was just giving me a little but of her normal attitude.
The next match was at Pleasant Grove Middle school. As with all of the matches the team from the fartherest out plays first. Since Rudd was the farthest geographically we got to play Hueytown first.
Beth didn't play.
Rudd played poorly, they didn't call their balls or work together. It was 6 individuals on the court. There was no team work at all. The sad thing is that it was a game they could have won easily if they would have worked together. Rudd lost and went to the sidelines to prepare for the next match against Pleasant Grove.
Beth didnt play the first game.
The girls played better but not great. There was some more cooperation between the girls but again it wasn't a lot. In the end it was enough to win the game 25-23. The second match was about to start and I could see that the girls were huddled on the sidelines and Ms. Binder was talking to Beth. She had her by both shoulders and looked like she was encouraging her. I leaned over and told Melinda that it looked like Beth was going to be put in.
The butterflys came up in my stomach.
The truth is that I was probably more nervous than she was. The Lady Indians took the court and sure enough Beth took her position. As usual she looked over at me and I gave her a smile and a thumbs up. I said a silent prayer that things would go right for her and she would have a good game and get to play a while.
I was totally unprepared for what came next.
The match started and the first couple of points were volleyed back and forth and went to Pleasant Grove. Pleasant Grove served again. I went back and forth a couple of times and came to Rudd. The first girl to hit it bumped it up. The setter hit and put a perfect set on the ball.
It came to Beth.
A thousand thoughts went through my head. Would she hit it. Would she duck. Would she watch it hit the ground thinking it was someone elses ball?
No.
She moved under it, bent her knees and went to spike it as she had tried and missed so many times before. She jumped slightly and her arm moved to the ball.
The sound of her had hitting the leather on the ball sounded like a gunshot.
The ball sailed over the net very fast right at the head of the girl on the Pleasant Grove side of the net.
She put her hands up and covered her face and ducked.
The ball bounced off her her hands and went out of bounds.
She had scored.
Beth scored and spiked the ball. The Rudd side of the court erupted in cheers. Beth looked over at me and a tiny little smile crept up at the edges of her mouth.
It. Was. On.
It was as if the heavens opened up and the gods of volleyball had possessed my daughter. She spiked three more balls, all for scores. She served 5 serves for points. She returned three balls that she had to dive for that no one else had a chance to get. What was even better was that her team responded. They began to communicate and they worked together. She got high fives from her teammates and their parents were yelling "Go Number 20". She looked over at me in the middle of the game and instead of mouthing "Im scared" she smiled and mouthed "Its hot in here". I smiled and thought to myself that right now the hottest thing in here was her.
Poor Pleasant Grove never stood a chance.
The final score was Rudd 25, Pleasant Grove 17. When the game was over the team gathered around Beth and congratulated her on the game. The parents all patted her on the back and told her how good her game was.
I couldnt express how proud I was of her. What was best was that the twinkle was back in her eye and she was happy to be playing volleyball again.
There have been good games and bad games since that evening at Pleasant Grove. Beth has played fairly well for the most part. She hasn't gotten discouraged even when things don't always go well. I think she has learned that she can play and just has to keep working hard. Her dedication to the game has increased and we are now looking at playing club volleyball to keep her in the game and help her to continue to develop.
There might be another chapter to this story in the future. We'll just have to find out where it goes from here.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Spike This (Part 2) ((The Empire Spikes Back))
So the season started...
Let me just say that as a first time sports parent I was unprepared for several things. First, was how short the season is. Well I should clarify... The season is short time wise. It runs from August to the end of September but in that time nearly every day of the week has some volleyball related activity (practice, games, etc) so your entire life revolves around volleyball for those two months. The second thing that I was unprepared for was how skilled these kids are. I expected them to play ok, maybe a little better than your average school yard game but these kids are good and hit hard. They dive, slide and jump at the ball and set up complicated shots against their opponent. A large part of them serve overhand and some of the serves will flat take your head off.
Again I figured that Beth would be overwhelmed, that maybe she had started a little too late in sports to catch up with where these kids are. I realize now that I have underestimated my daughter and her desire to play this game.
The 2011 Rudd Lady Indians have 17 members on their team. 4 or 5 of them played last year and are the veterans. The coaches try to insure that all of the girls get some playing time as much as possible. But due to the large team size and being a first timer Beth typically plays about every third game in relief of one of the veterans. After several practices they determined that Beth would play middle. Most of the time she plays front middle. Beths typical playing schedule is to have games on Mondays and Wednesdays. The first week we were at home for the games and after that we travelled to other schools to play.
