Home, sweet home - now the real healing begins.

Bodie was discharged yesterday morning and we were home in time to have lunch with Grandma Jan and Popo Alan, take them to the airport, wash the hospital ick off of us and then take Sierra to karate! Bodie was most upset that he was not allowed back in karate yet (he is free to go back as soon as he feels up to it, but we have told him he has to wait at least a week)!

(this was him at the dojo, goofing off and eating gummy bears)

 In related news, there is a slight chance that Bodie thinks he is capable of doing more than his body can actually do. He seems to have a desire to hit the ground running as though he didn't just have major surgery. I can't imagine where he gets it from?

Now, we work on recovery. He is currently on Motrin every 6 hours for pain. And that seems to be working. Except that I have a firm policy that, unless a kiddo is running a fever (or the med can be given via iv), I will not wake a sleeping child up to give them pain meds. Well, Bodie peacefully slept 11 hours straight (in the same position) last night, so woke up looking like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and in a LOT of pain this morning. 

(See - you can totally see the resemblance, right???)

Mornings are tough. We end up in a 2 hour cycle of him feeling too yucky to take pain meds, then finally getting him to take them, then having to wait for them to kick in, but then not wanting to eat which makes him feel even worse. And then he feels yucky while we wait for his Lasix (diuretic) to kick in and get the fluid off of his face. It took about 2 hours to get meds in and working and enough food on board to perk him up. He's now running around the house, chasing the cat and throwing things. So, I may rethink my "no waking for meds" policy at least for the next couple of days as we work through his post op pain.

We so appreciate your prayers leading up to and during Bodie's hospital stay. It was one of the most frightening admissions we have had. I have not written much about the seizure, and may not ever - we'll see. But trust that, while he does not remember and has no after effects, I will never forget. His seizure was absolutely terrifying. I have to take great efforts not to think about it. I find myself ever grateful that we already have a wonderful family therapist who can help me work through the new PTSD I've now added into my already overloaded nervous system. 

As we move forward through recovery, please help pray for:

1. Bodie's incisions to heal (both his thoracatomy scar and his chest tube scar - any heart mom will tell you that chest tubes are not for the faint of heart!) without complication or infection.

2. For us to remain on top of pain meds so that Bodie consistently feels better.

3. He is still having breakthrough runs of EAT (the atrial tachycardia, which was the whole reason we did this surgery). This, while disheartening to Dusk and I, does NOT mean the surgery didn't work. Big picture - if he has less EAT than before, then surgery was a success. Inpatient, he had significantly less than before. This morning, he seemed to have a longer run, but I don't have him on continuous monitoring, so I don't know for sure. Our hope is that, the further out he gets from surgery, and the more healed his body is, we will see less and less EAT. Once we get to his baseline (a few weeks or month out), then we can do a holter monitor and really see where we're at. Please pray for continued decreased in his EAT. 

4. He is still holding onto a little fluid (which all settled into his eye sockets, clearly!). Please pray the small doses of Lasix we're giving him will help expedite its exit from his system.

5. Please pray that any side effects of surgery lessen over time.

Thank you always for praying for our sweet boy!