Waiting for the next surgery.

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” ~Maya Angelou

I know many of you have been waiting for an update. Before I share moments from today I thought I’d take a brief moment to share something quite special to our family this year…the Walk-n-roll for spina bifida is just one month away. Chance’s team still needs your support and would love to have you all join us in person and/or through a donation. All donations go directly back to the spina bifida association in central Florida to help the families locally affected by spina bifida.

It might not seem like that big of a deal to you all who might not be affected by spina bifida, but if you’ve somehow stumbled upon my blog and seen just how much my baby boy has been affected by spina bifida hopefully you all realize that we are just ONE family affected by spina bifida. Our local community needs far more support and if we raise enough funds it’s likely we’ll receive a lot more support from the national chapter to ensure families locally are provided the best possible support system and resources possible. So if you have a moment and would like to join “Team Chance” head on over to the Walk-n-roll page to join and perhaps you can help by making a contribution to help the spina bifida association. I’m driven to do much more to help the many other families who are or have struggled with similar challenges as we have faced this past year.

DAY 2 OF RECOVERY
In comparison to Chance’s previous surgery recoveries, thus far he’s doing quite well. He has had fussy moments where I could tell he’s uncomfortable or in pain but he seems to be adjusting well and for the most part I’d say he seems to be doing better recovering than he did after most of the previous shunt surgeries. This morning he laid in his bed as calm as could be…at just 7 months old he seems interested in tv.

He smiled more often this morning…a sign that he’s feeling a bit better.

He has been more tired today than on a typical day, which is understandable. A common sight for me today was seeing his sweet face through the crib. One moment he stares and the next he’s sound asleep.

Today the nurses were asked to draw 10cc’s of blood from Chance in order to do some tests. With his shunt clogging due to some blood being in his cerebral spinal fluid they want to be sure there are no other issues with his blood like clotting issues. They came in while he was sound asleep. He was out cold and we feared he’d wake up. For a baby 10cc’s of blood is a lot so rather than poking him in the typical places they decided to draw from his femoral artery near the top of his leg. I’m not sure if I was happy to see he wasn’t bothered by it or if the spina bifida motherly instincts make me worry about the other challenges like his leg movement and feeling that we may be challenged with in the years ahead. I was surprised to see him not even begin to cry. For now I’ll stop worrying about tomorrow and continue to remind myself that we’ve got to make it through things one day at a time.

This morning while Hope was in school Jason brought Jaylen to visit Chance. He told me this morning that he missed Chance. He was so excited to see his baby brother. He kept trying to tickle him and make him laugh.

Jason spent a bit of time with Chance. He kept getting him to high five. At one point Jason jokingly pretended to arm wrestle his baby boy. It was a priceless moment that made Chance laugh. Something tells me he’s laughing because he knows his daddy already thinks Chance is tougher than us all.

Jason’s been spending more time making sure Hope & Jaylen are cared for, taking Hope to school, and running back and forth between the hospital and home when it’s been needed. Needless to say moments like these with his baby boy never last as long as either of us would like…and we’re quite anxious to bring Chance back home so our family won’t feel so divided.

After Hope got out of school she got to come visit her baby brother. She was very worried about him yesterday. At this point I have to admit the numerous surgeries that seem neverending are beginning to wear on our entire family. Hope said yesterday as I dropped her off at a friend’s house before I ever knew he’d have another surgery, “Mommy is he going to break a record or something…his surgeries can’t beat how old I’ll be.” She’ll be ten in November and didn’t want him to have any more surgeries. I think we all are wondering when we’ll stop having to have another surgery…unfortunately we can’t answer that one…so we’ll just have to keep praying.

If you keep Hope & Jaylen in a room together for too long…say 10 minutes…they begin to act silly. Of course silly moments give us reason to smile.

It’s been a long day waiting as my baby boy continues to recover. Chance spends most of the day resting or playing contently. When I’m not caring for him I’ve been getting some work done and trying to catch up to responding to the many messages that have been sent in the last day. You all are amazing and I can’t thank you enough for sending all your sweet thoughts and prayers. If you haven’t heard a direct response from me please know I am listening…but it’s becoming impossible to reply to every message at the rate they’re coming in. I have even had kindhearted people in other countries writing in the last day to send their thoughts and prayers to our family…I suppose just another sign of how much my baby boy has touched others in all he’s faced.

