Fireman Karrick

Sunday Karrick and I spent the day with the Lombard Fire Department. Karrick was a Fireman for a Day. It was so much more than I could have ever expected. Fireman are probably the happiest people alive. I grew up around fireman and know a lot of fireman . Every single one will tell you they love their job, that they are excited and happy when it is their day to work. These men went out of their way to embrace Karrick and terach him everything they could. Fireman Tony took Karrick by the hand through every inch of that firehouse; he opened every compartment on each truck, Engine and ambulance and explained what and how everything worked. He gave Karrick as much hands on experience allowed. We got to go out on calls (we couldn't get out of the engine)

There are a lot of pictures here, I picked some that are cute, great photography and some that show Karrick's  feelings. Karrick's smiles are worth their weight in gold. These men got down to Karrick's level when they spoke to him...literally down to his level.

Karrick and FF Tony sitting quietly in the back of the Engine

                                         Karrick was told it was his turn to go up
                                                                         and
                                               ff Tony waving me on too...yikes! 

  I shot the skyline from the tower really freaking high up all the way from Lombard

 Karrick loved the headphones, he was able to talk to the other fireman, hear the radio and not the blaring sirens

The firehouse had a training facility on-site. A child and adult dummy were in the house that was set up. We went through it without the fire and smoke machines

Karrick was put to work and felt really important, He learned how to drain the hose then twist them to dry in sun. This house doesn't have the hose tower to hand wet hoses to dry

chillin in the family room watching TV after a hard day. A few men walked to the gas station next store and surprised Karrick with Skittles. We had  lunch with them...blueberry, chocolate chip and/or plain pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash -browns. We left before dinner because TJ had a baseball game and karrick was getting tired. 

Pinning a Honorary firefighter badge on Buttercup

FF Tony drove karrick home from the South Lombard station (we are N Lombard, but our station doesn't have the training facility) they flipped on  lights and sirens coming down our block. I almost cried. I left 1st so I could get Tim and the brothers outside to greet them

he's back

after 8 months TJ is finally back on the field.  His 1st time up to bat he gets a hit. I see my boy running to 3rd base while the 3rd base coach is yelling "hit the dirt" meaning slide or your going to be out

I think a "Holy Shit, NOooooooo!" may or may not have passed my lips. In my mind I saw his head slamming on the ground

Thankfully he slid perfectly and not only was his head still intact...he was safe

TJ playing 3rd

Concussions and memory loss

I learned something new about concussions and memory loss from a site I read called momsteam. Below I just copied and pasted parts of the article. click on the momsteam link in the previous sentence for full article.

TJ had Anterograde amnesia . That would explain the much longer recovery period and seemingly a more severe injury.

In a previous blog I wrote about the boy that suffered 2 back to back blows just like TJ, only a few days after TJ's. He had Retrograde Amnesia. This boy also suffered seizures . It was always in the back of my mind that he was released from the rehab hospital before TJ. Just from my view, he seemed a little worse than TJ.

This sentence answered so many questions and calmed some of my fears

"Anterograde amnesia is considered an important indicator of more serious injury and may be associated with slower recovery."

TJ was given the 3 tests below and failed them all...that's when they pulled him out of life and stuck him in a dark room for 3 months

Testing for PTA (post traumatic amnesia)

When conducting a more thorough examination for anterograde amnesia deficits, the Zurich consensus statement recommends that the team physician or ATC conduct three cognitive assessment tests:

 three cognitive assessment tests:

1. An orientation test: What month is it? What is the date today? What is the day of the week? What year is it? What time is it right now?
2. An immediate memory test: using random, unrelated words, reading each word at a rate of one word per second, and asking the athlete to recall the words both immediately and after a delay (not informing the athlete of the delayed testing until after tests 2 and 3 below, and choosing a different set of words each time the test is performed at follow-up exams);
3. A concentration test in which the athlete is asked to recite backwards two sets of increasingly long strings of digits, and then recite the months of the year in reverse order starting with the last month.

Just parts of the article

Concussions: Post-Traumatic Amnesia May Indicate More Severe Injury, Longer Recovery

By LINDSAY BARTON

• anterograde amnesia
 
• Concussion Recognition & Evaluation
 
• Health & Safety
 
• Maddocks questions
 
• post-traumatic amnesia
 
• PTA
 
• retrograde amnesia. post-traumatic amnesia
 
• Sports Concussion Safety

Two types of amnesia

An athlete can experience two types of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) after a concussion: anterograde (reduced ability to form new memories) and/or retrograde (partial or total loss of the ability to recall events before injury). Anterograde amnesia is considered an important indicator of more serious injury and may be associated with slower recovery.

