Recovering at Home - A Week of Recovery

Thursday
When we got home, Max asked to go straight to Mommy and Daddy's bed to watch a movie. I enjoyed some snuggle time with my boy.

Lilly and Meg came over and brought us dinner and it was delicious! Walker and Allison also came by for a quick visit and brought some goodies for Max and lots of food for us to eat over the next few days. He really enjoyed seeing his friends and we were so thankful to not have to cook meals. We have awesome friends!

First night at home in his bed since surgery. He was really scared to sleep in his bed and tried to talk us into letting him sleep in his bed. After a lot of talking about it, he agreed to sleep in his bed. It was kind of a rough first night at home and he required a lot of pain medicine, but we are so thankful to be home.

Friday - First day at home
Watching a movie with Dede
It was a lazy day and we all tried to get caught up on sleep and we watched a lot of movies. Tripp, Jack, Crew, and Jess came by for a quick visit. Max loved seeing the boys and we really appreciate everyone coming over.

Our first outing since surgery. Max wanted blue ice cream. They didn't have any, so we got cake batter ice cream and added M&M's and sprinkles to it. He was happy with that.

Friday night was a really rough night. He woke up every 30 minutes to an hour crying from 8pm-1am. Max's incisional pain was seeming to get a lot better, but he was still requiring the maximum amount of pain medication possible. He seems to be having a whole lot of trouble getting comfortable in bed and on his pillow. I knew this would be a problem because he is normally strictly a stomach sleeper. Because of his incision, this is not possible, so he is having to sleep flat on his back. We just weren't anticipating that sleeping would be this big of an issue.



Saturday
Mimi came by a few times this week to visit Max.

Having a rough moment...pain got away from him

Once his pain meds kicked in, he gave Lola hugs and kisses. He hadn't seen her in a week and missed her so much. It was very clear that she missed him too.



My cousin, Meghan, and her husband, Jeremy, sent the cutest and most thoughtful package to Max. It was filled with superhero books, toys, stickers, pajamas, etc. Max loves the Iron Man toy and immediately began playing with him. Jeremy picked it out for him especially because Iron Man has a pacemaker too and he thought Max might like that. He was right!

Meghan also made Max a Cardio Max Superhero cape and mask. They included a gift card for the Build a Bear store so Max could pick out his own bear. Then she included a matching cape for the bear. What an incredibly thoughtful gift! Max is going to wear his cape to the AHA Heart Walk in October too. I'm so excited for him to show it off!



We now have a superhero in our house!



Max asked if he could check Iron Man's pacemaker. I said yes, so he went and got his machine we check Max's pacemaker with. He knew exactly what to do without help and he told us Iron Man is now very healthy!

Snuggling with Daddy, Lola, and Iron Man

Saturday night was a rough one as well. I basically had to sleep in the bed with him because he cried off and on from 9pm-3am. I felt so terrible that I didn't know what to do to help him feel better. Instead of his pain getting better, it seemed to be getting worse and he was having more and more trouble sleeping at night. He started to verbalize that his chest wasn't hurting, but his neck and back were hurting. With little sleep for both of us, we got through the night.

Sunday
Max has hardly been eating anything, so Daddy made him a big breakfast with all his favorites to try to get him to pig out.

Play doh and puzzles
Feeling like playing this morning



Dede loves playing with Max.
We are so thankful she was able to come spend several days with us. She wanted to spend time with Max and help Tyler and me. We loved having her here and she was so helpful!

Carmen came to visit Max and brought him the Jungle Book movie and a remote control helicopter. Max loves Carmen and he always wants to go to the hair salon to visit her every time he is in Hendersonville.

He was due for a haircut, so Carmen cut it while she was here.

Then we all shared a delicious meal together that Mimi and Carmen prepared.

Monday
Dede and Pop want to sell their house and move to Franklin, so Daddy and Max helped her find houses online. We drove around looking at neighborhoods twice while Dede was here. It was really nice to get out of the house. Monday night was, again, kind of rough, so I decided I would take Max to the chiropractor Tuesday morning.

Tuesday - 1 week after surgery
Ms. Betty, Max's Sunday school teacher, dropped by for a visit and brought him a Jake and the Neverland Pirates toy. That was so sweet! Ms. Betty was his teacher last year and will be again this year.

Dede went home today too. We are so thankful she was able to stay with us the past several days.

As it turns out, I am really glad I took him to see our chiropractor, Ben. Ben said his spine was subluxated in a similar pattern as someone that received whiplash from a car wreck. We think he was so stressed from the whole surgery experience that it caused his neck and spine to get out of alignment. That makes perfect sense because he wasn't complaining of incisional pain at all; it was just his neck and back that were bothering him. After his adjustment, he slept a full 12 hours straight with no pain medication that night! We were so excited but I also felt so guilty for not taking him in sooner. We will go for a few more adjustments before the problem is corrected, but I can already tell he feels remarkably better.

Wednesday
Feeling good today...making Mommy some coffee

Playing grocery and cooking some lunch
So glad he is starting to feel back to normal