Keaton's Nose Surgery

This is the before picture showing how Keatons nose tilts to the left when you look at him straight on. We arrive at the Summit Surgical Center Wednesday morning at 7 am on the morning of a pretty significant snowstorm. They took us back and had Keaton change into this lovely surgical gown including the lovely hat. They at least had a gown long enough for him! (At first, they had one for a 7 year old, not a 17 year old!!) The nurses loved him and exclaimed over him and his cute name. Once he got all dressed and ready to go they took him back and he was gone. This was about 8 am or so. We were told that the surgery would be about an hour and a half and we thought we would be done and ready to go about 11 am.



He was in rough shape when we got to him again. The doctor told us that they were going through bone rasps like they were tinfoil. Must be all those gallons of milk the kid drinks. The resident assistant, Dr. Jensen, attends our ward, and he warned them when they started that Keaton was PURE and had never taken drugs or alcohol. They realized this was true when the anesthesiologist gave him nitrous oxide before the IV which caused a "disinhibition effect" and his arms started windmilling! (Keaton told me later that he started dreaming that he couldn't feel his thumb and was only turning his arm over to regain feeling in his thumb). They stopped the laughing gas and gave him straight oxygen and did the IV without any help. All that was left was the healing. Here are the photos. Enjoy.
He got really bored of being out of school with the splints in his nose from Wednesday to Tuesday. We went back to the Doctor on Monday who pulled the splints out of the inside of his nose - they were clear plastic things on the inside of the nose - about 3 inches long - ewwwww! Grody!!! But Keaton was able to breathe through his nose almost right away.
He is still not able to take physical education until March 8, but should be able to run Track!! But ABSOLUTELY NO BASKETBALL!! or anything where he could be hit in the head. The gym teacher won't even let him play badminton. hahaha. He was REALLY thrilled to finally take a shower a week later Wednesday night. Yes folks, we was not able to get that head wet for a week. yuck. So here is his handsome mug with straight facing nose. Still a bit swollen but Lookin' Good!

Mr. Wonderful

Keaton began his fabulousness at an early early age and was an early trend setter. This photo, taken at Kashana Graddy's first wedding, has him pairing his beloved cowboy boots with ever appropriate prep-school jacket and little-boy white shorts. He was The Man. Keaton often dressed himself and had Very Definite Ideas of how he wanted to dress. Part of it was having two older, twin-like sisters who loved to play dress-up and who sometimes incorporated him (at the tender age of 2 to 3 years) into their tea parties.

It was at this time that the Great Toe Polish Incident occurred. As has been mentioned earlier, when a little boy who begins to show serious Calvin and Hobbes tendencies, silence from him for longer than 8 minutes means serious trouble.

One of my favorite stories of him is from when he was 5 years old and his teacher at school challenged the children to dress up for the Halloween party and try to STUMP her so that she could not guess what they were dressed as. WELL, Keaton had it ALL figured out. He was going to dress up as a pickle He brought me a sweatshirt and jeans to sew buttons onto (the pickle bumps, you know) and then he painted them green. The kid is FIVE!! Pure Genius. She was stumped.

So now, Mr. Wonderful has made it through grade school, middle school, Jr. High and into High School where he continues his fashion sense (his "lucky socks" for Church Basketball) and pure enjoyment of dressing up. Perhaps it is his own delight at life around him. He cannot help but see the joy in living and it infects all of us. There is the Heroic Keaton and there is the What Will I do Next Keaton. I am glad that we have Mr. Wonderful all to ourselves this year.
I have to squeeze these last two pictures in here because I LOVE them and you will too. Thank you Keaton for choosing this post. Perhaps we should do this every once in a while and give good natured kudo's and memories about one another. It is nice. "I like it" said The Horse from Ren and Stimpy.