The End of Another Day.....

Today was yet another very busy day! After spending the first three hours of the day having various assessments Tristan spent the rest of the day playing. If he wasn't playing video games with his Daddy, Tristan was back up in the party room on the 5th Floor decorating Halloween cookies and getting Halloween treats or he was playing with his friends from church! All I know is that Tristan had a smile on his face all day! Daddy and I just sit and stare at that beautiful smile and soak in the wonder of it! We love to see those dimples!!!!!! It was a day of fun filled visits from great friends and family........thank you to everyone that comes by to boost Tristan's spirits. As of this writing, Tristan is alternating between blowing bubbles and eating a Kit Kat and watching Iron Man..........again! God is Good!
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Game time........

Tristan completed his three hours of evaluation today around 10:30 am and has been looking for activities to do ever since! He has played Star Wars Lego with Daddy, watched "Just Friends" as he ate his PB and J sandwich, played Connect 4 with Mommy and War with Mommy and now he is coloring in his GIANT Halloween fun book from his teacher, Mrs. Mize! He tole me a bit ago that he is borwed and it isn't even 2 pm yet! AHHHHHH! Can we say TRISTAN SEEMS READY TO GO HOME? LOL.........he did do very well at all 3 therapy assessments and the general concensus of the therapists is that Tristan will not be here long! PRAISE GOD! More later........Grandma Lisa, brother Jesse and cousins Matt and Vanessa and Matt are here for a visit! Talk to you soon!!!!
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Tristan's Therapy Today........

Hello All! Well Tristan had a great great night! We all got some much needed sleep........Auntie Dawn, when we woke up Tristan was full on cuddling with his big ole bear! He LOVES him! Tristan just completed his first round of therapy........Occupational Therapy. Her impression of Tristan sounds the same as ours......that he will not be here long! But now Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy will see him this morning at 9:30 and 10:30 respectively. Given that schedule, we would ask that if anyone were coming to visit today that you call Mommy first at (602) 510-5693 to see if he is ready for visitors! When he hasn't beenm occupied with doctors and therapists he has been very busy dueling with Daddy on the PS2, so he is very UP for visitors. Even today he is more like the old Tristan than before and would make for great company............SO, give a call and come on up to see him!!! Thanks, Mommy
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Fw: Tristan and Tryston Playing PS3

After a brief rest in his new room, Tristan got a visit from his buddy, Tryston!! They quickly decided that it would be fun to play Star Wars Lego on the PS3! Looks like a fun way to break in the new room to me!!!!!!!

We Are In Our New Room

Well, we are finally settling into our new digs on the Rehab side of the hospital! Not quite as cozy as our room in the Pediatric wing, but we are here.............Tristan will be having his assessment tomorrow morning to determine his need for therapy. Mommy predicts that he will not need much as he has been recovering SO quickly and SO well.......Praise God! He is an entirely different boy today then he was yesterday! We definitely see our boy Tristan returning literally minute by minute! Today he was not groggy and had energy and moved well and went to his party and saw Luis Gonzalez and Big Red! Tristan and Mommy were even on the news at 6! We sat and watched the news with him and Tristan was grinning from ear to ear upon seeing himself on TV! Then tonight right before Mommy started this update we went through his website together and recounted the stories behind the pictures!!! He was grinning again.......especially at the picture of himself and daddy laying in the bed! Tristan even decided that he wanted to look through the BIG bag of cards that his teacher, Mrs. Mize, sent home for him! He sat and read the cards to me and laughed at the cute pictures!! That was so awesome that the ENTIRE first grade made cards for our Tristan......thank you!!! We look forward to seeing how much more like his old self Tristan will be tomorrow! Until then......................
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What a Party..... Check the News!

