Arch Bar removal/insurance

Today was a great day for Trent! He had a CT scan done and his arch bars removed by the oral surgeon! The CT showed he's healing well, however, the fratures are still very visible. Dr. Wong told us it will take at least 6 months before they fully heal. However, even in spite of that, he'll soon be free to play basketball! He said it (his face) may hurt, but that he'll be stable enough for it. Amazes us! And now we can see why it hurt the other day when he tried to run a few steps! The plate on the roof of his mouth has also healed well. He could not even feel it when he examined him.

Then, we got home and opened the mail. Surprise! Bills have started coming in from Billings. And guess what they said? "Submitted to Blue Shield. Denied. Patient not enrolled in the Billings provider managed care plan on the date of service." Over and over. Grump! So tomorrow I will call the insurance and try to get them to pay!

Next week on Monday Trent sees the spine guy and gets his neck brace off!

Back to School Update

Hello Everyone! Trent Peterson here and blogging for the first time!

Progress: Well it has been a little over a month since the accident and surgery and recovery has gone very well! The neck brace is more of a pain now than anything and I can't wait to get it off. I actually haven't had any pain in my neck at all-they put the brace on asap when I was in the hospital and I hope it has been healing since. My face is still numb in a few areas but not too bad. Now that everything is stable and well into healing I am working on making all the faces I can to work on "rebuilding" the nerves to get rid of the numbness. Fortunately if there was this numbness with an adult, even as young as late 20s, the numbness might be permanent, but thanks to youth (again and again and again) it should completely heal in time. For the most part, swelling has gone down. In the morning my right cheek is still swollen, and  there is just a little bit of puffiness around the eyes and bridge of my nose, but that will just take time as well. The only problem is putting in contacts! That’s a new challenge for sure! Even the bleeding in my eye (I think it scared a few people when I looked at them from that side!) slowly went away and now there is no coloring at all.

So  two weeks ago we went to an Oral Surgeon for a follow-up/consultation appointment. Nothing new or out of the ordinary there but he was really nice and informative. It looks like I will be getting the arch-bars (braces, wires, whatever you want to call them) off by mid-September so hopefully not much time left with them in! They are not all that bad, nothing different from braces really, except they are wired INTO my gums, not glued to my teeth but I am doing just fine with them in. Around the time of removal I will also have follow up appointments for my spine at an orthopedic doctor. I hope those go well and they find that everything is healed. If everything goes well at the orthopedic appointment then I will be cleared and I can take off the brace!! That would be nice for sure! Just this week I had an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) appointment and it was just a checkup to see how my cheeks/nose are healing, and nothing to report except progress. They just want to make sure everything is healing as it should so again I'm wishing it goes well!

Now here the unbelievable part-this isn’t for sure at all but I am hoping to be fully cleared after 8 weeks which would be about the end of September. This would be a complete clearance that we are hoping for, which means full-contact and EVERYTHING…ya know what that means? I am going to get a full season of basketball in! Now that is exciting, at least for me! Its going to be hard getting back into shape, especially after missing so many workouts and losing so much weight, but it will be worth it when the season comes around.

So school has started! Well it really started with the training for freshmen orientation-getting up early, going around the school, and I admit it was really tiring! But the couple of days of training, then the actual orientation, kind of helped build up some energy! I just finished my second week of school as a junior and everything is going well.

Thanks again to everyone!

Dr. appts

Today we had the first of many doctor appts! We got the 4 referrals that we need, and hopefully tomorrow we can start getting appointments made. The orthodontist, oral-facial surgeon, and Dr. Griffeth will be in touch and will decide how to proceed from here in regards to getting his bite correct again. He may need braces again, even though his teeth "look" ok, because his bite is quite "off".

He is eating a lot better now, but the reality check at the dr.'s office today was that he's still down 15 pounds from pre-accident. We are giving him high calorie foods so I know he'll get it back once he's able to start working out, etc.

His face is still numb. We notice a lot of his expressions  aren't quite symmetrical yet (kind of like when you get back from the dentist and are numb on one side...your face doesn't quite move right), but  that will come back. I think this remaining swelling will take a long time to completely go away. Most people would not notice his swelling, but we know that chubby right cheek isn't really "him"! He's competely off the pain meds now, so he's still improving by leaps and bounds!

What a Wonderful Welcome Home!!

When we arrived Friday night, we turned into our court, and crossing the street by our driveway, was a line of people holding balloons and cheering! It was an awesome feeling to be home, and then to be greeted like that made it ever so special! Friends and neighbors were out, and once again, we couldn't believe what people have done for us! After some hugs and tears, we went inside only to find a big "Welcome Home, Trent" banner, flowers, a huge teddy bear (complete with a band-aid on his nose) ,a huge dinner, a stocked fridge and freezer, gifts for Byron (his birthday) and Jared (just because). There was a stack of cards for Trent that had come in the mail, and after everybody left, as Trent sat and read them, we tried to digest all that has been done for us. Our crisis was so small compared to what so many people go thru...and yet so much has been done for us...far more than we ever imagined or deserved...and we all look forward to being able to pay it forward someday.

Home At LAST!

Well, they made it home!  Several of us were able to be there as they pulled into the driveway! :)  It surely was wonderful to see Trent step out of the van, neck brace and all.  He was a sight for sore eyes!!  Looks GREAT!!  I'm sure that being home will just make him heal all the faster.

Pictures

Day after accident. Not too swollen yet.

Day 3. His most swollen day. Notice the asymmetry of his mouth

Heading to surgery.

 

I can't remember how many days this was after surgery. See how symmetrical that face is now!

A gift from his team!

After about 5 days of not being able to eat, they decided to put in a feeding tube. Notice the rockstar eyeliner.

DISCHARGE

Such a great feeling!

And a kiss from Mom! :)

Not sure who was happier....the boy or the dog!

Now I bet you can all see Trent in this picture!! The doctors kept saying how amazed they were at how fast he was healing! We continue to be amazed! So happy!

Dr. Griffeth. The absolute BEST. Wish we'd have gotten one of Dr. Kennedy as well.

Dr appt, and CT scan

Our original appt with Dr. Griffeth was on Friday, but he didn't want us to wait that long.  This is not his normal day to be in the office, but had just told us whenever we could come, either Wed or Thursday, he'd meet us there. Talk about service! This morning I got a text from him and he had another big surgery he needed to go to, so the sooner we could get to Billings, the better.  He did another CT and Xray, and was very pleased with the progress. He did remove his splint in his mouth, but left the arch bars of course, so it will be so much easier for Trent to eat and talk now. With the plate securely in place holding his upper jaw in place, he should be ok without the splint.

Trent said it's time to post pix, so I'll include a few in the next post.

Today was a real "let-down" day. Any of you who have gone thru anything similar know what I mean.

Tonight we had a little birthday party for Byron. Grandma made a cake for him and we invited Steve and Kim and Brock and Willow over. Was so nice. 

Tomorrow (technically today) we hit the road!!!