Having Chance recovering from so many surgeries is never easy. I’ve always hated how many medical wires he has to be connected to and just dealing with trying to handle him with incisions on his head. Well, this surgery has complicated those feelings so much more because he has another wire that is connected within his head in order to drain the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) externally until they can put in another shunt. In just a day it drained about 135 cc’s of CSF from his head that typically would have struggled to drain on it’s own with a faulty shunt. If that fluid doesn’t drain away from his brain it could cause permanent damage so as awful as it looks…it’s what is needed right now. He has two other incisions where they removed the shunt and two catheters that were in place draining fluid before. Needless to say I’m a little nervous handling him but thankfully he doesn’t seem too bothered by it. The best news thus far is that the tests so far have come back with no signs of infection. We have about another day to wait for the final results. No infection means we can move forward with his next surgery soon. We continue to wait and monitor his CSF. Originally it was pink due to small amounts of blood but in the last day it’s gradually become more clear as time passes and his head has time to heal. More spina bifida/hydrocephalus battle wounds for my baby boy…but in time these incisions will heal and fade and in time it’ll all be a distant memory.

Tonight after Jason and the kids left Chance got a bit fussy. He had just ate the hour prior. He refused to sleep. He didn’t care for his pacifier or his toy. And then it hit me…this kid is just tired of laying flat on his back. So I turned him over and let him play for a bit with his toy. He got pretty excited to spend a bit of time on his belly.

As we wait for the next surgery in the days ahead, we anticipate it’ll likely take place Monday. Obviously we have to wait to see how he recovers and for tests to return but thus far he seems to be doing better. I have this feeling the biggest challenge soon might be how to keep him occupied when he gets tired of laying around in this hospital room.

I suppose if that’s the biggest problem I have over the next few days I won’t complain at all. I suppose I think it’s a little hard to believe that this kid has now been through 10 surgeries and he’s still smiling.

Thank you all again for your support & encouragement.

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September 30, 2011 - 10:51 am

AnnOKeeffe - These pictures are so precious! I enjoying seeing that cute little guy, by himself, and with his siblings.
I’m praying that all goes well and that you all have peace.
Be well, take care, and know that God is looking out for you and your family.

September 30, 2011 - 4:53 pm

Joni Clark - Thank you for sharing your family with all of us. Our prayers are constant that you all will remain as strong and full of courage, helping Chance, as he helps you; and that your faith will only be strengthened by all of this.

September 30, 2011 - 8:40 pm

The Berry Family - Chance’s picture is darling – he does not look a bit sick. It’s wonderful how he can take all this medical stuff and still smile that charming smile. Have been in prayer for him and hope for the very best results. Praying for strength and patience for the whole family. May God grant you an extra portion of His grace and comfort.

September 30, 2011 - 11:39 pm

Scott Taylor - If love within a family were the only commanding force, Change would be named Slam Dunk. The love your pictures show what power you all convey to Chance. While the pictures are truly beautiful what they represent goes far beyond each captured moment… it speaks of the love that will always bind you as a family. You are all amazing.

October 6, 2011 - 5:24 pm

Monti M Kelly - Dear Amanda,
I am sitting at work and came upon your site and am very touched and moved by your familys story. Your Chance reminds me so much of my son and grandson. My son and his wife live in Davenport and will be delivering a son, Noah, at Arnold Palmer, with spina bifida in late November. We will pray for you and your family and sent as much love to you as we can. Thank you so much for sharing this story with the world. I am typing this thru tears and gaining strength at the same time. I live in Michigan and during this trying time, knowing there is such a good hospital for them to be in, helps a lot. God Bless you all. Monti Kelly

March 24, 2025 - 9:57 am

Janeen - A complex may be designed to include any kind of equipment.

For instance, a body-weight complicated may embrace pushups, chin-ups, squat jumps,
and lunges. Barbell complexes typically include Olympic
lifts, similar to snatches, cleans, and jerks. There’s nothing like
a posh to provide your metabolism a surge.
Not only will the continuous motion give you an intense cardio
exercise, combining these movements will work your whole physique.
To practice explosively, the reps need to be lowered to take care of rep
quality and to utilize the best energy methods and motor units.

