Wound Check

We went to the surgeon's office today for an appointment with the nurse to do a wound check.  After waiting for like TWO HOURS we finally saw the nurse.  She talked to us for literally two minutes and then we were done.  How in the world did she get two hours behind if she only see's the patients for two mintues?!!!!!!

Anyways, his wound looked great.  He stills has one stitch attached that is about to fall of with a ball of Durabond attached to the stitch.  There is a big knot under the skin but she seems to think that it is the muscle from where they stitch it.  She was concerned that he is still having swelling two weeks post-op.  He shouldn't have had any swelling after a few days post-op.  He is also still having some pain and weakness in his legs, which she seemed to think should have been relieved by now.  If his pain, swelling and weakness is not better in a week or two, I have to call back and we will have to back to see the doctor.  Which I am sure will be several more hours waiting for a five minute visit.  Too bad doctors don't charge per hour they are in the room, I'm sure treatment would be a lot better if they did. 

Tevon's favorite part was that he can take a bath now.  I never thought I would hear the day when he was excited about taking a bath but he has been asking me for the past few days.  He was ready to take a bath as soon as we got home but it was lightening so I wouldn't let him.  As soon as the storm was past, he got right in.  I was happy to see him excited about taking a bath. 

He still has low activity restrictions, especially because he is still having swelling.  Five more weeks until we see the doctor.  Hopefully then, he will release some of the restrictions.

Creativity!!!

With Tevon being down from his surgery I have been forced to rack my brain and come up with low movement activites.  We grilled out one night and Tevon got to sit out in the backyard while we cooked.  He was excited to be outside, can you tell from his picture? LOL!  We have painted, colored, drew, played on the computer, done puzzles, played games, etc. etc. etc.

Whenever Tevon does a puzzle he always wants to glue it down so that he doesn't have to do it again, but when I pay several dollars for a puzzle I would at least like the challenge of putting it together a few times.  So since I only paid $1 for this puzzle I agreed to let him glue it down and decorate the paper.

Cooking out on our new grill (used) that my brother-in-law gave to us.



Waiting for Michael to figure out the grill so we can start cooking.

Decided to start on some of my sewing projects

Three of my friends are having babies, all due about the same time.  I am making clothes and baby blankets for them.  Two of them are having girls, those clothes are easy to figure out: pink and frilly!  I am still trying to figure out what to make for the friend who is having a boy.

This is the baby blanket that I made.  It's called a taggy blanket.  Babies always like to chew on things, including the tags on clothes and toys. As a mother, I was always afraid my son would figure out how to get the tag off and choke on it or swallow it.   I triple stitched over all the tags so it is safe for babies to chew on. 

One day when I was on Pinterest, like I'm not on there all the time, I saw this adorable newborn picture with this baby in a tutu.  I made a newborn size tutu and instead of elastic that might be uncomfortable for the baby, I just used ribbon so you can tie it as tight or as loose as you want.

I have always wanted to make a baby sweater.  I tried to make one a few months ago and it ended up being the perfect size for my friend's 4-year-old.  LOL!  So I tried again.  This time it truly is newborn size.  It's not perfect but I think it turned out pretty cute.

I bought this pattern to try and make some outfits.  If I can actually pull it off, I think they will turn out to be super cute!

My grandfather is in a nursing home and walks with a walker.  He is always complaning that he can't carry anything with him because he needs both hands to walk.  So my mom bought this bag that velcros to the walker (it was cheaper to buy one already made then to make one) and I embroidered his name and the horseshoe design on it.

Tevon got this 101 piece puzzle of the earth and the moon.  He really enjoyed "helping" me, aka watching me do the majority of it.  Then we glued it to the poster board and he is going to decorate it to make it look like space.  The puzzle was $1.00 and the poster board was like $0.35.  Pretty cheap activity!

Rest, Rest, Rest

Well the last few days have been challenging in more ways than one. Tevon has had a lot of swelling so I've had the challenge of trying to keep him still and relaxing so that his back can heal. So I'm stressed with worry about the swelling and the fact that I can't get Tevon to lay around. He's doing pretty good though, I can't hardly blame him.

Another challenge is that the more mobile he gets and the more swelling he gets, the less patience I have. I've tried to just bite my tongue and do some deep breathing because I know how hard this is on him but it's really hard to do that sometimes.

With all these challenges, I thought that maybe we could break up the monotony and have a teeny tiny bit of fun. I took him on a very short wagon ride down the street and then we blew bubbles. Tevon's Godmother, Katie, sent him a few care packages and inside one were some crayola bubbles. They were pretty cool. I've never seen bubbles with so much color. Like, you had to be careful not to get it on your clothes because it could stain them. They were really purple! When they popped on our faces you can see the purple. Tevon loved watching them pop. But just like a seven-year-old he tried to get too crazy so it didn't last long.

