Meeting Bethany

Meeting Bethany @ Fellowship Church 8-19-2011

Hanna, Sofia, Natalie, Bethany, Nicholas, Alisha, Sherri, Oliver

We had a wonderful time at Fellowship Church in Grapevine meeting Bethany Hamilton. She is a beautiful person with an inspiring testimony. She has a message of hope and faith that touches so many people. When she talked about God being bigger than her fears it really touched me. I know Nicholas will return to the water and to wade fishing. It will get easier with each time he leaves to go fishing but I know I will worry each time he and his dad leave for the water. It will be hard to return to Sunday Beach and go back in the water, I can feel the anxiety swell up in me as I am typing this, I can't imagine what I will feel when we actually go. I am certain that Nicholas will not return to the water without his ray guards on, and as for Natalie we will see what she decides.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid... Psalm 56:3-4

Home

We are so happy to be home. It has been a very busy 3 weeks. We have already made one trip back to Houston to see doctors. Nicholas had great check-ups. He continues to heal. We have 2 back to back trips in the next two weeks. One to have his hardware taken out of his leg. I am sure that will make things easier in getting around. No more hitting his other leg on his hardware, which makes me (mom) cringe but does not seem to bother him.

We started school on the 17th. It has been an adjustment getting Nicholas from class to class but we are getting a system down. Nicholas is so happy to be back with his friends and teachers.

Nicholas received a  huge surprise this week from Roger DeGregori of The Fish Gallery. Roger sent out a 125 gallon beautifully decorated fish tank. It was very hard for me to keep the secret all day. When he discovered it in his room he was speechless. It has been along time since I have seen that big smile on his face, and I have never seen him speechless. We thank Roger for his generous gift.

Yesterday we found out that Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton, will be in Grapevine. We happened to be at the grocery store when an employee asked Nicholas what happened to his foot. A lady next to me overheard and told me that Bethany was going to be visiting her church this weekend. I know that God has been with us through this journey we have been on. I was planning on going to another store that was across town and Nicholas wanted to just go home. We went to the store that was on the way home instead. I am so thankful that God put us in that exact spot. The kids and I are all excited to see Bethany and hear her story. We hope we can meet her in person.

Lunch time at school.

Awesome!!! fish tank from The Fish Gallery

Night on the town with the DeGregori Family.

Jack escorting Nicholas around The Fish Gallery.

Roger, Natalie, Abby, and Nicholas at the petting tank.

Nicholas petting a horn shark.

Nicholas, Mom, Natalie, and Memaw.

We get to go home!

Nicholas had his appointment with the plastic surgeon yesterday and he said we can travel, which means we can go back to Ft. Worth! Nicholas continues to improve every day, the surgeon actually said that he was 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and we can add 1 minute a day (up to 15) to the time he can put his foot down every hour.  Houston has been great to us as our "temporary" home, everywhere we go people are so kind and gracious. The owner of The Fish Gallery, and his beautiful family, took time out of their busy schedules to take  Nicholas and our family to their Houston location. Nicholas had a really good time touring the facility and talking to Roger about tropical fish, and just swapping fish tales! After the tour,  we were treated to supper @ Cheddars, were Roger's business built and maintains the huge aquariums that are in every restaurant throughout the country! OH, the food was good too! Thanks Roger, Staci, Abby, and Jack for fabulous evening.

Shark Bite Hotel

We are finally settled in our temporary home in Houston. We have an orthopedic visit next Tuesday and a appointment with the plastic surgeon next Friday, hopefully we will get the OK to travel to POC or Fort Worth for 2 weeks before our next doctor visits.  We almost had an uneventful day yesterday. I (mom) changed Nicholas' dressing on his foot. I started taking off the layers of gauze (cleaning in stages) starting with the pin care, gently swabbing around each pin. Under the gauze is a strip of xeroform that I was about to remove when my poor mother FAINTED. As she laid across Nicholas I was trying to get her to wake up and Nicholas was telling me to call 911. I was on my way to the phone when she awoke claiming to be OK. Her explanation for passing out was, she was thinking about the shark and Nicholas' foot in its mouth. All is good now and we are laughing about it. My very best friend, Callie (who is a labor and delivery nurse), is here now and she will help me with dressing changes and Memaw will hide her face under the covers with Nicholas. He still has not looked at his foot, it is a lot for him to take in and it looks very scary. He has seen the picture of the reconstruction. We have been working on his physical therapy exercises to keep him from getting stiff since he is in the bed most of the time.  He was up 6 times yesterday. We are happy that Memaw, Natalie, and Callie are here with us to keep us company. We are missing Dad and looking forward to him returning for our doctor visit next Friday and hopefully help us move to our next destination. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Alisha Vossler

Were getting out of the hospital today!