Anterograde amnesia is characterized by a reduced ability to form new memories after a brain injury, which may lead to decreased attention and inaccurate perception. Anterograde memory is frequently the last function to return after the recovery from a loss of consciousness (LOC). Following the recovery of consciousness patients may be unable to recall little or anything that occurred for days, weeks, or even months after their injury.

Retrograde amnesia (RGA) is characterized by the partial or total loss of the ability to recall events that occurred during the period prior to brain injury. RGA may extend backwards for seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or even years depending on the severity of the injury. The symptoms of retrograde amnesia may improve over time.¹

Anterograde amnesia: may predict slower recovery

Until the early 2000's, the most widely followed concussion management guidelines relied heavily on loss of consciousness (LOC) and PTA to determine the severity, or grade, of a concussion and return to play. Many considered the duration of PTA the best indicator of traumatic brain injury severity and the most dependable factor in predicting outcome, even in mild cases.

Beginning in 2001 with the Vienna international consensus statement on concussion in sport, and continuing with the Second Consensus Statement on Concussion In Sport of the 2nd International Conference on Concussion in Sport in Prague in 2004, the trend was away from using PTA in predicting a slower recovery:

• Studies suggested that the nature, severity, and duration of clinical post-concussion symptoms such as headache, dizziness, confusion (mental fogginess), disorientation, and blurred vision are more common than amnesia, and may be more important than the presence or duration of amnesia alone:
  • A 2000 study of 1003 concussions sustained by high school and college football players reported that amnesia was present in only 27% of all cases.
  • 2011 study³ of concussions sustained by high school football players reported that RGA was present in 25% of all cases.
• Studies have also shown that, because RGA varies with the time of measurement after injury, and because athlete often hears peers, family, and coaches discuss events surrounding the injury - making it more likely that they will subsequently falsely report remembering more about the injury - it is a poor measure of injury severity.⁴

By the time the Zurich consensus statement on concussion statement³ was issued in May 2008, however, there was  "renewed interest" in the role of anterograde amnesia as a surrogate measure of injury severity.  The Zurich statement therefore includes anterograde amnesia as a "'modifying' factor" that may predict the potential for prolonged or persistent concussion symptoms and influence concussion investigation and management.  Noting that retrograde amnesia "varies with the time of measurement post-injury," the statement continues the expert  trend in the 2000s viewing it as "poorly reflective" of concussion severity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics' 2010 clinical report on concussions,⁵ concurs, stating that, "[a]long with LOC, [anterograde] amnesia may be an important indicator of more serious injury." 

A 2011 study³ by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found  that PTA and retrograde amnesia were not predictive of protracted recovery (21 days or more to return to play), which the authors said may be because they are part of the normal acute response to a concussion and resolve relatively quickly with little lasting effects. Their findings "should be interpreted cautiously", they said, "as previous research had supported retrograde amnesia and PTA as predictors of poor concussion outcomes(although not protracted recovery times per se). 

For the most comprehensive, up-to-date concussion information on the Internet, click here.

Read more: http://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/post-traumatic-amnesia-retrograde-anterograde-factor-concussion-recovery-severity#ixzz1wV9BlCmY

Fun weekend!

Saturday night was the release party for Corporate X's new album Project X. The party was held at The Continental Bar in Humboldt Park. Tim, myself,  my siblings, dad, cousins, Christine and Casper's friends and even my boss and his wife all came out to support Corporate X. They played an acoustic set for everyone which was beautiful.

I even got free drinks (i only drank diet coke)the entire night because the bartender thought I was Christine's mother...yeah...Wow! Made for a good story

Tim and I hit La Majada in Oak Park on the way home for late night taco's

We had a ball and it was a great way to kick off a long weekend of fun

One of the cutest couple's I know

Seriously, my dress looked good on me...I looked way thinner than this shot. The dress is actually an amazing  1960 retro black eyelet. The camera flash accentuated the white lining underneath...it was really more subtle than it appears. I will redeem myself with a daytime picture

no good deed goes unpunished...Callahanism

Thursday in Algebra , Callahan proved that 1 is equal to .9999... to his class. He said some kids understood it and some didn't

 "what about the teacher?" I asked 

"she just looked confused" he said

The next day during their final exam Callahan said something out loud to himself. The teacher went up to him and said

"talking during a final will lower your test score by 1 grade letter"

rules are rules I get that, but

Callahan had left me a voice mail which I didn't see. She made him cal me to tell me what had transpired.