Another activity that his Godmother sent were those colored papers where you scratch off the black top layer. Tevon was so amazed by them. It came with four different papers and he did all four almost immediately because he thought they were so neat.

We started making some rock candy which this stage only took about 5 minutes. Lol! He has checked it constantly.

As a last effort we tried playing Connect4. It worked!!!!! The child sat still for like an hour and a half playing Connect4. Which, the fact that he at still that long was like a miracle.

Thankfully, we now have cable and wifi because I really don't think either of us would have made it through without it. He has watched a ton of Disney channel and ran the battery down on his iPod like twice a day from playing so much. The DSI has really got a lot of attention lately too.

Busy Bee!

Today was another hard day trying to get Tevon to sit still. He was going stir crazy sitting indoors for 5 days.

I made a deal with him that if he laid still all morning that I would pad the wagon with pillows and take him for a short ride. We didn't go far but it was enough to get him out. Luckily it wasn't too hot today.

After our walk I made him lay real still for a while and my mom came over to do a puzzle with him. He wasn't as still as he should have been but it was better than it could have been.

He started to get upset when my mom had to go so I got out a build-a-car set and we put it together and he got to paint it.

Later on, my sister, her three girls and my parents came over for My niece's birthday. And again, Tevon was up doing things he wasn't supposed to.

Reading seemed to help him sit still but unfortunately it didn't last long because he's not a super strong reader. He gets bored and frustrated easily.

Day 4 post surgery

Day 4 was really tough for Tevon. He is not in a ton of pain so it is really hard for him to sit still. He really wants to get up and do more than he is allowed.

My sister came over to visit with her three daughters and Tevon got really excited and tried to do too much.

Then my mom and my in-laws came over for dinner and he had trouble sitting still because he was eating up all the attention.

He ended up doing too much and was pretty swollen by bedtime. I'll have to work harder on him sitting still tomorrow.

Hospital day 3

Tevon did much better today. He could sit up and they even got him up for physical therapy. We played board games and he colored. Then he found the buttons on the bed and went on "rides" until his finger tips were tired. Lol! Then WE GOT TO GO HOME!!!! Hooray!

Tevon didn't want to go home because they had cable and wifi and he got lots of attention and presents. I was SOOO ready to go.

We got his medications and got home around 4:15 or so. He got a little nauseous on the way home so he laid around the rest of the evening.

Hospital day 2

Well Tevon didn't sleep a whole lot last night and I got even less sleep. He was up at 5:30. He slept for about 30 minutes until they brought his breakfast and he was so excited he literally about jumped up in bed. I had to grab his shoulders and tell him to lay back down.

He had 4 pancakes with strawberries, whipped cream and syrup. He ate every bit of it and the zonked out. But of course not for long. He slept until about 9 or 9:30 this morning and was up the rest of the day.

He was finally allowed to sit the bed up to 30 degrees today at 11:00 and that made him very happy. He kept it around 20 just about the whole time but it was just enough to please him. He had a little more pain but it didn't slow him down too much. He painted and drew pictures and did a puzzle and watched Disney channel, and on and on. Lol!

He didn't eat any of his lunch but ate a PB&J and strawberries for dinner and yogurt a little later for a snack. They have free slushies here so he is drinking those up! Lol!

He finally fell asleep at 8:00 and as of now he is still sleeping well.

Surgery Day

Tevon finally got the surgery he has needed. I absolutely hate to see him have surgery but I also hate seeing him in pain every single day. I also have a secret hope that this fixes everything!

Tevon, my husband and I got to Kosair Hospital around 7:30 a.m. My parents and my husbands parents were there just a few minutes later. After a short wait, they got us registered and sent us to the 8th floor. He was called back almost as soon as we got there. Tevon and I went back to get him ready.

It took a while to get him ready with all the nurses and doctors and they never got to call back the rest of the family before they took him off at 9:10 a.m. for surgery.

I was a mess. I tried to hold it all together but inside I was crying like a baby. A few tears slipped out but for the most part i kept it in. Lol! I was very edgy for the next 3 hours. They made their first incision around 10 o'clock and were done by 11. He was in recovery for an hour and moved into his room by noon. I calmed down a bit after I was back with him. I don't like being away from Tevon when I know something serious is going on, even more so when it's serious with him.

He was awake by about 12:10 and ready to eat! Lol! I think the child ate for the next several hours straight. I have never seen anyone eat so much. after surgery. Lol! He ate like 16 graham crackers, a bowl of fruit loops and milk, ice cream, a happy meal, some cheese cake... Im probably missing something but you get the idea.

He watched tv and visited almost all day. He dozed off a few time but not much until 8:00 p.m. He only slept for 2 hours then woke up in a little pain. After some reassurance, some pain meds and a little entertainment he went back to sleep at 11 and slept until 5:30 the next morning.