Nicholas has continued to improve. He got up for the first time yesterday afternoon since his surgery on friday, this is a great accomplishment and gives him more freedom. So far, he has been managing his pain with 3 pills a day, today we will go down to 2. He had a "play date" with one his neighbors, Prince, yesterday. The wonderful staff here with child life took Nicholas and Prince, beds and all, up to a playroom were they played wii on a big screen! That lifted both boys spirits. Also they had a special visitor from NASA, Mark, who gave them allot of goodies from the present and past shuttle missions. His uncle Mike has been here with us for a couple of days, and he brought Nicholas a Nerf dart gun. His mother and I have  had to take it away from them several times! 

Thanks again for all your prayers and support,

Cecil and Alisha Vossler

His cousins, Jennifer, and Ashley, some cool big toe scars!

The Road to Recovery.

All the surgeries are over! Day 11 in the hospital. Nicholas had his last "procedure" this morning, the plastic surgeon unwrapped everything, did a clean out and bandaged him back up. We are out of ICU, and back in a regular room. He is in good spirits, the Life Care nurse brought him a X-box to play with in this bed.  Tomorrow  Nicholas can get up out of bed and "dangle" his foot for ten minutes every hour, this is a blessing, because he has been flat on his back for for 4 days. He is managing his pain now with 1 pill every 8 hours, down from a continuous drip and push button sedation. WE ARE POSSIBLY OUT OF HERE IN 3 DAYS!  Nicholas and his neighbor Prince, are going to have a play date tomorrow, the nurses are going to take both boys, beds and all (they are both bed bound)  up to a special room where there is a play station set up on a giant movie screen. He is very excited to meet Prince in person, we have become very close with him and his mother through both the boys numerous surgeries. 

    Keep Nicholas and Prince lifted up in prayer,

Cecil and Alisha Vossler

Lil sis here for a visit!

Nicholas had a surprise visit from his little sister and grandma this morning! A good way to start off his day. The last time sister saw him he was getting on an ambulance, scary stuff, but now she sees him all fixed up. We live 250 miles from here, so its not just across town. We are glad to see her and give her a big hug and kisses. God is good.

KTRX-TV, ABC Houston Channel 13

Click here for a video update from KTRX, an ABC affiliate out of Houston, on Nicholas, his amazing surgical team, and his road to recovery.

The Big Surgery!

Nicholas is in the pediatric intensive care unit now recovering from his latest surgery. The surgery went as planned, they started at 12:20 and finished at 5:06. Plastic surgeons placed a "Flap", replaced a nerve and covered it all with a skin graft. This flap is muscle along with the arteries and veins, that was  " harvested" from his left arm and surgically placed over his missing tissue in his foot, and hooked up to his arteries and veins there-they are monitoring it by listening to the blood flow with a small sonar hourly to make sure it is still alive. The nerve was also taken from his arm to replace the one that was missing in his foot, it will grow and hopefully give him feeling back to the bottom of his foot and big toe. Finally, the skin for the graft came from Nicholas's thigh, this is the most painful because its like having a severe road rash.
He will be in PICU for 72 hours, then go back to the OR for one more procedure that will tell us if everything was successful. After that he will be replaced in a room and hopefully we will be headed home by this time next week!
  Thanks for your continued prayers and support,
Cecil & Alisha Vossler

Thanks to Frost Bank!

In addition to the PayPal account link on the right, the great folks at Frost Bank have set up a benefit fund in Nicholas' name. Everyone's thoughts and prayers have been blessing enough, but if you feel so moved, checks can be mailed to:

Nicholas Ray Vossler Benefit Fund
c/o Hulen Branch Frost National Bank
4200 South Hulen
Fort Worth, TX 76109

Thanks to all of our family, friends, and complete strangers who have given of themselves the past 8 days - it's truly awesome and humbling.

Nicholas on the Today Show!

Nicholas and his parents were on The Today Show Friday morning. Follow the link to check it out.

Nicholas's foot after orthopedic surgery today-the pins through his leg, and foot are painful!

Nicholas on the pitching mound....steeeeeeerike!

A bunch of happy kids! Nicholas fishing with family friends.

surgery today

Nicholas has finished his fourth surgery today. All went as planned, they were able to tie back some severed tendons, and re-route another. Pins have been placed in his toe, as well as six others to stabilize his foot. He is having a pretty tough time, the worst yet, with managing his pain, I cant even imagine how bad it feels......We will be back in the O.R. tomorrow for his big surgery.
Cecil Vossler

Doing pull ups at 1yr old, getting ready for his fishing career!

Nicholas with a blacktip he caught last summer

the spot where it happened, this pic was in 2006 with his big brother and little sis.