With Beths limited playing time and her natural disposition to be quiet and reserved she is not the most aggressive player and didnt have to opportunity to develop as quickly as she needed too.
About the 3rd of 4th game in Rudd played McAdory and Beth was put into play in the first game of the match. She played well, better than before. She served 4 straight un-returned serves and returned several balls that came to her. Overall I felt like it was a good game for her and that her confidence in her skills would benefit from it.
The season rolled on.
I am making this sound like months ro weeks went by but in reality the whole middle school season takes place in a month and a half start to finish. At this point we are a little over midway through the season and Rudd was scheduled to play Irondale and North Jefferson at North Jefferson.
The game started and the first match was Rudd vs Irondale. I learned that in these games the team that is the farthest away geographically gets to play first. Presumable this is to help with the travel time back home from the game site. This meant that Rudd would play the first and the third matches since they were a little closer to North Jefferson than Irondale. Beth didn't play the first match against Irondale and Rudd got beat in two straight games. They didn't play well and Ironale took advantage of their mistakes. Once that match was over Irondale played North Jefferson; the team that just had beaten Rudd pretty convincingly got hammered by North Jeffereson. During this pounding I started to look around and I noticed that there were banners on the wall and North Jefferson was the reigning the County champion two years running. Yikes.
Rudd took the court and Beth was put into play. I was already a bit nervous about our chances against them and rightfully so. North Jefferson seemed to be moving about twice the speed of Rudd. The girls were not calling their balls or working together in any way.
This was going to be bad.
After a couple of serves North Jefferson netted a serve and Beth rolled into the serving position. While we were still working on her overhand serve she was using her normally reliable under hand. She never missed an underhand, ever. She didn't miss in practice and she had never missed a serve in a game. She took her position and served the ball. It hit the net. The color drained out of her face and you could see any bit of confidence that she had drain with it. North Jefferson took over serving and the beating continued. Beth was in the center of the court and several of the serves came to her.
She missed every single one.
She was in the wrong position, her approach to the ball was wrong and none of them had a chance for anyone to assist. To make matters worse when she went after one she was slow getting back in position and and the next serve came to her spot and someone else had to scramble to cover it, unsuccessfully.
North Jefferson scored 6 quick points.
In between serves Beth frequently looks at me. I like to believe this is for reassurance or to see what my opinion of the game and her performance is. She did during this game and I struggled to think of something positive to say. I mouthed "Its ok" and she mouthed back "I'm Scared". I knew right there that she was done in this game. Her confidence was gone and she was not going to be able to help her team. She was in the process of self destructing mentally and it wasn't going to get any better. I told Melinda that the best thing they could do at this point would be to pull beth out.
They should have cause it didn't get better.
The next serve came over and someone managed to get it back over the net. On the return it came directly at beth. I said a silent prayer that she would somehow find the strength to get the ball, that luck would go her way and something good would happen to settle her down and get her back in the game.
It didn't.
She did the one thing that you never, ever do in volleyball.
She ducked.
She ducked the ball like she was in the world championships of dodgeball.
She had no intention of trying to return it or play anymore.
Finally, mercifully, they pulled her out of the game. I think she was as relieved as Melinda and I were. The game finished, North Jefferson beat Rudd very convincingly and we went home. Privately I wondered if volleyball was the right sport for us or if Beth was really cut out for the pressure of team sports or not.
I tried to reassure Beth that it was ok and these things happened but I could tell that she was pretty upset about the whole thing. I hoped things would get better as the season went on but there wasn't a whole lot of time left in the season and it didn't appear that things were going to have a chance to get better. Honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me if they never played her again.
Stay tuned for Part 3...
Let me just say that as a first time sports parent I was unprepared for several things. First, was how short the season is. Well I should clarify... The season is short time wise. It runs from August to the end of September but in that time nearly every day of the week has some volleyball related activity (practice, games, etc) so your entire life revolves around volleyball for those two months. The second thing that I was unprepared for was how skilled these kids are. I expected them to play ok, maybe a little better than your average school yard game but these kids are good and hit hard. They dive, slide and jump at the ball and set up complicated shots against their opponent. A large part of them serve overhand and some of the serves will flat take your head off.