This means you won’t be able to proceed a set previous the purpose your
weak aspect can handle. It additionally ensures your kind stays on level,
as it won’t get all wacky together with your stronger side powering a lot of the movement (like when someone presses up a
barbell with one aspect greater than the opposite
and would not even understand it). Finally, the strength and muscle imbalance will even out.
Whether Or Not you understand it or not, throughout barbell
presses, you’ve a stronger aspect that compensates for the weaker side by somewhat taking
over the motion.
This just isn’t attainable with dumbbells obviously as all sides has its separate weight.
With dumbbells, if your weak side lags, you will immediately notice it.
With barbells, the bar touches your chest before your pectoral muscle tissue have reached their full range of motion. However
dumbbells allow you to lower past your chest, stretching your pecs to the max, and thus
activating the most potential muscle fibers.
A lot of trainers use this train for people who have shoulder points and bodybuilders use it as a result of
it is extremely effective at hitting the higher chest and triceps with out the shoulders doing too much work.
By merely changing your grip, you would possibly be
inserting extra emphasis on your upper chest and you are taking strain and tension off your shoulders.

In Addition To burning undesirable fat, dumbbell complexes have a few important
benefits. Any workout where you’re employed many muscle tissue in a short
period of time is excellent for muscle conditioning and
fats loss as lengthy as you get well accurately.
The key to dumbbell complexes is that you’ll be
sucking within the air and enjoying catch-up afterward.
Dumbbell complexes increase the demand for
oxygen during and after your workout.
The last exercise to finish off the barbell complicated is the
barbell push press. Not dissimilar to workout #1 (above),
besides the primary target is dumbbell complexes. If you’re quick
on time, you do NOT have to go to a fitness center and push some weights round AND then go for a run or
hop on the exercise bike. Here are some examples of full
physique dumbbell workouts using the workouts above…

Mainly, the dumbbells are used just to scale up the
depth of the leaping lunge, which is generally only a bodyweight plyometric motion (similar to doing dumbbell
burpees).
Throughout coaching, a certain percentage of the sequence is masked, and the
mannequin should predict which amino acid belongs to every of the masked positions.
The mannequin gathers a knowledge base of protein language when it comes to grammar and semantics of the info set on which it was
trained on. The discovered representations show important enchancment
with increased data set size and model capability. The use of a giant pre-trained
language model can aid in determining which amino acid residue(s) could be essential for protein function or stability.
Here, we inferred the likelihood of a mutation at a given position utilizing the
evolutionary landscape of the unique protein sequence.
We obtained the transition likelihood scores for every amino acid residue at every place
by making use of a softmax operate to the logit
output of the transformer. The language mannequin used
for predicting the transition chances is a 650M-parameter transformer
educated across 86 billion amino acids from 250 million sequences76.

It Is all the time better to begin with lighter weights and gradually increase as you get stronger.
All in all, we aren’t saying that barbells, machines and body weight workouts don’t have their place in chest workouts,
as they definitely do, but one could easily argue that dumbbells are the superior training device for the chest.
They can be used in numerous routines, from power coaching
to cardio, providing a comprehensive fitness answer.
This adaptability permits you to tailor your workouts to specific goals, whether you wish to build muscle, burn fat, or improve endurance.
Incorporating dumbbell complexes into your routine can also help break via plateaus.

The steady motion challenges your body in new ways, promoting muscle growth and enhancing general fitness.
This change in exercise dynamics retains your physique guessing and adapting.

This makes them a protected and efficient possibility for folks of all fitness
levels. Using resistance bands can enhance your muscle-building
exercises by concentrating on specific muscle
teams. They come in different resistance ranges, allowing you to gradually increase the depth of your workouts as you get stronger.
Once you’ve completed your presses carry out your squats by dropping the bells back down onto
entrance of your shoulders (A). From right here, drop into a front squat, till your thighs pass parallel to the bottom
(B), earlier than driving again up. By this point, your grip
and upper again could also be tiring however don’t relax.
Most would agree that massive, compound, FULL BODY workouts
are the finest way to build muscle, enhance energy, lose physique fat, and even improve athleticism…or, in different words, get into tip-top shape.

