Baseball Season Has Come to an End (Kind of)

     Well the regular season for baseball has come and gone. All the boys had a great time in their individual division. It was an interesting season this year with Kristi not being able to come and see any of the boys games because of her back (I'll explain later). Good thing the days that the boys played worked out so I was able to get to almost all of the baseball games.



     (Monday and Wednesday 3:45 - 5:00pm) Tyson moved up to Coach Pitch this year. He was so excited every Monday and Wednesday to get his uniform on and get to the ball field. It is a lot of fun watching him get a little better each game and how excited his face is when he gets a hit or catches a ball. He really started to hit the ball well towards the end of his season and I hardly had to pitch him more than one ball for him to hit it. We definitely need to work on his throw, but he has a good little swing on him.

   

      (Monday and Wednesday 6:00pm / Practices on Thursday and Saturday) Haydn's team had some tough games this year. Our over all record isn't a good indication of how well we played. It seemed like every game (except for a couple blow outs) we only lost by 1 or 2 runs. We did end the season on a 2 game win streak, so we were pretty happy as a team about that. Haydn had a great individual season. He played solid defence on 2nd base, making some highlight reel plays in the last game of the season. At the plate he was really good and didn't strike out once the whole season. He would always walk or put the ball in play and made the defence make a play on him. Haydn was asked to play in Fort Macleod again this year with the Junior Royals, but he decided that he wanted to take the summer off from baseball (needless to say his father was a little grumpy haha).

   

     (Tuesday and Thursday 6:00pm / Practice on Wednesdays) Brody's team had a great season going 7-3-1. They were always one of the teams to beat the whole season. Brody stayed in Minors one more season because the numbers in majors were too many and most of his friends were still playing minors. Brody was definitely one of the top players in all the league. He had a great year on the mound and tallied up a huge amount of strike outs this season. When he was not pitching he was either catching or playing first base, both of which he played very well. Brody had a great season at the plate and hit the ball hard this season. He got a few in the park Home runs and even ran over a 3rd basemen to complete on them. Because of Brody's birthday he was too old to play Minor All Stars, so he would have to try out for the Major All Star team. We were a bit worried because he didn't play that division that year and thought he may be cut because of that. BUT he had a great try out and was able to make the team and will play summer ball with the South Chief All Stars. So that means it will be another busy summer of baseball.

 















      (Weekend Tournaments / Practices on Monday and Wednesday) Oh, and Brody was also playing and practing for basketball during this time as well. Basketball never seems to end in Cardston. They played 3 or 4 tournaments and practiced twice a week. It was a lot of fun and Brody improved a lot over the spring ball season. They didn't win many games, but they always worked their butts off.

Kristi's Back

     The last 3 months have been the longest 3 months of Kristi's (and my) life. A little over 3 months ago Kristi started to have some back pain. She didn't think much about it because she has had back pain before and it normally just goes away. She went to the chiropractor a few times and nothing seemed to be getting better. Pretty soon she was having trouble sitting, and then she was having troubles standing, things were getting worse. Kristi eventually ended up in bed laying down because that is the only way she could get some relief from the pain. It was like lightning was going up and down her legs non-stop.

     We started to realize that things were getting serious and we needed help. Kristi finally got into the doctor and he suggested that we get an MRI, but the wait time for an MRI through Alberta health was too long so we paid to get one right away. The MRI showed that Kristi had a protruding disc in her lower back and this disc was pushing on the nerves and causing severe pain. The pinched nerves were also causing parts of Kristi's leg and foot to go numb. I have never in my life seen Kristi in so much pain each night. In the morning her face would be so pale that I would literally stare at her until I could see that she was actually still breathing, because it looked like the life had been taken out of her. Her next step was to try a cortisone shot and see if that would elevate any of the pain. But once again we had to wait weeks to get that. Luckily Kristi had a friend who knew a doctor who gave these types of shots and could get her in even sooner. Kristi had the cortisone shot and it didn't give her any relief. They then told her that they wanted to try a different shot in a week and see if that helps. So we waited again. We got the different shot and it actually made Kristi's pain symptoms even worse. She needed surgery!

     We knew we had to do something. Kristi was going to physically and mentally break down if we allowed this pain to go on anymore. The Doctor had Kristi admitted into the Cardston hospital with the hope that it would push her to get a date for surgery. She stayed in the hospital for about a week, and during that week they tried and failed with a number of different pain medications to help with the severe pain. Kristi actually said that she felt worse during her time and the hospital and just wanted to go home. While she was in the hospital her doctor was calling surgeons in Calgary and pleading our case as to why we need surgery right now. Finally our doctor came back and told us that the back doctors in Calgary did not feel Kristi was bad enough for back surgery. A young mother of 4 kids who cannot move and is in severe pain 24hrs a day and now now loosing feeling in her legs and toes----How bad is bad enough? They did offer us a doctors appointment with a back specialist in August, but that was just a consultation and any surgery wouldn't be for 6-12 months after that. We had a big decision to make.

     Kristi's dad had this same problem 2 years ago and he paid to have his surgery done down in Kalispell Montana. We decided this was the only way to go. We got a doctors appointment down in Kalispell on a Thursday and they booked Kristi for surgery for the following Tuesday. The doctors said that they couldn't believe that Alberta would not perform the surgery right away because of how bad Kristi was. The worst part of all this was the car rides to and from Kalispell for Kristi. But she knew what the end goal was and she was able to get the courage to get through the tough car rides with the help of a few pills.

     The surgery went great and Kristi felt instant relief from the pain in her legs. It will be a long recovery process but it will be worth it. She is not allowed to bend, twist or pick up anything that weighs more than 5 pounds. She can move around more and the light and colour has returned to her face. She is starting to look more like her old self now, which is great.

     So hopefully we are on the road to recovery.....Because I am sick of being a single parent haha