It is really great all the things the hospital has for all the kids.  Today was no exception.  A little Halloween party was held with a few special guests.  Big Red (Cardinals Mascot) and Luis Gonzales showed up to lift the kids spirits.  Big Red dance around and took pictures with the kids.  Gonzo took time to chat with the kids and sign autographs.  As you can see, Tristan went as Darth Vader and had a great time.  He would not lift his mask up at first for Gonzo, but the Big Red loosened him up.  He was able to play some bingo and was showered with candy and goodies.  Even a bobble head!  One the way back to the room, he told daddy that he wanted to move the wheelchair by himself.  He did a great job.  It was a good time had by all.

Now for the NEWS.... The media was there and Mommy and Tristan were interviewed by Channel 12.  Tune into the 5 and/or 6 o'clock news to see the stars at work.  The family would ask those of you that have DVR's or the ability to record, that you setup both of the new broadcasts so that they don't miss it.  They did not specify when or which one it would be on, so we will be watching both.
 

Those of you coming to visit, they are on the move again as stated in the earlier post.  They are going to the rehab facility which is in a completely different building.  So, if you are coming to visit, please text for the new location.

Till next time...

Tristan wanted to lay w/Daddy!

Tonight we saw a miraculous sight..........Tristan had been napping peacefully after a long day of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy as well as numerous trips to the potty followed by a very nice warm shower. He actually slept through dinner which makes Mommy nervous because she wants to see Tristan eat....get strong.....move around.....and then go home :-). Well, as Grandma Lisa was sitting there calming Mommy about Tristan not eating and telling Mommy that she needs to pray for strength to get through each day........Tristan wakes up out of the blue and says, "- want to get up in my chair!". To which Mommy offered help. Rather frustratedly Tristan exclaimed, "No, I can do it myself!" As Daddy moved into position to support him Tristan SPRANG from the bed and jumped up in his chair!!! This is the boy who is barely moving to the potty! I've become so stinking emotional that
this simple act that we take for granted any other time just moved me to tears.....okay, not just me but Daddy and possibly Grandma Lisa too! Then Tristan said he wanted to color and proceeded to spend about 45 minutes coloring! He asked Mommy to color with him too. Then as Mommy and Tristan were finishing coloring Tristan looked over and saw Daddy laying in his bed and asked if he could lay in bed with him!!! okay......more tears from Daddy and Mommy (especially Daddy!). Now I know what you are thinking........what a bunch of saps! But let me tell you how amazing it is to see our son emerge little by little after spending a day in a coma, 3 Days on Morphine and most of the days that we have been in here feeling so groggy and weak that his old self is barely recognizable! To see him emerge is so moving and we can just see the hand of God at work in this hospital.....this room.....
.THIS BOY! God is so good! As I am writing this, Daddy and Tristan are enjoying a showing of "Transformers" on our in-room theater!
As Daddy wrote earlier, we will be moving yet again to a new room in the Neurological Rehabilitation Center. They have 5 private rooms for pediatric patients and Tristan is having the last one held for him until we can gather ALL of our things and make the move WAAAAAAAAY across the hospital! They have informed us that we could be there anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.......all depending on the little man! I am encouraged by the fact that he sprang out of bed so quick earlier.......if only I could bribe him into doing that tomorrow maybe we wouldn't have to move to Rehab!! Okay, just kidding.....I want my baby to get any and all therapy that he needs to get back to pre-accident status......it's just that my desire to have my family all back home under the same roof together is SOOOOOOO overwhelming that I have a hard time imagining another 3 weeks in this place!!!! Please pray for
Tristan's strength and stamina to return so that he will be able to complete his stay at Rehab as quickly as possible so that we can return home with him to his brothers and his sister.
In that regard, thank you thank you to Aaron's mom, Lisa, and dad, Russ, for bringimg their dog and establishing residence in our home! I guess we really didn't leave them much choice given the fact that Aaron and I refuse to leave the hospital and someone had to stay with Bella and Wyatt and Jesse.......yes Jesse, you too.......someone has to stay with you too! Special thanks go out as well to our cousins Matt and Vanessa for taking off work and making themselves available to Grandma and Papa to swap with the kids so Grandma and Papa could come to the hospital too! Thanks Tina for taking Wyatt to school and picking him up! Grandma Lisa says that is priceless in her day!! And thank you SO much for all of our friends and family who have taken the time out of their busy schedule to come and see Tristan and Daddy and Mommy too.........thanks for bringing treats and toys to brighten
Tristan's day and for bringing fountain Mt. Dew (bless you for that!) And Dr.Pepper and food and greatly needed fellowship as our connection with the outside world would otherwise be extremely limited!
Well, Mommy needs to coerce Tristan into finishing Transformers tomorrow as he will need some sleep for what is sure to be a big day ahead! Not only will Tristan be moving to his new room but he will also be dressing up as Darth Vader to participate in a Halloween party here tomorrow morning at 10! He is looking forward to that!
Tristan says good night and God bless all!
Clark Gang