I received another call from Cal 45 min later which I answered. He had to tell me what happened and the punishment...fine. As he is trying to tell me I can hear her in the background saying 

"tell her you left a voice mail earlier...did you leave a vm earlier? " 

She proceeds to badger him with questions and comments while I am on the other end...I didn't care for her tone or her implication that Cal was lying about leaving me a message the 1st time. How is the kid suppose to talk to me while she keeps butting in? I was pissed and I resisted the urge to email her.

With only 3 days left of school, Cal said just let it go.

Callahan learned 2 lessons that day:

1) don't talk at all during a final 

                                2) Never show up or be smarter than the teacher

The funny thing is, is that my boss has a degree in financial mathematics from Univ of Chicago which often looks like this 

What happened to numbers in math?

He taught that proof that got Cal into trouble a couple years ago..before Cal had ever had Algebra, and Cal never had pre-algebra. Callahan didn't understand it then, but with his idyllic memory he remembered  the equation and wha-la

Patrick was so over grown and with the heat, Tim and I shaved him...or attempted to. It was our 1st time with grooming tools. I usually just use scissors. Tim was getting the underside of Patrick as I held him down. Covered in fur I was worried about Tim lopping off Patricks "thing"

 So I said "watch out for his "weenis"

half penis/ half weenie or so I thought.

 From the kitchen I hear Cal say "a weenis is the skin that hangs from the elbow, so Patrick isn't in danger of losing his weenis"

Maybe the rest of the world knows that...but I didn't. I of course Googled it and Callahan was right.

He needs a second go around, but we needed to give him a break. He may not be pretty, but he is much cooler.

There was another Callahan-ism, but he won't let me share it.

Im guessing if it were me that he corrected...it would be okay to share :o

Callahan corrected someone that mispronounced an Islamic saying. 

How the "F" he knew that, is beyond me

I'm not exaggerating when I say "the kid knows everything....simple or complex"

night photography

The giant and the peanut

correction

Callahan just read my post about himself and I need to amend a sentence. He isn't reading "The Hatchet" now as he read it in 3rd grade. He is reading "The soldier"  by Gary Paulsen 

Callahan-isms

A child genius just amazes me...I don't understand it at all. While it sounds like bragging...it is a little, but it just freaking fascinates me. It's one thing to get straight A's if you study non-stop...but to never bring home a book...to already know most everything before your taught it? creepy....just downright Creepy!

I often talk about Callahan...the human Google. No matter where we are or what is mentioned, somehow Callahan already knows all about it...random things, some simple and  some complex ...the kid just knows almost everything. I decided to start writing them down as I do on facebook with Karrick's funny sayings.

So yesterday, I brought Callahan and Karrick to the doctor for their 13 and 8 year old well visits. When taking the elevator down Karrick and his buddy (that came with us) started jumping up and down....

to which I said "Oh, great you guys are going to break the elevator and we will go crashing to the bottom"

Before Karrick or Ryan could even blink Callahan lets out 

"Actually that wouldn't happen, there is a counter weight on the cable that is the exact weight as the maximum capacity of the elevator, so if the wire snapped the elevator would not plummet to the ground . The counter weight would level it out in the center, like a scale"

Today I picked Callahan up from his Italy trip group meeting and somehow the speed of light was mentioned...again without blinking this immediately came out of Cal's mouth

"in order for humans to achieve interstellar travel we would have to create a worm hole because even if we were to go the speed of light the nearest star is 4.2 light years away so it would take 4 years. plus travel at light speed isn't possible as far as we know.  If an ant were to crawl across a sheet of paper in a straight line, it would be the fastest way, right?