By using dumbbells independently, all sides of your physique is required to work individually, helping to appropriate any strength or size discrepancies between the left and
right facet of your chest. The dumbbell chest press ought
to be a staple in everyone’s chest day workout plan. If you need
broad, muscular, and well-defined pecs, dumbbell chest
workouts are a should.
Start light and use hex or 12-sided type of dumbbells because the
round ones will solely make issues harder to stabilize.
Notice that holding the dumbbells above your head (or simply holding one with each hands) requires a great deal of steadiness.

If you turn into too out of breath or can’t keep good form,
attempt holding lighter dumbbells by your sides during the lunges.

The action of stabilizing and maintaining the
dumbbells in place will produce maximum tension as you contract your chest.
Barbells are nice for the chest as they let you lift the most attainable weight.
Be positive to actually squeeze those dumbbells together as that is what makes the squeeze press so effective.
This train shall be a little more difficult than the standard dumbbell fly.
Be positive to make use of an acceptable weight and maintain your elbows mounted throughout and don’t overextend on the shoulder joint.

It entails a knee drive and a bicep curl as you carry out the step up, which is going
to work the hip flexors, biceps, and forearms, but in addition goes to seriously test
your steadiness. To preserve balance, your core and glutes/hip abductors are going to need to
be fully engaged. So, in case you have bother with common bodyweight only
planks, you won’t be prepared for this. You
are going to wish some serious core power and stability to carry out this
train. Jumping with heavy kettlebells can put too much pressure in your spine.

Exercises like flat presses will hit the middle and upper a half of your sternocostal head,
and decline presses and parallel dips will emphasize the lower space.
Analysis means that dumbbell presses activate the
pec major to a better degree than barbells and smith machine bench
presses as a end result of both a higher
vary of movement and demand for stability2. Chest
and again workouts are great as the chest and back are opposing muscle teams.
With that, we prefer to superset push workout routines with pull exercises.
This is a great way to keep your exercises environment
friendly, efficient, well-balanced, and excessive intensity.
The last on our best dumbbell chest train record
is the decline fly.
Like any coaching program, following a well-structured EMOM workout can help
you achieve first rate outcomes over time. It is a moderate-intensity interval training that includes performing each exercise for one minute, together with the rest time.
In this text, I’ve shared the 15 finest Each Minute on The Minute or EMOM exercises that may
work all through the physique and take your health to the following degree.
The first train of the dumbbell complex is the dumbbell front squat.

The majority of complexes work most, if not all, of your major muscle groups,
and that means they use lots of power too.

They must also set off significant post-exercise oxygen consumption, firing
up your metabolism for even quicker fats burning. That stated, it will improve
muscle activation, core recruitment, and likewise
improve your coordination too. Cardio means spending even more time within the
fitness center, and that’s not an attractive proposition for a lot of lifters.
Additionally, whereas cardio does burn fat, it could have a unfavorable effect on muscle
mass, leading to atrophy. In quick, whereas you’ll lose
fat with cardio, you would lose muscle mass too.
This DIY workout presents a strength and cardio challenge — with
no gym, no weights, and virtually no area required.
As the DH just isn’t able to ATP-hydrolysis45,forty six, the noticed
modifications could be due to loss of DNA in a subfraction of MD-(ATP)
molecules. Depending on your split, you should be hitting your chest muscles 1-3
instances per week. Implement these dumbbell chest exercises into
your exercises and I assure you will build an impressive,
well-defined, powerful chest. And you’ve got received a huge choice
of actions to choose from. I Am about to go over what
I assume are the 15 best dumbbell chest workout routines.
In addition, I’ll provide three muscle-building
dumbbell chest exercises, while likely answering any
questions you’ve alongside the finest way.
The handheld weights are simpler to wrangle than the long,
inflexible, heavy barbells that populate bench press stations and
squat racks in gyms, but they’re also sturdy sufficient to lifted, swung,
carried, and extra. I keep my relaxation intervals moderate ( seconds), and barely go over 5
rounds (mainly as a end result of doing so would kill me or go
away me puking away all my valuable nutrients). These complexes may be finest served on the end of a
strength training day, or even as a standalone exercise.