Shower Time!

Tristan after his first shower in 6 days! He was starting to smell a little funny but his RN, Crystal, and mommy took care of that! Many thanks and prayers to the entire staff here at the hospital, they are wonderful!

We are moving again in the morning to the neuro rehabilitation building where they are telling us to prepare for a 3 week stay! The duration totally depends on Tristan and how quickly he recovers.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your prayers and constant support! God bless!

The Clarks

Is it Christmas...

Tristan doesn't know that he is hurt, he thinks its Christmas!

Is It Time To Get Up Yet??

Wow, Mommy saw another glimpse of her boy early this morning! Respiratory Therapy was here giving Tristan his percussion treatment and he asked me if it was time to get up yet. I responded that it was only 4:00 a.m. And still pretty early but Tristan said, "Well, I want to get up!". When Mommy asked him why on earth he wanted to get up so early he replied, "Because I want to play with my new cars!!!!!" And so...........here we are up at 4 o'clock watching the Looney Tunes movie and playing with cars! Oh well, anything for my boy!!!!!!
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TRISTAN

Hello everyone, this is Aaron! I finally feel like there is a free minute to give some updates!

TRISTAN!!!! He has his IV out of his ankle, oxygen turned off and eating like a horse! He had a visit from the PT\OT department this morning for his initial evaluation. They will be watching him closely over the next few days to determine whether or not he will go home soon or need inpatient rehab? During the evaluation they poked, proded and stretched him for about half an hour which wore him out completely! The progress he makes over the next couple of days will determine if he needs the inpatient rehab and how long rehab will take! Today is the first day we really saw Tristan's personality come out which was absolutely amazing! Maybe the morphine is finally out of his system. We continue to encourage him to pray on his own and be thankful that so many people are behind him!

From Shannon and I to you - thank you! Saturday morning I was told by the triage attending "prepare yourself for brain damage, paralisis or death." Since Saturday my heart has truely been broken over the last five days watching my son, wife and family in so much pain! God and his family (all of you) have repaired my heart with MIRACLES, prayer, love, affection, gifts, food, generousity and companionship! We have never been so overwhelmed with prayer, prayer requests, prayer chains, text prayers, emailed prayers, etc... The hand of God has been right here on Tristan the entire time thanks to prayer from around the world from all of you! I feel truely blessed to know each and every one of you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything.

Faith and prayer generates miracles! We have now witnessed that first hand! I will never doubt again!
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Ronald...

Tristan was invited to see the Ronald McDonald Magic show. He had a great time! Here is Tristan pulling the scarf out of the hat. :)

Aaron and Shannon

It's a Brand New Day!