 Wrong.. 

what you could do is fold the paper in half make a hole and go through the paper. This is the same idea behind creating a wormhole. If we were to create a worm hole we could bend space and travel immense distances in a short time. to create a wormhole all we would need to do is focus an extreme amount of energy on a specific spot. We would do this by placing huge lasers in space on asteroids or sate lights and aim them in the same spot. To create these lasers we would first have to find a faster cheaper and more efficient way to create anti-matter, which is the exact opposite of matter, exact nothingness. When anti matter and matter come into contact, a huge amount of energy is released. it would only take a teaspoon of it to destroy the earth. that energy could be used to create wormholes which allows us to achieve interstellar travel".

Callahan told me he has become friends with the 11 year old genius that is in his 7 th grade class.  When I asked him "why all of the sudden?" (Cal didn't care for him before...1st time Cal wasn't eon's above everyone else)
 He responded with 


"Well Parker is the only one that I can have a conversation with about Nuclear Physics that understands it"


This 11 year that just turned 11, skipped 2 grades...he actually scored 1 point higher than Callahan on the MAP test. Freaking crazy to be that smart at 11 


again,
Yes, I am bragging...but more of the "unbelievable" bragging. I just don't get how such young kids can know so much and Callahan has never studied...ever!
Last tid-bit than I'll shut up


Callahan had his Civil War final today...I asked how it went


"It was ridiculously easy because I already knew everything BEFORE she taught IT"


HOW  I ASK ?
 HOW?

catch up on the TJ-ster

photo taken with telephoto lens through the chain linked fence 100 feet away

 TJ started baseball this week, he is playing with his travel team of 5 years. They are playing in the Lombard League for 7 weeks (15 ish games) if you need help with the math that is 2 games a week... down from 11-13 a week last year (insert a big WOOHOO)


 After that I believe they will compete in 4 tournaments during the 4 weekends in July. I was pleasantly surprised how Tj just jumped back into baseball and looked like the player he has always been. I was afraid he wouldn't see the ball whizzing past him up at bat, but that boy was smacking it into the outfield each time. After sitting and I mean sitting, for 7 1/2 months he is somewhat out of shape. He put on a solid 20 lbs...I have no doubt his 6 pack abs will be back in no time. The boy/man is definitely filling out.

Kids are done with school next week, TJ has 3  finals on thur and 1 on Fri then he is done!. It turns out that TJ will only be short 2 credit hrs (Honors chemistry and German 2 he had to drop as it would be impossible to make up 20 consecutive missed weeks) He will take Chem either Jr or Senior year. He already has 2 science credits for Honors Biology and anatomy-He really should have no problem graduating on time unless there is a setback

Cal and Karrick have 1 hr on Jun 1st and they are done...which means I go down to 3 days a week in the office. Im really excited to have a summer, summer. Spending time at my brother's cabin in Michigan by St Joe's and a lot of time in Whitewater WI.

Tim and Cal leave for Italy in about 2 weeks  for 10 days .

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL, CAUSE THIS MAMA DESERVES ALL THE PAMPERING THAT IS COMING TO HER

I got my beach day!

After slepping downtown for the last 15 weeks walking around in frigid and sometimes rainy weather; I finally got my 90 degree day to go to Oak St beach while TJ was in class. 

Except for the fact that I let TJ play hooky to join us. The kid has been through so much and has been a champ throughout it all. He deserved to just have some fun.

I have been playing with my new camera all week. It's a powerful sucker and there is a slight learning curve. I have a shoot coming up and need to be 100%

The 4 of us parked at TJ's school and walked over to the beach. Karrick was just in heaven and didn't want to leave. Weather permitting we will bring his buddy next Saturday while TJ is in class

 

Karrick totally stepped up to the plate at soccer today..he seems to have gotten over his contact phobia. He was kicking that ball up and down the field. He almost scored the game winning goal...almost. We ended the game in a tie

Wow, what a great kid!

This is what TJ's girlfriend put on facebook. I 

couldn't be more proud of my son

Alexis Oldham

21 hours ago near Lombard

i have the best boyfriend in the whole wide world:) i woke up and threw up for the second time. i was half asleep and tj told me he had to go. i go back to my room after a while and see my computer is opened up i look to see this writen on it:"""""Hey babe you fell asleep so if im gone i love you sososososososososososo much! i hope you feel better:).I cleaned your kitchen up a bit. I also got you ALEAVE and WATER which is on your nightstand by your alarm clock! i love you feel better and call me if you need me!!!:D"""" SO CUTE!!!!:) — with Tj Mcginty and Mary Moran McGinty.

 · 

• You, Alexis Oldham, Tj Mcginty and 22 others like this.