Recovery Continues

Ethan with his physical therapist Cori

This is my first post to the blog as both Lisa's have taken care of things up until now.  Ethan continues to make progress.  He is working hard in physical therapy and he is also doing volunteer fundraising for Phoenix Children's Hospital.  It's our way of giving back to the hospital who has done so much for our family.  There is going to be a telethon on April 11th on Channel 15.  I'll provide more information when I have it.

We recently learned that Ethan is going to need an artery replacement within 10 years.  This was somewhat expected.  I guess the vein that is in there now is just not getting a lot of blood flow and will eventually get calcified.  He will also need artery replacements about every 10 years which was kind of hard news.  We knew he would need a vascular surgeon all his life, but we were not expecting major tune ups every ten years.  However as time passes and medical technology advances who knows, right?  In the meantime we are trying to get back to normal.  Ethan is in school full time (with brief breaks to the nurse's office).  He was back on his board (no tricks yet) and rode a bike for the first time since the accident.  He is looking forward to graduating the 8th grade in May!!!  And then off to high school!  We are very excited for him.  I also wanted to thank everyone for their support and donations.  It has really helped us cover immediate medical expenses and we are starting to save for future surgeries.  I am also going to keep this blog going with future updates.  Ethan would really like it to focus on gun safety, as this accident was preventable.  Look for more to come on that in the future.  Thank you for being our friends.  Please feel free to post or send messages, we love getting them.  Be SAFE!

   

No news is GOOD NEWS!

Just wanted to give you all a quick update on our guy. He continues to amaze us every day by walking around the house, using his walker less and barely needing his wheelchair. His Physical Therapy is difficult and sometimes he is not a fan of it BUT he's working like a little trooper and getting it taken care of. He will be going back to the hospital in a few weeks to have his Colostomy bag removed (yay!!!) and he will be staying for about a week but this is a wonderful thing....as you can imagine he wants this taken care of asap. All in all we are just sooooo proud of him for his strength and courage and we feel so lucky as a family to be blessed in a thousand ways!
We (the Lamb/Younger/Ballard clan) still can't believe how such a horrible tragedy could have such a wonderful silver lining for us...in a crazy way we were given a gift through all of this...we have a renewed love and appreciation for each other, we are in love with our old and NEW friends that have come thru for us in so many ways and we've all gotten a big dose of "don't sweat the small stuff" that we really needed. So again, THANK YOU...everyone....for being the compassionate, loving people you've been to us. Someday we hope to pay it forward, backward and every way we can.
Love and hugs,
Ethan and Family

More recent...

So Ethan has been home for about a week and despite some rocky moments, getting use to the new routine and medication changes, he and the family are doing VERY WELL! He is using his walker quite a bit, doing his Physical Therapy daily (not his favorite!) and getting back to his semi normal life...normal just has a new definition for us all! Tina and Rick are forever grateful for all of the cards, emails, donations and fund raising efforts that so many wonderful people have participated in. We have received donations from friends, family AND TOTAL STRANGERS which is just so beyond belief to us..an unexpected and lovely surprise. :)
I apologize if I haven't been able to get back to everyone quickly but with work and holidays and life stuff our days seem to fly by!
This Friday Dec 23 The Brown Tones are playing a benefit show at the Icehouse Tavern in Phx for Ethan and Salon Kismet is still holding a super-duper hairtastic raffle of Salon and Spa services so check them out! :)
Much love and appreciation to all. - Lisa (Tina's sister, Rick's nemesis!)

Post surgery update

Ethan update: the skin grafting today went extremely well, in fact the doctors are starting to talk about what will need to happen for him to be released! So it's looking like our BEFORE XMAS release may actually happen YAAAY! I'm at the hospital with our little guy right now and he would like me to tell everyone "thank you for posting comments and thinking about me!" He is becoming more and more Ethan-like every day and seeing all of this love you've given to him is such a wonderful gift and such a pleasant surprise! Honestly, I don't think that any of us ever feel truly worthy of this kind of generosity but I can tell you without a doubt that it has worked miracles for Ethan and our entire family. THANK YOU!

Update on Ethan

Hello everyone, we've had a good and bad week so far...after Ethan's Catscan they discovered some fluid accumulating in his pelvis so they decided to do surgery right away. That was yesterday and it was pretty stressful not knowing what they were going to find. The good news is that everything went well, they are controlling the infections with some new antibiotics and everything looks ok for now. :) The GREAT news is that tomorrow will be his final (fingers crossed) skin grafting surgery and then it will just be a matter of time until they consider sending him home! Ethan is getting a little sick of being in the hospital so we are hoping that he'll be home before Christmas...that would be an amazing gift.

Once again we can't thank you all enough for the generosity, kindness and love you have given our entire family during this experience. It has made a nightmarish situation tolerable and reminded us of how lucky we are to have each other, our friends....and of course to still have ETHAN!

Also, a BIG THANK YOU to AZPX, Jason and Salon Kismet for putting together some awesome fundraisers to help with Ethan's care. AZPX has created the coolest t-shirt in honor of our little guy (check it out!) and Salon Kismet (our BFF Dina's salon) is raffling off salon services for 10 bucks an entry. And then there's Lisa and Duane Ballard (not ME, I'm the Phx Lisa...Lisa LAMB Ballard...ohhh forget it!) who are helping behind the scenes in many ways. We love you guys so much it hurts!

Salon Kismet Raffle for Ethan

Salon Kismet is having a raffle to raise money for The Ethan Younger foundation. Tickets sell for $10. Everyone will have a chance to win a an AMAZING haircut and color with select stylists ($100 value). The more you buy the better your odds.
*** A massage will also be donated!
Come in today to donate to this sweet boy! Or contact Dina or Lisa for tickets!

Ethan's upcoming surgery

Hey everyone! Just a quick update to let you all know that Ethan will be going in for his 12th? surgery this Friday so if you can send some good thoughts his way we would appreciate it! The good news is that the Plastic Surgeon said this MAY be his last skin grafting operation if all goes well. We're crossing our fingers that it is successful because the poor little guy is getting tired of the in's and out's of surgery. 

We also wanted to let everyone know how much this love and attention is lifting Ethan's spirits! He's just shocked that so many people care about him and his well-being...the love he's feeling from everyone is exactly what he needs right now...it's honestly what has pulled us through this experience... we thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.

AZPX Skateboard hospital visit

Big thanks to everyone that made today possible. 

Thanks for a great day!