On June 23, 2010, Aaron was a guest of Grafton Community Television’s popular public access show 2 Guys Who Like To Talk” with hosts Richard Schultze and Bill Robidoux. Bob DeToma, producer of “Day Trip To History”, was also a guest on the show. The 2 Guys show is a live program that features special guests, viewer’s calls, discussions and debates of current topics and issues.
Here is a little clip from the show, (edited to fit youtubes time restrictions).
Flat Stanley was written in 1964 by Jeff Brown (illustrated by Tomi Ungerer). It is the first in a series of books about Stanley Lambchop who became flat after a bulletin board fell on him. He discovered that being flat could be fun. He could fit into a large envelope and travel easily (and cheaply) by mail!
In the mid-1990’s a 3rd grade teacher in Canada decided to use the Flat Stanley story as a teaching tool to facilitate letter-writing for his students. The students would make paper Flat Stanleys and then take Stanley with them and document the places they went in a journal. The students would then mail Stanley and the journal to others, who were asked to treat Stanley as a guest, add to his journal and then return him to the student.
The focus of the project was literacy, but students also learned about the different places that Stanley had visited. Many Stanley’s were returned with photos and interesting information about the places he visited. His travels could also be tracked on maps for a lesson in Geography.
This project soon caught on in many other schools across several different countries and now thousands of school children are doing Flat Stanley projects. Several variations on the original idea have also developed over the years. Some projects are quite elaborate, such as this excellent video showing Stanley’s adventures in Hollywood.
Stanley has also visited many exotic places and met many famous people in his travels. He is sort of like the traveling gnome, except the focus with Stanley is educational.
This summer Eric’s class did a Flat Stanley project in which Stanley spent part of summer vacation with the students. The kids were asked to take photos of the places they visited with Stanley to share with the class. This turned out to be a fun project for the whole family.
Here are some of the places Eric took Stanley:
More Photos of Eric and Stanley’s summer travels on Flickr: Flat Stanley Set
The students were also asked to make two Flat Stanleys to send to friends or relatives in other states, so that the students could learn about different states. Eric sent Stanley to Aunt Phyllis in Florida and to Aunt Joyce in New York.
Anthony had a rough time this past winter. He seemed to pick up every cold that went around and also had increased problems with gastric reflux (stomach content backing up into his esophagus). At times the reflux was so bad that you could see the Pediasure bubbling up in the back of his throat. Add to this Anthony’s neurological impairment, muscle weakness, cognitive and positioning problems and you have a recipe for disaster. Reflux in children like Anthony often leads to aspiration pneumonia and even death.
After trying a few medications with minimal improvement, we were left with a couple of options. First is a procedure called a nissen fundoplication, a surgery in which part of the stomach is wrapped around the lower end of the esophagus and stitched in place. This tightens the sphincter between the stomach and esophagus to prevent stomach content from backing up. Anthony had this procedure when he was young (before he joined our family). Because he had already had the surgery once, he probably has a lot of scar tissue in that area, which would make the surgery more difficult.
Another less invasive option is to try a GJ-tube (Gastrojejunal tube). Anthony already has a g-tube or gastrostomy tube (feeding tube into the stomach). So we decided to convert his G-tube to a GJ-tube. Anthony had the G-tube to GJ-tube conversion Wednesday (June 30, 2010). Using x-ray images for guidance, a radiologist threaded a long feeding catheter into the current g-tube site, through the stomach and into his small bowel. By feeding Anthony directly into the small intestine, this should greatly reduce the chances of reflux and aspiration. It took almost 2 hours to get the correct placement of the tube, but he tolerated the procedure well and so far he is tolerating his feedings. It’s a triple lumen tube, one port goes to the stomach, one goes to the intestine and the 3rd is to fill the balloon which helps to keep the tube secure.
The disadvantage to feeding directly into the small intestine is that feedings have to be delivered slowly. Unlike the stomach – which is a pouch to hold food – the small intestine doesn’t have any storage space, so feedings have to run very slowly. Basically, Anthony will be fed 24/7 in order to deliver enough calories. Also, if this tube gets displaced, plugged or pulled out or when it needs to be replaced (every couple of months or so) this will involve going to the hospital. With the g-tube, I was able to change the tube myself at home. However, these disadvantages are minor if this new tube prevents aspiration.
Hopefully Anthony will have a healthy summer and we can get enough calories into him so that he will gain some weight. He is out of school for the summer, but we are hoping to have him strong enough to return to school in September.
For the past few years, my New Year’s Resolution has been to run the Grafton Gazebo Road Race. Of course running a race is not as hard is preparing for a race. I also tend to be a fair-weather jogger, so I slack off in the wintertime and then get motivated again when the warm spring weather arrives. Since the road race is always in early May, I’m usually not in any shape to run the race. The last time I ran it was in May of 2002. This particular year I was motivated early because Rich and I were planning to go to the Turks and Caicos for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. We hadn’t been anywhere for a very long time, due to sick children and financial problems, so this was a big deal for us and I wanted to be in shape in order to at least be comfortable in a bathing suit.
By May of 2002, I was in good shape. I was running 5 miles 3 times a week, so the race was easy and fun. But in July of 2002 on our wedding anniversary in the Turks and Caicos I had a freak accident. I fell into a ditch and on the way down, hit the right side of my chest on a sharp corner of a cement wall. Hitting that concrete knocked the wind right out of me, the pain was excruciating. I went to a small clinic on the island (there was no hospital). The doctor there had an antique x-ray machine. I thought for sure I had broken some ribs, but he said the x-ray was fine and I probably just bruise my ribs.
To make a long story short, I had actually broken three ribs and had a grade IV liver laceration. My liver was basically crushed like stepping on a tomato. I had no idea that I was bleeding into my gut. The pain was very bad, but I was trying to be brave, since I thought I only had bruised ribs. By the time I got home and to a hospital, the doctors were shocked that I was alive. The surgeon said that he had only seen this kind of trauma in multi-injury car accidents. Only about 50% of patient survive such a severe laceration and these patients are typically admitted the the intensive care unit! And here I was walking around! My liver enzymes were off the charts and I was very anemic, but apparently very lucky. The doctor said to me, “You actually flew on a plane like this?” He said, the fact that I was in such good physical shape probably help me to survive.
By the time I got back to the States and had lab tests, x-rays and a CAT scan, it had been four days since the accident. The doctor said that since I had survived for four days without any intervention, he would not attempt surgery. He thought it best to let my liver heal on it’s own, since the operation was probably riskier than doing nothing. He wanted me to be admitted to the hospital on bed rest, but I figured since I’d been walking around for four days, I should be able to lay in bed at home. The doctor reluctantly let me go home.
I was on bed rest for two weeks and could not do any lifting for two months (a challenge with my boys). It took a good six months before I fully recovered. I’ve never been able to get back to where I was physically in May of 2002, but running the Grafton Road Race again is a goal I wanted to reach and I finally did it on May 1st! I was slower than I was in 2002, but also 8 years older and in a new category (ages 50 to 59). I even got a metal for 5th place in my division! OK, so there were only eight of us old ladies, but still cool. Over-all, I came in 183rd place out of 220 runners. My time was 0:54:29 or 0:10:54 a mile. But really, I was only competing with myself. I’d like to do 10 minutes per mile next year. We shall see…it’s tough to get faster, while you are also getting older.
Five mile race course:
