Saturday, August 23, 2008

Sams mini autobiography

Here is the autobiography that Sam wrote for the first day of school. I was really hoping that he would explain a little more about his condition or family, but this is what he came up with. We are now working on another one that goes a little deeper. Enjoy!

My name is Samuel Markus Bench. I was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1995. When I was just over one month old I was diagnosed with Osteogenesis Imperfecta. This means that my bones are fragile and tend to break fairly easy. This is why I use a wheelchair most of the time.
I have attended many schools. I went to pre-school at Wee-Care here in Hemet. I started kindergarten at Studebaker Elementary in Norwalk. Then we moved back to Hemet and I went to Whittier Elementary and then to San Jacinto Elementary. After kindergarten I went to Fruitvale Elementary for 1st and 2nd grade. We moved again and I went to Hemet Elementary for the first part of third grade. I changed schools during third grade because I was in a wheelchair Hemet Elementary was not set up for me to be able to get around easily. So I changed schools again and went to Bautista Creek. I stayed there through the 5th grade. For the 6th grade I went to Dartmouth Middle school. And finally last year I transferred to Riversprings, and am still here.
I enjoy playing video games. My favorite game right now is Battlefield II for the computer. I also have a Playstation 2, a GameBoy SP, and a Nintendo DS Lite. I really want an X-box 360 or a Wii. When I get older I would like to work on designing video games. I already have a few ideas in my head.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Update on Sam

WARNING SOME ITEMS IN THE BLOG MAY BECOME A LITTLE GRAPHIC. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH YOU MAY NOT WISH TO CONTINUE READING.

As most of you already know Sam was in the hospital this past week.

It all started a few months ago. Sam woke up one morning and was unable to stand up let alone walk. He could barely crawl. I took him to the emergency room at Loma Linda thinking that he had a new broken bone in either his hips or his back. The doctor ordered X-Rays and also believed that he was suffering from a new fracture. When the X-rays were read they determined that he had no new fractures but that he was so badly constipated that it was pushing his spine out. The doctor prescribed MIRALAX powder and told us to follow up with his pediatrician in 3 weeks.

Fast forward 3 weeks.

We met with Dr Kieth Sam's pediatrician and she proceeded to push and poke around on his stomach. She determined that though Sam had some relief and was now able to walk again, he was still extremely backed up. So over the course of a weekend she prescribed 2 enemas plus 2 bottles of Magnesium Citrate, Miralax, Dulcalax, and Bena-Fiber. He was to follow this up with a new X-Ray 2 days later. So we followed the DR's orders...POOR SAM!!!! The day after the X-Ray the doctor called me and said "you were not suppose to do the X-Ray till after Sam took all the medications!" I told her we did wait until after all the meds were done to have the X-Ray done. She informed me that none of the meds had taken care of the problem so she was going to refer him to a GI doctor at Loma Linda. I HATE referrals...they take FOREVER to get from the insurance and then Loma Linda takes forever to input them into the computer!!!!! So it took us almost 2 months to even get an appointment and the appointment was a month out form then! In the mean time poor Sam is suffering yet again.

Fast forward three months.

So on July 29th we finally got to meet with Doctor Shah the GI specialist. I really like this doctor. He sat down with us and explained every thing that needed to be done. Starting with the fact that he felt Sam needed to be placed in the hospital as soon as possible to get him cleaned out. He told us to go on home and get things ready to return to the hospital as soon as they called with a bed available. Well we didn't get called back to the hospital till the next afternoon. (much drama ensued in trying to get to the hospital, but I will save that for another post).

On July 30th Sam was admitted to Loma Linda University Hospital also known as our second home. As soon as we arrived they informed us that until they got Sam cleaned out he would not be allowed anything by mouth until he was cleaned out completely. He could not even have water or ice chips. They hooked him up to an IV and then had to insert a tube in his nose that went into his stomach, this was not fun. The only thing they gave him to make it easier was Benadryl. (I so would have been knocked out for days). Then they hooked up what looks like an IV bag to the tube in his nose and began to administer a medicine called GoLytely which the doctor said was like an enema only given a little differently. When Sam and I went to bed that night they only had one bag hooked up to the tube, but when we woke in the morning the doctor said that it wasn't working fast enough so they ended up hooking two bags up to it. Finally after almost 12 hours the medication started to take effect. Poor Sam, Poor nurses! It was awful. Sam had a commode set right next to the bed and had a very hard time making it the one step it took him to get to it. And every time he went the nurses would have to weigh it and clean out the commode. It was not a pretty picture for anyone involved. Especially a 12 year old boy! It took almost 2 gallons and about 52 hours for Sam to get cleaned out. They did a new X-Ray and said that he was finally clear. They also did an MRI to see if they could find out if it was caused by anything that he might have going on in his spine. We wont get the results of the MRI for two weeks. He was released from the hospital on Saturday August 2nd. And will now have to take Miralax for the rest of his life and they also started him on Metformin a diabetic medication to help keep him from becoming diabetic and to help him with his weight. As soon as we have more information I will let you all know!

Thanks for your prayers!