Well, Good Morning all.......it's Mommy! I thought I might make my first contribution to this website and take a little pressure off our cousin Billy who created this website and has been updating it all by himself for days now! I have to be honest......I wouldn't have known how to get this thing up and running, so many many thanks to Billy (Hobbs) for thinking of this way to keep all of Tristan's family and friends updated! And thanks to Billy for spending his days here by Tristan's side to obtain all of these updates.....as well as all of you who have tirelessly spent days and nights up here by our boy's side! Okay, now on to news about the Big Guy........as you saw from the post yesterday, Tristan has been kicked out of the ICU and moved upstairs to the Big Boy Pediatric Unit! Grandma Lisa, brother Jesse and Mommy and Daddy were here yesterday for the Big Move and actually had to get a very large cart to bring all of our things upstairs to our new room......we needed the cart because all of our loved ones have brought so many cards, balloons, gifts, magazines, care packages, snacks, drinks, etc that we had accumulated quite a mass of things in that little ICU room! Tristan's new room has better accomodations for visiting and it has a refrigerator too, so we are all pretty psyched at our new digs! As soon as Tristan got to his new room last night he had to go potty, so Nurse Crystal and Grandma Lisa got Tristan up and out of bed and had him go potty! It was a long hard walk for him after laying in his bed for the last 3 days, so we were very proud of him! Needless to say, he was very pooped after his big day yesterday and spent the evening last night taking little naps here and there. He has now been off morphine for 24 hours and we are seeing a return of our old Tristan.......Praise God! The morphine depressed his breathing thereby necessitating the increased oxygen and also kept Tristan pretty out of it, so we are NOT sad to see that go! He was pretty excited to sit in his new room and watch "X-Men Wolverine Origins" last night followed by TWO showings of a Tom and Jerry movie! Daddy convinced me to let Tristan watch his Tom and Jerry still at midnight when he was protesting that mommy was shutting the lights off for bedtime! Tristan received respiratory therapy every 4 hours during the night to help break up the "gunk" in his lungs and encourage him to cough it all out. They say he sounds clearer this mroning, but still has a ways to go. He was awake when mommy woke up doing guess what?........yes, watching Tom and Jerry! We went over the breakfast menu together and he chose some Lucky Charms.....I think that will be the first meal he really enjoys as the kid LOVES cereal! Think he gets that from Mommy! As of the writing of this update Tristan is working with Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy all at once at his bedside.....he is pretty weak but is being a very good sport! He will also have a Neuro consult later today to see if he will be a candidate for "Brain Trauma Outpatient Therapy"..........he may or may not be they say. Well, Mommy is going to go join Daddy and watch Tristan have his therapy........will update more later. Please know how amazingly blessed we feel to have such wonderful friends and family that have surrounded us with support and love and prayers.......we fully believe in the power of prayer! God has worked BIG miracles in this boy and we are so thankful! God Bless!
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Quick update

Tristan walked to the restroom with the help of a couple of nurses.

AMEN!

He is moving!

As I was leaving today, the nurse said they had a room out of the PICU available and would be moving as it was cleaned. This is a bit bitter sweet because it is another step closer to home, but the nurses have more patients to attend to out of the PICU. The fact that he is okay to go to a lower level of care already is a miracle.

He was able to keep his food down during the day. He smiled more today and opened his eyes wider. Aaron asked Tristan at one point, "What can I do to get a smile?" All Tristan wanted fro dad was a head bump. That sounds like he is getting better to me. He even sat up and lifted his legs on his own at one point.

A good day overall today, but please pray for a peaceful evening. Things seem to happen more at night. The rest is really good for Tristan (and mom and dad) so our hope that an uneventful evening is had by all.

Your comments have touched the family so much. Thank you all.

He is up!

He is out of bed and in a chair to start. As he was being wheeled around the PICU Tristan pointed at the doors and wanted to go out. Aaron and Shannon were allowed to take him outside to the garden.

Another positive step. Praise God!

Pain is better this morning

No morphine since 8 this morning. They are working towards an oral pain relief that will be a big step in getting Tristan home. He has been unable to keep anything down at this point. He had a few crackers recently and if he keeps it down it will be the first.

He is still working at getting the "stuff" that is in his lungs out. He is coughing and dad is working hard to keep suction going.

Tristan had a surprise today. While in his room, around the corner peeked a gorilla. It was the Phoenix Suns Gorilla. He came in and gave Tristan a stuffed gorilla, signed card, and a jersey. It brought a big smile to his face.

They are working on getting him up and walk around. The order just came down to move him out of ICU.