Again I figured that Beth would be overwhelmed, that maybe she had started a little too late in sports to catch up with where these kids are. I realize now that I have underestimated my daughter and her desire to play this game.
The 2011 Rudd Lady Indians have 17 members on their team. 4 or 5 of them played last year and are the veterans. The coaches try to insure that all of the girls get some playing time as much as possible. But due to the large team size and being a first timer Beth typically plays about every third game in relief of one of the veterans. After several practices they determined that Beth would play middle. Most of the time she plays front middle. Beths typical playing schedule is to have games on Mondays and Wednesdays. The first week we were at home for the games and after that we travelled to other schools to play.
With Beths limited playing time and her natural disposition to be quiet and reserved she is not the most aggressive player and didnt have to opportunity to develop as quickly as she needed too.
About the 3rd of 4th game in Rudd played McAdory and Beth was put into play in the first game of the match. She played well, better than before. She served 4 straight un-returned serves and returned several balls that came to her. Overall I felt like it was a good game for her and that her confidence in her skills would benefit from it.
The season rolled on.
I am making this sound like months ro weeks went by but in reality the whole middle school season takes place in a month and a half start to finish. At this point we are a little over midway through the season and Rudd was scheduled to play Irondale and North Jefferson at North Jefferson.
The game started and the first match was Rudd vs Irondale. I learned that in these games the team that is the farthest away geographically gets to play first. Presumable this is to help with the travel time back home from the game site. This meant that Rudd would play the first and the third matches since they were a little closer to North Jefferson than Irondale. Beth didn't play the first match against Irondale and Rudd got beat in two straight games. They didn't play well and Ironale took advantage of their mistakes. Once that match was over Irondale played North Jefferson; the team that just had beaten Rudd pretty convincingly got hammered by North Jeffereson. During this pounding I started to look around and I noticed that there were banners on the wall and North Jefferson was the reigning the County champion two years running. Yikes.
Rudd took the court and Beth was put into play. I was already a bit nervous about our chances against them and rightfully so. North Jefferson seemed to be moving about twice the speed of Rudd. The girls were not calling their balls or working together in any way.
This was going to be bad.
After a couple of serves North Jefferson netted a serve and Beth rolled into the serving position. While we were still working on her overhand serve she was using her normally reliable under hand. She never missed an underhand, ever. She didn't miss in practice and she had never missed a serve in a game. She took her position and served the ball. It hit the net. The color drained out of her face and you could see any bit of confidence that she had drain with it. North Jefferson took over serving and the beating continued. Beth was in the center of the court and several of the serves came to her.
She missed every single one.
She was in the wrong position, her approach to the ball was wrong and none of them had a chance for anyone to assist. To make matters worse when she went after one she was slow getting back in position and and the next serve came to her spot and someone else had to scramble to cover it, unsuccessfully.
North Jefferson scored 6 quick points.
In between serves Beth frequently looks at me. I like to believe this is for reassurance or to see what my opinion of the game and her performance is. She did during this game and I struggled to think of something positive to say. I mouthed "Its ok" and she mouthed back "I'm Scared". I knew right there that she was done in this game. Her confidence was gone and she was not going to be able to help her team. She was in the process of self destructing mentally and it wasn't going to get any better. I told Melinda that the best thing they could do at this point would be to pull beth out.
They should have cause it didn't get better.
The next serve came over and someone managed to get it back over the net. On the return it came directly at beth. I said a silent prayer that she would somehow find the strength to get the ball, that luck would go her way and something good would happen to settle her down and get her back in the game.
It didn't.
She did the one thing that you never, ever do in volleyball.
She ducked.
She ducked the ball like she was in the world championships of dodgeball.
She had no intention of trying to return it or play anymore.
Finally, mercifully, they pulled her out of the game. I think she was as relieved as Melinda and I were. The game finished, North Jefferson beat Rudd very convincingly and we went home. Privately I wondered if volleyball was the right sport for us or if Beth was really cut out for the pressure of team sports or not.
I tried to reassure Beth that it was ok and these things happened but I could tell that she was pretty upset about the whole thing. I hoped things would get better as the season went on but there wasn't a whole lot of time left in the season and it didn't appear that things were going to have a chance to get better. Honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me if they never played her again.
Stay tuned for Part 3...
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