Complicated coaching is a time-saving, space-saving technique of
coaching that might be smartly programmed as part of a workout,
or as its own exercise. They utilize the same piece of apparatus for a series of exercises done in succession, with
out placing the burden down between. They’re nice for conditioning, cardiorespiratory endurance, and simply for environment friendly metabolic coaching for fats loss.
Relying on the burden and rep ranges used, they may additionally be effective for building muscle (the same
way compound units can be).
The dumbbell fly is a basic accent exercise for
opening up the complete chest, enhancing vary of motion, and constructing strong definition of your inner chest.
The dumbbell twisted fly is the same actual concept
nevertheless it permits for even more muscle fiber activation. This means
you may do renegade rows, Russian twists on all sides,
then dumbbell z presses. If you would possibly be tight on time, space and tools, complexes
be a life-saver. They are a superior approach to push your muscle tissue to the limit in a secure way, as long as you stick with the programming
principles I shared above. Personally, when cutting and making an attempt to shed fat, complexes are my “go-to” method.
Complexes are a kind of coaching that includes one piece of equipment,
one amount of weight, and one area of house.
Chest workouts like incline presses are great for the serratus anterior as a outcome of
it brings your shoulder blades forward and upward, which is its two primary actions.
There are several issues you want to do to build a strong, muscular, well-developed chest with dumbbells.
You also have to work to prevent the dumbbells from drifting apart as you press up.

The deep push up takes a regular push up to the following
stage by allowing for a larger vary of movement on the eccentric part.
Primarily, you probably can go deep, maximizing the stretching rigidity in your chest.
So, any movement that involves bringing the arm up, reaching or pressing ahead,
or bringing your arms throughout your body will activate the pectoralis main. The pec major is
the bigger of the 2 pec muscular tissues, making up most of 
the chest. The giant fan shaped-muscle has two heads, the
sternocostal head, often identified as the lower chest, and the calvicular head, known as the upper chest.
For health enthusiasts who love to build muscle and lines,
Customized Keychains could be designed based on their preferences and needs, helping them shortly identify their
objects and keep away from confusion with other folks’s
objects. You May carry out each train for 30 seconds of labor, then rest for 15 seconds.

Here, we speculate that a hinge region between the HBRCT and
the other sections of DDK permits versatile engagement of Mcm4 or Mcm2/6 (Figs. 6c and 9a).
These interactions are characterised by patches of weak contacts (Fig. 4a), which help several various swivel states (Figs. 
6c and 9a), however may also mirror monitoring of phosphorylation sites alongside the
Mcm N-terminal tails. At the lively website itself, ATP?S is held from the
highest by K76 and E90 of the N-lobe, which collectively stabilise the
? phosphate of ATP throughout catalysis
(Fig. 3b). In addition, T43 of the P-loop/GEGTFS motif (aa40–45) and invariant K165 contacts the thio-phosphate.
Beneath ATP?S, D182 positions the Mg2+ ion from one side and N168 from the other facet.

Notably, Cdc7 adopts an active configuration that is
primed for phosphorylation and, excluding the substrate-binding website,
makes little to no contacts with the core of MCM2-7.
Both DDK subunits, Cdc7 and Dbf4, are frequently
found to be overexpressed in cancer and this is correlated
with most cancers development and poor prognosis37–39.

Merely put, preserve good posture and walk for as lengthy as attainable holding
these positions. Focus on remaining locked out, stacked,
and breathing deeply. Make an initial aim of
45 seconds, and change arms on every rep. Relaxation for 30 seconds between arms.
This one technically violates the foundations of the barbell complex, because
you have to set the bar down for Push-Ups and Roll Outs.

The clean can also be an exercise that can be accomplished with relatively heavy dumbbells.
Compound dumbbell workout routines are categorised as workouts that stimulate all your major muscle groups, which results in an increased metabolic output (i.e.,
increased fats burning) for a quantity of
hours after your exercise. T-push-ups are a challenging, superior transfer that will construct sturdy stabilizer muscles within the core, and likewise work the whole upper body.
It’s simply that it’s good to have an alternative, particularly
one that’s as time-efficient and effective as strength coaching complexes.