As always, God is so good. Even when it feels like a setback, there is a positive right behind it.

Till next update...

Pray for the Pain

The good news is that the Flex Xray came back clear.  There is still significant pain in the neck that has the doctors a bit puzzled.  They also had to put him on respiratory therapy in order to help clear the secretions that he is unable to clear on his own.  There is a concern for pneumonia if the secretions are not cleared properly.

I have not received any information yet on whether or not they are going to do more tests on the neck area to figure out the pain issue.  Right now all are praying for pain relief and that the lungs become clear to the point he no longer needs the therapy.

His recovery has been so good and positive that I think we forget that he has been through a major trauma.  I know I do at times.

Please check back when you get time.  As information is known, it will be posted.

Thank you to those who are leaving comments.  We are hoping to show the Clark Family just another way people who love and care about them have show their support.  It is very encouraging to them.

MRI Results.....

The MRI result are in and there does not appear to be any ligament damage.  His neck still hurts to the point the doctors want to be completely sure there isn't any more damage that they will be doing a "Flex Xray" tonight.  For those of you like me that are not medically literate, it means they will be taking an Xray of his neck in different positions.

More good news.  God continues to get the praise and glory for his recovery.  Things are still advancing quite well.

Till next time...... :)

He can eat!

Doc says he can eat. Ya! Although his request was a Snickers, he will settle for a bowl of fruit and yogurt.

MRI is done. Just waiting for results. Will update as we know.

I want what Dad has...

The Xray has been changed to an MRI. The doctors think at this point that the ligaments are stretched more than any type of tearing. That will give them the information they need regarding the neck brace. There is a chance that some sort of neck brace will have to stay on during the healing process. The fracture under the left eye has not shifted or separated. So, no surgery for that area. At this point, it does not appear surgery will be needed for any reason.

During my visit today, Tristan was waving and reading cards that were sent from his cousins. After a sip of Mountain Dew, he looked at Dad eating a Payday and said, "I want what Dad has."  He is still on a clear liquid diet, but Dad said as soon as the docs say it's okay, he has one waiting.

He is recovering well, but please continue to pray for the pain associated with recovery. They are managing it at this point, but it will be a concern as he heals.

The report given to them at the ER to his condition now is nothing short of a miricle. When you go from prepare for the worst, to he could be walking out of the hospital within a week, you know God is at work.

The family is overwhelmed by all of God's grace and mercy.

More Good News!!!

The tubes are out!  Arterial line out, foley out, tube out, drain out, he only has the IV left!  The doctors are waiting for the results of the neck Xray to determine if the neck brace can be removed.  As long as all looks good, they will hopefully be moving him out of the ICU.


This is all great news.  He has been very responsive and communicating very well.  As difficult as this has been, know that Tristan and the Family would not be doing as well without all of your love, support and prayers.... GOD IS SO GOOD!

He wants Mountain Dew!

As I ended the last post, I will begin this one.  GOD IS GOOD!  Tristan was taken off the ventilator today and is breathing on his own.  This is a huge step.  He even asked for some Mountain Dew! :)  He is progressing well and we pray that continues. 

Thank you all again for your prayers and concerns.  Please check back tomorrow.  There will be a more detailed update for you. 

Tristan...

For those who don't know, Tristan was involved in an accident while playing that has put him in the hospital with some very serious health concerns.  The details of what happened are not completely clear at this point, but the most important thing is the health and well being of Tristan.

All things considered, the little guy did well yesterday. He looks a lot better than expected and the cranial pressure was much lower than expected. He moved his feet and arms at times and even tried to open his eyes. The doctors keep him heavily sedated in order to promote rest and healing. He is still on the ventilator, but the doctors are looking to get him breathing on his own as soon as possible.

These are encouraging signs and God has been giving the family little bits of positive feedback as time goes by. The prayer is that healing continues and the rest of the family continues to find their comfort an peace in the Lord.

Aaron and Shannon are so appreciative of the Love and Support everyone has shown them. God is Good!