Home

Sorry to not update for a bit, but we are home. It has been a fairly painful recovery for Matthew and I have spent a lot of time cuddling him in the last few days. I was unable to hold him all day Friday, and most of the day Saturday. We kept him pretty much sleeping for those two days. Saturday afternoon they took his catheter out after he urinated around the tubing. I couldn't believe my eyes. I went to turn him from one side to the other and his whole diaper and bedding was wet. So they figured they could take it out. He's been on his own ever since. No more catheterizing him. The doctor told us it could take up to 3 or 4 months for it to come back and it came back immediately. That is a direct answer to prayer. I pleaded with God to allow him to be able to pee again. I couldn't stand doing that any more. It was too much for my momma heart to take.

Saturday night, as he started waking up more, we noticed a big increase in the amount of mucous he had. Given the fact we'd kept him down for 2 days, his lungs had a nice build up of junk to get rid of. A couple times respiratory therapy had to come up and deep suction him to help clear his lungs. That seemed to help, and they allowed us to go home on Sunday. When we got home, it became evident that he still needed some help with suctioning as he was unable to get his lungs clear on his own. I called the doctor to see if we could get a home suction machine, but they wanted us to go back to the ER to be suctioned and then send us home with a suction machine.

When we got to the ER, they called the pediatrician, and he wanted us to spend the night (grr...) and then get us a machine in the morning and we could go home. So we hunkered down for the night, and bright and early, they got started on getting us the equipment we needed. We left early morning and the minute we got home, Matthew and I snuggled into the recliner for three more hours of sleep.

Matthew has been in pretty good spirits today, but you can tell he still has quite a bit of pain. We are liberally giving him pain medicine and trying to keep him comfortable. He has been sleeping a lot, too, which is to be expected.

I already feel the surgery was worth it, even if the only benefit we see is his ability to empty his bladder on his own. The pain in his legs should also lesson as his nerves in his back continue to heal.