As the curl and press will most likely be your weakest exercise,
use that transfer to determine your coaching weight for the
rest of the complicated. For instance, if you realize you can curl and
press 20kg/45 lbs.

March 26, 2025 - 8:33 pm

Kathleen - This exercise engages your glute muscle tissue,
which are the opposing muscle group to the quadriceps used
in the Half Squat. This exercise not solely strengthens your glutes, but additionally helps to construct core stability and balance.
The Dumbbell Clasp Grip Sumo Squat is a great
various or complementary train to the Half Squat. This train targets the identical
muscle teams as the Half Squat, however another way. This exercise requires
you to stand with your ft wider than hip-width aside and toes
pointed slightly outward. Grasp a dumbbell with each hands and clasp it between your
legs.
“Ideally, you want to be able to pull your knee into your ribcage [while] standing comfortably, but there are workarounds,” says Vesco.
Any hip mobility drill, such as the world’s biggest stretch, standing hip controlled articular rotations, cossack squats, or
controlled table-top hip circles, will do the trick, she provides.

The pistol squat is incredibly tough, and so much can go incorrect together with your method, which can lead to
muscle and joint strain, says Vesco. As you attempt to do your first
pistol squat—or perfect the reps you’re already doing—avoid making these frequent missteps.

Due to the shorter vary of movement when doing half squats, you’ll be able to sometimes use heavier hundreds.
This can get your body to adapt to shouldering
heavier weights and constructing stronger legs. This is beneficial
throughout athletes’ seasons when taking part
in back-to-back games or competing in back-to-back races.

Hold your back straight and in a impartial backbone place, quite than rounded or overly arched.
Also, maintain your knees in line with your toes
quite than angled out too far, and don’t allow your
knees to extend beyond your toes. That pump got to me
a lot that I started repping too fast—and obtained a reminder from Hadzovic
to slow down.
The first set was a massive number, a lot so that Hadzovic reduce the workload from four sets to 2.

I realized my mistake, mounted my stance, and pushed by way of reps for the second set—but I was so drained at this
level that I collapsed down on a knee after I could rest.

Focusing on controlled movement also improves neuromuscular connection, making your mind
extra efficient at sending signals to your muscle tissue for coordinated movement.
This interprets to better efficiency in other workout
routines and sports activities that require agility and quick changes
of path. The squat is a tremendous strength-building train; one-and-a-half squats are no completely
different. This trains the fast-twitch muscle fibers responsible for fast, explosive movements.

The ankle in your squatting leg must be mobile enough that your entire foot can stay flat on the
floor in your deep squat, says Vesco.
Additionally generally called “ass to grass” squats, some people
imagine that is the only proper method to squat.

Your particular person capacity to squat is extremely dependant in your anatomy.
The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint that may move
in all three planes of path. Brett Williams, NASM-CPT, PES, a senior
editor at Men’s Well Being, is a licensed coach and former pro football player and tech reporter.

Nevertheless, your capability to do a deep squat is determined
by many elements, including anatomy, flexibility, and mobility (1).
There’s no have to eliminate the squat and its benefits from your routine fully if you’re having hassle getting down low enough.
Half squats help enhance your range of motion and
mobility, growing your squat depth. Athletes we coach typically continue to squat to full depth if the result is to construct strength of their lower limbs, as long as fatigue just isn’t
a concern. This is because deep squats have been shown to build extra muscle in the legs
(quads, adductors and glutes) overall than shallow or half squats.

This is in contrast to a full squat, where you bend your knees deeper,
often going beyond parallel to have interaction a bigger range of movement.

Exhale and push via your heels to extend your legs to
return to the beginning place. You should really feel the burden going via your glutes and quads.Repeat for the required
number of repetitions or time. This motion puts your knees at a 45-degree angle
together with your thighs parallel to the ground (a quarter-stance
squat). Full squats take your hips much nearer to the floor
and put your knee angles to ninety levels or more.

If you want to increase your range of motion and mobility,
try this exercise. You can do this routine with barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells.
Beneath is a step-by-step guide for doing this exercise with a barbell.

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