Day 3 - Upright! and Fathers Day

Last night was not the greatest.

Nick started to have side effects from the morphine. Just after midnight we moved Nick and gave him a dose of morphine to help. We moved him and he had some pain, but then he was getting really winy and kept bringing his legs up and down. He said he didn't have any pain, but he just wastn't comfortable.

Then he started saying he was really itchy. The nurse was concerned about hives or a rash, which he didn't have. So she wanted to just give him lotion.

I suggested that it could be a side effect of the morphine, rather than a reaction to it. So she got an order for some Benadryl.

But in the meantime Nick was so upset about the itching, he just wanted me to  rub his back with a cool cloth. He would fall asleep, I would fall asleep and then he would wake up and say how itchy he was. This lasted about 30 minutes.

He also leaked all night and was worried about leaking all night. Usually jsut after we would get him settled on one side (the movement). So we would have to move him around to get him clean again.

We repeat this all again at 3am. (After the second time we stopped the morphime)

I was so exhausted. 

In the morning when the doctors came to round they said everything was looking good. Our plan for the day was to try sitting all the up in bed today. And tomorrow work at getting up out of bed. And hopefully discharge Tuesday

I missed when the pain team came around (after the doctors rounded i went back to sleep). But they stopped the IV morpine and the scheduled morphine and changed to Advil and Tylenol (like we give our C-section moms) and oral morphine as needed. They thought that the IV morphine was causing the itching. And they reaffirmed that it was a side effect and not an allergy.

Katheryn and Kyle came and we got to celebrate Fathers Day

The kids were so proud of their cards and gifts. And Katheryn had wanted to wait for everyone to be together before giving Kyle their gifts. Katheryn thought that her card was hillarious! And it was

Kyle also got a light saber, which is also BBQ tongs.

Nick has been much better today. We also had agoal through the day to keep increaseing the head of the bed. And even with the absence of morphine, he was still comfortable.

Katheryn was happy to be able to play with her brother and was all over the bed (carefully) to paly with Nick.

Maybe a little too close...

They played UNO, and had a lot of fun yelling "Uno!"
Nick won a game and katheryn won another game.

After a while we kept increasing the head of the bed and he was still comfortable and playing. We got to our goal of sitting at about 60 degrees.

 This is such a huge change from yesterday. Every day he is getting better and better. Now, today, I feel comfortable with surgery being the right decision. And I can see discharge in our future (but not tomorrow).
But we got to our goal of sitting up in bed. And he is eating all of his meals again

Tomorrow we will have a goal of sitting at the side of the bed and actually getting up and out of bed. We even brought his braces and walker (and crutches) in.

After everyone left we had some quiet time and coloured some pictures (both of us coloured). While Nicks night routine is back on track. 

I think we will have a good night tonight.
This is our Day 3 smile.

Good morning Mom!

Look what I decided to do today!

Having a Sit-In

We saw PT today and she couldn't say enough about how well Nickolas is doing, and how much he has improved. He is definately in some kind of spurt. Not only has he grown 3 cm in one month, but just in a week I can actually see him sitting up straighter and having more confidence in himself!

He sat like this for almost an hour - without toppling, just lifting his arms a bit and playing with his toy. I was actually sitting behind him incase he fell (Kyle took this picture and I am right outside of the frame). I cannot even put to words how happy I am that he is doing this! Yay - Go Nickolas!!!

Kim (our PT) always says that it isn't really anything that she is doing - but it is the work that we are doing at home. We are still working on trunk control, and sitting on the big bouncy yoga ball (latex free), and sitting in the corner chair. He is cognitively problem solving and interacting with toys and just growing up so much in the last couple of months!

Here is a picture I took of him last week (July 13) when he started sitting up (and not toppling over), wearing his blue pj's. Then compare it to the picture that I took of him yesterday (July 18). You can actually see that he is sitting up better and not sitting so far forward. - It's not just me, you can actually see where his arms are.

I have a video as well, but I'm not sure how it will load - but here you go.