Long Night and First Day Post-Surgery

Boy, things move fast after surgery! Aaron spent about 1 hour in recovery and was moved to his room on the 10th floor at Children's - penthouse suite :). We had some visitors including Janine and the Brown family whose daughter Zoe had the same surgery a year and a half ago. It was nice to see everyone.

Aaron was very tired, but seemed to be doing very well. Throughout the night he dozed. In the middle of the night, his pain increased, and he had a difficult time getting comfortable. He was having a hard time moving his leg around because the external fixator is quite heavy. We watched Finding Nemo three times during those nighttime hours!

The morning was busy with all of the rounds, residents, and other medical professional visiting. His PT, Megan, came and got him up and walking! He did so well. He walked using the parallel bars to support his upper body, and then he walked using a walker. He worked very hard, and put weight on his left leg. Megan mentioned that he would be sent home with a wheelchair and a walker to help him at home.

Ethan, Jonathan, Grammie, and Nana came to the hospital about noontime to visit. Papa and Grandpa came soon after. Aaron was beginning to have a lot of pain, so we kept the visitors to a minimum. He was given some pain medicine, and the nurse gave us a wheelchair to take him out. Jonathan and Ethan took him for a walk and he came back about 1:30 fast asleep. He was so tired, and the pain medication had finally kicked in. It is very hard to see him in so much pain.

Dr. Snyder and his prosthetist, Nick, came by to work on his fixator. Nick will be making him a hard shoe to place on the bottom of his fixator, and he is working on a thigh cuff to help support his knee. All of this hardware is very heavy. Dr. Snyder took off all the bandages, and we got a chance to see what the fixator looked like on his leg (see picture below). It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be! Tonight, Jonathan and I will be getting our first tutorial on cleaning the pin sites. We are gearing up for that. Aaron was so tired that he slept through the entire time Dr. Snyder and Nick were working on his leg.

Ethan was getting tired, so Grammie, Grandpa, Nana, and Ethan drove home for the night. As of right now (3:30 pm), Aaron is still asleep. I should probably be getting some sleep too! But, I just had a coffee! We will be gearing up for a PT visit, his next dose of pain medication, and a pin cleaning tutorial. Overall, Aaron is doing very well. We are anticipating he will be discharged on Sunday or Monday.

He just woke up, and Jonathan and I are going to take him for a walk. Write more later. Thanks to all of you and keep praying!